Former Disney Channel star and singer Brigitte Mendler took to the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to detail how her startup, Northwood Space, is investing in a forgotten part of the space industry: ground infrastructure. Explained.
Ground stations are important communication points for satellites to communicate with Earth. Northwood aims to mass produce ground stations, as the number and capacity of ground stations is a pressing bottleneck in the space industry.
“To actually realize the benefits for the world's people, we need to invest in less attractive problems, such as building terrestrial networks,” Mendler said. “Personally, I think it's very sexy and fun. When most people think of the space industry, it's very different. I think they think of rockets and satellites, but We don't think about infrastructure.”
Mendler said he has spoken to many space startup founders who have raised the issue with the idea after the first mission, and they have wondered when ground station startups will be founded.
The idea behind Northwood Space is to build a data highway between the universes to accelerate the mass adoption of satellite technology. Space companies need connectivity to operate, but ground infrastructure is essentially stuck in the past, so Northwood is working to rapidly expand connectivity for space. Masu.
“I think there have been changes in technology that have been difficult to achieve until very recently,” Mendler said. “So, for us, that was something we were tracking with Northwood. Exponential growth requires exponential technology, so we have solutions that we want to build towards. We need some kind of breakthrough technology on the ground side to keep up with the growth of the space industry.”
Northwood aims to help companies reach performance levels that support the majority of space missions and bring networks at affordable prices.
Mendler said the startup aims to support collision mitigation and improve spacecraft awareness through improved connectivity. The startup is also being forced to help satellite carriers predict outages in advance.
Before adding space startup CEO to his resume, Mendler was primarily known for his hit show “Good Luck Charlie” and his music career. After retiring from acting, Mendler studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School.
Despite her many different jobs, Mendler said she always loved space and felt she should do something different.
“When I was a teenager, the things that I found most impactful and meaningful were things that went beyond television,” Medler said. “It was a great experience, but I had this troubling thought in the back of my mind that my influence might be felt elsewhere.I was actually filming a movie in Massachusetts, and I was at M.I.T. I went there because it was near the Media Lab, and I was just struck by how all these projects really focused on technology and humanity and meaningful progress for the world.”
Mendler then decided to pursue a master's degree and eventually fell in love with the space field.
Northwood hit the ground running earlier this year by raising about $6 million in funding from multiple investors, including Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Olds Capital.