Clark: Atomos technology could get humans to Mars in 30 days
Vanessa Clark · #48 Will This Space Startup Make It off the Ground? · Mar 3, 2025 · at 11:09
Vanessa Clark, co-founder of Atomos, tells investors on The Pitch that their nuclear/orbital propulsion technology could enable 30-day Mars transit.
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“Realized that the tech for this business could also get humans to Mars in 30 days.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Vanessa Clark
Clark: SpaceX's launch reliability is not top tier
“So firstly, SpaceX's reliability
Isn't top tier.”
Clark: Atomos requires roughly $160M to build spacecraft
“To develop and build the spacecraft, our total capitalization needs are going to be, you're going to widen your eyes at this, it's going to be around one hundred and sixty million dollars.”
Clark: Atomos vehicle will reach $500M annual revenue in mid-2020s
“So our full commercial vehicle will be operational in the early to mid-twententies with five hundred million annual revenue.”
Clark: Rockets are inefficient for precision satellite placement in orbit
“Launch vehicles or rockets are only really good for getting into space. They're not good for doing the last mile, or in space, really, the last 20,000 miles. They're not very good at precision placement of assets.”
Clark: Atomos space tugs can complete multiple satellite transfers before refueling
“Our spacecraft, which is essentially a space tug, it rendezvous with the rocket upper stage, retrieves the satellite, and transfers it to its final destination, and we can reuse our space tug. So it would then cycle back down to the low orbit, pick up another …”