Fleet Space, Australia’s leading space exploration company, has been awarded a Moon to Mars supply chain grant by the Australian Government to develop advanced gravity sensing technology. This initiative, part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability Improvement Program, aims to enhance in-situ resource exploration on the Moon and Mars by building critical technological capabilities for future space missions.
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander. Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace
Earth urgently needs next-generation, off-world exploration technologies to maximize the value of every mission to the Moon and Mars over the coming years. A vital part of optimizing the ROI of every un-manned or manned mission depends on miniaturized, rapidly deployable, and highly scalable exploration technologies that can rapidly gather high-quality subsurface data from the landing site to identify and build a viable base of operations.
Matt Pearson, Co-Founder and Chief Exploration Officer, Fleet Space
Gravity sensors, based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, are compact, high-precision devices that measure variations in gravitational acceleration. These subtle variations provide valuable insights into planetary surface compositions, enabling gravity field mapping to detect subsurface features such as water reservoirs, mineral deposits, caves, lava tubes, and fault lines. Identifying these geological structures is essential for reducing risks when selecting landing sites, navigating rovers, and planning infrastructure development.
A comparable approach has already been demonstrated on Earth. Fleet Space’s ExoSphere technology, in collaboration with MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, was used to deliver real-time 3D imaging of lava tubes in the Canary Islands.
Pearson added, “Leveraging Fleet Space’s terrestrial end-to-end mineral exploration platform, ExoSphere, as a blueprint - we have created a model for a hyper-scalable, off-world exploration system designed to operate at the planetary level. As we venture deeper into our solar system, the essential toolkit of exploration technologies must be integrated into a single system to streamline deployment, reduce costs, optimize mission planning, and enhance off-world decision making for the success and safety of all future explorers of new worlds.”
This advanced MEMS gravity sensor builds on Fleet Space’s previous innovation: a lunar variant of the smart seismic sensors that power ExoSphere’s real-time 3D imaging capabilities. These sensors are already used by leading mining companies such as Rio Tinto, Barrick, and Gold Fields. The next major milestone will be the deployment of Fleet Space’s miniaturized smart seismic station, SPIDER, on Firefly Aerospace’s second Blue Ghost mission in 2026. Delivered via the Blue Ghost lunar lander, SPIDER will help unlock new insights into the Moon’s subsurface composition.
The development of MEMS gravity sensors follows a similar trajectory, aiming to simplify and accelerate the collection of high-quality gravity data both on Earth and in space.
Building on the rapid adoption of ExoSphere across the global mining industry, Fleet Space recently closed a USD $100M Series D funding round, reaching a valuation of USD $525M. To further expand its proprietary low-Earth orbit (LEO) exploration satellite network, the company launched its most advanced Centauri 7 and Centauri 8 models aboard SpaceX’s Transporter 12 mission.