Momentus founder Mikhail Kokorich is a developer of space flight propulsion technology supported by the Y-combinator incubator, but he doesn't always dream of landing on the moon. As a physicist who graduated from Novosibirsk University in Russia's top universities, Kokorich is a serial entrepreneur who created a new company.
He grew up in Siberia and was renamed and earned his first fortune in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The core of Momentus technology is a new propulsion system that takes water rather than chemical agents as a propellant. Kokorich says there are several benefits to water. First, it is a rich source of fuel in outer space, and it will eventually be a better and more efficient fuel to fly over low Earth orbit. Kokorich said: ' If you need to move something with a chemical propeller to the moon, chemical propulsion works well when you need very high thrust. But once the spacecraft exceeds the pull of gravity, the propulsion of the water will run better.
' Some companies are trying to use Phase 4 technology, supported by ionized gases (such as hernias), to guide microsatellites, but according to Kokorich, these technologies are more expensive and slower.
' Ionization propulsion is needed for several months to orbit geostationary satellites, ' Kokorich says, with water reduced by half time.
' We can carry 10 tons of water to the geostationary orbit, faster, ' Kokorich said.
The company has signed a deal with ECM space, a European launch service provider, that specifies that ECM space will provide initial testing for the company's first voyage to its micro-satellite propulsion system--expected to be completed by early 2019.
The first product ' Zeal ' has a specific pulse of 150-180 seconds, power up to 30 watts. During the Soviet Union's disintegration, in the middle of the 90, Kokorich began his first business Dauria to sell explosives and engineering services to Siberian mining companies.
Kokorich sold the business and entered the retail industry, eventually establishing a network of shops to sell household items and household items throughout Russia. This allowed Kokorich to earn millions of of billions of dollars, and he then diversified it into electronic products by buying the bestbuy chain of Russia's bust.
But space was never far from his dreams, and eventually he was back in space. ' In 2011, I had a mid-life crisis, ' Korkorich said. So I set up Russia's first private aerospace company.
' Dauria Aerospace, initially welcomed by the government, won the Skolkovo for entrepreneurs and its first aerospace companies.
In a 2014-year space program announcement, Kokorich co-authored an article with Russian astronaut Sergey Zhukov, Sergey Zhukov remains the executive director of the billions of-dollar business incubator Network and aerospace program.
A few months later, Kokorich will work in the United States to support the first big three startups to focus on space. ' With the problems Russia faces in the western world, I moved to America, ' Kokorich said. Dauria soon raised 30 million dollars for its work, but as foreign media pointed out, fierce competition from US companies and sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion and annexation of the Crimea had had an impact on the business of entrepreneurs. ' It's purely political immigration, ' Kokorich said. ' I don't have a pure business opportunity because you have to work with the government, but the government doesn't like me.
' In all his protests, Kokorich maintained a variety of economic ties with Russian partners. Through an investment firm called Oden Holdings Ltd, Kokorich won an investment stake in the Canadian company Helios Wire, his first foray into a space business outside Russia.
The company generates cryptographic secure applications for transmission and data reception from Internet-enabled devices.
The company's second aerospace company, founded by the co-founder since his migration to the United States, is the satellite company Astra Digital, which handles data from satellites to make the information more accessible to people. Now, with Momentus, Kokorich is turning to push the issue. ' When transport costs fall, many business models emerge, ' Kokorich said.
And Kokorich that Momentus's propulsion technology lowers the cost of further space-opening opportunities for new operations such as asteroid mining and lunar transport. The Momentus team has not only been thinking about the initial release time.
The company's vision extends well beyond the geostationary orbit. In fact, the company says the use of water as a power source will lay the groundwork for future lunar flights and interplanetary amusement facilities.
