The collaboration enabled MP Space to avoid a potential six-month pivot
About:Energy, a specialist in battery development software, is collaborating with MP Space, an Australian engineering company specialising in designing and manufacturing high-performance satellite subsystems
The project allowed MP Space to validate its battery design, assess lifetime performance, and deliver mission-ready confidence to orbit, whilst avoiding a potential six-month development pivot, courtesy of first-time-right cell selection and efficient battery cell testing.
MP Space is a satellite subsystem developer with the challenge of selecting and validating battery cells for extreme space environments, where shallow discharge cycles, robust reliability, and long lifetimes are vital. Traditionally, this process requires extensive in-house testing and data generation, which delays mission readiness.
MP Space implemented The Voltt, About:Energy’s new cloud platform and toolset for cell selection, enabling MP Space to benchmark its chosen cell against a variety of high-performance alternatives and to integrate validated lifetime and degradation data directly into MATLAB/Simulink models.
Expanding on About:Energy’s validated cell model library, The Voltt facilitated the engineering team's modelling, testing, and comparisons of cells under real-world duty cycles, utilising data from over 30 high-performance chemistries, all in one place without requiring additional software.
The collaboration has improved confidence and derisking in cell testing, coinciding with MP Space’s customer programme kick-off and the reassurance of acquiring the latest-generation cell technology without waiting for full lifetime testing.
Dr Gavin White, co-founder and chief executive officer of About:Energy, said, “MP Space builds satellite energy systems, where reliability and precision are vital. Using The Voltt’s validated data and virtual testing, its engineers accelerate development, reduce risk, and strengthen confidence in mission-critical systems. With payloads worth tens of millions and designed to last full missions, satellites are often over-engineered and expensive. MP Space changes this through smarter engineering, using simulation and high-fidelity cell data to reduce development time and lower space power system costs.”
Jay Manley, CEO and co-founder of MP Space, said, “Access to About:Energy’s extensive expertise, robust datasheets and high-quality data platform meant we could make evidence-based design decisions that would normally require months of in-house testing. We avoided unnecessary prototype cycles, reduced risk, and freed up our engineering team’s time – all coming together to keep our programme moving at startup speed. And with our next step, using the model to tune our thermal models, for assessing cell heat generation under various load conditions, the efficiency gains are constantly growing. The Voltt platform has therefore been invaluable in levelling the playing field for a small company like ours.”
About:Energy’s validated cell and degradation datasets underpin every simulation within The Voltt. The company is utilising its expertise and technological capabilities to provide teams with the evidence to predict performance under any project profile and to make confident design decisions before building hardware. The model can replace months of physical testing with reliable digital validation, ensuring development programmes remain on schedule and allowing time-poor suppliers to meet demanding customer timelines.
