Apollo Fusion Will Supply NASA JPL with MaSMi Hall Thrusters as Sole Licensed Manufacturer

May 8, 2019

William Kucinski

(Image courtesy: R. Conversano, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology via Apollo Fusion, Inc.)

Apollo Fusion, Inc. (Apollo), headquarter in Mountain View, California, has received an exclusive, worldwide license to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Magnetically Shielded Miniature (MaSMi) Hall thruster. JPL transferred the license to Apollo after the company was awarded a contract to produce three engineering model MaSMi-EM thrusters for JPL’s Ascendant Sub-kW Transcelestial Electric Propulsion System (ASTRAEUS). Apollo will deliver the three MaSMi-EM thrusters to JPL this summer.

“We're absolutely thrilled to be working with NASA JPL and with Dr. Ryan Conversano, the [principal investigator] of ASTRAEUS and the inventor of MaSMi. The MaSMi thruster that we now have the exclusive license for can produce more than 2,000,000 [newton-seconds] of total impulse and yet is about the size of a soda can,” says Apollo CEO, Mike Cassidy.

William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..