starsmithSPACE

Optically heatedmanufacturingin space.

We make high-temperature processes commercially viable in orbit and on the Moon.

Reach out Our vision
Reflector deployment in orbitA conceptual loop: a small payload with a stowed reflector coasts along its orbit above Earth, extends a boom, and unwinds the reflector from a spiral into a parabolic dish. The spacecraft turns toward the Sun and the dish focuses sunlight back onto the payload. It then turns dish-first and re-enters the atmosphere, the open reflector leading as a sail with the payload behind it. An artistic illustration, not a hardware design.
Concept study

Sunlight.
Concentrated.

Space offers abundant sunlight and microgravity. We are exploring how to bring them together for crystal growth.

  1. 01 / Collect

    Capture sunlight with a solar concentrator.

  2. 02 / Focus

    Deliver concentrated heat to a crystal-growth process.

  3. 03 / Return

    Bring the crystals back to Earth through re-entry.

Packed small.
Opened wide.

Our concentrator technology is based on research by the Morphing Space Structures Lab (MSSL) at Stanford University. The reflector wraps around its hub into a short cylinder for launch and unwinds into a parabolic dish in orbit.

Morphing Space Structures Lab

Areas we are exploring

Better materials.
New possibilities.

Optical & laser crystals

Materials for photonics, sensing and precision optical systems.

Advanced semiconductors

Crystal growth for future electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Our first focus is orbital manufacturing. Longer term, we see a path toward using concentrated sunlight on the Moon.

Roadmap

How do we reform in-space manufacturing?

2027 Q4

Cubesat demo

Our first flight puts a deployable solar concentrator, a secondary mirror and radiators on a cubesat. A small part of the furnace runs in the loop, with a first melt as the target. At the end of the mission, the deployable doubles as a drag device to test accelerated de-orbiting.

2028 Q2

Microsat demo 1

A larger microsat carries a bigger deployable concentrator on a boom. It demonstrates furnace processes in orbit, with the first tiny crystals as the target, and burns up on re-entry at the end of its mission.

2028 Q4

First collaboration with re-entry

The second microsat repeats the process at a larger scale and brings the whole ship home. It re-enters under its open reflector, lands by parachute and is recovered with the first crystals grown in orbit.

2029+

Production in orbit

We host high-temperature processes for partners whose materials are limited by convection, crucible contact or available power: we supply the platform and the thermal environment, they bring the process. Containerless, diffusion-limited growth targets wide-bandgap substrates such as AlN and bulk GaN, and laser and nonlinear crystals whose value depends on dopant uniformity.

2031+

The lunar surface

At the south pole, sunlight is near-continuous and the Sun circles the horizon at nearly constant elevation, so a vertical collector turning around a fixed central furnace needs just one slow tracking axis. This way we can grow silicon and produce aluminum from regolith, which we aim to make the most power-efficient model for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU).

Let’s build
what comes next.

We’re looking to connect with investors and technical partners.

Meet the team Reach out

Starsmith Space Inc.
San Francisco, California

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