What You Get:
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DOE STTR P1: Satelite Propulsion
Increase your chances of winning by downloading a winning proposal
Agency: Dept. of Energy
Program: STTR
Award Year: 2024
Phase: 1
$350.00
Proposal Topic:
This proposal is for the development of thermal nuclear rockets for ground-to-orbit space launches to dramatically reduce the cost of space access beyond what chemical rockets can achieve.
Key aspects:
- Goal: Create a fully reusable thermal nuclear rocket that releases no radioactive material during operation
- Economic model: Small launch vehicles that could fly hundreds of times per year, requiring only propellant replacement between most flights
- Current phase: Modeling and simulation study to establish feasibility before building physical prototypes
- Main technical challenge: Achieving much higher thrust-to-weight ratios than existing nuclear rockets (which are designed only for use in space, not launch)
- Primary concerns: Safety and regulatory approval, including modeling radiation exposure at various distances to meet safety standards
- Approach: Updating previously developed miniature nuclear thermal rocket designs with a new mission profile that makes them economically viable
How Much is Redacted:
Frequently asked questions
How does this proposal help me win?
An old proposal gives you an idea of what you need to produce in order to win. Imagine trying to do a puzzle without being able to see the image of the competed puzzle.
This redacted proposal is like the puzzle box that shows you what you are working towards.
We have a video with full recommendations on how to get the most out of these old winning proposals but the key benefits are:
- Decide whether to pursue at all: Seeing an old proposal gives you a sense for the technical and commercial bar you need to hit. If you can't produce something of a similar quality and rigor you might not want to invest the time to pursue federal funding right now
- Proposal planning: There are strict page limits. See how a past winner "used" their pages
- Understand the questions: The prompts and sections of the proposal can be confusing and seem duplicative. An old winning proposal gives you a sense for what the government is looking for
- What this proposal is NOT: An old proposal is not a madlib where you can just search for key words and replace them with your technology's. You still need to write a clear and compelling proposal. This just shows you what clear and compelling actually means.
What do I get when I buy a proposal?
Under the redacted section you can see all the pages you will get. The blurred text is clear and readable, but the black bars are in place to hide this author's "secret sauce."
The proposal is a PDF download but each page is an image, so you will not be able to copy text directly out of the document.
What is the return policy?
As a digital product there are no returns.
If you think that the product description misrepresented what you get in the download contact us to discuss a refund
When will I get my order?
You will get a PDF file either immediately downloaded to your computer or sent to you in an email
Will an old winning proposal help me win?
We can make no guarantees about winning or win rates but consider this:
The value of your time:
- It takes most people 100 hours to write a proposal for a new agency or funding program. We have found that being able to reference a prior winning proposal reduces that by 10-20 hours.
- if you value your time at $75/HR that means that this proposal will save you $750-$1,500 in time
Your chances of winning:
- If you win you'll generally get $250K for a Phase I.
- We believe that having access to an old winning proposal can easily increase your win rate by 1%
- Based on the value of this increased chances of winning an old proposal is worth $2,500
We have been very conservative in our estimates and we think that an old winning proposal will save you more time and increase your win rate by more than 1%, but even at these assumptions the value of a winning proposal is far higher than the cost