MiraCosta College student and professional off-road racer Brandon Walsh was looking for a way to best livestream the Baja 500 when he decided to craft a life-changing invention: a secure vehicle roof mount to keep a portable Starlink satellite dish from being tossed into rocks and boulders along the excessively rugged course.
“The idea was to make them for my off-road buddies so they could show people what we do, but then the RV’ers got hold of me and said, ‘Hey, can you make these for RVs, too?’” said Walsh. “Then the long-haul truckers started calling and asking if I could make them for their trucks, and so on.”
Business is booming. Sales of the mounts range from the basic $379 model to a ‘Full Live Streaming Kit for Starlink’ that’s listed for $3,995. In excess of 500 mounts were sold via Walsh’s Star-Mount Systems website within a matter of weeks, and two separate agencies in Florida flew Walsh to that state after widespread power outages and spotty internet access in the wake of Hurricane Ian. With Walsh’s Star-Mount platforms, combined with Starlink internet access, rescue workers in SUVs no longer had to worry about WiFi interruptions while embarking on search missions.
The attention has left Walsh a bit gobsmacked. “It’s a little unreal,” said the 36-year-old lifelong Encinitas resident. He credits his MiraCosta College instructors for helping him live the dream, which arrives after returning to school 18 years from when the San Dieguito High School graduate first enrolled. With a lifelong attraction to rockets, Walsh began taking classes again at the Oceanside Campus this past summer intent on earning an engineering degree – all while competing as a professional Baja race truck driver with Homemade Motorsports. His goal: working for SpaceX or NASA.
“I’ve always been into space,” Walsh said. “When I was a kid, I’d watch Apollo 13 over and over again and was determined to go to the moon. When the Mars Exploration Rovers came out, I was hooked. I tried to build my own Rover and called NASA and the JPL for help.” The success of SpaceX has rekindled his determination, but it looks, for now, that his focus is being diverted to another SpaceX initiative – Starlink.
He remains indebted for lessons from his MiraCosta College instructors, who taught him the nuances of using spreadsheets and how to build a website – skills that are critical in building the Star-Mount business.
“I may have to reevaluate my plans for next semester, though,” he said. “This thing is starting to take off.”