Mithril Technologies, Inc.
New mesh reflector technology for a new era of earth observation and space awareness
• Our Team •
Scarlett Koller
CEO
Scarlett Koller earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at MIT in 2016, then began her career at SpaceX as a certification engineer on Crew Dragon. She later left for NASA JPL to work as a systems testbed engineer on the Perseverance Rover program. Following its successful landing on Mars, she returned to MIT as a Leaders for Global Operations Fellow, earning a Master's in Aerospace Engineering and an MBA from MIT Sloan, as well as the new Aerospace Innovation Certificate. She & Zack formed Mithril Technologies in 2023 to bring innovative reflector technologies out of the lab and into real-world applications.
Prof. Zack Cordero
Science Lead
Professor Zack Cordero earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science at MIT in 2015, after a year spent in materials science at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, during which he developed critical tools for powder-bed metal additive manufacturing techniques, he joined Rice's Materials Science department as assistant professor. In 2020, he returned to MIT to run the Aerospace Materials & Structures Lab. His research has focused on developing the reflector technology that Mithril is now bringing out of the research lab and into orbit.
• Our Concept •
Using Bend-Forming to make Microwave RF sensing in GEO possible
For decades, NASA has been trying to develop microwave radiometry instruments for geosynchronous orbits, to achieve global coverage of atmospheric sounding for weather predictions. But passive deployable reflectors cannot be made sufficiently large for atmospheric sounding without degrading the surface precision of the mesh. Mithril Technologies employs a unique electrostatic actuation technique developed in the MIT Aerospace Materials & Structures lab, permitting active control of the mesh deflection to form a focusable, steerable dished reflector. This breaks the current tradeoff between antenna diameter (which drives gain) and surface precision, permitting an increase in the size of deployables and an accompanying broader range of capabilities.
With Mithril Technologies, we have the potential to dramatically improve weather sensing capabilities from space, with 24-hour coverage and 0.1-1Hz refresh rates showing the internal structure of storms and other weather systems. The ability to focus, steer and shape the beam also has valuable applications in satellite communications for TV broadcasting and cislunar & deep-space relays, as well in agile scanning of other orbits for space domain awareness.
