Today Parabilis Space Technologies, Inc. of San Marcos, CA announced in a press release that it had received an award through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) to develop a high-impulse Dense Orbital Transfer System (DOTS) for the United States Space Force. The DOTS propulsion system will leverage Parabilis’ extensive experience with hybrid rocket motors and will enable CubeSats to perform a significantly wider range of orbital maneuvers at a much lower cost than traditional systems.
Hybrid rocket motor systems use both a solid fuel and liquid/gas oxidizer as propellants. Hybrid rocket systems present a significantly lower risk to primary payloads and provide substantial operational cost advantages over other propulsion systems.
Parabilis CEO Dave Streich stated, “The capabilities of Nanosats and Microsats have expanded exponentially in recent years, but their mission envelopes have been constrained by a lack of high-performance, reliable, affordable propulsion. DOTS will change that.”
DOTS Program Manager Greg Berg stated, “This propulsion solution uses safe propellants, can be launched unpressurized, and provides significantly higher thrust than current CubeSat propulsion systems. DOTS can be a game changer for future CubeSat missions.”