{"id":17409,"date":"2022-03-16T23:26:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/wave-motion-wins-1-3m-award-to-work-on-prototype-jet-gun-launcher-for-u-s-navy\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T23:26:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:26:13","slug":"wave-motion-wins-1-3m-award-to-work-on-prototype-jet-gun-launcher-for-u-s-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/wave-motion-wins-1-3m-award-to-work-on-prototype-jet-gun-launcher-for-u-s-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wave Motion wins $1.3M award to work on prototype jet-gun launcher for U.S. Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Casey Dunn, Finn van Donkelaar and James Penna show off Wave Motion Launch\u2019s Big Iron demonstration jet-gun launcher. (Wave Motion Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everett, Wash.-based Wave Motion Launch Corp. has been awarded $1.3 million to support the venture\u2019s efforts to develop a barrel-less launcher technology that could eventually be used to send payloads to space.<\/p>\n

Wave Motion was selected for project funding by the Office of Naval Research via the Naval Surface Technology and Innovation Consortium. NSTIC offers federally funded research and business opportunities related to naval surface technology innovation, with a focus on emerging ventures.<\/p>\n

The funding is due to run through the end of 2023 \u2014 and if Wave Motion\u2019s jet-gun technology proves out, the company could be selected for follow-up awards.<\/p>\n

Wave Motion is the brainchild of three University of Washington alumni \u2014 Finn van Donkelaar, James Penna and Casey Dunn. The two-year-old venture was one of the award winners in UW CoMotion\u2019s I-Corps program in 2020. Van Donkelaar is Wave Motion\u2019s CEO and holds the patent for the jet-gun system. Penna is the chief operating officer, and Dunn has served as chief financial officer.<\/p>\n

The jet-gun concept involves firing a jet of supersonic gas to push a projectile to very high speeds. Since there\u2019s no physical structure or barrel surrounding the projectile, Wave Motion says the system has the potential to be up to 100 times more compact than a rocket or regular cannon of equivalent power.<\/p>\n

\u201cRocket launches usually cost thousands of dollars per pound of payload,\u201d Wave Motion says on its website. \u201cInstead of the steep price that rockets demand, our jet-gun will be able to launch payloads for $100 [per pound].\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has already conducted a series of tests with an early prototype nicknamed \u201cBig Iron,\u201d and is working on a hypersonic prototype jet-gun called \u201cHi-Ho, Silver.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s announcement of the U.S. Navy award, Wave Motion said that it would use part of its funding to collaborate with UW\u2019s Autonomous Controls Lab on a method for steering the vehicles launched by the jet-gun as they make their way through the atmosphere and into space.<\/p>\n

Update for 2:50 p.m. April 4: <\/strong>We\u2019ve corrected the source of funding to credit the Office of Naval Research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casey Dunn, Finn van Donkelaar and James Penna show off Wave Motion Launch\u2019s Big Iron demonstration jet-gun launcher. (Wave Motion Photo) Everett, Wash.-based Wave Motion Launch Corp. has been awarded $1.3 million to support the venture\u2019s efforts to develop a barrel-less launcher technology that could eventually be used to send payloads to space. Wave Motion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[439,4651,4416],"class_list":["post-17409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-military","tag-u-s-navy","tag-wave-motion-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}