Letara Inc., a startup that develops and manufactures propulsion units (engines) for spacecraft such as artificial satellites using plastic as fuel, has raised an additional 650 million yen. The total amount raised to date, including subsidies, is approximately 1.8 billion yen. With this latest round of funding, the company aims to accelerate development for space demonstration and realize it as soon as possible.
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Letara was established to put into practice the technology that has been researched at Hokkaido University’s Space Environment Systems Engineering Laboratory. The company solved the problems of explosiveness, danger, and high cost that existing engines have by using plastic as fuel. It belongs to a hybrid chemical propulsion system that uses solid plastic as fuel and nitrous oxide as the oxidizer. They have succeeded in developing a safe and inexpensive engine while maintaining the high thrust of liquid propulsion and solid propulsion systems.
SOURCE: PRTimes
