HelicitySpace is a company developing fusion propulsion and power technology necessary for enabling humanity's expansion into the solar system. The companies propulsion and power system is called the Helicity Drive, it merges several plasma plectonemes in a constant-energy compression magnetic nozzle. Exploiting the efficiency of magnetic reconnection for heating, the stability of plectonemes for confinement, and the symmetry of passive coils for magnetic compression. The approach can operate at modest fusion gains and scale to ignited operation.
Founded in 2018 by Setthivoine You (Chief Scientist) and Marta Calvo (Head of Operation), the company is based in Berkeley, California. In June 2018, HelicitySpace raised $150K in Pre-Seed funding. In October 2019, the US Department of Energy selected HelicitySpace for 2 funded projects in fusion energy development. These are:
- Development of a high-current solid-state switch for magneto-inertial fusion, in collaboration with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
- Simulation of plectoneme formation, in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory
Timeline
People
Paul M. Bellan, Prof.
Scientific Advisor
Carlos Romero, Prof.
Technical Advisor
Mike Brown, Prof.
Scientific Advisor
Saina Ghandchi, MBA
Industry Advisor
Sanjay Vijendran, PhD
Technical Advisor
Stephane Mazouffre, PhD
Technical Advisor
Ty McCoy, Hon.
Strategic Advisor
Yasushi Ono, Prof.
Scientific Advisor