Hardware Podcasts

Electric Propulsion with Todd Bailey

The Amp Hour · 22 Aug 2025 · 1h 30m · Episode 701

What this episode covers

Todd Bailey, who previously worked at Lockheed Martin, Astra, and Apollo Fusion, discusses his journey into electric propulsion and the founding of Starlight Engines, which was recently acquired by Muon Space. He details the engineering challenges of designing a Hall effect thruster that uses solid zinc propellant instead of gas, focusing on the power processing unit and vaporization systems. Bailey reflects on his career transitions, the importance of rigorous requirements-driven design, and the business realities of building flight-ready hardware in the commercial space sector.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Starlight Engines, Muon Space, Lockheed Martin, Astra, Rocket Lab, Apollo Fusion, Busick
Products
Hall effect thruster
Chips
GaN, BJT
Tools
planar transformer
Materials
zinc, Xenon, Argon

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