Startup sets new standard for orbital industry with scalable, modular thrusters that come with a suite of support tech for seamless operation.

Supporting the dreams of countless space-venturing hopefuls, like its namesake, Morpheus Space Inc. has unveiled a potentially game-changing liquid metal ion propulsion system that they believe will chart a path to the stars for smaller companies and organizations to explore the infinite possibilities of endless space.

As orbital capabilities have continued to advance, it seems like satellites pierce the veil on a weekly basis, with plans for massive network arrays that include Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's competing Project Kuiper.

With these and other cubesats – miniature satellites roughly 10 centimeters (four inches) wide with a mass of fewer than 1.33 kilograms (2.93 pounds) – being rocketed into space for a wide range of governmental and private providers, there has been a growing fervor for cutting-edge propulsion systems to help maneuver these space-bound satellites into their targeted orbit, as well as around the costs and logistics.

One of the leading startup firms in the growing space mobility market is Morpheus Space, whose line of modular, scalable propulsion products is taking aim at the developing orbital industry.

Making dreams a reality

According to Morpheus CEO Danial Bock, delivering the world's smallest, most efficient mobility system to satellites is their primary goal, which originated from a motivation to fill the urgent need for cost-sensitive, reliable spacecraft maneuverability.

"We want to make space accessible to a broad audience," Bock said during an interview with SpaceNews.com. "We want to come away from having only an exclusive, high-tech circle of people that understand space to a more application-oriented usage of space."

Born from a research project at Dresden University of Technology in Germany, Morpheus Space truly began in 2018 when the startup made significant advances in thruster technology. Now a U.S.-based company, Morpheus has quickly grown into a multi-million-dollar enterprise whose propulsion units have unlocked numerous landmark achievements in satellite propulsion.

Among the most noteworthy is the first-ever successful test of a propulsion system on a nanosatellite, the first successful collision avoidance maneuver by a nanosatellite, and their exclusive mission planning software aptly named Journey.

"I can talk a lot about the technical merits of our propulsion system, that's meant to be a modular building block for a propulsion system," Morpheus Space President István Lőrincz told Space.com. "You can combine it and build up an array to propel any size of spacecraft, and that in itself is already quite unique. On top of that, we use a metal propellant that's stored inside the brick and it can provide continuous thrust for many years non-stop. That enables persistent maneuvering and so on. It's very efficient and very small and it's the best you can get right now.

"These are all things that make our propulsion system better. However, there are a lot of other propulsion systems out there and it's crowded. It's not just about 20% better efficiency or less propellant consumption or less power consumption."

Lőrincz went on to explain that the actual challenge of how one can distinguish themselves as a company in the space sector is by embracing the concept of scalability.

"And that's what makes Morpheus Space stand out, and that's why we will win this little 'gold rush' race," he added. "Our closest competitor just announced in a newsletter that they are building a new production facility that would bring their output to about 100 units per year. This has happened after being in business for seven years and they have six thrusters in orbit.

"We've really only been fully in business since 2020 and as of early next year we'll have more propulsion systems in orbit than anyone else. And that's because our next factory is going to be in the order of magnitude of tens of thousands of units per year. If you look at projections for the space industry, within a decade the number of satellites in orbit is going to be increasing exponentially, up to 40,000. And these are very conservative projections."

New industry standard

Morpheus took off after a demonstration in 2020 to investors showcasing its Nano Field Effect Electric Propulsion (NanoFEEP) thrusters that could sufficiently propel cubesats in orbit. Building on this, the company also offers MultiFEEP, a more powerful thruster module that combines seven NanoFEEP thrusters with advanced capabilities for thrust vectoring.

Morpheus Space

A prototype MultiFEEP thruster that was used to showcase its technology during the 2021 Space Tech Expo in Europe.

Established in Los Angeles, Morpheus quickly gained traction when it revealed its suite of Sphere products – a slate of offerings designed to complement each other to cut the price and complexity of satellite constellation operations.

These include:

• Sphere Go – a NanoFEEP and MultiFEEP electric propulsion system.

• Sphere Direct – a plug-and-play, platform-agnostic autopilot.

• Sphere Flow – a software-as-a-service (SaaS) mission design for constellations.

• Sphere Safe – a hardware-as-a-service cost model for satellite components.

• Sphere Gateway – a web-based application to help guide its customers from initial product exposure to potential satellite operation.

Morpheus' scalable technology allows clients to quickly build a large batch of thrusters instead of needing a bespoke propulsion array to custom-fit the satellite, which drastically slashes prices for a greater base of clients requiring orbital maneuvering capabilities.

Next innovation

Despite the market-altering technology it offers with its FEEP system, Morpheus has not stopped innovating.

Continuing to streamline its technology to open up its product to an even wider audience, the company has unveiled the GO-2, which utilizes a new liquid metal propellant touted as more efficient and reliable than competing ion thruster designs.

"This self-contained, plug-and-play, electric propulsion system is one of the most capable, efficient, and innovative solutions for mobility in space," said Bock in an email to The Debrief.

The announcement of the GO-2 FEEP thruster, which first took place in December at the Space Tech Expo conference in Bremen, Germany, marked the latest achievement by the 6-year-old company, potentially positioning it at the technological forefront of nanosatellite propulsion solutions.

Morpheus Space

Morpheus Space's GO-2 propulsion system utilizes NanoFEEP technology with a new liquid metal propellant that has "no moving parts, no pressurized tanks, and no excessive heat generation."

The GO-2 (which resembles a kind of large multi-channel stage box used in the music industry) is designed to provide an improved propulsion solution to satellites as small as 6U (rack units – 10.5 inches or 266.7 millimeters) and as large as 250 kilograms (550 lb), "allowing New Space companies to launch into orbit faster with more safety and reliability."

This versatility means they can cater to larger companies and organizations looking to expand their space footprint or to smaller companies considering nanosatellites as their pioneering entry into space operations.

"The industry is transitioning from large, costly satellites to proliferated networks of smaller, more affordable ones," Bock told The Debrief. "These constellations, traditionally planned and deployed years in advance, lack flexibility to adapt to changing needs."

The company says they are aiming to change this equation with GO-2, which boasts an ion thruster that replaces xenon gas or other fuels with liquid metal. Morpheus Space says the FEEP-powered GO-2 "works to create a stable ion beam."

Additionally, according to its website, the GO-2 also boasts "no moving parts, no pressurized tanks, and no excessive heat generation."

Truly embracing new-age business models, Morpheus has also introduced a pay-as-you-go model, which includes a pay-up-front option, pay-on-demand, as well as a unique subscription model not typically seen outside strictly SaaS or media companies.

Whether this model does well for Morpheus is a test study in itself, but given its unique technology and the capabilities it has shown so far, perhaps the next orbital internet provider will be a decent contender to the giants if it can offset costs with monthly payments.