An Albuquerque-based company is gearing up to apply its DragonSCALES solar technology to space habitats.
MPower Technologies Inc. creates customizable solar modules called DragonSCALES. Gravitics Inc., a Seattle-based space manufacturing company, recently selected mPower to use those DragonSCALES on its StarMax space station modules.
DragonSCALES — "SCALES" meaning semiconductor active layer embedded solar — are made using high-efficiency silicon cells, which make them lightweight and durable, according to mPower's website. MPower's solar cells would attach to Gravitics' StarMax modules, which are space habitats that link to orbiting space stations.
"It's one more point of validation in the market for DragonSCALES," Kevin Hell, president and CEO of mPower, said about mPower's contract with Gravitics. "DragonSCALES is filling a need in this emerging space 2.0 market where existing solar panels are too expensive, hard to produce, hard to handle and hard to integrate."
The first production line of DragonSCALES will be "up and running" by late 2023, Hell said. He said the solar cells can produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity output per year. A one-pager by Gravitics states that solar cells attached to StarMax could provide eight kilowatts of electricity for the modules.
MPower wasn't able to share any details on a production facility in New Mexico, but Hell said the company has partnered with a contract manufacturer in upstate New York. He said the company will release more details on that manufacturing contract soon.
"Gravtics is a great example of an application that's perfectly fit for DragonSCALES," Hell said. "Space habitats are going to get larger and larger, and they're going to require lots of power."
Hell said that mPower has bid on over 20 contracts this year. The New Mexico company recently landed deals with NASA, OneWeb and Lynk Global Inc., alongside Gravticis, for its DragonSCALES product. Honeybee Robotics LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blue Origin, has partnered with mPower on the $7 million NASA contract to develop a prototype solar array to deploy on the Moon.
"We expect a very significant amount of business to come our way based on all the engagements and programs that we're currently working with our customers on," Hell said.
Providing solar cells for use on space habitats like StarMax is one of many applications Hell envisions for DragonSCALES. He sees other market opportunities in space-based solar power, low Earth orbiting satellites and lunar solar arrays.
"Everything kind of fits into one of those four for us right now," Hell said. "That's how we classify the space 2.0 market."
MPower closed a $10 million Series B funding round this February, which funded more product manufacturing and commercial development, according to a Feb. 1 release by the company. New Mexico's Cottonwood Technology Fund led that round.
Gravitics recently raised $20 million of its own for development of StarMax. Los Angeles-based Type One Ventures was the lead on that round.
