Fueling the future of space travel with robots that mine resources on the moon

Jason Zang is the co-founder and lead robotics engineer at Starpath Robotics, a startup focused on building equipment to mine the ingredients for rocket fuel in space. With pre-seed venture funding led by Hummingbird Ventures and Valhalla Ventures, Starpath is striving to build the first end-to-end robotics platform for resource mining stations on the moon and Mars.?

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

How did you come up with Starpath?

While interning at SpaceX , my co-founder Saurav Shroff learned that the company does not have a team working on in situ resource utilization, specifically mining water on extraterrestrial bodies for rocket fuel. This, combined with my constraints as a Chinese national in the U.S. aerospace industry, led us to establish Starpath. Our goal is to simplify space logistics by using off-world resources, reducing dependence on Earth-based supplies, and aligning with our futuristic vision of space travel.

Why should regular people get excited about this?

Starpath’s in situ resource mining is a game changer in space exploration, reducing moon and Mars mission costs. Our lunar robots will develop supplies of water, oxygen, and hydrogen, vital for rocket fuel and human survival, enabling the first extraterrestrial settlements. This advancement isn’t just for astronauts; it represents a leap toward humans living in space, potentially altering how soon to make the dream of humanity among the stars a reality for everyone.

You cite SpaceX as an inspiration. What does its success mean for you?

Just like many other space startups, we rely on the success of [SpaceX’s] Starship. If successful, Starship would be an important piece of space infrastructure, a “step one” so that companies like us can do “steps one to 100.” If traditional rockets are like sedans, Starship is like a Boeing 747 — it will make getting to space significantly more affordable and reliable. We design our robots and devices according to SpaceX’s dimensions, because we need their payload capacity to get to the moon. We also hope that eventually, SpaceX will become our customer, benefiting from our in-space refueling technology.

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