Cosmo Bee

A test of Cosmo Bee’s electric thruster for microsatellites. Electric thrusters offer high energy efficiency, making them suitable for long-duration satellite missions and deep-space exploration. / Courtesy of Cosmo Bee

 

On October 14, 2023, NASA launched a spacecraft bound for the asteroid Psyche. The spacecraft will travel 3.9 billion kilometers over six years to reach the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It will then orbit Psyche for 26 months, surveying its terrain and composition. Psyche is regarded as an important means of studying the cores of Earth-like planets. The Psyche spacecraft incorporates cutting-edge technologies throughout its design and construction. One is the propulsion system that will support its six-year journey. Psyche carries Hall thrusters, a type of electric thruster. Instead of burning chemical propellant, electric thrusters use electrical energy to accelerate and eject propellant.

Although they generate less thrust than chemical thrusters, they offer excellent energy efficiency, making them suitable for long-duration deep-space missions such as Psyche. They are also used to extend the service lives of space stations and satellites that must remain in orbit for long periods. China’s Tiangung space station, for example, uses Hall thrusters. Korea is also pursuing electric propulsion as it enters the New Space era of private-sector-led space exploration. Cosmo Bee CEO Dongha Park, a doctoral researcher in KAIST’s Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, expects the use of electric thrusters to expand and is working to localize the technology. Five young engineers, including Park, have joined forces.

 

Cosmo Bee CEO Dongha Park introduces a Hall thruster model, a type of electric thruster, at KAIST’s main campus in Daejeon on September 26. Park founded Cosmo Bee with his laboratory colleagues in 2023 to localize electric-thruster technology. / Photo by Lee Byung-chul, Daejeon

 

Although Cosmo Bee was founded only a little over a year ago, its development is progressing rapidly. The company aims to complete a Hall thruster for CubeSats and microsatellites as early as the end of 2024. It plans to fly its independently developed Hall thruster for the first time on a CubeSat aboard Nuri’s fourth launch, scheduled for November 2025. The thruster is also scheduled to be installed on a platform that Italian space company D-Orbit will launch in March 2026 for in-space validation. If the effort succeeds, Korea will secure electric-propulsion technology required for deep-space exploration. “We plan to complete technical validation by 2027 and actively pursue business opportunities in Korea and abroad,” Park said in an interview at KAIST in Daejeon on September 26. “By then, emerging economies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa are also expected to actively pursue space development, creating a vast market.”

 

— What kind of company is Cosmo Bee?

“We are Korea’s only electric-thruster developer. We were founded in July 2023. Our main products are Hall thrusters for constellations of microsatellites and small satellites, and we are also developing Hall thrusters for medium-sized satellites. Although we are only a year old, we are by no means short on technical expertise. My academic adviser and co-founder, KAIST Professor Wonho Choe, has researched electric thrusters since the early 2000s. We are using the accumulated research and facilities to localize electric propulsion.”

 

— What prompted you to start the company?

“A government-funded CubeSat thruster development project included a technology-commercialization component in its later stages. As the research progressed, I realized we could turn our technology into a product and build a business around it. At the time, KAIST was the only place in Korea capable of manufacturing and testing electric thrusters. I joined forces with senior and junior colleagues and consulted my adviser. He had long been interested in commercializing technology and readily agreed to help. We founded the company within two months and secured seed investment the following month.” Park’s academic adviser, Professor Choe, is a plasma expert. Plasma, in which atomic nuclei and electrons exist separately, is known as the fourth state of matter after solids, liquids and gases. It is used in fusion power generation. Choe has also been active in entrepreneurship, founding the plasma-based medical-device company Plasmapp and fusion-energy company EnableFusion. Plasma control is a core electric-thruster technology because propellant must first be converted into plasma before it can be accelerated.

 

— How do electric thrusters differ from conventional chemical thrusters?

“The biggest difference is how the propellant is accelerated. Chemical thrusters burn propellant and expel the resulting exhaust gas to generate thrust. Electric thrusters use electrical energy to strip electrons from the propellant, creating positively charged plasma ions. Ejecting those ions away from the anode generates thrust. The propellants also differ. Chemical thrusters use substances such as hydrazine and kerosene, while electric thrusters use inert gases such as xenon. Electric thrusters are also competitive from an environmental standpoint.”

 

— Have you always been interested in space technology?

“I now attend KAIST, but I completed my undergraduate degree at Korea University. I was so interested in space technology that I formed a rocket club there and participated with my teammates in the National University Rocket Launch Competition (NURA). As a child, I wanted to become a launch-vehicle researcher. Later, while working as a research assistant at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, I saw the Danuri spacecraft and became fascinated by technologies that enable rapid movement through space. That led me to electric thrusters and then to KAIST.”

Laboratory colleagues who co-founded Cosmo Bee with CEO Dongha Park. From left: CTO Jaehong Park; Jaejun Lee, Head of the R&D Department; Seongsu Kim, Head of the Space Propulsion Team; and CEO Dongha Park. / Photo by Lee Byung-chul, Daejeon

 

— What products are you currently developing?

“Our main product is Honeybee, an electric thruster for microsatellites. Such satellites weigh 100–150 kilograms. Electric thrusters become harder to engineer as they get smaller because plasma-related energy losses increase. A microsatellite can provide only around 100 watts of power, and operating an electric thruster at that level is technically difficult. Based on 20 years of accumulated research, however, Cosmo Bee is close to completing the product. “We are also developing Honeybee Plus for approximately 300-kilogram satellites and Bumblebee for medium-sized satellites weighing 300–600 kilograms. Development of Bumblebee Plus for satellites weighing more than 600 kilograms is scheduled to begin after 2027.”

 

— Would localization be commercially viable?

“Electric thrusters are already a major trend in the space industry and are increasingly used in Korean projects. One example is GEO-KOMPSAT-3, a geostationary satellite scheduled for launch in 2027, which uses electric thrusters from Europe’s Thales. The same applies to privately developed satellites. Satrec Initiative has signed an MOU with France’s Exotrail and plans to adopt electric thrusters. “Large companies such as Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Hanwha Systems also use imported electric thrusters. Because Korea has no domestic electric-thruster supplier and relies entirely on imports to meet demand, I believe the business potential is strong.”

 

— Do you expect the electric-thruster market to grow?

“When SpaceX’s Starship begins commercial launches, the number of satellite launches will rise further. Demand for deep-space exploration and space cargo transportation is also expected to grow over the long term. Forecasts therefore point to growth in the electric-thruster industry. “Electric-thruster performance has already been demonstrated through the Starlink project, whose satellites also use electric thrusters. With China, Europe and Japan also focusing on space communications, the market is expected to grow rapidly.”

 

 

 

Original article : [Space K] “Satellites Powered by Electric Engines”: Young Engineers Pursue Localization