Ex Terra: The Journal of Space Commerce Tom Patton

Lonestar Data Holdings is a pioneering company that offers Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) from the Moon. On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Chris Stott, the Founder and CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings.

In February, Lonestar successfully demonstrated the concept of data storage and retrieval from the Moon as part of the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission. From the surface of the Moon, Lonestar's Independence payload successfully completed the first ever data center test in their proof-of-concept demonstration. This included the transmission of the Declaration of Independence from Earth to the Moon and the receipt back from the Moon of a copy of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, all while ensuring data storage on the Moon for the State of Florida.

Stott says that his market is terrestrial. Lonestar uses space to serve that market.

"This idea of where to keep your data, data has a passport. Especially if you're regulated data from a country or a company, it's finding the right location that offers you protection under data sovereignty laws, as well as access to your data in a safe and secure manner. For us, space was that solution."

Lonestar recently announced their second lunar data center mission, the Freedom Payload, scheduled to launch with Intuitive Machines on their IM-2 Lander.

Imagine getting critical supplies ... or frankly almost anything ... delivered to nearly any location from space. That is the vision of Inversion Space, a company creating autonomous re-entry vehicles to deliver cargo from space, making space a transportation layer for Earth.

"At Inversion, our goal is to be able to make it so that humanity can deliver cargo to anywhere on Earth in under an hour." Justin Fiaschetti, Inversion Space



On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Justin Fiaschetti, the CEO of Inversion Space.

The company currently has two capsules under development. Ray is designed for technology maturation, and Arc, which will be a fully autonomous global delivery system. The company was founded in 2021 and went through Y Combinator, securing funding from various partners.

"At Inversion, our goal is to be able to make it so that humanity can deliver cargo to anywhere on Earth in under an hour," Fiaschetti said. "Taking that transportation modality that happens on the ground right now, whether it be through boats or aircraft or rail, and adding a layer on top of that that's faster, has less infrastructure, and can allow for full global reach without any terrestrial infrastructure."

Inversion is creating nearly every component of the Ray and Arc capsules in house, with each being purpose-built for the system. The first test of Ray is planned for later this year.

https://www.inversionspace.com

The Radiation Team is a radiation reliability consulting provider specializing in delivering customized, cost-effective radiation solutions for mission-critical space systems. They focus on accurate analysis, speed, efficiency, and necessary and sufficient engineering to mitigate the impacts and risks of ionizing radiation throughout the development lifecycle of space systems.

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Reston, WA, The Radiation Team works with clients, often from mission inception, to determine what are the risks of radiation exposure to critical components, and then develop strategies to protect those components.

"The field is so broad, identifying what is the best approach to take for a customer or a mission is part of the challenge," Chertkow said.

Prior to founding The Radiation Team, Chertkow worked at both Blue Origin and SpaceX in lead roles in the radiation field.

Space Florida is the state's aerospace finance and development authority, dedicated to strengthening Florida's position as a global leader in aerospace research, investment, exploration, and commerce. As the state's premier aerospace entity, Space Florida is committed to attracting and expanding the next generation of space industry businesses.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Rob Long, president and CEO of Space Florida. He was named to the position last year following the retirement of Frank DiBello.



Rob has over 25 years of leadership experience in the aerospace industry. His expertise spans launch operations, logistics, and spaceport management. His strategic vision aims to position Florida as a global hub for aerospace commerce.



"We are definitely engaged from the start-up side, we do a lot with capital accelerator programs, we work with Florida Venture Forum and other similar organizations to male sure we're involved in some of those early aerospace companies. Small mid-cap companies to the largest Fortune 500 companies. We have the ability to deal with all of those," Long said.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Kevin Stadnyk, co-founder and CEO of Obruta Space Solutions.

Obruta Space Solutions is a Canadian company specializing in space robotics and technologies. Their mission revolves around enabling satellite servicing and addressing the challenges of space debris removal. The company does not build hardware for those tasks, but rather develops the software that will eventually allow such spacecraft to operate autonomously.

The company is developing a rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) system. With this "RPOD Kit", Obruta enables orbital service providers to perform services such as on-orbit refueling, life-extension, and debris removal—services which exponentially increase a space asset's value. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are currently conducting ROPD experiments in preparation for free-flying test in the future

"There will be humans in the loop for the initial and foreseeable future in some capacity," Stadnyk said. "Similar to self-driving cars, the end goal is reaching full autonomy, but we know that it's not realistic to start this whole technology by being fully autonomous. It's just won't be safe enough, it won't be reliable enough."

Kevin holds two degrees in aerospace engineering and a background focused on satellite attitude control, orbital mechanics, and space debris removal technologies.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Matt George and Josh Foerschler of Burns & McDonnell, a design/build company with expertise constructing facilities for the space industry.

Josh Foerschler is Business Development Lead for space-related facilities, and Matt George serves as a project manager for space-related facilities at Burns & McDonnell.

The company's portfolio includes a 125,000 sq.ft. facility for Intuitive Machines, which recently landed a spacecraft on the Moon. Incorporated into the design are advanced manufacturing and production spaces, 3D printing areas, machine shops, research and development laboratories, clean rooms, and large-scale spacecraft assembly areas. Unique to the facility are mission control rooms to track and manage lunar missions, and a propulsion test facility to assess lunar lander engine capabilities. The space also includes offices, meeting areas, conference rooms and other amenities for both Intuitive Machines and its partners/tenants.

"We built them basically an engine testing verification facility on Houston spaceport. They call it "The Flame Range" or "The Rocket Petting Zoo"," Foerschler said.