Deep Space Energy secures €930k to advance radioisotope power
Deep Space Energy, a Riga-based SpaceTech startup, has raised a total of €930,000 to develop and commercialise a next-generation radioisotope power generator designed to bolster Europe’s space and defence autonomy and support sustained operations on the Moon.
The financing combines a €350,000 pre-seed round led by Outlast Fund alongside angel investor Linas Sargautis, a former co-founder of NanoAvionics. The company also won €580,000 in public contracts and grants from the European Space Agency (ESA), NATO DIANA, and the Latvian government.
Backup power for strategic satellites
Founder and CEO Mihails Ščepanskis said the lab-validated technology is being developed first as an auxiliary energy source for high-value satellites, providing redundancy that does not rely on solar power. He argued this could improve resilience against malfunctions and non-kinetic attacks, particularly for satellites operating in MEO, GEO, and HEO—orbits critical to reconnaissance and early-warning capabilities.
The company stressed its generator is not designed for weapons, positioning it instead as dual-use infrastructure to increase reliability for defence and civil missions.
Efficiency claims and lunar ambitions
Founded in 2022, Deep Space Energy is building a system that converts heat from the nuclear self-decay of radioisotopes—sourced from waste of commercial nuclear reactors—into electricity. The startup says its approach can require up to five times less radioisotope fuel than legacy RTG systems.
For lunar applications, the company highlights the challenge of long lunar nights (about 354 hours) and extreme cold. It estimates roughly 2 kg of Americium-241 could generate 50W for a rover, versus around 10 kg for comparable output using older RTG designs—an efficiency it says could accelerate mission timelines and increase mission volume as fuel production scales in the 2030s.
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