Stellar Engines Ltd was originally founded in May 2011 to help develop innovations necessary for the exploration of deep space.
History
Observations of scientific progress led to the conclusion that a new opportunity existed to build on the revolution in space exploration technology that is taken place currently. In particular, there are key areas published in the science and technology literature, often considered speculative or visionary thinking, which in fact may hold solutions that could solve many of our every day energy and transport needs. In addition there was a need to provide a financial vehicle to look at concepts and technologies that mainstream industry (and government) is not looking at; what are considered low technology readiness level status. So it was that in May 2011 Stellar Engines Ltd was incorporated as a limited liability company in the United Kingdom.
The company has been trading for over a dozen years now and has taken part in many successful contracts with industry, whilst quietly developing some of its own concepts in the background. In essence, the contracts awarded to SEL go to fund the internal innovations and R&D that people associated with SEL are conducting.
Our Expertise
In principle, we can take up work in a broad range of fields and have the capacity to pull in the right people to assist with the project under our project management. However, we also have some core areas of expertise:
Concept design of spacecraft according to a mission requirement.
Advanced space propulsion, with an emphasis on fusion and laser beams.
Dust and charged particle impact modelling on high speed spacecraft.
Mission architecture and mission analysis studies.
Development of test campaigns for new physics systems and links to numerical model validation.
Numerical code development for scientific calculations.
Evaluation of new physics/engineering inventions for pre-patent application.
Technical paper writing and grant applications.
Stellar Engines has had the good fortune to work with a number of companies on innovative projects and in particular related to spacecraft advanced concept design. Our primary business is the application of theoretical physics to engineering solutions.
The Logo
The logo of Stellar Engines is modelled on the Pioneer Plaque form the Pioneer missions of the 1970s. However, it is also made artistically so that it has the appearance of particles coming out of an energetic reaction. This could be analogous to the Sun which is powered by fusion reactions, and the word 'Stellar' does mean star. Hence the intention is to use the same energy that powers nature's stars, to power devices for the benefit of human kind.
hoto Credit: NASA dimnikolov
The Pioneer Plaque
The Pioneer plaques were a pair of gold-anodized aluminium plaques placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft missions. These were the first human made object to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. The message design was lead by the astronomers Carl Sagan and Frank Drake and Linda Salzman Sagan. They are 229 mm wide by 152 mm in height and 1.27 mm thick and each has a mass of approximately 120 grams.
The plaques defined the hyperfine transition of hydrogen as well as the figures of a man and a woman, shown against the back drop of the Pioneer spacecraft for scale. The radial pattern on the left of the plaque shows 15 lines emanating from the same origin, and each has binary numbers to represent the periods of pulsars in the galaxy, using the hydrogen spin-flip transition as the unit. Essentially it is a navigational map of the position of our Sun (and Earth) in the galaxy.