Fly Me To The Moon ?????
Instinct (YC W25) is building a GPS constellation around the moon. Everything on earth from smartphones to rockets relies on a network of GNSS satellites. In lunar space, however, rockets, satellites, rovers, and landers have no analog to GPS to determine their position during high-risk operations— and this has led to over $350 million in losses over the last 5 years. With more than 450 lunar missions slated over the next eight years, the lack of precise navigation in lunar space could cost Moon-bound companies billions. Instinct is miniaturizing GNSS satellite architecture to fit into a CubeSat format, massively decreasing manufacturing and launch costs from the current $250m per satellite to less than $5m. They plan to launch their first 4 satellites into lunar orbit by the end of next year, providing navigation coverage over the lunar south pole. The founders, Ashwin Iyer, Alex Pi?el Neparidze, Joe Papworth, and Joaquim R.O.P. Dickson, are graduates of Cambridge, Imperial, and UCL with previous experience in the NASA IMAP mission, ESA's solar orbiter and on CubeSat constellations at OpenCosmos. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/dZYEUi_K. Congrats to the team on the launch! ?? https://lnkd.in/dwJkki-t