Startup Monday. Week 27.08–03.09
As always, Asgardia is interested in researching and promoting startups and also more established companies that could help further the goal of establishing habitable platforms in low-Earth orbit. Today, we’re taking a look at four companies that are making waves in the aerospace industry.
Start up company Optisys recently won first place at the IEEE IMS (International Microwave Symposium) in the Industry Paper Competition for the X-band Integrated Printed Antenna Measurement. They specialize in the use of metal 3D printing, designing and manufacturing highly integrated antenna structures that achieve the lightest weight and smallest volume physically possible by designing to the additive manufacturing process. Asgardia recognizes that 3D printing and manufacturing will be an important part of our future and is watching companies like Optisys with great interest as they create a revolutionary process of designing antennas for military and commercial applications.
Also in the realm of antennas, Orbital Systems LLC is a company that designs and manufactures antenna positioners and front end systems. Orbital Systems’ value proposition lies in its ability to meet the high performance, accuracy, and high reliability needs of demanding tracking applications such as Earth Observation Satellites (EOS) Direct Broadcast (DB), Telemetry and Control (TT&C), UAV/RPV tracking, RADAR, Search & Rescue (SARSAT), and general Satellite uplink and downlink applications.
Anyone in the industry knows that downtime and maintenance due to system failures is very costly. Orbital Systems set out to develop ground station products that have excellent Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and low Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). Their ground station products are designed to need very little preventative maintenance over the course of their lifecycle, with no maintenance in the first 10 years.
Orbit Logic is a company that Asgardia has been watching for some time now. The company programs software for mission planning, scheduling, and space situational awareness. Now in its growth stage, Orbit Logic is celebrating its 5th year being awarded a spot on the Inc. 5000 list, with a rating of #3864. Orbit Logic supports analysis and operations for aerial/satellite imaging and space/ground networking. Their operationally proven software products create better plans faster with fewer resources, more insight, and less risk. The software is highly configurable for desktop, web, mobile, and onboard and supports analysis and operations for domains including aerial/satellite imaging and space/ground networking. Perhaps Asgardiai will be able to make use of their services in the future.
A company that has been around for a while is Pumpkin Inc., and one of their business units, Pumpkin Space Systems, is of great interest with their focus on nanosatellite buses and the software that runs them. They’re a company that creates products used in a wide range of high-tech industries and have become a worldwide leader in the nanosatellite market. They have enabled dozens of successful space missions by providing nanosatellite components and complete CubeSats to government, commercial, and educational organizations. They’ve been opening new doors in the space industry by being strong, light, modular, scalable, customizable, and affordable. This is another company that Asgardia will be watching for possible future collaborations.
Where will technology and business innovation take us next?
