Lumen Forge designs compact optical payloads for Earth observation and optical inter-satellite links. They have a cleanroom the size of a decent kitchen and the discipline of a much larger firm.
They publish work packages when they need a materials, thermal or ground-segment partner.
The founding position was that the optical performance achievable in a small volume had improved considerably faster than the market's assumptions about it, and that a competent small team could occupy the gap. Three years in, this appears to have been correct, though the constraint has proven to be thermal management rather than optics.
They are candid about their limits. Eleven people cannot run a qualification campaign, develop a coating and build a ground segment simultaneously, which is why they publish work packages rather than hire. The team's own effort stays on the optical design, where it belongs.
Capabilities
- Compact photonic payloads
- Thermal-vacuum test planning
- Ground-segment prototypes
- Optical design for constrained volumes
- Payload integration for 3U to 12U platforms
- Pointing and stability budget analysis
Ways in
The routes that exist, and what each is suited to.
Published work packages
Their preferred route. A scoped job with a budget band and a deadline, published openly, applied to by whoever is capable.
Facility and test partnerships
Arrangements with facility hosts for qualification campaigns, where they bring the payload and the procedure and pay for the slot.
Payload hosting for research groups
Occasional arrangements to carry a university instrument, where the science is interesting and the mass budget survives it.
How to approach them
They respond quickly and expect the same. Applications to their work packages that arrive with a named person, relevant prior evidence and a realistic price generally receive an answer within a fortnight.
They are a small company with a real cash position and no interest in unpaid pilot projects. Proposals should be priced properly.
Known for
- Two optical payloads delivered to platform integrators and now in orbit
- An inter-satellite link terminal developed to breadboard within a 6U envelope
- A thermal redesign completed in eleven weeks after an unwelcome first campaign result