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For a long time, humans’ relationship to space has been characterised by NASA astronauts, high-tension countdowns and once-in-a-lifetime, billion-dollar missions.

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That’s ‘old space’, say Astrix Astronautics founders Max Daniels and Will Hunter.

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They’re part of a fast-growing community pioneering ‘new space’. Think satellite constellations, small deployments and more affordable, experimental and commercialisable launches. 

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More accurately, Max and Will are developing tech to power the new-space revolution (literally), free from the legacies of hi cost and long lead times.

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Astrix is developing an innovative mechanism to deploy large surface areas in space. Currently, they’re using that surface area for solar cells, allowing small satellites to carry a larger capacity for power.

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Space solar done differently

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Currently, the vast majority of space-bound vessels are powered using triple junction solar cells. These are incredibly high-efficiency cells, generating a lot of power for a small surface area.

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But, they are made using “a whole bunch of rare metals,” Max explains.

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“They’re really hard to get hold of, and really expensive.”

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Astrix’s Copia mechanism negates the need for such high-power cells, by removing the surface area constraints.

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A huge sheet of solar cells can be packed into a tiny box, unfurling once it’s safely in orbit.

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You need more cells for the same amount of power, Max explains. But these are comparable to the solar cells you might find on your house – they’re much cheaper, and much easier to get hold of.

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Essentially, Astrix is unblocking a bottleneck in Space 2.0. When it comes to ‘conventional’ solar cells, there’s a serious supply problem.

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Estimates suggest there are about 300 satellite constellations in planning stages, globally.

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According to Will, the total annual supply of solar cells would probably only power one.

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“The constellations that are planned at the moment, they simply can’t get enough solar arrays,” Will says.

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“We want to open up the pathway to use different solar cells, without limiting the power you generate,” Max adds.

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We have liftoff

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Astrix Astronautics was, incredibly, born out of an Auckland University competition. Students were challenged to design a mission for a very small satellite that would benefit humanity in some way.

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As one lecturer sternly reminded them, such a small satellite would have limited power.

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Students Max and Will “took that as a challenge”, Max recalls.

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“We tried to put as much power into it as we could.”

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“It didn’t necessarily benefit humanity, so we lost the competition. But we decided to take what we had developed and launch it into a startup.”

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In February 2021, Max and Will officially launched Astrix, along with co-founder Fia Arshavskaya (then Fia Jones), who later left the startup due to personal circumstances.

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Since then, the business has raised $500,000 in funding, including from New Zealand-based RocketLab. 

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The founders have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the spacetech community, including internationally, at a recent conference in the US.

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“A lot of people are really interested in getting the technology in their hands, and testing it,” Max says.

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“A whole bunch of people want to see us succeed.”

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Stratospheric wins

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The high point of this rocket ship ride, however, has been actually testing their tech in space – something pretty rare for a startup at this stage.

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That was a turning point, Max says. And an emotional one.

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“My biggest fear was that as the rocket was launching it would unravel somehow, or deploy early or just break apart.”

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The founders huddled in the RocketLab lobby with the mission control team, when suddenly, a camera flicked to show Astrix’s payload, sitting on the rocket, exactly how Max and Will had left it – but in orbit.

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That was surreal enough, says Max. But then came the “amazing, but slightly scary part”.

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When the solar mechanism deployed, the satellite wasn’t over a ground station. So while the data suggested it had triggered, there was no immediate evidence to show what had actually happened up there.

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For a few long minutes, the group waited for the data to be transferred to the ground station and then to the computer, and compiled into a video.

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“We saw it deploy into its flat, straight structure, just as we predicted,” Max recalls.

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“It worked. It was a speechless moment.”

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“Max isn’t particularly a hugger,” Will laughs.

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“But I remember there was a very firm hug.”

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To add to the magic of the moment, that video was the first RocketLab had ever filmed in orbit. 

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“The guy that did the coding for the video was also present, and he was just happy the video worked,” Max says.

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“We were all cheering for the same thing, but different aspects of it. It was really cool.”

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This success, paired with backing from industry leaders and positive market feedback, validates that these founders are onto something. This isn’t a hypothetical anymore.

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“We’re super confident in the need for our technology and the benefits it can give,” Will says.

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“It works. It deployed in space. And we’re super confident in the team that we have to make it a reality.”

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Aiming for the stars (literally)

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As Max and Will have iterated, evolved and developed Astrix Astronautics, they've caught sight of what the possibilities could be. Now, their ultimate goal is about as audacious as they come.

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Astrix’s current solar arrays are about the size of a coffee table, but Will says the tech is almost infinitely scalable. 

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There’s no reason the same mechanism couldn’t be used to build whole solar farms, the size of football fields, or even spanning kilometres.

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In space, each solar cell generates 13 times the power it would on Earth, Will explains.

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“There’s no atmosphere in the way. There’s no clouds, there’s no weather, the sun is always shining.”

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“If you put solar farms in space, it provides room for renewables to take the majority of the power grid,” he says.

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“These are proper power stations. They will power cities.”

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In that student competition, way back when, Max and Will missed the mark because their tech wasn’t necessarily good for mankind.

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Today, that same tech is on a path to tackle one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced.

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“Ultimately we want to move off of fossil fuels, and get to the power of the future,” Max says.

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“Supplying to the satellite industry now helps us build and develop the technology and solve a problem for them, and it gets us further towards our big, audacious goal.”

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