When NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on the surface of Mars in 2021, it created a trickle down effect that established the pathway for future Mars missions.
Those ripples flow directly through Muhammad Hunain, who credits Percy with igniting his passion to join the space industry. While Hunain initially wanted to be an astronaut, he shifted his goal to solve problems preventing more frequent deep-space missions.
Totally rad: After high school, Hunain joined NASA’s L’SPACE as a project manager on the Mars-rover program, where he saw how deep-space hardware was plagued by decades-old, expensive technology that was ill-equipped to withstand long-term radiation effects.
“That’s where I realized we’re stuck at a 1980s standard: still shielding spacecraft with aluminum, and rad-hardened electronics [were] too expensive to build at the scale this economy demands,” Hunain told Payload.
So, he did what all great founders do: he built a lab in his garage—complete with radiation sources, and Geiger counters—where he developed a new biomaterial composite more effective at radiation shielding than the industry standard.
That lab would form the blueprint for what would later become Melagen Labs. Hunain’s belief is that radiation is one of the major roadblocks keeping humanity from exploring the solar system in earnest, so he’s built Melagen to solve the problem from multiple angles.
Deep in the heart: The company’s biomaterial composite ships monthly to customers across the space industry, according to Hunain. Melagen has also set up a test facility in Texas to radiation-test payload prototypes before taking flight. The idea is to democratize access to radiation-testing facilities—helping startups to avoid long waits for spots at university facilities, and large capital expenditures.
But the challenges posed by radiation aren’t just technology-based. Hunain said the pool of radiation engineers is far too small to handle the wave of demand that’s coming. So, Melagen publishes free materials to educate engineers on the problem set, and Hunain has briefed elected officials on the importance of improving the nation’s rad-testing infrastructure.
“Radiation isn’t a niche—it’s infrastructure, and I say that everywhere I can,” Hunain said.
James Shin, K2 Space
“As I begin to understand how much [impact]…things like cellular telecommunications, imaging, climate [research]…have globally—once I started to understand that, I was like, ‘Okay, this is definitely the industry that I want to work in,’” Shin told Payload.
Robert Ihnatisin, Orbital Matter
As an expert in 3D printing for terrestrial applications, Robert Ihnatisin was surprised by how slow the in-orbit manufacturing industry was progressing. So, naturally, he started a company to solve the problem himself.
Patrick Miga, Advanced Space
In first grade, Patrick Miga saw a photo of Neptune (snapped by the Voyager 2 spacecraft).. Ever since then, his life has been directed toward space.
Dhruv Jain, Kayhan Space
When Dhruv Jain transferred to a new school, he joined the astronomy club on a whim. Soon, he was chasing meteor showers and tracking the transit of Venus—and now, more than a decade later, he’s built a career helping space companies track objects in orbit.
Dallas-based Balerion Space Ventures has surpassed its $200M target for its second fund, the firm announced Thursday. Fund II—which remains open—is more than five times the size of the firm’s debut fund, which came in at just under $40M.
Balerion had closed ~$90M as of May, according to Venture Capital Journal. Cofounder and General Partner Daniel Kleinmann chalked up the momentum since then to portfolio companies hitting milestones and raising up-rounds—which he said resonated with LPs.
The firm is also holding back capital for follow-on rounds. “These are really capital-intensive businesses,” Kleinmann told Payload. “Having the ability to reserve capital to continue supporting these businesses as they hit major technical, commercial, government milestones is really important to us.”
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