One of the founders of Robinhood has a new ambitious vision: launching satellites into space to generate solar energy.
What’s happening:
- Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) co-founder Baiju Bhatt has launched a new space startup Aetherflux
The big idea:
- Aetherflux is focused on harnessing solar energy from space through using many small satellites in low Earth orbit
- The satellites capture energy from the sun and then transmit power through infrared lasers, which allows for high power output and low ground stations
Why it matters:
- Solar energy generated in space is a highly ambitious concept that if successful could change the future of energy distribution and allow difficult to reach places such as remote islands or areas affected by natural disasters to access power
Going deeper:
- Aetherflux is currently developing a demonstration spacecraft to be able to launch into low Earth orbit, which is being built by space manufacturing company Apex
The intrigue:
- There has been an acceleration of funding of late for highly ambitious space startups, with Varda Space previously raising a mega funding round for drug development in microgravity as well as Reddit (NASDAQ: RDDT) co-founder Alexis Ohanian backing natural resource startup Interlune to extract Helium-3 from lunar soil
