Rarefied Technologies

We're excited to announce that this week Rarefied Co-Founder Ben Schafer was honored as a 2025 Inflection Awardee in Paris! Inflection—organized by Marble, supported by Breakthrough Energy Fellows and the Quadrature Climate Foundation, and brought to life by judges, speakers, and STATION F—is a powerful reminder that real climate progress is rooted in science and driven by data. We're beyond proud of Ben and inspired by the incredible community of organizers, speakers, and fellow awardees dedicated to advancing meaningful solutions. Congratulations to all—you give us hope!

Grateful to have our story shared by New Mexico Inno! We're excited to be part of the growing SpaceValley Foundation, leveraging the incredible resources, innovation, and talent that New Mexico has to offer. Big thanks to Molly C. for taking the time to chat with us! https://lnkd.in/g9MMzkdY

A SEAS aerospace startup, Rarefied Technologies, will soon propel small devices that weigh less than rice grains into near space to gather climate data and create constellations of networked devices for telecommunications. They'll fly in a band of the atmosphere called the mesophere, 50-100 km above Earth. Rarefied launched this past fall after receiving support from the Harvard Grid Accelerator. The small-satellite technology also won an Ingenuity Award at the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge last year. “Some people call it ‘the ignorosphere,’ kind of glibly, just because there's really nothing that can fly in this region. It's too high for planes, and it’s too low for satellites,” says co-founder Benjamin Schafer, who recently completed his Ph.D. in applied physics. “Rarefied is building devices that can fly in a part of the atmosphere that nothing else can reach.” Rarefied's co-founder is Angela Feldhaus, a Ph.D. candidate in applied mathematics. https://bit.ly/40jj803

The mesosphere, the region between the upper and lower atmospheres, is an unexplored layer of Earth's atmosphere. It is too high for planes, weather balloons, and gliders and too low for satellites. Rarefied Technologies, a #HarvardStartup spun out of Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has developed technology that can access this area for the first time to unlock crucial climate data and the potential for new networked communication systems. Co-founders and Harvard PhD graduates Ben Schafer and Angela J Feldhaus are transforming visionary research into real-world solutions. Rarefield aims to collect data to better understand climate change, improve weather forecasting, and broaden the scope of global communication networks, all through lightweight solar-powered devices. The #HarvardGridAccelerator supported the research project to advance toward startup formation. We are excited to see how Rarefied will shape the future of aerospace technology and discover critical data for a better understanding of climate dynamics. https://lnkd.in/dDt8qPBJ #HarvardGrid, #TranslationalResearch, #ClimateTech, #UniversityStartup

We are thrilled to share that our CEO and Co-Founder, Ben Schafer, has been named to the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list! This recognition reflects Ben’s dedication to pioneering sustainable aerospace solutions. Congratulations, Ben! https://lnkd.in/gGbVtdSz

?? We’re thrilled to welcome Josué F. Martínez Hardigree as Lead Scientist at Rarefied Technologies! Josué brings deep expertise in materials science, microfabrication, and reliability engineering that perfectly aligns with our mission to bring sunlight-driven propulsion to near-space. ?? With a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Josue has built an impressive career spanning academia and industry. He comes to Rarefied from Exponent, where he managed high-stakes scientific consulting projects in materials science, product reliability, and large scale machine learning data collection for global tech companies. In his role at Rarefied, Josué will apply his experience in manufacturing scale-up and reliability testing to developing low-cost, microstructured platforms for missions in the upper atmosphere (30-100 km). A special thank you to Breakthrough Energy whose support has helped make it possible for us to bring Josué onto the team. With his leadership and expertise, Rarefied is primed to push the boundaries of sustainable, high-altitude solutions for climate monitoring, atmospheric sensing, and telecommunications. Welcome aboard, Josué! ??

We have more news to share! TechCrunch named us one of the top?Deep Tech #StartupBattlefield companies ??. We’ll be one of 200 startups exhibiting at #TechCrunchDisrupt2024. https://lnkd.in/gHfZcUex We’re so proud and excited to receive this recognition! We look forward to #Technology #Startups and #VentureCapitalists celebrating with us Oct 28-30 in San Francisco!?Join us and get 25% off?with this link ???https://bit.ly/4g43wVk

?? We’ve Changed Our Name! We are thrilled to share that MicroAvionics is now Rarefied Technologies! ?? New name, same mission—pushing the limits of atmospheric sensing and sustainable flight. Our new name better represents the rarefied gas dynamics which are critical to our high-altitude, sustainable flight mechanism. Along with the name change, we’ve updated our logo and launched a new website, check it out here: rarefied.tech

The NMLEEP team is excited to announce that Ben Schafer, co-founder of MicroAvionics, Inc. and a member of our Cohort 3, is taking up residence at New Mexico’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) facility this week!?CINT is a leading research hub for microelectronics, clean energy, quantum science, and more. Ben looks forward to using this opportunity to further develop MicroAvionics, Inc.’s levitating platforms for various near-space applications. These devices create thrust when exposed to sunlight, allowing them to hover in the upper atmosphere without fuel or batteries. CINT will be invaluable in testing and evaluating their product. If you want to learn more, visit nmleep.com or contact the team at [email protected] today! #CINT #Innovation #SpaceTechnology #LANL #Science

On Day 1 of #HarvardClimateActionWeek, Harvard Grid featured four extraordinary scientist-entrepreneurs who are enhancing our planet’s ability to thrive. Paul Hayre, Executive Director of Harvard Grid, spoke with them to showcase their groundbreaking work that is lighting the way for a more sustainable future: Ben Schafer, Applied Physics PhD ’24, captivated the audience with his research on the photophoretic effect, which he is using to develop self-levitating mesospheric devices for communications, sensing, and other applications. ? Alex Berkowitz, Master’s in Landscape Architecture ’23, shared her personal story of resilience after Hurricane Sandy devastated her community. She has since patented and is developing wave mitigation devices that not only protect shorelines but also generate electricity. Alex recently signed a LOI (Letter of Intent) with a town on Cape Cod to combat seashore erosion. ? Corey Pedersen, PhD candidate in Environmental Science & Engineering, discussed his innovative work on designing and characterizing stratospheric organic aerosols to reflect partial sunlight back into space, aiming to mitigate the effects of global warming. ? Maxwell Leef, a second-year MBA candidate, lower down in the earth’s troposphere, entertained the audience with his discussion on cows! (more broadly: sustainable agriculture). His solution involves creating virtual fences to track and induce behavior modifications in grazing livestock, currently being piloted in Australia, which help sustainably manage land and food supplies. ? The Grid selected these four entrepreneurs as exemplars of how Harvard science and engineering contributes to environmental preservation, human sustainability, and planetary stewardship. Alex, Ben, Max, and Corey are driving positive change, helping sustain a habitable planet, and inspiring optimism for the future. ? #HarvardClimateActionWeek?#SustainableInnovation #ClimateAction #FutureLeaders #HarvardGrid #VenturingatHarvard?