Muon Space Inc., a new satellite startup that counts Google LLC as an early customer, today announced that it has raised $10 million in seed funding from a group of investors led by Costanoa Ventures.

Mountain View, California-based Muon Space is looking to build satellites for studying climate change. The startup’s founding team includes former staffers from Google, Apple Inc. and NASA. Muon Space co-founder and Chief Scientist Dan McCleese spent more than 30 years at NASA, where he was the chief scientist of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Muon Space’s objective is to collect geophysical data that can be used to combat climate change. The startup plans to build a constellation of small satellites with scientific sensors capable of gathering measurements about atmospheric, oceanographic and land processes related to climate. Muon Space will not only develop satellites but also help customers operate them, as well as assist with the processing of the collected data.

The startup sees its technology playing an important role in the space sector. According to Muon Space, the large, expensive government-developed satellites that scientists commonly use to collect research data are difficult to scale up. Commercial satellites, by contrast, can cost significantly less and are therefore easier to deploy in large numbers. However, they often lack the ability to collect scientific-grade measurements.

The result is that organizations frequently have limited access to climate data collected in orbit.

“Now that we’re experiencing the disruptive impacts of climate change, organizations across the world are asking what specific actions we should take,” stated Muon Space co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jonny Dyer. “Muon Space delivers the information they need to answer those questions.”

Muon Space is offering an end-to-end service for collecting climate datasets. In the initial phase of a new satellite project, the startup works with the customer to map out technical requirements. From there, Muon Space deploys the necessary hardware and creates software pipelines for processing sensor data. The startup also plans to let customers expand the scope of their projects after the initial deployment process is complete by adding new system capabilities in space or on the ground as needed.

“Muon’s ‘mission as a service’ brings the power of small satellite constellations to industry players who have specific data needs but don’t have the space or infrastructure expertise in-house,” Costanoa Ventures Partner John Cowgill wrote in a blog post today. “Muon can design the missions, manufacture the satellites and deliver the data sets.” 

Muon Space has signed up at least two customers so far. One of them is Google, which is partnering with the startup on a yet-unspecified initiative.

The other customer, meteorological intelligence provider Tomorrow.io Inc., is collaborating with Muon Space to develop storm tracking satellites. The satellites will reportedly use radar to create maps of weather events and update them every hour with new data. The first two systems are set to launch in late 2022 and dozens more could be deployed if the initial test proves successful.

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