Space Power & Thermal Management Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 43.4% concentration at the top. The five most active filers account for 189 of the 435 records in scope, but the tenth-ranked entrant already sits at just 9 filings — a steep drop-off, not a plateau.
- Nuclear classes dominate the claim map. G21C (nuclear reactors) and G21D (nuclear power plants) together tag well over 40% of records, ahead of spacecraft-specific classes like B64G — a sign that space power filings lean heavily on terrestrial reactor art.
- Filing activity has cooled from its 2020 peak. Annual filings ran from 40 in 2021 down to 17 in 2024, a -57% swing over that span, though publication lag means 2025-2026 counts will still rise as records catch up.
Filing growth compares 2021 (40 records) with 2024 (17) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 435 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 435 published patent families filed against a search combining space power systems with thermal-management signals such as heat flux, working fluid, orbital position and temperature sensing. The scope spans records dated 2015 through the August 2026 cut-off, capturing both dedicated spacecraft power art and the nuclear and turbomachinery technology it draws on. Filings run through United States, European, PCT, Canadian, UK and Australian receiving offices, with the United States accounting for the largest single share at 220 records.
The mix is not purely a satellite story. Nuclear reactor and nuclear power plant classes carry more tagged records than spacecraft-specific classes, reflecting how space power systems inherit reactor, turbine and optical-collector art rather than starting from a clean sheet. That matters for freedom-to-operate work: a filing that looks novel against spacecraft prior art alone may still collide with decades of terrestrial nuclear or gas-turbine claims.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 435 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and how those records split across the IPC subclasses that define the technical field.
A 2020 peak, then a step down
Filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 58 in 2020, then fell through the low-40s and settled at 17 by 2024 — a -57% move from the 40 filed in 2021. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent years will keep filling in.
Nuclear and spacecraft classes lead, but overlap heavily
G21C (nuclear reactors) tags 30.8% of the 435 records and G21D (nuclear power plants) tags 15.2%, ahead of B64G (cosmonautics and spacecraft) at 14.3%. Semiconductor devices (H01L, 10.8%), positioning and radar (G01S, 8.7%), optics (G02B, 7.8%), gas turbines (F02C, 7.6%) and jet propulsion (F02K, 6.7%) round out the picture. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to well over 100% of the record total — they describe overlap, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 435 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Space Power & Thermal Management Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about space power & thermal management patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US4754601A — Self-refueling space propulsion system and operating method
A propulsion system for reusable space-based vehicles in which the propulsive working fluid is atmospheric gas: acceleration or deceleration is achieved by expelling or ingesting that gas, so working fluid spent during forward propulsive maneuvers is replenished during retro maneuvers. A large-diameter hypervelocity inlet diffuser mounted at the front of the vehicle scoops up atmospheric gas while passing through the upper atmosphere, transferring vehicle momentum into the ingested gas.Filed 1988 — among the older, foundational records in this dataset's citation graph.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5932940A | Microturbomachinery | 326 |
| 2 | US6325636B1 | Passive midplane for coupling web server processing cards with a network interface(s) | 284 |
| 3 | US6411506B1 | High density web server chassis system and method | 274 |
| 4 | US4888063A | Variable aperture, variable flux density, aerospace solar collector | 239 |
| 5 | US6392313B1 | Microturbomachinery | 228 |
| 6 | US6100463A | Method for making advanced thermoelectric devices | 226 |
| 7 | US7150938B2 | Structurally embedded intelligent power unit | 190 |
| 8 | US4047093A | Direct thermal-electric conversion for geothermal energy recovery | 160 |
| 9 | US6985967B1 | Web server network system and method | 151 |
| 10 | US20050013310A1 | Apparatus and method for unilateral topology discovery in network management | 139 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
The composition and concentration data point to a field where claim density and technical scope diverge sharply by sub-area.
A steep leader, then a long tail
The leading assignee holds 82 records against a fifth-place figure of 15 and a tenth-place figure of 9. That gap suggests one or two entities set the pace on core power-system architecture while the rest of the ranked field files in narrower, adjacent niches.
Nuclear art is the load-bearing prior art
Nuclear reactor and nuclear power plant classes together tag a larger share of records than spacecraft-specific classification, meaning novelty searches limited to satellite-specific databases will miss governing prior art.
Volume has stepped down from its peak
After peaking at 58 filings in 2020, annual output fell to 17 by 2024. Read this as reduced new-entrant pressure in already-claimed architectures, not as the field going quiet — 2025-2026 figures will still revise upward as publications catch up.
Co-filing is rare and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairings appear in this landscape, and the strongest single pairing links two affiliated entities under one filer group. Cross-organisation joint filings are the exception here, not the norm.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to space power & thermal management patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
One assignee leads by a wide margin, but the ranked field of 100 companies thins out quickly after the top ten, and recent-year momentum data shows even leading filers pulling back.
One filer sets the architecture baseline
The top-ranked assignee's filing volume is more than five times the tenth-place figure, indicating a dominant position on core space power and thermal architecture that later entrants file around rather than against directly.
A thin second tier
Fifth place holds 15 records and tenth place holds 9 — a narrow band that suggests the mid-field is made up of specialists in adjacent sub-systems rather than broad-architecture competitors to the leader.
Even the leader is filing less right now
The top-ranked assignee shows just 1 filing in the latest year, down 75% year over year, and several other tracked assignees show zero filings in the latest year — consistent with the broader step-down in annual volume rather than a single company's retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC | 1 | -75% |
| BWXT Nuclear Energy Inc | 0 | — |
| NUGEN LLC | 0 | — |
| YANDEX SELF DRIVING GRP LLC | 0 | — |
| Luminous Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| PHION TECH LLC | 0 | — |
| Joint Stock Company Science and Innovations | 0 | — |
| ResMed Pty Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up work depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying open claim space.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against nuclear classes
Because G21C and G21D together tag more records than spacecraft-specific classification, any new filing on space power architecture should be checked against nuclear reactor and power-plant prior art, not just satellite databases.
Explore prior art in Eureka →Track the leading assignee's pullback
The leading filer's year-over-year drop to a single recent filing is worth monitoring: it may signal a shift to trade secrecy, a platform pause, or migration of R&D into adjacent classes not captured by this search string.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Scope the under-claimed branches
Working-fluid thermal cycle control and payload-linked orbital positioning show thinner filing density than the core classes — both are candidates for a focused novelty search before committing engineering resources.
Search white space in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 82 of the 435 records in scope, more than five times the tenth-ranked entrant's 9 filings. The top five assignees combined hold 189 records, or 43.4% of all records in scope, while the top ten combined hold 250 records, or 57.5%. Beyond the top ten the field thins into a long tail of single- and low-digit filers, so competitive tracking should focus on the leading names rather than treating the space as evenly distributed.
Space power systems, particularly those aimed at high-output or long-duration missions, frequently reuse reactor, turbine and thermal-cycle art developed for terrestrial nuclear power. In this dataset, G21C (nuclear reactors) tags 30.8% of the 435 records and G21D (nuclear power plants) tags 15.2%, both ahead of the spacecraft-specific B64G class at 14.3%. Anyone filing or searching in this space should include nuclear power prior art in their review, not just satellite and spacecraft databases.
Filing volume peaked at 58 records in 2020 and has since declined, falling from 40 in 2021 to 17 in 2024 — a 57% drop over that span. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent decline in 2025 and 2026 figures is partly an artefact of records still working through the pipeline rather than a confirmed slowdown. The 2021-2024 comparison is the most reliable recent trend signal available.
US4754601A, filed in 1988 by Michael Minovitch, claims a propulsion system for reusable space vehicles that uses atmospheric gas as the working fluid, scooped up by a large-diameter hypervelocity inlet diffuser during atmospheric passes to replenish propellant spent during acceleration. It is one of the older, more foundational records in this landscape's citation graph. Designers working on air-breathing or atmosphere-replenished propulsion concepts for reusable vehicles should review its specific claim language on the inlet diffuser and refueling mechanism before finalising a similar architecture.
Relative to the dense nuclear and spacecraft classes, sub-areas such as working-fluid thermal cycle control for compact reactors, payload-data-linked orbital position adjustment, and heat-flux sensing for optical collector arrays show comparatively thin filing density in this dataset. That does not guarantee an area is unclaimed, but it does mean fewer competing filings occupy the claim space, making it a reasonable starting point for a focused novelty search. Co-assignee filing is also rare here — only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across all 435 records — suggesting collaborative filing itself is an underused strategy in this field.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.