“At Firefly, our work is quite literally rocket science,” says Tom Markusic, CEO of Firefly Aerospace in a recent press release. “It takes an enormous amount of simulation and modelling to design components that withstand the tremendous liftoff, flight and space environments. Leveraging the suite of Ansys tools allows us to ensure a design works with limited test iterations, providing up to $5 million in cost savings in engine cooling design, $10 million in increasing engine thrust and up to $500,000 in mass optimizations.”

Four Firefly Reaver engines power the first stage of the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle. An engine test is shown here. Image courtesy of Edwards Media via Firefly Aerospace.

Firefly Aerospace has graduated from the Ansys Startup Program, which it joined in 2017. The company uses Ansys products to fulfil its mission of providing economical and convenient access to space for small payloads through the design, manufacture and operation of reliable launch vehicles.

The Ansys Startup Program has helped 1,000 new companies since it began in 2016, doubling its rate of growth in just the last two years. The program provides entrepreneurs with full access to simulation bundles when their companies need it most.

Startups often have big ideas but limited funding to develop them into products. Without simulation software, startups would be at a disadvantage because they would be forced to perform time-consuming and costly physical prototyping while their established competitors can efficiently advance their product development initiatives via simulation. Companies in the Startup Program can test and modify hundreds of virtual prototypes in the time it would take to build one physical prototype.
 

The Ansys Startup Program has grown by 100% in the last two years.

Join Ansys at Farnborough Air Show 2024 – Ansys reserved chalet #C221, and access is limited to guests with scheduled meetings. To learn why aerospace and defense organizations are partnering with Ansys to realize the full potential of digital engineering, request a meeting with our experts. Learn More

Startups in the Spotlight

To celebrate the 1,000-startup milestone, Ansys will be spotlighting some of the amazing companies that have participated in the Startup Program in upcoming blog posts. You can read about others below:

• Metawave, a graduate of the program that used Ansys HFSS simulation software to help develop its high-performance SPEKTRA radar, which combines analogue beamforming and beam steering with advanced digital signal processing to illuminate the driving field of view and detect all the objects on the roadway in high resolution.
• Teratonix, a program member that is using Ansys HFSS and Ansys Electronics Desktop to design a radio frequency harvester that can collect ambient radio frequency signals and convert them to electricity.
• WaveSense, which is using Ansys HFSS to optimize ground-penetrating radar performance to develop a system to map the underground features of roads for precise location verification in all conditions.
• Arbe is developing 4D radar chipset that the company says produces an image 100 times more detailed than any other automotive radar system currently available.
• Nikola Labs is providing an end-to-end solution for remote machine condition monitoring and developing wireless power technology.

Ansys want to help next-generation designs come to life by giving startups the necessary tools to overcome early-stage challenges associated with building physical prototypes. Learn more about the Ansys Startup Program.

Author
Susan Coleman
Senior Marketing Manager, Academic and Startup Programs, Ansys