Stellar Alpina unveils Monarch orbiter and Morpho lunar lander
The Swiss startup, founded around detonation engines, plans an in-orbit demonstration of Monarch by 2029.
Swiss startup Stellar Alpina has unveiled two vehicles: a high-performance orbiter called Monarch and a lunar lander called Morpho. The company began as a developer of rotating detonation rocket engines and has moved to building vehicles that use them.
Monarch is designed for up to 6,000 m/s of delta-V, 1,000 kg of wet mass and 200 kg of payload. Its engines are being developed to run on hydrogen peroxide and propane. The team is targeting an in-orbit demonstration by 2029, depending on launch availability.
Cofounder Victor Elliesen said Monarch is launcher-agnostic and could ride on a European microlauncher and still reach GEO. Morpho will use an upgraded version of Monarch's architecture, and its timeline depends on how Monarch does in the market.
Neither Stellar Alpina nor Astrobotic has flown a rotating detonation engine yet. Stellar Alpina is in the prototyping phase, with more than 150 engine tests completed. Its next step is a water-cooled engine to tackle one of the technology's biggest hurdles: keeping it cool.
Sourcepayloadspace.com