1-Hour Delivery, Anywhere on Earth

We are living through the most extraordinary time in history.

Ideas that would have been thought impossible or economically unfeasible just a few short years ago are being brought to life before our eyes.

A decade ago, when I’d be evaluating a prospective bleeding-edge company or a technology, it was easy to dismiss anything that seemed crazy.

I knew that the technology to achieve a prospective radical new advancement was years away, or that the associated costs made it commercially unfeasible.

Today, I don’t dismiss any crazy ideas.

Nearly anything is possible now.

On Demand, Anywhere in the World

Every idea, every new technology requires careful thought and analysis.

Take Inversion Space, for example. I started tracking Inversion a few years ago when I heard about its crazy idea to deliver goods anywhere on Earth within an hour.

Impossible, right? Overnight delivery using FedEx, DHL, or UPS is as fast as it gets. But only if you are living in areas where these companies have a well-established logistics infrastructure.

So, while it’s true that well-established logistics make overnight delivery possible, and not impossible… assuming that 1-hour delivery anywhere on Earth is impossible would be wrong.

When we think like that, we’re anchoring to the way things are done today. We’re thinking about the overnight cargo aircraft and delivery trucks that make it all possible. That framework is wrong.

The framework that Inversion Space is using is hypersonic spacecraft pre-positioned in Earth’s orbit.

Its spacecraft, Arc, can deliver its payload anywhere on Earth, within feet of its desired location, within an hour.

Rendering of Arc | Source: Inversion Space

Announced just this week, the Arc spacecraft – or as Inversion likes to call it, a space-based delivery vehicle – will redefine what is possible in terms of on-demand global delivery.

The spacecraft is about four feet wide and eight feet long… and small enough to sit on top of a conference room table. It has been designed to transport up to 500 pounds (225 kg) of payload/packages anywhere on the planet.

Arc’s Dimensions | Source: Inversion Space

The near-term vision for Arc is to have thousands of Arcs in orbit with critical inventory, to support just-in-time delivery anywhere on Earth.

The first target application is for the U.S. military.

First Customer

An Arc can remain in orbit for up to five years, and they can be pre-positioned to quickly support theaters of operation around the world.

I expect that typical payloads for the military could include regularly used supplies and materiel like medical supplies, ammunition, drones, and other necessary gear that is highly utilized.

This isn’t just a concept.

Inversion Space already signed a $71 million contract with SpaceWERX – the development arm of the U.S. Space Force – to solve some of the U.S. military’s most difficult logistics challenges. The schedule is a full-scale demonstration of Arc for the U.S. Space Force before the end of next year.

The U.S. Space Force is an ideal first customer, as having “inventory” of critical supplies and materiel in orbit – and ready to be delivered in an hour anywhere – greatly simplifies its own logistics network.

But the potential for Arc isn’t limited at all to the military. Any large company or country that has the need for critical supplies and 1-hour delivery around the world in hard-to-reach places will benefit from Inversion’s technology.

And if it sounds uneconomical to provide a service like this, it’s not.

The Key to Arc’s Success

SpaceX pushed the outer limits of aerospace engineering by making the Falcon 9 rocket launch booster reusable. It also designed novel rocket engines that are both reusable and more efficient than past propulsion technology. The same is true for the Falcon Heavy, and both the Super Heavy and the Starship.

Due to SpaceX’s ingenious engineering, the costs of getting payloads to orbit have fallen by more than 90%.

And once SpaceX’s Starship is conducting commercial operations next year, costs will fall yet again by more than 90%… to around $100 per kilogram to orbit. Inversion Space will use SpaceX for ride-share services to get its loaded Arc spacecraft into orbit.

This makes a service like Inversion’s Arc not only economical, but cheap.

I can envision scenarios where it would be less expensive to use Arc for logistics… than it would be to use aircraft and rugged terrain vehicles to get supplies to remote locations.

The key to Arc is that it is a reusable, autonomous delivery vehicle.

Plug in the coordinates on Earth where the delivery is needed, and Arc takes care of the rest.

Inversion Space Prototype Autonomous Landing | Source: Inversion Space

After re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, Arc uses an actively controlled parachute system, which can steer the spacecraft’s delivery and ensure a soft touchdown.

Shown above is a prototype that Inversion built, demonstrating a precision drop within a few feet of the target location (marked by the red flag).

Not surprisingly, Inversion’s navigation software and control system utilize artificial intelligence and computer vision to enable such precise landings.

More incredible is that Inversion is just a small company that was able to develop nearly every system on board entirely in-house by a team of just 25 people… for under $1 million.

Just imagine what will be possible with $100 million and 100 people?

Shipped from Space

It’s no surprise that aerospace giant Lockheed Martin (LMT) is already an investor in Inversion Space.

And it’s also worth noting that Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (KTOS) awarded Inversion a contract to support hypersonic testing as part of the $1.45 billion Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) 2.0 Program of Record.

This program is led by a research and engineering group within the Department of Defense, designed to support the National Hypersonic Initiative 2.0, which is intended to accelerate the development of hypersonic technologies.

While the military and defense applications will accelerate the development of this fully autonomous, hypersonic technology, commercial applications will follow. As with all technologies, scale drives down costs, making commercial applications economically feasible.

Would you like to live on a remote island a thousand miles from anywhere?

With solar power and a SpaceX Starlink terminal, just give Inversion Space a call.

You can have supplies landed on your beach within an hour.

Jeff