Can you get to Space with a water heater?
Scott Tibbetts believes you can. Tibbitts is the President of a small, high tech firm in Boulder, Colorado, called Starsys.
As a boy, Tibbitts was fascinated by the Space program and hoped that one day he'd be involved in space exploration.
While working with the inventor of a small device to improve water heaters, Tibbitts came up with an idea for a new
space-based application for the original device. He approached NASA with the idea.
I've got this little water heater thing. I think you might use it on spacecraft to control temperature. And, they told me to come on out.
So I bought a plane ticket with my credit card and we took a little cardboard box with a pair of an actuator
and went into JPL and I thought oh my gosh someday we could be a part of this stuff.
And met with these guys and they said you know we really could use these in space spacecraft.
That was 1986. What began with an idea for a water heater has grown Starsys into a successful designer
and manufacturer of products for space systems and vehicles.
Those original devices became actuators that were first used on the NASA Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan.
In the early 90's, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory awarded Starsys funding through the Agency's Small Business Innovation Research,
or SBIR, Program to develop devices for spacecraft.
By the late 1990s, Starsys was already building motors for spacecraft and becoming involved with NASA's missions to Mars.
Today, the Mars Exploration Rovers are using gearboxes and a heat switch that were developed
during those first SBIR awards. And, Starsys will be part of other upcoming Mars missions.
Like the 2007 Mars Phoenix Mission. The firm is actually building a robotic wet-chemistry experiment that will collect samples
from the planet's surface and then perform experiments while still on the Mars.
How Starsys manages to successfully infuse their NASA research back into Agency missions,
as well as commercial applications, is no secret.
You need to develop relationships in particular areas that you're good at with your
partners in the NASA Centers that are also good at that.
It's not just NASA. The firm's also working on an Air Force Research Lab product called the ORBITAL EXPRESS DOCKING SYSTEM.
They'll produce a release system for the project, culling from experience they've gained
developing products for SAAB Ericksson.
The firm now numbers about 100 employees, working in machine shops, clean rooms and testing areas on site.
And, with their products destined for space, it's important to flight test under harsh conditions.
Starsys prides itself on having 100% operational success in every single one of its endeavors.
And, Tibbiotts believes the success is due to the company's work philosophy.
So if one of our latches doesn't operate, a solar panel doesn't open, the mission is lost. You recognize both what
that means for the country, what that means for our company, what that means for everybody involved and we have
100 people in this company that all have this mindset that this has got to be just right.
With a renewed national focus of space exploration, Starsys is in an enviable position. In the future,
Tibbitts sees his company even more involved in robotic work.
The timing just where we are and have all these things going on, and be in the middle
of it to start from a water heater 15 years ago is pretty exciting stuff.