Credits: Draper
Startup Volta Space Technologies has unveiled its plans to develop a network of satellites around the moon to provide power to spacecraft on the lunar surface. The Montreal-based company revealed plans for satellites that would collect power and transmit it via lasers to spacecraft on the lunar surface, helping them survive the two-week lunar night or operate in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles.
Volta’s system, called LightGrid, would involve satellites in lunar orbit, collecting solar power and beaming it down with lasers to receivers mounted on lunar landers and rovers. That would allow the landers and rovers to continue to operate when solar power is not available. Paolo Pino, co-founder and chief technology officer of Volta, said it could later be extended to other lunar facilities, from sensors to in-situ resource utilisation plants.
The company has developed technology to transmit power by lasers, testing it in labs and in the field at distances of up to 850 metres. It is now gearing up to test the technology in Earth orbit on a satellite mission in 2026.
Pino said a minimum of three satellites in the “small satellite class” in low lunar orbits could provide full service to an individual customer, with the network scaled up to support more customers. “The advantage of being in orbit is that it’s more easily scaled and augmented with more satellites,” he said, as compared to placing power infrastructure on the lunar surface.
“It’s a much simpler proposition to put a spacecraft in low lunar orbit than it is to soft-land it on the surface,” added Paul Damphousse, chief operating officer of Volta and president of its U.S. subsidiary. “The chief advantage is that you’re in space, and you have global coverage from day one.”
Volta has raised a seed round of funding for an undisclosed amount. The company’s investors include the funds MaC Venture Capital and Industrious Ventures. It has also won grants and awards from the Defense Department, NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Volta is working on a Series A round and is mulling the need for an additional Series B round to deploy that initial network of lunar satellites, projected for 2028.
The company is looking at other applications of both its satellite system and power-beaming technology, including hosted payloads, transmitting generated power to other platforms in space, transmitting power from space to the ground, and emergency services such as disaster relief. Volta will explore opportunities in airborne and maritime domains too.
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