Xplore is a private space company in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 2017 by Lisa Rich who is the Chief Operation Officer and Jeff Rich who is Chief Executive Officer. The two are also managing partners of Hemisphere Ventures in Seattle. HV has invested in over two hundred companies including such space ventures as SpaceX, Vector Launch and Axiom Space. Up to the present, Xplore has been supported by private funds but Lisa Rich said that, now we’re at the point that we’re raising a seed round.”
Xplore recently announced that it is collaborating with Nanoracks a private space company located in Houston, Texas. They are going to create an inexpensive rideshare service for payloads heading for the Moon, Mars or other destinations beyond Earth orbit. Their partnership is taking advantage of a new commercial approach to deep-space exploration being established at NASA by Jim Bridenstine, Administrator of NASA. Lisa Rich is the Chief Operation Officer and co-founder of Xplore said, “We’re the perfect fit for Bridenstine goal of NASA being one partner of many partners.”
Nanoracks will interact directly with customers in the provision of payload design, preparation and integration on Xplore’s missions. This could begin with Moon Expeditions which is a lunar mission that Xplore is planning to launch at the end of 2021. The collaboration capitalizes on Nanoracks experience in working with payload and hardware for the International Space Station.
Jeffrey Manber is the CEO of Nanoracks. In a press release, he said, “Xplore paves the way for commercial utilization and services to the moon, Mars and beyond. We are truly excited at Nanoracks to be working with Xplore to bring our commercial knowledge from low Earth orbit into deep-space exploration.”
The basis of Xplore’s business model is their Xcraft. It is a spacecraft intended to be mounted on a standard payload adapter called an ESPA ring. The Xcraft will be capable of carrying between sixty-six and one hundred and fifty-four pounds in a volume of less than two cubic feet. Cubesats units are four-inch cubes. The Xcraft will be able to carry fifty units of cubesats.
Lisa Rich says “Traditionally, when you look at the size of a spacecraft, maybe only 10 to 15 percent of the mass is the payload bay. Our elegant engineering and design have allowed for 40 percent of the mass to be payload. It’s one-twentieth of the cost of existing missions to deep-space destinations.” Xplore has not provided information about who will be contracted to construct hardware for them. Rich said, “We are currently considering a state-of-the-art facility that is appropriate for building Xcraft.”
Xplore’s business model depends on getting space for secondary payloads on other peoples’ launch vehicles. Rich says that the Xcraft conforms to the ESPA standards and this should make it easier for Xcraft of acquire excess space in other peoples payloads. Most current launch vehicles including SpaceX’s Falcon 9, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets and NASA’s Space Launch System are able to accept ESPA-class spacecraft.
Rich says that they Xcraft will be able to carry a variety of payloads ranging from images and life science experiments to technology demonstrations and deployable nanosatellites.
Xplore has already signed a contract with the Arch Mission Foundation to launch miniaturized libraries into deep space. They have also struck a deal with Celestis to carry cremated remains and DNA samples out into deep space beyond the Moon. Rich says that Xplore is in discussions with potential payload providers but is not ready to share details. She said, “The unique capability is that we’re providing ‘space as a service,’ so that all they have to care about is their instrument and getting their data back, which we provide for them. “Even though we’re a new company, we have an exceptional team that’s been working with NASA for decades,” she said, “so they can trust us.”