Novo Navis Aerospace Operations is a space exploration company that exists to develop technologies to deploy and operate manufacturing and infrastructure services in micro-gravity to support and grow human presence in space.
Even with current engineering expertise and technology, launching space vehicles from Earth’s surface is inherently risky due to system complexity. The current strategy is to build a vehicle that has everything it needs to complete its task, launch it, and hope for success. Not only does this methodology inhibit space operations to scale, it creates an “eggs in one basket” scenario where any failure after launch is catastrophic.
Novo Navis takes a different approach to space operations by implementing a distributed risk model. Instead of sending all our eggs on one ship, Novo Navis will create a manufacturing station in near-Earth-orbit. This station is known as “Avalon Station.” This station, Avalon, is named after the island in the legends of Camelot and King Arthur and will be the first private manufacturing facility in micro-gravity that is capable of fabricating spacecraft, satellites, and other functions as new needs emerge.
Avalon station will be created by launching modules that are smaller, lighter space vehicles which become part of the station itself. If any one of these modules fail, it will not be catastrophic to the overall objective. And once the station is in operation, resupplying the station with its raw materials and goods to create the space vehicles of tomorrow will also be with smaller and lighter vehicles so that if failure occurs, no one failure will result in a show-stopper enabling the overall mission to still succeed. This philosophy essentially puts one egg, in one basket.
To create Avalon Station, a “skytube” will be needed where a dedicated column of airspace is reserved specifically to conduct routine and numerous launches of the small spacecraft launched by Novo Navis to construct the station. Because the skytube will be a corridor for smaller and lighter vehicles, the risk to human collateral damage will be low allowing for launching of these craft near the point of fabrication, also driving down costs.
On the infrastructure side, Avalon station will create a system to support Mars exploration missions by fabricating and deploying depots between Earth and Mars that spacecraft can visit to refuel and resupply. This will enable Mars exploratory vehicles to launch from Earth’s surface with less fuel, enabling more mission payload and functionality by getting the critical supplies and fuel it needs along the way. This philosophy is synergistic with a distributed risk model for space exploration and enables a lower cost for any mission launched from Earth’s surface both by mitigating risk and using less energy to escape Earth.
The execution of this will occur by making the technologies developed by Novo Navis for this objective available to the commercial markets on an ongoing basis. For example, the 3-dimensional carbon fiber material developed by Novo Navis called Elogium is already being marketed and sold wherever a lighter and stronger material is needed.
Novo Navis seeks to have Avalon Station operational by 2030.
