Space Domain Awareness Beyond LEO — watching over the orbits no one else can see.
Confirmed by founderMithril is a deep tech startup developing adaptive radar systems for Space Domain Awareness (SDA) in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Geostationary Orbit (GEO), and beyond — the orbital regimes that host the world's most critical satellite infrastructure but are almost entirely unmonitored by existing systems. Founded in 2026 and currently pre-seed, Mithril is building a novel dual-layer architecture combining ground-based adaptive aperture radar units with eventual in-space monitoring payloads. At the core of Mithril's technology is patent-pending electrostatic actuation, developed at MIT's Aerospace Materials & Structures Lab, which physically reshapes reflector surfaces to enable dynamic beamforming and steering. This approach delivers 10× less power consumption than phased array radars and costs 5× less than large-dish installations, enabling persistent surveillance of the GPS belt, geostationary arc, and beyond — orbital regimes that underpin over $900B in annual global economic value.
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Scarlett Koller
founder
We don't have eyes on 90% of space. We break radar hardware tradeoffs for continuous, all-orbit space domain awareness - lowering costs for operators and detecting threats before they happen.
Radar for ground-space and space-space monitoring is constrained beyond >1000km ranges. Large-aperture dishes are incredibly expensive to build and have limited steering & shaping; phased array systems are far more flexible, but become almost as expensive & power-intensive when scaled up to achieve those ranges. We break this tradeoff that has kept our long-range radar tech at Cold War levels, by making large apertures reshapable and correctable. Our actuation tech, developed at MIT, permits phased-array-like adaptability with the MEO-to-GEO range of large-aperture systems - at 20% of the cost.
Initial lab prototypes (Mark I & II) successfully demonstrated electrostatic actuation at MIT; an NRO Director's Innovation Initiative (DII) proposal (+3 SBIR/STTR proposals) has been submitted; a first passive ground unit is under active construction; and the team has secured letters of support and development partners. Confirmed demand signals from U.S. Space Force (HQE for Space Domain Awareness), the National Space Intelligence Capabilities Office (ODNI), and Lloyd's-affiliated spacecraft insurers.
Spotify
Deployed: Where Physical AI Gets Real · Episode
We're hiring a senior RF engineer! Mithril is building next-generation space radar, and we're looking for a principal-level RF engineer to architect the systems behind it. You'll own RF/system architecture & development from early stages - including aperture shaping, modeling, link budgets & waveforms, and work closely with a small team & partner companies to integrate for ground-based and space-based systems.
Ideal candidates have:
Details:
Interested or know a good candidate? Ping us at [email protected].
