Who we are
PRESIDENT & FOUNDER
Dr. Ryan Conversano received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from UCLA. He is a pioneer in the field of electric propulsion, having invented, developed, & published on the world’s first and highest-performing low-power magnetically shielded Hall effect thruster: MaSMi. Dr. Conversano has led the development, testing, and qualification of multiple Hall thruster based EP subsystems. He has extensive experience in technical & customer program management and business development activities.
Dr. Conversano spent more than a decade working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) followed by four years in the commercial space industry at ExoTerra Resource. Through his 15 years of experience, Dr. Conversano is an industry-leading electric propulsion subject matter expert. He has unique experience in many space technology areas, including:
Hall thruster design & optimization - Propulsion subsystem development, optimization, & integration - Test, qualification, & validation planning and execution - Ground & on-orbit anomaly resolution - Ground test facility build-up - Spacecraft systems engineering
As of July 2025, he has authored 40 technical publications in the fields of electric propulsion & plasma devices and holds numerous patents in the fields of electric propulsion and related areas.
Ryan Conversano, Ph.D.
Why
Electric
Propulsion?
Today’s space missions demand increasingly higher delta-V capability, enhanced on-orbit maneuverability, and lower (usually launch-mass-driven) costs. These often conflicting requirements coalesce to a singular enabling spacecraft technology:
Electric Propulsion.
Conceived in the 1960’s and first flown in the 1970’s, EP uses a combination of electricity and magnetism to ionize & accelerate a propellant to generate thrust. While the force generated by EP devices is low (on the scale of milli-Newtons to Newtons) and consequently necessitates more time to complete a given mission, the fuel efficiency is roughly 10x that of chemical propulsion (corresponding to a ~90% reduction in required propellant mass for a given mission). Further, EP applies long-duration adjustable thrust rather than short-duration impulsive thrust, the latter of which can compromise a mission if done on an incorrect trajectory or if critical timing is missed. EP therefore enables use of smaller & lighter spacecraft which are less costly to launch and provide a wider breadth of maneuvering capabilities on-orbit when in compared to chemical propulsion.
EP is now widely available in the commercial market and is employed on a multitude of operational & in-work missions. It is a flight-proven technology, but one with only a relatively small number of true subject matter experts (SMEs) worldwide.