Fleet Space 2023: A Journey of Exponential Growth

At Fleet Space, we build space-enabled technology to solve global challenges and empower humanity’s exploration of new worlds (including our own). The innovation we’ve unlocked at the intersection of space technology and mineral exploration stems from the passionate dedication of our team working on some of the most difficult problems humanity faces on Earth and beyond. As we look up to reflect on our progress in 2023, Fleet’s exponential growth, innovation, collaboration, and global impact marks a monumental stride forward for our mission as we continue our journey to the stars.

“Our exponential growth in 2023 is representative of humanity’s collective search for solutions to some of our most pressing global challenges,” said Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-founder of Fleet Space Technologies. “Building a more sustainable path to accelerating global mineral exploration is imperative for achieving the renewable energy transition. Exosphere by Fleet®, the world’s first satellite-enabled mineral exploration technology, has demonstrated a scalable and more sustainable method to address the critical mineral shortage and help humanity make progress towards our net-zero targets.”

Early in the year, Fleet Space completed a heavily oversubscribed A$50M Series C funding round and doubled its valuation to A$350 million following the successful scaling of our Exosphere technology. From there, we expanded the company’s global footprint to the US, Canada, Chile, and Luxembourg and grew our team to 100+ employees from around the world. This enabled us to pursue an ambitious innovation agenda to push the boundaries of exploration - ultimately leading to Fleet Space Technologies being named “Australia’s Fastest Growing Company” in 2023 by the Australian Financial Review.

‍Innovation on Earth -  and Beyond

This year we continued to innovate on our Exosphere platform, releasing several new features designed to enhance data-driven exploration efforts worldwide. Exploration customers are now able to download a variety of new data intelligence assets on-demand from the Exosphere platform that deliver greater insight into ambient noise conditions, data quality, and confidence levels across different parts of their 3D model. These new features - the Sensitivity Model, Data Processing Report, and Source Data Pack - represent our commitment to delivering high-value data intelligence to customers to accelerate responsible mineral exploration globally.

Exosphere is rapidly becoming an essential part of the exploration industry’s toolkit. Over 35 exploration companies have used the technology to complete 250+ surveys on a variety of commodity types across 5 continents, including Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, and Core Lithium. In recognition of Fleet Space’s trailblazing contributions to mining innovation, our CEO, Flavia Tata Nardini, was named to Austmine’s Board of Directors. Austmine is the leading association for Australia’s mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector, representing over 700 companies advancing the frontiers of innovation in the global mining industry.

In 2026, Fleet Space’s lunar seismic technology, SPIDER, will land on the Moon’s surface aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Leveraging the latest advances in Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT), SPIDER is a multi-component seismic station designed to deliver insight about the Moon’s subsurface and search for water ice deposits. Having SPIDER sent to the Moon alongside payloads from NASA and the European Space Agency as the first Australian seismic technology to be used on the lunar regolith is a major step forward for Australia’s 7 Sisters mission and the global space exploration industry.

“Our groundbreaking lunar seismic technology, SPIDER, is pushing the boundaries of lunar exploration by demonstrating a scalable and responsible route to unlocking critical insights for sustaining humanity on other worlds,” said Matt Pearson, Chief Exploration Officer and Co-founder of Fleet Space Technologies. “We’re honored to contribute our seismic technology to help advance fundamental research that will enable permanent infrastructure to be built on the Moon, and eventually, Mars in alignment with NASA’s Artemis program.”

SPIDER was developed as a result of an A$4M grant from the Australian Space Agency for its Moon to Mars: Demonstrator Program to build a geophysical device that can enable a better understanding of the Moon’s subsurface. The device built for the Moon is a variant of Fleet Space’s mineral exploration technology, Exosphere, which leverages seismic sensors, called Geodes, powered by Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) and Fleet’s constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to deliver 3D models of the Earth’s subsurface in days. Fleet is also making waves in the defence sector, signing a contract to deliver enhanced satellite-enabled tactical communications, data transmission, and connectivity for the Australian Defence Space Command.

A Global Mission

Fleet Space’s growth this year is a testament to the passionate group of industry leaders and domain experts that have joined our company from around the world. This year we welcomed several new leaders to Fleet Space including our Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Matteo Genna, Chief People Officer, Isa Notermans, and Director of Exploration Strategy, Imelda Alexopoulos, among many others. We’re proud to have over 37 different nationalities represented on our team - the diverse viewpoints and global perspective we bring to our work has truly skyrocketed us to new heights.

The innovation we need to accelerate critical mineral discovery using advanced technology must persist with future generations. At Fleet Space, we believe that building a brighter future for humanity begins by introducing students to the joys of STEM education. This year, we were proud to launch our ‘Land Your Design on the Moon’ competition to give students the opportunity to have their artwork 3D printed on our SPIDER device heading to the Moon in 2026. We were incredibly honored to announce the winner, Vatsal Jigneshkumar Thakkar, recently and couldn’t be more proud to feature his design on SPIDER for our future lunar mission.

Every year is a bold new adventure into the unknown. For us at Fleet Space, every day is an opportunity to build a path where no one has gone before to help build a brighter future for humanity. Looking ahead to the New Year, we wish you another exciting adventure full of twists and turns and triumphs - in the meantime, we’ll see you on the frontier, above and below us.

We build technologies for explorers of worlds. We are Fleet. We are Explorers.