{"id":18322,"date":"2018-10-10T20:37:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeing-leads-3m-round-to-boost-accion-systems-electric-space-propulsion-system\/"},"modified":"2018-10-10T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:37:56","slug":"boeing-leads-3m-round-to-boost-accion-systems-electric-space-propulsion-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeing-leads-3m-round-to-boost-accion-systems-electric-space-propulsion-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing leads $3M round to boost Accion Systems\u2019 electric space propulsion system"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_454021\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-454021\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-454021\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-accion-630x527.jpg\" alt=\"Electric propulsion system\" width=\"630\" height=\"527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-accion-630x527.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-accion-768x642.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-accion-1260x1053.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-accion.jpg 1303w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-454021\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Accion Systems\u2019 electrospray thruster chips (in gold) arranged in a propulsion array on a satellite. (Accion Systems Illustration \/ Zina Deretsky)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Boeing\u2019s venture capital fund is leading a $3 million investment round for Accion Systems, a Boston-based startup whose electric propulsion system for satellites could get its next in-space test early as next month.<\/p>\n<p>Joining Boeing HorizonX Ventures in the Series B round is GettyLab, a Bay Area venture fund focusing on innovations in science and technology.<\/p>\n<p>Accion\u2019s propulsion system is certainly innovative, and in line with the increased emphasis at Boeing and elsewhere on electric propulsion for space applications.<\/p>\n<p>The Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray system, also known as TILE, makes use of a non-toxic, liquid propellant that\u2019s pushed out, ion by ion, from arrays of thrusters the size of postage stamps. Ion drives are the stuff of science-fiction (as in \u201cStar Trek\u201d)&nbsp;as well as real-life space missions (such as NASA\u2019s Dawn mission to Ceres). Accion\u2019s TILE system is designed to be&nbsp;smaller, lighter and more cost-effective than traditional ion engines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span class=\"il\">Accion<\/span>\u2018s scalable technology can help bring game-changing capabilities to satellites, space vehicles and customers,\u201d Brian&nbsp;Schettler, managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures, said today in a news release. \u201cInvesting in startups with next-generation concepts accelerates satellite&nbsp;innovation, unlocking new possibilities and economics in Earth orbit and deep space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boeing has been building satellites with electric propulsion for several years, but Accion\u2019s TILE system should extend that capability to next-generation small satellites.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Natalya Bailey: Lift-off for More Accessible Space Exploration\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-q8b2v74FIU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur TILE product family gives satellites greater capabilities, and at the size of a postage stamp, it fundamentally rewrites the&nbsp;relationship between mass and propulsion,\u201d said <span class=\"il\">Natalya Bailey, CEO and co-founder of the four-year-old MIT spinout.<\/span>&nbsp;\u201cBoeing\u2019s aerospace leadership will help us deliver safer, higher performance&nbsp;next-generation propulsion systems to market for satellite and deep-space exploration applications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"il\">Accion<\/span>&nbsp;has&nbsp;received annual contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense for the past three years, and the TILE system has already been tested in space twice. Two TILE-equipped, student-built nanosatellites belonging to California\u2019s Irvine CubeSat STEM Program are due to be launched next month.<\/p>\n<p>The Irvine 01 satellite is set to be sent into orbit by a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launching from New Zealand as part of a mission nicknamed \u201cIt\u2019s Business Time.\u201d Irvine 02 is one of the&nbsp; payloads scheduled for liftoff from California\u2019s Vandenberg Air Force Base on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as part of Seattle-based Spaceflight\u2019s dedicated riideshare mission.<\/p>\n<p>The Irvine CubeSat STEM Program brings together more than 100 students from six high schools in California\u2019s Tustin and Irvine School Districts. \u201cSupporting efforts and inspiring students to get excited about STEM and space technology is an exercise in \u2018paying it forward\u2019 for all of us,\u201d Bailey said when the project was announced in June.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing HorizonX is the aerospace company\u2019s channel for investing in advanced technologies with potential aerospace applications, ranging from 3-D printing to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Accion Systems\u2019 electrospray thruster chips (in gold) arranged in a propulsion array on a satellite. (Accion Systems Illustration \/ Zina Deretsky) Boeing\u2019s venture capital fund is leading a $3 million investment round for Accion Systems, a Boston-based startup whose electric propulsion system for satellites could get its next in-space test early [&hellip;]<\/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":[2509,670,4874,1775,4405,20],"class_list":["post-18322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-accion-systems","tag-boeing","tag-boeing-horizonx","tag-electric-propulsion","tag-propulsion","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18322"}],"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=18322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}