Mithril builds electrostatically actuated antennas that give space-based radar the adaptability of a phased array — at a fraction of the cost of either a phased array or a traditional deployable reflector. One reconfigurable aperture to monitor, scan, and open economic access to MEO, GEO, and cislunar space.
For forty years, every large-aperture RF system has been expensive for one reason or another — phased arrays because of the electronics needed for adaptability, deployable reflectors because of the precision mesh and mechanical deployment systems they require. Neither gives you an affordable sensor that can watch the orbits that matter most.
Fully adaptive — beam steering, reconfiguration, multi-mission capability. But they cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars and weigh thousands of kilograms at the apertures long-range radar requires.
Lighter than a phased array, but still expensive — precision mesh, motors, and deployment mechanisms drive up cost and risk. And once in orbit, they're rigid: one orbit regime, one beam geometry, no reconfiguration.
Phased-array-class adaptability, with no motors, gimbals, or deployment mechanisms to engineer around — which makes it cheaper to build than either alternative, not just competitive with one of them.
Detect and track objects and activity in orbits that go largely unwatched today, from resident space objects to emerging threats.
Reconfigure a single aperture across orbit regimes and mission profiles — the same hardware serves radar and communications, switched in software.
Bring the cost and mass of large-aperture sensing down far enough to make MEO, GEO, and cislunar space economically viable to operate in.
Selected, credentialed, and teamed with
The U.S. is fielding a next-generation missile defense architecture with a confirmed space-based sensing layer — and no commercial provider operates a radar asset in MEO today. At the same time, proliferating LEO constellations are straining ground infrastructure that was never designed to be reconfigurable.
Mithril's core technology was awarded a DARPA ERIS contract and selected for on-orbit qualification aboard the International Space Station, and the company is NATO DIANA credentialed — validating the technology at exactly the moment both the defense and commercial markets are in procurement mode.
Read about VERA, our ISS mission →
Whether you're a defense partner, investor, or future teammate — we'd like to hear from you.
