Space organizations often work across a stack that runs from physics at the bottom to applications at the top. Position in that stack affects capital requirements, time to a first proof, and the engineering disciplines that shape a result. This map is a working research model that helps us locate the problems we intend to study.
Earth observation analytics · Communications and navigation · Science and lunar resource data
Ground segment · Space situational awareness · In-orbit logistics and power
Launch · Satellite buses · Landers, rovers, servicers
Power and thermal · Propulsion · Compute, sensors, materials
Plasma and propulsion physics · Orbital mechanics and control · Radiation, thermodynamics
Simulation · Digital twins · Physics models · AI
Mindpool Labs enters at L0 and the software band
A five-layer space-economy stack runs from science and theory to applications and data. Band color encodes capital requirements, which peak at Platforms, and a software column crosses all five layers.
In this model, capital requirements peak at the platform layer and decline on either side. The science layer and the horizontal software band can offer a tractable place for focused research without first owning a launch vehicle or test stand. That is where Mindpool Labs begins.
Two pillars
Under the umbrella of space we concentrate on two pillars.
Energy
Generation, by solar array or by fission. Transmission from space to Earth, from satellite to satellite, and from orbit to the lunar surface. Storage through the fourteen-day lunar nightAbout fourteen Earth days of unbroken darkness at most lunar sites, with surface temperatures near minus 170 degrees Celsius. Surviving it means storing enough energy and enough heat to last without sunlight.. The energy demands of electric propulsionThrusters that accelerate propellant using electricity. They use far less propellant than chemical engines and produce far less thrust, so they need a great deal of power and a great deal of time.. And thermal management, which can limit high-power systems before the available watts do.
Robotics
In-orbit servicingRepairing, refueling, inspecting or moving a satellite while it is still in orbit, instead of replacing it., assembly, and manufacturing. Surface robotics for regolithThe layer of broken rock and dust covering the Moon or Mars. Lunar regolith is sharp, abrasive and electrostatically clingy, which makes it hostile to bearings, seals and optics., resource extraction, and construction. Manipulation in unstructured scenesA working environment that was not arranged in advance and cannot be handled by a fixed script. A damaged satellite is unstructured; a factory jig is not.. TeleoperationDriving a robot from a distance. Across longer interplanetary distances, round-trip signal delay prevents continuous direct control, so local autonomy is often required between operator commands. under communication delay. And the swarms and factories that will produce and maintain the hardware.
The open problems
The table below is our working view of selected domains with unresolved technical questions. It is not exhaustive, and we will revise it as the field changes.
| Pillar | Domain | What remains open |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Space-to-Earth power beamingSending energy as a beam, by laser or microwave, rather than through a cable. It would let a satellite draw power from elsewhere instead of carrying an array large enough for its own peak demand. | Delivering useful power over hundreds of kilometers safely, under a regulatory framework that does not yet exist |
| Energy | Space-to-space power | Selling power to other satellites so that they carry smaller arrays |
| Energy | Lunar night survival | Power and heat storage through a fourteen-day night near minus 170 degrees Celsius |
| Energy | Fission in space | Compact reactors, shielding, heat rejectionGetting waste heat out of a vehicle. In space, a radiator panel emits that heat as radiation. Heat rejection can constrain high-power spacecraft before available electrical power does., and licensing |
| Energy | Thermal management | RadiatorsThe panel that sheds a spacecraft's waste heat by radiating it into space. Its size is one major factor in the vehicle's heat-rejection capacity. and heat rejection at high power, an underserved field |
| Energy | Co-designDesigning coupled subsystems together rather than one after another, so the trade between them is made deliberately instead of being absorbed by margin. tooling | Modern, open tooling that couples power, thermal, and orbit design |
| Robotics | In-orbit servicing | Autonomous rendezvous and captureApproaching another object in orbit and taking hold of it. The hard case is a target that was never designed to be caught. of non-cooperativeSaid of a target that offers no help in being captured: no docking fixture, no working transponder, often tumbling. Most debris and most failed satellites are in this class. objects; standard refueling interfaces |
| Robotics | Debris removal | Capturing tumbling bodies, and a business model for who pays |
| Robotics | Lunar surface robotics | Dust, regolith mechanics, navigation without GPS, and long communication delay |
| Robotics | Manipulation | Assembly, inspection, and repair in unstructured scenes without a scripted sequence |
| Robotics | Teleoperation | Shared autonomyA division of control in which the human sets the intent and the robot handles fast decisions locally. It is one approach to communication delay. across seconds of delay to the Moon and minutes to Mars |
| Software | Mission design and digital twinsA simulation of one specific physical vehicle, kept in step with that vehicle while it operates. It carries the as-built parameters and measured wear of that individual unit, fed by its telemetry, so it predicts what the real thing will do rather than what a design of its type would do. | An open co-design stack to replace aging or closed incumbents |
| Software | Physics surrogatesA fast stand-in for a slow physics solver, usually machine-learned from that solver's own output. Physics-informed means the approximation is held to known physical laws instead of only fitting the data. | Machine-learned models fast enough to replace thermal, plasma, and fluid solversThe code that computes the answer to a physics problem, such as a temperature field or a power flow. Distinct from the model, which describes the problem. inside a control loop |
| Software | Space situational awarenessTracking what is in orbit and predicting what is going to pass close to what. | Probabilistic screening across tens of thousands of tracked objects |
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Energy
Domain
What remains open
Robotics
Domain
What remains open
Robotics
Domain
What remains open
Robotics
Domain
What remains open
Robotics
Domain
What remains open
Robotics
Domain
What remains open
Software
Domain
What remains open
Software
Domain
What remains open
Software
Domain
What remains open
Where the pillars meet
One problem sits where energy, robotics, and software meet, and it is where we chose to begin. A servicing robot, a lunar rover, and a power-beaming satellite can each be limited by energy reserve or heat rejection before planned work is complete. Different teams, working with different tools, often design the plannerThe software that decides what a robot or spacecraft does next, and in what order. It is separate from the control loop, which carries out each action once it has been chosen. and the power and thermal subsystems separately, so fixed margins carry the coupling between them. Our first reference missionA bounded, published mission scenario used to test one research claim. It fixes the assumptions, initial conditions, limits, metrics and comparison method so that another team can run the same study. asks how much of that marginExtra capacity added to a design to cover what engineers cannot predict: a larger battery, a bigger radiator, or thicker insulation. Margin has a mass cost, which is often a limiting resource in space-system design. can be measured and allocated during planning without crossing the limits that protect the vehicle. Examine the initiative
Tools we build upon
We do not intend to replace the open tools that already serve this field well. BasiliskAn open-source simulation framework for spacecraft dynamics, attitude and orbital motion. models spacecraft dynamics. OpenMDAOAn open-source framework from NASA for optimizing designs whose parts interact, where changing one subsystem changes the others. connects design variables across disciplines. F Prime and cFS provide flight-software frameworks, while Space ROS supports robotics. Our work has a narrower role: carry power and thermal state into task planning through a common model contract and a reproducible benchmarkA fixed set of scenarios, metrics and baseline methods that anyone can run, so that results from different groups can be compared honestly..