Opinion
Mendler: Comms customers need more reliability than a SpaceX architecture offers
“They are, they're monetizing bits and the customers that are buying their bits are the ones that need more reliability and flexibility than maybe like SpaceX driven architecture.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Northwood achieves space-grade performance using standard cellular components
“We've been able to like actually make space grade performance out of Standard high volume cellular components.”
Opinion
Mendler: In-space compute and IoT are not today's commercial reality
“Like now there's enthusiasm around compute use cases and there's enthusiasm about IOT and other future industries moving to space. But the reality is that that's not space today.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Operators cannot reliably control dynamically maneuvering spacecraft
“All of those use cases where spacecraft are moving dynamically around in new ways in the space environment. They basically just don't have a solution for how to connect and control that spacecraft.”
Insight
Mendler: Modular ground systems can match large parabolic dishes' performance
“If we want to accomplish serving the Stanford dish while serving a lot of other things, we probably would build something that's more modular. They could add up in the sum of its parts to the kind of performance that's required for that operation. But in the m…”
Opinion
Mendler: Current ground infrastructure lacks capacity for future space missions
“Today the state of that ground infrastructure is really lacking in the capacity and volume that it can support for the future of space missions”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Government customers treat ground systems as an afterthought
“For, you know, a government customer segment they tend to procure their spacecraft and their ground systems separately. So space systems were the major focus for a long time. And ground segment was kind of just the afterthought.”
Opinion
Mendler: Ground station licensing is easy because countries want space business
“Fortunately for us, the licensing has been relatively easy to work with in the different regions that we focused on, because most countries are open for business, you know. Like, they want to have more space business.”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood relies on SpaceX-style site proliferation, not perimeter hardening
“We're taking a bit more of the SpaceX approach where they tend towards proliferation. So we have a bunch of sites and we have that diversity of sites so that we can make sure if any one of those sites goes down, you know, not necessarily for some kind of malic…”
Insight
Mendler: Sending data is the primary way to monetize space
“You need to, ah, send data. That is like how you monetize space.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Space networking infrastructure hasn't been updated since the 1990s
“With space today, you have like much lower throughput. You generally have challenging reliability requirements. And so like people tend to solve for that in really expensive ways, like creating a ton of diversity of sites and redundancy, which becomes extremel…”
Opinion
Mendler: Space investors won't just bankroll 10-year visions anymore
“Like I think with investors in space today, and I think it's really the right thing. It's not just about bankrolling a vision that takes 10 years to materialize.”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood only brings production in-house when timelines become a bottleneck
“We only bring in house what actually turns into a pain point on timeline.”
Insight
Mendler: Founders just one step ahead make the best problem-predicting mentors
“I think like it's helpful to have founders that are kind of a step ahead of you so that you can kind of understand what are the problems that are gonna be around the corner.”
Opinion
Mendler: Tech overemphasizes Elon Musk's style over Steve Jobs' craft obsession
“I do think you know, Steve Jobs isn't the name that's mentioned as much anymore. Well, maybe that's an understatement. But I think, like, there's a lot of emphasis on, on the Elon mode, which I think is true, but also I think, like, the things that I really re…”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood aims to be an index for the space industry
“We want to basically like be an index for space where whatever use case winds up panning out for space, we're able to support it.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Northwood HQ designed to produce hundreds of antennas
“And it's designed to support hundreds of antennas in production. So a lot more antennas going to a lot more parts of the world and supporting a lot more space traffic.”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood designs small-form-factor antennas for easy global shipping
“So we actually think about how we manufacture and deploy those antennas not incorporates all the way back to the original design principles of what we build. How can we make things that fit in small form factors and that can, you know, go out and be shipped to…”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood co-locates ground stations at data centers for infrastructure
“We tend to co-locate with, you know, optimizing for places that already have those things readily available. So data centers, for example, that's a spot that's really great for a co-location because they already have That infrastructure in place. And they also…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Traditional ground networking requires operators to plan 18 months ahead
“So all of that translates to a lot more networking on the ground, which today is super expensive, and it is also really long to deliver. And so both, like, the cost and the time horizon that they need to address that against, think about, like, You know, 18 mo…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mendler: Extraterrestrial life will statistically eventually collide with humanity
“I mean, statistically, I kind of have, like, the boring answer, but just, like, statistically, yes, I feel like there is other life out there and it's just, you know, a matter of probabilities that will eventually Collide with us in some form.”
Disclosure
Mendler: Northwood will run mission ops from a repurposed movie theater
“We're gonna be, you know, running mission ops out of what used to be a movie theater”
Bridgit Mendler