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DeepSpace: Firefly’s Alpha rocket to get a massive upgrade with ion thruster boost stage ⚡ ?

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Eric Ralph · June 18th, 2019

Welcome to the latest edition of DeepSpace! Each week, Teslarati space reporter Eric Ralph hand-crafts this newsletter to give you a breakdown of what’s happening in the space industry and what you need to know. To receive this newsletter (and others) directly and join our member-only Slack group, give us a 3-month trial for just $5.


Although the company quietly teased the concept for the first time several months ago, Firefly has released a detailed update on its Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV), an ambitious spacecraft meant to complement its Alpha and Beta launch vehicles. If Firefly can deliver on the independent spacecraft’s technical promises, the combination of Alpha (~$15M) and OTV could help usher in a new era of small, high-performance satellites launched on small, high-performance rockets.

In fact, Rocket Lab – currently the world’s only truly commercial smallsat launch provider – has already demonstrated the power of this new paradigm, albeit on a smaller scale. After just one failed attempt, the first successful orbital launch of the company’s Electron rocket also marked the surprise debut of a tiny third stage used to circularize the payload’s orbit. After five successful uses in orbit, Rocket Lab has taken its third stage a step further, adding redundant avionics, solar arrays, and more to effectively create an independent spacecraft/satellite bus called Photon. By all appearances, Firefly’s OTV is much larger than Photon but is functionally quite similar. By taking advantage of Alpha’s significant performance benefits compared to Electron, Firefly has designed a third stage/spacecraft capable of delivering hundreds of kilograms to geostationary orbit, the Moon, and (perhaps) beyond.

Changing the delta V game

  • Generally speaking, OTV is quite small. According to Firefly’s Payload User’s Guide, the spacecraft will weigh just 130 kg (285 lb) dry and will carry perhaps 30-70 kg of xenon fuel for its electric ion thrusters. This is a critical differentiator relative to Rocket Lab’s Photon and kick stage, which rely on the inefficient (but simple and reliable) Curie chemical rocket engine.
    • According to Firefly, Alpha is designed to launch a max of 1000 kg (2200 lb) to a 200 km (125 mi) low Earth orbit (LEO). Given OTV’s ~200 kg wet mass, Alpha + OTV offer some incredible capabilities relative to the rocket’s size and design.
    • Powerful electric thrusters undeniably add a lot of complexity to any spacecraft that chooses to use them but that pain is often deemed worth it for the benefits they can offer. Most notably, ion propulsion is extremely efficient.
This graph demonstrates the potential performance benefits of Alpha + OTV relative to Alpha on its own. (Firefly)
  • Thanks to OTV’s efficient electric thrusters and light carbon composite structure, the potential benefits of Alpha + OTV are hard to believe for a rocket as (relatively) small as Alpha.
  • On its own, Alpha can only deliver a meaningful payload (~100 kg) to perhaps 4000 km (2500 mi). With OTV, Alpha can suddenly deliver ~600 kg to a circular geostationary orbit (~36,000 km, 22,300 mi) and upwards of 400-500 kg into orbit around the Moon.
    • For reference, despite weighing around 10% of Falcon 9, Alpha and OTV would offer perhaps 10-15% the performance of Falcon 9 to trans lunar injection (TLI). This utterly defies the general rule of thumb that as a rocket gets significantly smaller, its performance (particularly to higher-energy orbits) deteriorates disproportionately.
  • With OTV, Alpha – nominally a ~$15M launch vehicle relegated to LEO payloads – becomes an incredibly intriguing option for small geostationary communications satellites and small-scale public and private exploration of the Moon, near Earth asteroids, and maybe even Mars/Venus.
  • According to a senior Firefly investor and board member, Firefly hopes to have OTV ready for its orbital debut on Alpha’s third launch, tentatively scheduled no earlier than mid-2020.

Alpha readies for launch

  • Of course, OTV is a bird without wings without Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle. Weighing 54,000 kg (120,000 lb) fully-fueled, Alpha is a two-stage rocket that will stand 1.8m (6ft) wide and 29m (95ft) tall. Powered by four Reaver engines, the first stage will produce ~740 kN (166,000 lbf), approximately 85% of one of Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines.
  • Firefly is working relentlessly towards an ambitious December 2019 Alpha launch debut, a target that will probably slip into early 2020 due to the inherent complexity of the task at hand. Critically, though, Firefly has made a huge amount of progress towards that goal.
    • Notably, Firefly’s second stage – powered by one vacuum-optimized Lightning engine – has already been qualified for launch with full-duration static fires at the company’s Texas facilities. Firefly is in the midst of preparing for an identical series of qualification tests for its more powerful first stage, shown above in the form of one Reaver engine attached to an Alpha S1 thrust structure.
    • As early as July, a full set of four Reaver engines will be installed on the same thrust structure to perform static fire testing, much like SpaceX gradually added Merlin 1D engines during Falcon 9 development testing.
  • If all goes as planned, Firefly will have completed its first Alpha rocket – first stage, second stage, and payload fairing – by October or November 2019. Expect plenty of new photos and updates as Alpha nears its inaugural launch.
Thanks for being a Teslarati Reader! Become a member today to receive an issue of DeepSpace in your inbox each week!

– Eric

 

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla makes good on its Cybercab promise in just two weeks

Tesla Cybercab riders can now pull up a rear camera view and darken the screen.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla has given Cybercab passengers a way to see what is behind them, along with a way to turn the cabin screen off entirely.

Riders in Austin can now bring up a live rearview camera feed on the Cybercab’s center display in the middle of a trip. Austin rider Ethan McKanna spotted the change late Friday night, posting from a ride that “You can now open the camera to view what’s behind you in Cybercab!” His photo shows a strip of rear camera video across the top of the screen, with another Cybercab following on a bridge. Sawyer Merritt shared the image Saturday and wrote that it “sounds like” there is also a new quiet mode that darkens the entire screen for riders who want to relax, sleep, or avoid a bright display at night.

The camera view goes beyond the rear feed. Tesla UI software engineer Evan, who posts as @CarCoder, replied to McKanna with a tip: “You can also tap it to see more cameras, and swipe it up or down to hide and show.” Until now, the Cybercab only showed its rear and repeater feeds on the “Please Exit Safely” screen at the end of a ride, so passengers could check for cyclists and traffic before opening a door.


Quiet mode surfaced a day earlier. Austin rider Jackson Blatz posted a video Friday morning of the new Robotaxi interface in a Cybercab with the option. Tesla has not published release notes for either feature.

The rear camera view moved quickly from request to release. Earlier this month, Cybercab rider Dan Burkland asked Tesla to let passengers pull up the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Evan answered “In development,” as Teslarati reported at the time. About two weeks later, riders have it.

The feature fills a gap created by the Cybercab’s design. With no steering wheel, no pedals, no mirrors and no rear window, a passenger has no natural way to glance behind the car. The eight exterior cameras that feed Tesla’s autonomy software were already on board, so the change only required software.

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There is also an AI angle to how it was built. Yun-Ta Tsai, a senior staff engineer on Tesla’s AI team, quoted Merritt’s post and wrote that the “(human) camera view tuning is optimized with Grok and implements part of the algorithm by directly programming the fixed-function hardware, so I don’t even need to check the datasheet.” Tsai did not say which part of the algorithm Grok handled. Grok already plays a bigger role inside the vehicle, with Grok Bot now enabled across every Cybercab and the Model Y Robotaxi fleet after Tesla brought the agent into its cars in September.

The two features join a busy week of changes for riders in Austin, which also brought a redesigned Live Activity for iPhone and Apple Watch and live trip sharing. They also arrive as Tesla prepares the Cybercab for life outside its own fleet. On the third quarter earnings call, Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to deliver Cybercabs to customers before the end of 2026. Tesla has not said whether the camera view and quiet mode will also come to its Model Y Robotaxis.

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Tesla shows what Roadster drivers will see on screen before thruster activation

Tesla’s Roadster video reveals a fighter jet inspired cockpit with a 5,500 PSI thruster gauge.

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The next generation Tesla Roadster’s touchscreen, shown in Tesla’s first official look at the car’s interface. (Credit: Tesla/X)

Tesla has given future owners their clearest look yet at the cockpit of its next generation Roadster. In a 34 second video posted to X on Friday afternoon, the company walked through the car’s touchscreen with a caption: “Inspired by fighter jet cockpits, Roadster’s interface was designed around the pilot.”

The clip opens on a black screen with red graphics and a 3D wireframe of the car, which sits beside the Roadster’s squared off yoke. Tapping parts of the model brings up controls for the rear wing, including low drag and high downforce positions, along with a charging page with a charge limit bar and a small music player. A row of tabs along the bottom reads Home, Vehicle, Listen, Climate and Navigate.

Most of the video is spent in Track Mode. The dashboard shows a live circuit map, a list of session lap times, brake and motor temperatures, and pressure and temperature readouts for each tire. A setup page lets the driver pick Auto, Low Drag, High Downforce or Custom aero modes, adjust aero balance and brake balance, and switch stability and traction control off. Along the bottom, a status bar reads “Thruster · 5,500 PSI” next to a “Boost Ready” indicator.

That gauge ties the software to the hardware Tesla showed off near Waco, Texas on October 15. The Thrust and Rocket versions use cold gas thrusters fed by carbon overwrapped pressure vessels, and Tesla lists 0 to 60 mph times of under 0.9 seconds and under 0.59 seconds for them, as Teslarati detailed in its breakdown of the three Roadster configurations. The base Performance car relies on a fan and ground sealing system for grip, and the aero settings on screen match the active wings and suction setup covered in our look at how the Roadster generates downforce.

The Roadster layout is a departure from the rest of Tesla’s lineup. Instead of a map centered screen, the Roadster puts the car itself at the center of the home page, and Tesla’s Roadster page lists two smaller forward displays alongside the main touchscreen. Tesla has not said whether any of the Track Mode telemetry will make its way to the Model 3 Performance or other vehicles.

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The interface could still change before deliveries. Elon Musk said at the event that Roadster production will begin in 2028, and Tesla says the flagship Rocket version is not approved for public road use. Reservations are open with a $50,000 payment, while Thrust is listed as a limited release and Rocket is invite only.

Those who want to see the car in person will get their first chance this weekend. The Roadster goes on display in the lobby of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles from October 24 to 27, according to Sawyer Merritt, the first time the public will be able to view it up close.

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Tesla reveals Optimus Academy, where robots teach themselves

Tesla has begun building production quality Optimus robots in Fremont and revealed its training plan.

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Concept rendering of Tesla Optimus in mass production

Tesla has started building Optimus on the high volume line it set up inside its Fremont factory, and the company says the robots coming off it are the first that meet the bar for a real product. “The bots coming off this line are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured,” Tesla wrote in its third quarter shareholder letter, adding that it has “proven that the current manufacturing process for Optimus is suitable for a commercial product.”

The line sits in space that built the Model S and Model X until this spring. Tesla cleared the old vehicle line in 46 days, as Teslarati reported in July, to make room for robot production sized for one million units a year. On Wednesday’s earnings call, Elon Musk said most of the equipment for that capacity is already in Fremont, with output set to climb toward roughly 20,000 robots a week as the line ramps.

Musk described the ramp as a classic S curve. “The growth of Optimus is an S curve, but the initial curve is a shallow slope,” he said. The team is now refining the robot’s AI, electromechanical design, reliability and service life, and Musk expects that work to be finished by the end of next year, when Tesla plans to start delivering Optimus to outside companies for dangerous, repetitive and around the clock jobs.

The most interesting part of the call was how Tesla plans to teach the robots. Its cars send real driving data back to the AI team from millions of vehicles, but Optimus has no fleet like that yet. “A big difference with Optimus versus the cars is we don’t have this vast fleet of cars from which we can gather training data,” Musk said. Tesla’s answer is an Optimus Academy, where 10,000 to 20,000 robots will practice a wide range of tasks and feed what they learn into the next version of the model. Every unit off the Fremont line becomes a source of that training data.

Smarter hardware is on the way too. Tesla plans to put its AI5 chip into Optimus next year, and Musk said a new Optimus video should arrive within one or two months showing the robot completing tasks driven by AI rather than preprogrammed motions. He took aim at rival humanoid demos that only run scripted routines, saying those would not hold up in the real world.

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The supply chain is lining up behind the program. In September, Tesla certified Tuopu, Joyson and Sanhua as mass production partners for Optimus components. A far larger Optimus factory is also rising at Giga Texas, where drone footage from Joe Tegtmeyer showed the steel frame nearing completion, and Musk has pegged that plant’s long term target at 10 million robots a year.

Tesla executives also said Optimus production costs are trending toward the expected manufacturing cost of Cybercab, a sign the robot is being engineered for volume from the start. The hands remain the toughest piece of the design, a point Musk also made at the X Takeover event earlier this month, as Teslarati covered at the time, and that is where much of the current engineering effort is focused.

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