BSV Podcast 0170: Rarefied Technologies

Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Ben Schafer, Co-Founder & CEO of Rarefied Technologies, to discuss photophoretic flight in the mesosphere. Rarefied is developing ultralight structures that absorb light and convert it into heat, creating thrust through interactions with gas molecules in the rarefied upper atmosphere. The company is targeting the largely inaccessible 50–100 kilometer altitude range for applications including atmospheric sensing, space weather data, communications, and defense.00:00 – Introduction and Rarefied Technologies overview01:30 – Photophoretic propulsion and the physics behind light-driven flight03:00 – Founder background, Harvard research, and the company’s spinout05:31 – Customers, data-as-a-service, and potential commercialization models06:54 – R&D milestones, technical risks, and the path to a field demonstration10:16 – MEMS steering, phased arrays, and laser-based station keeping13:36 – Propulsion context, planetary applications, and payload limitations17:04 – Common misconceptions and the 50–100 kilometer mesosphere operating range20:55 – Materials science, communications infrastructure, and vehicle stability24:08 – Strategic significance for sensing, communications, and defense applications27:32 – Space weather as the beachhead market and likely early customers29:44 – Balloon and rocket deployment pathways, including NASA programs31:35 – Founder lessons, customer discovery, and identifying the right market34:02 – Space weather risk, telecommunications potential, vehicle lifetime, and payload scaling43:03 – Laser communications, Arctic applications, infrastructure requirements, and closing takeaways This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit balerionspace.substack.com