This has been my lifelong mission and why I founded Global Space Ventures and serve on the board of XPRIZE, the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board, and NATO’s Innovation Advisory Board.
For over two decades, as a founder and funder, I’ve collaborated with visionary leaders to shape the future of humanity and space, and to fast-track the development of advanced dual-use technologies.
My early investment in SpaceX was pivotal in this journey. SpaceX revolutionized space exploration with its reusable launch technology, dramatically reducing space access costs by a factor of 100. Its development of vast LEO satellite constellations has also unlocked global, low-latency broadband internet.
As an early investor, I’ve also partnered with innovators like Lynk redefining mobile connectivity with its satellite-to-phone technology, SparkCognition deploying global AI solutions, and Colossal Biosciences paving new paths in advanced gene editing under Prof. George Church’s leadership.
All these startups share a common promise: to create significant dual-use value, similar to what SpaceX has achieved.
Co-founding Escape Dynamics with Caltech scientist Dmitry Starson was another leap, turning the dream of beamed-energy propulsion into a groundbreaking reality. NASA recognized its potential by including it in their 2015 technology roadmap as a key goal for future space exploration. Meanwhile, high-power microwave systems are already transforming defense capabilities.
Escape Dynamics
Our work at Escape Dynamics garnered significant acclaim, including being featured on the cover of Aviation Week Magazine, ranking as Fast Company’s “#3 Most Innovative Space Company” behind SpaceX and Blue Origin, and being named as one of Scientific American’s “2015 Top 10 Most Innovative Space Technologies.”.
Escape Dynamics’ external propulsion launch system, developed in our Colorado lab, utilizes wireless energy transfer, with microwave energy beamed from a terrestrial array to a launch vehicle. The vehicle’s heat exchanger absorbs this energy, propelling it into orbit through a combustion-free, efficient thrust mechanism.
Our Colorado lab was the heart of these endeavors, providing an essential space for machining and indoor testing, and fueling our scientific progress.
Building on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s visionary ideas from 1924, our team pushed innovation in gyrotron technology and ceramic matrix composites to edge closer to realizing beamed-energy propulsion. Our team’s dedication not only honored a century-old vision but also paved the way for future breakthroughs in space and defense.