If you remember NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter in the early 1990's, you may recall that the spacecraft's high gain antenna failed to deploy upon reaching the faraway planet. Without the telemetry data, scientists would lose many of the benefits of this groundbreaking enterprise. That's where a scientist from Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Lab and his team stepped in.

Dr. Ramin Sadr and a group of researchers were tasked with the challenge of recovering the faint signals emanating from the Galileo space probe, sitting over a billion miles away from home. Using deep space communication techniques developed on the spot, Dr. Sadr rescued the valuable data and laid the foundation for a company that would develop highly specialized radio frequency identification techniques less than twenty years later.

Now the CEO of Los Angeles-based Mojix, Dr. Sadr oversees a technology company that has taken digital radio design principles originally developed for deep space communications and adapted them for commercial wireless communication. The company's latest invention allows the deployment of radio frequency identification across huge areas while maintaining high levels of accuracy and reliability, making passive RFID tags readable from as far away as a thousand feet.

Designed to provide the capabilities of active RFID for the price of a passive system, the Mojix STAR (Space Time Array Reader) 3000 System offers solutions for many different industries. From real-time tracking of retail goods at the item level, to keeping tabs on tools used in the assembly process in the aerospace industry, radio frequency identification means better inventory without a lot more effort.

And variably priced RFID tags matched to the asset class can be used, rather than "a one tag fits all system," said Mark Irvine, Senior Vice President of Global Sales.

Here are some examples of how this technology meets the needs of different industries.

Retail: As companies in the retail industry grapple with whether or not to pursue item-level RFID, the system from Mojix presents a compelling case, promising to enhance inventory visibility for customers and reduce product shrinkage for owners.

Oil and gas: Used to track assets both leaving from and returning to oil rigs, promising improved safety and regulatory compliance.

Manufacturing: Offers real-time track and trace, along with optimized workflow processes.

Perishable goods: As the food industry moves toward complete traceability from "farm to fork," RFID helps cut costs and maintain prices throughout the supply chain.

Mojix's contribution of a scalable radio frequency identification system promises significant advantages for both large and small companies across the globe.