Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchSTOKE SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Address
19241 62ND AVE SKENT, WA, 98032-1133
USA
UEI: QDQ6V2X12WF1
Number of Employees: 90
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2020
3
Phase I Awards
2
Phase II Awards
66.67%
Conversion Rate
$399,949
Phase I Dollars
$1,749,999
Phase II Dollars
$2,149,948
Total Awarded
Awards
SBIR Phase II:Integrated propulsion solution to enable reusable upper stages of space vehicles
Amount: $1,000,000 Topic: SP
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is the development of reusable rockets that are designed to fly to space daily, delivering satellites directly to their final orbit at order-of-magnitude lower costs. Fully reusable launch vehicles will relieve three key elements of customer pain: price, availability, and service. These disruptive changes are needed to make a new frontier of proposed in-space solutions commercially viable. This proposed solution may provide internet access to un- and under-served populations and the ability to monitor Earth systems, combat climate change, and produce energy. Space assets may additionally provide the ability to track, predict, and ultimately control the environment.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project develops a new technology that enables space launch vehicles to reenter the atmosphere and land propulsively so that they may be reused. This capability has long been sought but remains unproven due to the combination of high efficiency propulsion, robust thermal protection, and low structural mass required for upper stage reuse. The technical hurdles lie in finding a solution for reentry thermal protection that can withstand the stressing environments of rocket engine operation and atmospheric entry while also being low-weight and low-cost and not requiring maintenance between flights. The goals of the proposed research and development are to continue to develop the heat shield concept identified in Phase I, building a full-scale prototype and testing it in environments that simulate both the operating conditions during the ascent phase of flight and the hypersonic phase of flight during atmospheric reentry. This testing will be conducted in several phases with increasing complexity. The test data from each phase will be used to iterate the design and converge on an acceptable solution,reducing the development risk of the novel heat shield architecture prior to an orbital flight attempt.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2022
NSF
Fabrication method for reusable hypersonic heat shield
Amount: $50,000 Topic: AF203-CSO2
Hypersonic vehicles and reusable spacecraft face severe heating environments as they traverse the atmosphere at high speed. In reusable applications a robust means for thermal protection is required. Traditional approaches use fragile materials in passive or ablative cooling schemes, but these approaches are fragile and susceptible to damage from handling, particle strikes, and other aspects of operation. Passive cooling approaches have catastrophic failure modes that result from small defects in the material surface. This aspect drives significant costs for inspection and handling. Ablative designs require significant post-flight refurbishment. As a result, neither one is traceable to rapid-turn-around reusable applications. A robust hypersonic heat shield is proposed to enable applications that offer significant advantages in the areas of Tactically responsive launch, Global space transport and delivery, and other stated Air Force and Space Force initiatives.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2021
DOD
USAF
Advanced Rocket Nozzle for Planetary Landers and Reusable Space Vehicles
Amount: $749,999 Topic: Z7
A novel rocket engine is proposed to offer major system-level advantages in planetary landers, reusable second stages, and other space vehicles that perform entry, descent, and landing maneuvers. The Phase I effort successfully developed design and performance analysis tools, and identified a design solution that meets the vehicle functional requirements. This Phase II effort is focused on designing, building, and testing engine hardware that will validate the Phase I analytical results. Successful completion of the Phase II effort will enable full engine ground- and flight-testing as part of a Phase III effort.The engine delivers performance commensurate with todayrsquo;s market-leading upper stage engines while also accommodating deep throttle operation in the presence of atmospheric pressure. When strategically integrated into the vehicle base, the engine nozzle serves as an actively cooled metallic heat shield during atmospheric entry maneuvers. The same surface creates a robust barrier that protects the rest of the vehicle from surface ejecta during terminal descent on unprepared landing sites such as the moon or Mars. The nozzle achieves high area ratio gas expansion within a form factor ten times shorter than traditional bell nozzles, alleviating plume-surface interactions by increasing the clearance between the base of a lander vehicle and the target surface, or for equivalent ground clearance, the nozzle decreases the size and mass of the requisite landing gear.This work is in response to NASA SBIR Focus Area 12 Topic Z7.04, which seeks Lander Systems Technologies that alleviate the plume-surface interaction environment through novel propulsion cluster placements and surface ejecta damage tolerant systems, and which ldquo;improve the mass efficiency of in-space stages and landers, hellip;reduce integration complexity, hellip;enable reusable landing systems, hellip;achieve multifunctional components, hellip;and reduce operating complexity.rdquo;
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2021
NASA
SBIR Phase I: Integrated propulsion solution to enable reusable upper stages of space vehicles
Amount: $225,000 Topic: SP
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to advance the development of reusable vehicles for space. Current space launch solutions use multi-million-dollar rockets discarded after a single use, increasing launch costs and limiting availability. Even the best solutions reuse only a portion of the rocket a handful of times, resulting in launch costs of $5,000/kg and higher. Rockets offering 100% reusability and operating like aircraft reduce cost, availability concerns, and service potential of space launch vehicles. The proposed technology advances reusable space launch vehicles. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop new technology enabling space launch vehicles to re-enter the atmosphere and land propulsively at a target destination for reuse. Importantly, robust design solutions are proposed so that extensive refurbishment efforts are not required. Technical challenges include the combination of high-efficiency propulsion, rigorous thermal protection, and low structural mass needed to complete in-space mission objectives. This research investigates a new technical solution combining fundamental vehicle performance with system-level efficiencies to enable reusable second-stage vehicle designs. The optimization parameters include environmental conditions, energy balance, performance predictions, component sizing, and mechanical design elements. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2020
NSF
Advanced Rocket Nozzle for Planetary Landers and Reusable Space Vehicles
Amount: $124,949 Topic: Z7
A novel rocket engine configuration is proposed in response to NASA SBIR Focus Area 12 Topic Z7.04, which seeks Lander Systems Technologies that alleviate the plume-surface interaction environment through novel propulsion cluster placements and surface ejecta damage tolerant systems, and which ldquo;improve the mass efficiency of in-space stages and landers, hellip;reduce integration complexity, hellip;enable reusable landing systems, hellip;achieve multifunctional components, hellip;and reduce operating complexity.rdquo;Thenbsp;proposed configuration offers significant system-level advantages in planetary landers and/or reusable second stage applications. The engine uses a novel rocket nozzle geometry that has not been previously considered, and which is the focus of this Phase I effort. The nozzle achieves high area ratio gas expansion within a form factor ten times shorter than traditional bell nozzles, while also accommodating deep throttle operation in the presence of atmospheric pressure. The reduced form factor alleviates the plume-surface interaction by increasing the clearance between the base of a lander vehicle and the target surface, or for equivalent ground clearance, the nozzle decreases the size and mass of the requisite landing gear. When strategically integrated into the vehicle base, the engine nozzle serves as an actively cooled metallic heat shield during atmospheric entry maneuvers. The same surface creates a robust barrier, protecting the rest of the vehicle from surface ejecta during terminal descent on unprepared landing sites such as on the Moon or Mars. Phase I completes at TRL 3 by leveraging existing experimental data, developingnbsp;the nozzle design methodology, generatingnbsp;nozzle performance predictions, andnbsp;producing hardware for future parametric testing. If this project proceeds to Phase IInbsp;it will focus on breadboard testing at NASA MSFCrsquo;s Nozzle Test Facility to anchor analytical results in preparation for follow-on commercialization, completing at TRL 5.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2020
NASA