Starpath Robotics is pleased to announce it has signed a new development agreement with Atomic-6 to continue joint work on a deployable composite boom for Starpath’s vertical deployable solar array system. The program builds on the success of Atomic-6’s earlier contract with Starpath, announced in November 2024, which initiated full-scale boom development for the company’s Lunar solar infrastructure.
Under the new agreement, Atomic-6 will complete a requirements, design, and hardware maturation campaign for the Atomic-6 Collapsible Tubular Mast (CTM), the Space Mast™ boom, and deployer. This deployer will pack into a tightly-constrained container for delivery to the surface of the Moon, and will extend vertically out of the container, elevating Starpath’s high‑power solar blankets above the shadows cast by the mountains of the Lunar South Pole. The vertical solar array (VSAT) will supply all the necessary power for Starpath’s commodity production system functions, including water extraction, the creation of breathable oxygen, propellant generation, thermal management for Lunar night survival, and charging Starpath’s Shadow Voyager rover.
“Starpath Robotics demonstrated an ambitious vision by challenging the industry with a request for a >100ft Space Mast™ boom. Atomic-6 was equally ambitious in its commitment to deliver. We were determined to push our core CTM technology further than ever before," said Trevor Smith, CEO of Atomic-6. “This partnership resulted in one of the largest unclassified deployable space masts in the world. We are proud of this record-setting achievement and look forward to integrating the mast into a flight package that helps turn Starpath's vision of industrializing space into a reality."
Starpath's CEO, Saurav Shroff, discussed the impact this agreement has on the company's long-term plans: “Starpath exists to build the industrial backbone that lets humans live across the solar system, not just visit it. The mast we’re building with Atomic-6 is part of that backbone: it enables power distribution to our Lunar systems, which are key to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon and provide valuable insight on how to engineer humanity's next steps, up to and including the first city on Mars."
The scope of the agreement includes a system requirements review, concept and preliminary design reviews, and the manufacture and acceptance testing of a prototype CTM deployer to extend upon Atomic-6’s Space Mast™ boom technology, and the foundational development under the previously-executed agreement. This hardware will inform Starpath’s technical work on packaging and deploying a Lunar commodity production system in pursuit of the capability to create power, water, gas mixes, and propellant on the Lunar surface to enable an enduring American presence on the Moon.
About Starpath
Starpath Robotics designs and builds equipment to increase human presence in outer space, including its Starlight solar cell line, its Shadow Voyager exploration & mining rover, and commodity production systems.
About Atomic-6
Atomic-6 is an advanced composites company that designs, engineers, and manufactures high‑performance structures for space, defense, and energy systems, including its Space Armor™ tile and Light Wing™ solar array product lines.
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