Australia’s Fleet Space Technologies has secured a substantial $100 million in Series D funding to significantly advance its satellite-based mineral exploration capabilities, with ambitious plans extending to lunar exploration. Teachers’ Venture Growth, an arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, spearheaded this investment round for the nine-year-old company.

This latest round boosts Fleet’s total venture funding to over $165 million, resulting in a company valuation of $525 million—more than double its valuation from the previous Series C round.

Fleet cofounder and chief exploration officer, Matt Pearson, highlighted that the funding will be instrumental in miniaturizing the ground sensors used in conjunction with their satellites for transmitting seismic data. Their current system, ExoSphere, is already lighter than competitors, creating 3D subsurface models in days instead of months. "But it’s still nine kilos," he stated. "So if you’re hiking through a swamp with one in each hand and two in a backpack — it’s heavy. What we want to do is lighten it up but keep or increase the sensitivity."

Lunar Ambitions: Fleet is actively developing a 600-gram sensor, Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration, and Research (SPIDER), for integration with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander mission in 2026. This mission aims to use SPIDER to record seismic waves, characterizing the moon’s subsurface and searching for water ice.

The Australian Space Agency previously provided Fleet with a AU$4 million grant to develop a geophysical device for subsurface analysis of the lunar South Pole. Pearson noted, "[T]he orthodox view in NASA is, if there’s any water ice in regolith, we don’t care if it’s below a meter down because we’ll never be able to access it. We believe if, if there’s anything worth finding, it’s going to be buried a bit deeper, and there will be techniques to get to it."

While SPIDER will be tethered during the mission, Fleet envisions a future network of lunar satellites for enhanced connectivity. They see this as a pivotal step toward establishing a lunar business, also developing a glove-compatible sensor for astronaut use, enhancing mobility and data acquisition speed, crucial considering limited astronaut time on early lunar missions.

Fleet plans to tackle similar challenges for Mars expeditions and anticipates initial government interest, alongside growing commercial demand as a lunar economy develops. Pearson stated, "If you want to know where the sweet spot is to set up base camp, Fleet wants to be the company that can tell you where to do that and work with you to make this the most efficient investment possible."

Terrestrial Applications: Over 50 exploration companies across five continents utilize Fleet’s ExoSphere service, including notable names like Rio Tinto, Barrick, Gold Fields, and Core Lithium. The miniaturization efforts benefit both lunar and terrestrial applications, as Pearson explains, "We’ve got customers that can only deploy by helicopter in Canada because it’s so densely wooded… A smaller device would reduce the burden on people hiking through mountains… and renting a helicopter… is seriously expensive."

Fleet presently operates two satellites and plans to launch three more in early 2025 using SpaceX.