What’s the technology? Is it direct exhaust, or heating propellant? Deep-space only or orbital? Why is this problem easier to solve in a rocket configuration than a power plant?
I’m inherently sceptical of anything deep tech trying to come out of England, and this article doesn’t ease that concern.
EDIT: It looks, at best, like a vanity project, and, most likely, a scam. The founder is a television personality [1]. Article claims the firm “currently produces chemical and electric propulsion systems for the aerospace and defence sectors,” yet they somehow have fewer than double checks £5,000 in fixed assets [2]. They hired this real estate and art advisory dude to raise capital for them in 2019 [3][4], who apart from two other individuals [5], is the main outside shareholder. The Princeton Propulsion Systems they’ve “partnered with” is crowdfunding $100,000 [6]. (The latter look marginally legit—I assume Pulsar signed a non-binding LOI with them. That or they’re the £300,000 [2] current liability Pulsar raised money from the real estate and art advisor this January [7] to extinguish.)
The Princeton people have been around for a while, with a FRC driven by an odd-parity rotating magnetic field. This seems fairly legit, although I have questions about energy recycling from ions back to the rotating magnetic field that they seem to be depending on. Also, they need lots of 3He.
Helion seems more fully baked, and more able to satisfy the due diligence of the people with loads of money.
I mainly posted this because it sounded like nonsense, but I wasn't able to put my finger on exactly why. I wanted to see what the HN hive mind would say and the plan worked!
I’m inherently sceptical of anything deep tech trying to come out of England, and this article doesn’t ease that concern.
EDIT: It looks, at best, like a vanity project, and, most likely, a scam. The founder is a television personality [1]. Article claims the firm “currently produces chemical and electric propulsion systems for the aerospace and defence sectors,” yet they somehow have fewer than double checks £5,000 in fixed assets [2]. They hired this real estate and art advisory dude to raise capital for them in 2019 [3][4], who apart from two other individuals [5], is the main outside shareholder. The Princeton Propulsion Systems they’ve “partnered with” is crowdfunding $100,000 [6]. (The latter look marginally legit—I assume Pulsar signed a non-binding LOI with them. That or they’re the £300,000 [2] current liability Pulsar raised money from the real estate and art advisor this January [7] to extinguish.)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dinan
[2] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... see 4 February 2022
[3] https://www.dvadvisorygroup.com/
[4] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...
[5] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... See 8 February 2023 Confirmation Statement
[6] https://www.spacedventures.com/offers/princeton-satellite-sy...
[7] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... see 18 January 2023