After nearly three years in the Washington-Stail Mode, the Seattle-based Startup Cuppa Space emerged on 21 February, announced a plan to display the metasurface antenna technique for space-based radars. The company aims to solve one of the most elusive challenges in the defense sector: continuous tracking of the goals moving from the classroom.
The Kapta Space, which was established earlier by Milton Perk, East of Ecodine, and Adam Bily, an alumnus of Apple and Astranis, in seed funding to support his space-based electronic electronic radar technology. Acquired million. The investment round was led by Metavc Partners, focusing on a firm Metamaterials technology and supported by Bill Gates, with additional participation from Entrada Ventures and Blue Collective.
New approach to space-based radar
Kapta Metasurface is adopting Technology-Currently used in electronically phased antennas in the wireless communication industry-for article-based imaging and tracking applications.
Metasurface technology is a way of controlling and shaping electromagnetic waves using specially designed ultra-skinny materials, making the antenna smaller and lighter for applications such as radar and wireless communication.
Kapta wants to produce a low cost and more energy-skilled option for traditional active electronically steering arrays (AESAS). The company is being used to track its metasurface arrays used in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for geophysical imaging as well as military applications such as ground-based goals.
“This is not a science project,” Perke, CEO of Kappa, told Spacecraft“It is a high-intensity level technology produced in thousands and is supported by hundreds of crores of private investment.”
Perk brings deep expertise from its time in Ecodine, which specializes in metamatorial electronically scanned array radar systems.
Defense is the major market
Cuppa’s main focus is on the military market. In 2023, the company obtained approximately $ 1.8 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to electronically develop a steare antenna for spaceborn radar. Kapta has also received the necessary security approval to execute the classified defense contracts.
Perk stated that the company aims to address the long cheating of the Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI)-the ability to track the slow-moving ground goals. “GMTI is incredibly challenging, and it never exists in space on a scale,” Perk said.
Decades ago, Darpa tried to develop a planetarium of radar satellites for moving-target detection and high-resolution imaging. However, these efforts were eventually abandoned due to high cost and technical barriers, including large, high-power antennas and real-time data transmission requirement. As a result, the Department of Defense transferred GMTI capabilities to air platforms. Recently, the National Receive Office and the US Air Force have collaborated on the Space-based GMTI initiative that take advantage of Spacex’s starshield satellite technology.
The KAPTA sees the ability of a significant unused defense market for space-based radars beyond GMTI, including piracy awareness, space-based ballistic missile defense and applications in space domain awareness.
Space -purpose route
The immediate goal of Kappa is to bring its technology into space as soon as possible. The Darpa SBIR project will serve as a fundamental step towards creating one-meter-class antenna for air and space-based performances. To pursue its development, the company is actively demanding additional private and military investment.
“We are reaching fighter orders and trying to understand whether there are some priorities or significant ability gaps we can serve,” Perk explained.
He said that to validate the ability to maintain the custody of moving goals, Kappa planned an in-orbit performance associated with at least two, possibly three, satellites. These satellites will not only track moving items, but will also move trekking detention among themselves – something that is difficult to get with current systems.
Perke started the Kapta in his basement in 2022. “I was able to hold some meetings with some Darpa program managers, and we started talking about space -status awareness, and an electronically what the metasurface antenna and radar could do,” he said. This inspired the SBIR contract and safety approval to move forward, which was necessary to understand the moving-toked tracking requirements.
While Perk assumes that Kappa faces a steep climb in the defense market as a startup, he is optimistic: “We are very energetic because we have a solution that can meet the innumerable mission sets Is, “He said. “Understand an important focus for us and then making something that someone wants.”
