Foto: a typical rocket engine (left) and an ARCA rocket engine (right).
A customer doesn't care if an engine for an orbital rocket has 500 bars in the chamber, closed cycle and an extraordinarily mass ratio. A customer cares only about money, which means the payload delivery to the desired orbit, on schedule and in the cheapest way possible.
That’s why at ARCA, the rocket technology development focus is not on performance, but on an extreme cost effectiveness.
In the case of military technology we could consider the best anti-ballistic missile interceptor in the world which destroys the targets it engages with great efficiency and this is great.
But what happens when the defenses will be subject to further missile attacks and is left with no interceptors in the canisters, simply because although those are the most technologically advanced, those are also more expensive than the attacking missiles.
In this case a defense is no longer sustainable simply because the defense is supremely outmatched financially. And unfortunately we saw this in the past few years.
Of course there are also scenarios in which the most advanced technology matters for both space flight and anti-ballistic defense, before cost effectiveness.
But ARCA believes that cost effectiveness, obtained through the use of rocket propulsion built around lower temperature and pressure leading to simplicity, rather than pushing the technology is what defines a better rocket for both space flight and missile defense.
Foto: typical rocket engines (left) and a ARCA rocket engines (right).
Also, in our opinion, to make a difference, a rocket should be at least 10 times cheaper than anything on the market.
In the case of our EcoRocket Heavy, we claim 10x, while in the case of the A1 anti ballistic interceptor, we aim at 100x better cost effectiveness.