Howe Industries

Howe Industries was founded by Dr. Troy Howe in the Phoenix metro area to develop advanced propulsion and power technologies for the space sector. Dr. Howe holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Idaho (2015), with expertise spanning nuclear rocket fuel, thermoelectric converters, solid-state cooling, and space propulsion systems.

The company flagship near-term product is ThermaSat, a solar thermal CubeSat propulsion system developed through NSF SBIR Phase I and II funding. ThermaSat uses water as a non-toxic, green propellant stored as a solid or liquid and vaporized through resistojet heating before being expelled through a nozzle, providing meaningful delta-V for 3U to 12U CubeSat platforms while avoiding the regulatory burden of conventional propellants like hydrazine. The system operates at a minimum of 8 W input power and is scalable with higher power inputs, offering a specific impulse advantage over cold-gas thrusters while maintaining the safe-handling profile critical for university and commercial integrators.

Beyond ThermaSat, Howe Industries has spun out ThermaSat Inc for near-term orbital mobility and ISAM products, while continuing to advance longer-horizon concepts including the Pulsed Plasma Rocket (NASA NIAC Phase II, 2024), the SPRINTR nuclear thermal rocket, the SPEAR deep-space nuclear power probe, and the SEPTIR radioisotope electric thruster. The ROAMER in-space servicing robot was developed through a USSF Orbital Prime STTR award, and the ICARuS coulomb-particle heat radiator enables large-scale nuclear spacecraft designs.

Howe Industries is led by Dr. Troy Howe, who simultaneously serves as CEO of ThermaSat Inc and CTO of Tesseract 4D Energy, bridging near-term CubeSat propulsion products with far-horizon nuclear propulsion research across NASA, NSF, DARPA, and US Space Force programs.