Galen Matson Connect

Systems architect · Engineer · Independent researcher

Infrastructure,
from Earth
to everywhere.

I’m Galen Matson. I build power, computing, and network systems, and explore what it would take to build an interplanetary economy.

Explore my workThe big space idea ↗
FROM THE RESEARCH DESKMOMENTUM EXCHANGE
3D study of a momentum bank with two stacked flywheel rings, an independent central service frame, solar arrays, and projecting capture arms.
A different way to move through space.Earlier machine study · The current reel and capture design is evolving.
Electricity. Compute. Space.

The common thread is infrastructure: systems that make other things possible.

Solar architectureCyberplex ↗Deployable powerModular Energy Products ↗Latest research · October 2026Momentum Exchange Banks ↗

01 / Momentum Exchange Banks

A research proposal

A port that
throws spaceships.

What if a ship could borrow the machinery for its next maneuver?

A Momentum Exchange Bank, or MEB, is a proposed orbital port. Tethers transfer force between the bank and passing spacecraft. Large flywheels store rotational energy. Arriving traffic can return useful energy and momentum to the system.

The machinery stays in space to serve the next ship. The goal is reusable transport infrastructure for an industrial solar system.

Capture: a tetherhead meets an incoming spacecraft Conceptual diagram of a momentum bank, a connecting tether, and a passing spacecraft. Not to scale. MOMENTUM BANKTETHERSPACECRAFT

01 / Capture

Meet the ship.

A maneuvering tetherhead matches the approaching ship and attaches to reinforced tow points. A controlled pull changes the ship’s trajectory.

Conceptual sequence. The current model studies the pull after attachment; docking and release hardware still need a coupled simulation.

p = mv

Momentum has a direction.

The bank recoils when it changes a ship’s velocity. Traffic, propulsion, or other external forces must balance that impulse over time.

L = Iω

Rotation needs balancing.

The current design uses two counterrotating flywheels, independent reels, and a service structure that carries utilities and propulsion.

E = ½Iω²

Energy has a cost.

Flywheels store energy; power plants replenish it. Conversion losses and waste heat stay in the engineering budget.

On the research desk / October 2, 2026

Current design analysis

Two reels.
A short leader.
A better connection.

The big idea is becoming a collection of machines we can study.

The latest design uses two independently driven annular reels, wound in opposite directions, and two main load ribbons. Near the ship, a small pilot carries a 300-meter leader to make the first connection. Dampers settle the capture head before the structural attachments take the main load.

That separates a delicate docking problem from a very large machinery problem.

Read the current design update ↗
10,000 tonsPayload in the reference encounter
~23°Modeled turn in its velocity vector
~405 secondsFrom the attached start to release

The faster case begins at 1 km/s relative to the bank and a 1,000 km encounter radius. Its 398 m/s vector change is mostly a turn; speed decreases by about 1 m/s. This is a local encounter study, not a solved interplanetary route. A ton means 1,000 kg.

02 / The Momentum Exchange Network

One bank moves a ship.
A network opens
a solar system.

Ports connect places. Infrastructure lets them become an economy.

A Momentum Exchange Network would coordinate banks near useful destinations. Ships could travel between ports while energy, momentum, and cargo move through the larger system.

Bulk freight can favor economy. Passengers may favor speed. The interesting question is what becomes possible when every ship can share the transport machinery.

A conceptual network of momentum exchange portsEarth–Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, and the outer solar system linked by illustrative transport connections. Positions and paths are schematic, not orbital trajectories. EARTH–MOON MARS THE BELT OUTER SYSTEM
CONCEPTUAL TRANSPORT CONNECTIONSNot to scale · Not calculated trajectories

A gateway into the network.

Banks in the Earth–Moon region could connect local industry with interplanetary routes. Getting people and materials off Earth remains a separate part of the transport system.

03 / Get a feel for the scale

An illustrative calculation

Big ideas.
Real bookkeeping.

Change the ship’s mass and velocity gain. Watch how the energy requirement and bank recoil respond.

1,000 tons20,000 tons
1 km/s20 km/s

Energy gained by the ship

500 TJ½ × mass × velocity²

Bank recoil

1 m/s

Payload-energy recharge

17.4 hours

Double the velocity gain, and this payload energy becomes four times as large.

The assumptions behind these numbers

This example starts the ship at rest in the bank’s initial inertial frame. A ton means 1,000 kg. Bank mass is fixed at 100 million tons, with no external impulse during the short exchange. Recoil magnitude is ship momentum divided by bank mass.

Recharge assumes 10 GW of generation and 80% efficiency into useful stored energy. It covers the payload’s kinetic energy only. Bank recoil energy, tether motion, heat, additional conversion losses, and restoring the bank’s orbit require separate budgets. This is an idealized energy and impulse calculation, not a mission or travel-time simulation.

Keep going

The machinery.
The physics. The possibilities.

Start with the October 2026 design update for the current annular reels and local capture work. The original white paper develops the broader MEB concept and network; it records an earlier design direction.

Read the original paper PDF · 7.5 MB

Explore the full MEB research page ↗

04 / Selected work through Archittec

Energy & architecture

The building is
part of the system.

Cyberplex / Solar architecture

Homes, workspaces, aviation facilities, and computing infrastructure designed around large solar roofs. My role begins with the concept and the initial SketchUp model, bringing power, structure, and the spaces people use into the same conversation.

Professional visualization artists made these commissioned renderings for Cyberplex. They show design concepts, not completed facilities.

CyberCenter concept with a broad sloping solar roof above glass-fronted workspaces and street-level vehicle charging.
01 / 06

Concepts and initial SketchUp models: Galen Matson · Professional renderings commissioned for Cyberplex.

CyberDatacenter / Infrastructure inside the structure

A related concept study brings computing space, solar generation, cooling, and maintenance access into the same architectural model. Its headline specifications include a 730 kW solar roof and approximately 58 MW of IT capacity. The roof supplies a fraction of that demand; the broader off-grid campus concept includes additional generation and storage.

Explore the original CyberDatacenter models
CyberDatacenter concept model with a steep solar roof, concrete A-frame structure, and rows of cooling equipment alongside.
Solar, structure, and services designed together.Cyberplex · Original design rendering
Concept cutaway showing two computing floors below an office level, with cooling equipment and access platforms outside.
Inside: two computing floors, with offices above.Concept model · Not construction documentation

Client work / Modular Energy Products

Engineering & web

Useful power.
Where the work is.

PowerBox brings battery storage to the job.

My work with Modular Energy Products connects energy-system engineering with a clear public presentation of the product. PowerBox brings storage, power distribution, and deployment equipment together in a movable steel cabinet.

The original prototype has worked at sites in Texas and North Dakota. That field experience is informing the next demonstrator, with a planned 27 kWh of storage using two Powerwall 3 batteries.

Explore Modular Energy Products ↗
Original PowerBox battery system in its steel jobsite cabinet.
A system built to move.Original working prototype · Modular Energy Products
PowerBox deployed beside a construction-site camera tower.
Power at the point of use.Camera-tower deployment · Field equipment

Photos show the original prototype. The 27 kWh configuration describes the next demonstrator in development. Project information and media are also presented on MEP’s public website.

05 / A little about me

I think in systems.
Then I build them.

My background is in the infrastructure that people depend on when conditions are difficult.

I’ve spent more than twenty years working across critical data centers, power, computing, and communications. That includes infrastructure in austere environments, resilient energy systems, and the practical work of making different technologies operate together.

As cofounder and chief engineer of Archittec, I also work on astronomical data and ways to make space understandable. The question that connects these projects is simple: what can we build that makes more things possible?

01

Resilient infrastructure

Power distribution, high-density computing, networks, and facilities designed around continuity, efficiency, and real operating constraints.

02

Spacegate

An astronomical database and AI-assisted research platform bringing together observations, scientific literature, and tools for understanding our stellar neighborhood.

03

Coolstars

An interactive 3D star map: a way to move through astronomical data and turn a catalog of objects into places worth exploring.

Have a useful question?

Let’s compare notes.

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