Roadrunner Innovator Spotlight: Space Kinetic

As the nation’s leading co-founder for commercializing deep technology, Roadrunner Venture Studios is on a quest to find ideas that will become breakthrough companies. In this interview series, we’re talking to the most brilliant researchers, scientists, and innovators working to solve hard problems in America, for America.?

Our guest today is Space Kinetic Co-Founder and CSO Ryan Sullivan . Space Kinetic , an honorable mention at the Roadrunner Community Showcase , is building a propulsion system that enables low-cost in-space mobility for rockets. Space Kinetic is also part of the New Mexico Lab-Embedded Entrepreneur Program (LEEP) , a prestigious fellowship program sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, and NewSpace Nexus , an organization promoting New Mexico-based space industries.

Sullivan graduated with honors from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business’s MBA program in May 2022. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, he served as an economic development advisor with the Peace Corps in northern Albania. Sullivan is the Founder of the nonprofit Village to Village and works in an advisory capacity for the Millennium Foundation Kosovo. He completed his undergraduate degree in Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

__

Tell me about the insight that led to Space Kinetic.?

The space economy is booming. It’s worth over a half trillion dollars — and it’s clear that in the 21st Century, the space domain is a key pillar for both economic and national security. But what’s also clear from our perspective is that we haven’t unlocked the full potential of the ecosystem. One of the reasons for that is because of the way that we currently think about in-space mobility & logistics, which shapes almost every other dual use priority on-orbit. Today, we launch assets into space with fixed lifespans and fixed fuel reserves, which makes us use them sparingly. And when we have to be judicious about our mobility, it makes it more difficult to build a truly robust economy or to deter conflict. In short, it makes dynamic space operations impossible.?

From our perspective, the status quo is like planning a road trip where you not only have to think about the route you’re taking and all the other expected variables, but you have to predict —?and get exactly right —?how much gas you’re going to need. If you underestimate how much fuel you’re going to need by even one percent, you’re stuck on the side of the highway.?

That would be a stressful road trip.?But can you imagine trying to build an economy or a national security infrastructure around that idea? It would be really hard, but that’s exactly what we’ve done to date in space. That’s the problem we’re trying to solve.?

We’re building a platform that can electro-mechanically accelerate and propel various payloads without firing a thruster, enabling Space Kinetic to move things through space without directly using consumable propellant. We are rethinking some of the fundamental assumptions about in-space maneuver, and we believe that our unique approach can enable game-changing dynamic space operations.?

How does this all work??

We’re calling this system “the Longbow.” At its core, the Longbow is a rotary system that cradles a payload, accelerates it to a predetermined RPM, and then deploys it on a new trajectory. As the payload leaves the rotary arm, it is imparted with an instantaneous velocity change. The Longbow can be integrated onto a dedicated satellite or other spacecraft and can transport a broad range of payloads based on the kind of mission we’re supporting. The key differentiating factor is that unlike every other in-space mobility solution, we don’t need to fire a thruster and we don’t need to directly use any consumable fuel to impart this velocity change. ?

How did you get this idea??

My co-founder Scott Ziegler is a brilliant engineer who has been innovating his entire life. A few years ago, he was scrolling through the NASA solicitations website and noticed a recurring theme for new kinds of lunar surface mobility technologies. NASA was trying to answer the question: How do you more effectively move ice out of the bottom of a crater to an operating site on the crater’s rim? Most people who approach that problem would think of building a more rugged or sophisticated rover. Scott’s idea was: Why not throw it out of the crater? That insight led him to conceptualize and start building our foundational technology. We then came to appreciate that this core technology – when removed from the narrow lunar context – could enable a new paradigm for in-space mobility.?

How would the world look different if you were able to scale??

Almost every priority that we care about in space is constrained by the high cost of mobility. Today, it’s expensive to move resources like fuel or feedstock to support in-space satellite life extension or manufacturing, it’s difficult to remediate debris, and it’s costly to maneuver our assets to inspect their surroundings. We want to draw down the costs and complexity for all these different dual use priorities across the board. Our goal is to enable a space ecosystem that eliminates the limiting factor of expensive in-space maneuver which currently constrains economic development, exploration and science, and national security.?

How has the New Mexico innovation system been helpful to you?

New Mexico understands how important space and defense technology are in the 21st century. It's clear this community is putting everything at its disposal into the space and defense tech ecosystem. One of the exciting things for us is that we can take advantage of these incredible resources and stakeholders like the National Labs, New Space Nexus, Q Station, and others. And at the same time, we also feel like we can help shape the future of this ecosystem because it hasn’t yet solidified. We’re all early in this third space age and we really value the fact that we’re able to work collaboratively with all these stakeholders throughout the state.??