Starpath accelerates moon water mining plans with $12M seed funding
Starpath Robotics wants to make the moon a refueling station for rockets, lunar landers and other spacecraft.
NASA and the space industry are in agreement: if we want to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, we’ll need to make use of every native resource we can — and none are as important as water ice.
Starpath Robotics is one of a handful of startups planning for this future. The startup is betting that there will be a thriving market for liquid oxygen (LOX) refined from lunar water ice, and that harvesting this resource will be key to humanity’s expansion throughout the solar system. LOX is a crucial component of propellant for some vehicles like rockets and spacecraft like lunar landers, and its used as the oxidizer alongside a combustible fuel such as hydrogen, kerosene, or methane.
The company came out of stealth last September with an ambitious water harvesting architecture, involving mining rovers, refineries and LOX storage systems. Starpath wants to launch a demo mission “as quickly as we possibly can,” CEO Saurav Shroff said in a recent interview. To ensure the hardware will be ready whenever a launch vehicle is available, the company announced today that it has closed a $12 million seed round, co-led by 8VC and Fusion Fund, with participation from Day One Ventures, Balerion Space, and Indicator Ventures. The new funding brings the total capital raised to date to over $14.5 million.
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