Pilots on the ground could compete in space FPV drone racing by flying small, slow drones launched from a suborbital vehicle or space station. The drones would use cold-gas monopropellant for propulsion, limiting them to traveling only a few meters at very low speeds within a small inflatable course. A suborbital vehicle could achieve enough zero-gravity time for multiple 2-minute racing heats before the drones and vehicle fall back to Earth and are destroyed upon impact. This approach allows competitive racing with minimal latency for drone controls from the ground and avoids the high costs and challenges of operating drones in orbit.

1. SPACE FPV
RACING
S O M E I D E AS O N H O W TO F P V R AC E I N
S PAC E ( U S I N G P R E S E N T D AY
T E C H N O L O G Y )

2. MONOPROPELLANT DRONE

3. SPACE FPV WOULD BE SLOW
• Unlike most visions of space racing, drones around an object using
cold-gas monopropellant would travel at a humble speed.
• Distances available for a drone to fly would be very small, a few
meters in one direction would be standard.
• Either a small inflatable course would need to be launched to a
suborbital hop or short term orbit, or one would need to be
deployed at an existing station such as the ISS.
• The drones would need to be small, and be exciting at very low
speeds, as they traversed very small courses.

4. A SUBORBITAL HOP WOULD ALLOW
FOR A SINGLE 2 MINUTE RACE HEAT

5. PILOTS ON THE GROUND FLY THE
DRONES
• Pilots on the ground would be able to have line-of-sight with the
course vehicle during a suborbital hop, so they would be able to relay
their video and control feed through the course vehicle, resulting in a
latency that would still allow for competitive course navigation.
• The vehicle could potentially achieve enough zero-g low-friction time
to facilitate for multiple heats, as the amount of delta-v in a drone will
be generally not more than 30 seconds,, allowing for up to 2 minutes
of careful navigation, or once around a short course.
• The course vehicle and drones could fall back to earth and be
destroyed by the fall, as none would need to be recovered. Possibly
they could simply fall into the ocean or desert where recovery
attempts could be carried out to reduce pollution.

6. ORBITAL VEHICLES WOULD BE
CHALLENGING
• Orbital vehicles would be much more expensive, be more difficult to
operate from the ground, and still have limited drones/ heats on the
vehicle. A suborbital hop that could achieve 4 heats could host an
entire race day, consume 30% of the fuel (or less), solve the de-
orbiting risk, reduce space traffic control concerns, and guarantee
consistent latency for control.
• As small monopropellant drones would only have enough fuel for a
few short minutes of thrust (at best, realistic flight times could be
under 1 minute), it is likely the safest and most efficient option to
simply rely on small suborbital flights.
• Tiny drones could be designed for experimentation with FPV racing
inside of tourist hop vehicles, or inside of the ISS.