Scepter

Problem

Traditional monitoring systems, relying on isolated sensors or delayed reporting, are inadequate to detect or locate atmospheric and surface anomalies relevant for security and safety monitoring rapidly or comprehensively. Without timely, multi-scale observation, leaks go unmitigated, resources remain undiscovered, clandestine facilities remain undetected, and hazardous releases can spread too far before action is taken.

Mission

Scepter is on a mission to revolutionize anomaly detection via a global, real-time, multi-sensor Earth and atmospheric intelligence platform. By fusing data from satellites, aircraft, stratospheric platforms, drones, and ground-based sensors, we give governments, industry, and civil society the tools they need to detect and respond to methane leaks, detect rare-earth mineral deposits and underground infrastructure, and locate CBRN incidents—quickly, precisely, and at scale.

Solution

Sensor and Data Flexibility

Scepter’s proprietary ScepterAir platform ingests and fuses data from an expansive network of Earth-observation and atmospheric sensors—from satellites, aircraft, stratospheric balloons, UAVs, and ground stations. This multi-tiered, multi-scale data fusion allows bespoke anomaly detection workflows—from wide-area methane plume tracking, pinpointing clandestine excavation, monitoring chemical releases and locating strategic minerals

Comprehensive Coverage

By integrating both public and private satellite data with newly deployed sensing systems (including High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites and future Low Earth Orbit constellations), Scepter creates a layered surveillance fabric. This architecture delivers near real-time detection and tracking of anomalies across geographic and vertical scales, revealing sites or events that would otherwise remain hidden.

Actionable Insights

Once data is collected, ScepterAir fuses, normalizes, and analyzes multi-scale and multi-modal inputs using advanced machine-learning and visualization tools. The result: timely anomaly alerts, plume trajectory maps, anomaly source attribution, and contextual risk assessments. Whether the target is a methane venting event, mineral-rich subsurface extraction locations, clandestine tunnel excavations, or the dispersal of a chemical cloud, Scepter provides operators and decision-makers with actionable intelligence—instantly.

Environmental, Mineral, and Security Stewardship

Beyond emissions tracking, Scepter’s anomaly detection suite supports mineral exploration and national security. Methane plume detection enables targeted mitigation. Rare-earth detection helps map extraction sites and monitor environmental impacts. Underground structure detection enhances border security by identifying tunnel construction or underground manufacturing. And rapid CBRN release detection allows for immediate warning, tracking, and response planning. Scepter enables proactive stewardship—of both the earth’s resources and its safety.

Cost, Compliance, and Risk Mitigation

By detecting anomalies early—before emissions become widespread or clandestine operations escalate—Scepter helps organizations avoid regulatory fines, environmental clean-up costs, and reputational damage. With high-resolution anomaly detection and tracking, Scepter supports compliance with environmental regulations, mineral extraction monitoring, and national security protocols—while minimizing false alarms and network management burdens. Early detection means faster fixes and smarter stewardship.

Technology

Scepter offers an unparalleled approach to atmospheric intelligence by integrating multi-platform, multi-sensor data across scales into one centralized, comprehensive high-resolution visualization of atmospheric pollutants - climate gasses and criteria pollutants - in the dynamic vertical air column.

ScepterAir

The ScepterAir data fusion engine rapidly ingests, processes, and analyzes anomaly-relevant atmospheric and Earth-observation inputs. By combining satellite images, airborne surveys, stratospheric balloon imagery, drone/UAV monitoring, and terrestrial sensor data—along with meteorological and geospatial contextual data—ScepterAir generates high-resolution anomaly maps and alerts in minutes or hours, not days. It is architected on Amazon Web Services to ensure scalability, flexibility, and security.

Satellite Constellation

While ScepterAir already ingests geostationary and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite data, Scepter is deploying its own high-resolution LEO constellation optimized for anomaly detection: simultaneously monitoring climate gases, mineral signatures, and hazardous releases. This constellation enhances temporal and spatial detection capabilities—providing near real-time detection and precise tracking of methane, rare-earth extraction sites, clandestine tunnels, and CBRN events.

High altitude satellite and aircraft data.

Aircraft and High-Altitude Platforms

Aircraft-based surveys carrying specialized sensors to overfly, map, and track anomalies, providing targeted, localized anomaly detection. In conjunction with Aircraft, Scepter's capabilities can deploy stratospheric balloons/High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPs) to monitor regions continuously and with high repeat frequency—ideal for detecting methane plume evolution, mineral dust transport, or underground disturbances.

Gathering data from droves, UAVs, and terrestrial sensors.

Third-Party Drones, UAVs, and Terrestrial Sensors

As a key part of the anomaly detection ecosystem, ScepterAir ingests data from customer-provided and public UAV/drones and ground sensor networks. This includes local methane sensors, ground-penetrating radar data, geological surveys, and IoT networks. The fusion of these data sources enables high-confidence anomaly detection, classification, and source attribution—even when anomalies originate underground, underwater, or in dense infrastructure zones.

Team

Philip Father

Chief Executive Officer

Philip is an entrepreneur, engineer and business leader with a proven track record across satellite technology, renewable energy, and infrastructure spaces. He co-founded ProtoStar Ltd, provider of satellite direct-to-TV operations in Asia and started his career as a satellite structures and composite materials engineer for Hughes Space & Communications and the Naval Research Laboratory. Philip holds an MBA from Stanford and a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Gary Start

Satellite & Payload Sensor Architecture

Gary is an engineering leader with 33 years of experience in satellite systems technology spanning design to operations. He has held key managerial and technical positions with satellite companies including British Aerospace, Loral, MDA SSL, and ProtoStar, Ltd. Gary holds an MS in Engineering Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, a graduate diploma from the Open University, and a BS in electrical engineering from Hatfield Polytechnic.
Sophie Grinevald

Finance & Planning

Sophie Grinevald is a finance executive with over 15 years of experience in project finance and international business development for infrastructure. She has served as a senior finance executive for public and investor-owned utilities, renewable energy infrastructure development companies, and ProtoStar Limited. She has BS and MS degrees in Finance from the University of La Sorbonne, Paris and an MBA from San Francisco State University.
Peter Rosti

Software & Big Data Architecture

Peter is a software engineer, architect, and scientific data engineer with a focus on scientific data collection and 'big data' networks. He has architected and engineered software for Raytheon, Cal Tech, and Vertum Partners. Peter has a MS in Ocean Engineering from the University of Hawaii and a BS in Marine Biology from the University of California, San Diego.