MMA Design Capabilities

To accommodate MORE robust high-volume production, larger deployable solutions, continuous R+D capabilities and our growing team, MMA is moving into a new state-of-the-art facility that more than doubles our current footprint.

In December 2024, MMA will be taking over 4 bays — over 43,000 square feet — of flexible, industrial space at the Baseline Innovation District in Broomfield, Colorado. The move is a strategic investment in our business, significantly increasing each of our current engineering, R+D, manufacturing and shop spaces to make room for expanded capabilities.

The new address is 1755 W. 160th Ave., Broomfield, CO 80020. Operations will officially begin at the new facility on January 1, 2025.

MMA’s facility in the Colorado Tech Center in Louisville, Colorado is home to our team of fiercely creative engineers, transparent and dedicated program managers, manufacturing/AI+T team focused on quality and excellence, talented team of machine artisans, and people leaders and explorers all of whom are passionate about our craft.

Our facility is large, clean and open, with inspiring 360 degree views. It’s our blank canvas to create, collaborate and innovate, and have fun too.

Planning a visit to MMA?

24-foot, high-bay ceilings are critical for rigorously testing our large deployable systems. Our testing lab includes:

• Thermal cycling chambers
• Precision photogrammetry measurement capability
• Vicon motion capture system
• An 800 ft² gravity off-load area with up to 22 ft system height

Our team of nearly 50 full-time engineers, analysts, manufacturing engineers, and technicians work collaboratively together in a 8,600 ft² creative working space, leveraging the tools of our trade SolidWorks, NASTRAN, MatLab, MathCAD, Photomodeller, and SolidWorks Simulation to name a few.

Our research + development leads to the commercialization of revolutionary, disruptive solutions. We have 1,500 ft² of dedicated high-bay R&D space in which to explore. And, leveraging rapid prototyping tools and methods such as multi-material FDM and SLA 3D printing capabilities, electro-mechanical tools and expertise, and agile early systems development, we take a hardware-centric approach to developing our solutions. CAD, analysis and years of experience are great tools, but rapid prototyping, building hardware and testing rigorously are critical to our brand of innovation.

Our R+D extends to exploring the best, most effective materials and processes for creating composites for our missions. We have dedicated 400 ft² of composite fabrication space to house in-house mold fabrication capabilities, ply cutting, layup, and vacuum bagging capability and a 10 ft composite curing oven.

A critical 6,750 ft² of our floor is dedicated to AI&T where our assembly team does the precision work of skillfully assembling our custom solutions. The clean assembly areas are rigorously managed for quality and safety to ensure that each product is documented, assembled and tested correctly. Here too, we have 24 ft ceiling heights for handling large deployables.

Our integrated machine shop, occupying 3,150 ft² of our facility, includes:

• GibbsCam 2022 CAD/CAM
• 2019 HAAS VF3SSYT with 4^th axis capability
• 2017 HAAS VF-2SS with 4^th axis capability
• 2005 HAAS VF-2SS
• 2020 HAAS UMC 500 5-Axis
• 2021 UMC 500 5-Axis
• Sharp Knee Mill with Trak A.G.E.2 Control
• Inspection equipment
• Brown & Sharp MicroVal CMM

Not to mention, very talented machine artisans capable of machining the most challenging, precision, custom parts.

We don’t just have a quality department, we believe in a quality mindset. MMA sets high standards for our products and services while promoting innovation and improvements that exceed our customers’ expectations. We make infinite POSSIBILITIES a reality.

We know that when engineers hear “deployables” they typically associate it with risk. When we think about deployables — the secret weapon at the core of all our disruptive solutions — we only see opportunities to accomplish MORE by combining novel thinking with clever, artful packaging strategies that minimize stowed volume and mass to orbit, while remaining both robust and reliable.

From our earliest days, we’ve always believed that taking a hardware-centric approach drives us to learn as much as we can early in the design cycle and then retire risk at every phase of development. Key to this approach is early prototyping and testing so we can fail fast and iterate. Some call it Agile. We just call it the MMA way.

Lead by experts with many years of experience in moving mechanical assemblies, composite materials, space structures, analysis, and integration + test, our cross-disciplinary teams include materials experts, mechanical, RF, manufacturing, systems and electrical engineers, electromechanical technicians, and machine craftsman. This broad expertise enables us to deliver reliable solutions with industry-leading performance metrics no matter what the mission. And, well-funded internal research and development in emerging technologies means MMA can continue to redefine the state of the art in robust, high-performance deployable systems for space, keeping us on the bleeding edge.

Close collaboration across the team is also critical to our ability to distill designs to their most essential components, minimizing parts count, cost and risk through reduced system complexity. Our small company culture inspires collaboration, and we fiercely protect our mandate to be innovative. Frequent peer review, with key input from all disciplines on the team and levels of our organization — including our Chief Engineer, CEO and CTO — ensures we are applying best practices, novel thinking, and lessons learned to further mitigate risk.

Our critical infrastructure enables us to evaluate structural strength and stiffness, execute gravity-offload deployments, environmental testing (vacuum, thermal, vibration), functional testing and RF range testing, followed by flight acceptance testing on the ground to demonstrate and ensure reliable and repeatable performance.

We know we can’t repair our systems once they are in space, so while we embrace failure during development as a method of accelerating advancements, failure is not an option on-orbit. And to date, we’ve delivered stellar results.

MMA’s sustained investment in R&D leads our team to innovation, new product development, and improved processes, all of which contribute to minimizing risk, improving delivery schedules, delivering cost effectively, and staying on the bleeding edge of Next Space. By seeking new ideas, technologies, and approaches, MMA constantly brings novel and disruptive products, systems and solutions to market. We don’t do R+D just for the sake of R+D — our innovations lead to the commercialization of revolutionary systems that benefit all.

Our strong focus on R+D allows us to adapt and evolve to meet the challenges of a changing business environment. This includes technological advancements, shifts in customer preferences, and changes in regulatory requirements. Advancements discovered as a result of our R+D investment position MMA for long-term success. And, this forward-thinking approach helps ensure that we remain relevant and resilient in the face of our ever-evolving industry.

MMA’s commitment to R+D gives us a competitive advantage. Our customers associate our disruptive systems with quality and reliability, and we have earned a reputation for being at the forefront of technology. We attract like-minded innovators as team members and collaborators who recognize that we will prioritize and support their creative endeavors. And, as a team, we know how to effectively conduct R+D so that it translates into tangible, commercial outcomes for our customers.