Ecoatoms: AI-Powered Space Manufacturing & Payloads

Susan Wise: Hi, and welcome to Stars Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research Sciences, brought to you by StarSciences.org, where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. I’m your host, Susan Wise, and I’m thrilled to have with us Dr. Solange Massa, Founder and CEO of Ecoatoms, a venture-backed enterprise and NASA partner specializing in advanced space manufacturing and research payloads. Dr. Solange, welcome.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Thank you so much, Susan. Thanks for having me.

Susan Wise: Let’s dive into what you do at Ecoatoms.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: As you said, we’re a payload company. Sometimes the word “payload” is something people don’t really understand. The “load” is the part that gets paid for — that’s a very old term — but it translated into rockets. People usually get super excited about everything involving combustion, the liftoff and all of that, but that’s not really the important part.

If you have the base of the rocket full of fuel and ready to go, then you have a second or third stage — and those parts are important because they carry a payload. That payload is what we manufacture. Those payloads have a specific function in space. The most well-known payloads are satellites — they make up the majority — but there are other types of payloads that carry biological experiments, chemical experiments, or manufacturing experiments, such as doing hundreds of coatings in space.

That’s exactly what our company does: that subcategory of chem-bio and in-space manufacturing.

Susan Wise: So the payload is basically the whole reason we’re going there.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Well, sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s space travel. There’s tourism, travel, and exploration.

Susan Wise: True.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: But there’s always a payload — whether small or large — and there’s always some real functionality to that flight.

Susan Wise: And it’s very valuable.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: It’s very valuable.

Susan Wise: Valuable cargo.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: You got it. At the same time, it can be expensive, depending on the payload. So yes, it’s the most valuable thing the rocket is transporting — besides human beings, of course.

Susan Wise: What are you doing right now? What’s going on with your company to help further the space industry?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: We’re a very new company, but we’ve already flown four payloads, which is quite a lot. This year we’re preparing for our Hermes mission, which is a DNA extraction payload. For example, today astronauts perform a lot of work in space, and those hours are precious and expensive. We create payloads that can perform automated DNA extraction — from bacteria or eventually human samples — so diagnoses can be done in an automated way.

We’re also developing the Anima mission, which is an onboard computer that performs edge computing and experiment integration. We’re hoping to fly that this year as well. So we’re working on several things, plus other private projects that I unfortunately can’t disclose. But those are the more public, NASA-driven missions we can talk about.

Susan Wise: That’s really exciting. It’s not just helping us in space — it’s helping us here on Earth too.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Exactly. That’s the dual purpose. It’s about creating hyper-automated systems that can address an Earth market, just as you said, and at the same time thinking about how we become explorers — and not just explorers, but settlers.

If we’re going to stay, we need much of the equipment we have here on Earth adapted for space — equipment that can survive launch and then function at its final destination.

Susan Wise: I know astronauts are performing experiments using your payloads. Are there AI-related advancements that represent the next generation of experiments?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: One hundred percent — you’re exactly right. We really need to give time back to astronauts so they can focus on more critical tasks than just checking on experiments. When we land on the Moon, there will still be many things humans must do.

Astronauts have very long days on the International Space Station. They’re constantly attending to experiments and maintaining the station. We need to give them time back — both for cost efficiency and effectiveness.

AI is going to be the layer across everything we do. We need to get used to that. The payload contains the physical experiment — atoms, chemistry, biology, whatever it may be — and it intersects with computing. In our case, Anima is the system I described. It connects through a GPU or CPU that can run machine learning models and AI so experiments can eventually run themselves, self-monitor, and give humans their time back.

Susan Wise: That makes us much more proficient in the long term.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Exactly.

Susan Wise: You mentioned you’re a new company, but I’m sure this has been your passion for a long time. Looking back, what’s been one of your “aha” moments?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: That’s a great question. An “aha” moment probably means small alignments with who you are as a person. For me, it hasn’t been one big macro “aha,” but many micro “ahas.”

Susan Wise: I like that — micro “ahas.”

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Right, because you’re constantly self-tuning — discovering who you are and what makes you happy. That can take years. I always loved space. I was drawing space shuttles as a little girl in Argentina, very far away from the space program. I never imagined I’d become a NASA contractor.

I’m extremely grateful to NASA and to this amazing country. We have our problems, sure, but I’m a big fan of the United States. I never thought this would happen for me.

These micro “aha” moments — small course corrections in your career, in who you marry, whether you have kids — they make everything worthwhile.

Susan Wise: No one’s ever answered that question that way. I love it.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Thank you.

Susan Wise: I’m sure your journey has included challenges. What’s been one big challenge for Ecoatoms, and how did you overcome it?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: It’s very difficult to create the future in the present.

I’m thinking about how we’ll have an Ecoatoms-run habitat on Mars — but we don’t even have all the vehicles to do that yet. Planning for the future using today’s resources requires working backward from that objective: Can humans become a thriving civilization on other planets?

How do we align that vision with what we have now?

We have a limited number of vehicles. What do we send up? Which technologies do we increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of? How do we prioritize payloads?

Developing a roadmap to the future with present-day constraints is one of the biggest challenges. For example, I want AI and edge computing in every payload, but current stations may not want fully autonomous experiments when humans are onboard. So marrying the future with the present creates interesting bottlenecks.

Susan Wise: We’ll find a balance. We still need the human element.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Absolutely.

Susan Wise: Do you have any advice for our listeners?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Go step by step. People tell me I’ve come a long way — from not even knowing the space industry existed in my life to where I am now. It’s been a huge change for me. I started by speaking a different language.

I would say: go step by step. Study what you love. Marry the right person. Take incremental steps toward your goals, and the road will become clearer.

Don’t look at larger-than-life figures and think you’ll never get there. That’s not the way. Set clear two-year goals. Keep learning. Put yourself in situations where you’re uncomfortable. If I wasn’t good at contracts, I placed myself where I had to learn contracts.

Every two years, choose discomfort. Over a decade or two, that compounds into massive growth.

Susan Wise: That’s excellent advice.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: If you don’t do that, you won’t build the confidence to reach the next level. Two-year milestones transform you — and move you closer to who you want to become.

Susan Wise: You’re far from where you started. What kind of support system do you have?

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Home is Nevada right now. For me, home has shifted. Home is: Are my loved ones around me? Am I with the people I want to be with? Am I doing what I want to do?

My husband and kids are my everything. That emotional stability allows me to handle the instability of a growing company.

The second layer of support is the team at Ecoatoms. We hire people with big brains and big hearts. You can’t have one without the other. We need to support each other professionally and emotionally. When we’re close to missions, nobody sleeps. It’s very hard work.

Then I have wonderful friends. Without these circles, the company wouldn’t be possible.

Susan Wise: Work-life balance is important.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: I wish I could say I have it. I don’t — not at this stage. When companies start, it’s very difficult. Maybe one day I’ll find that entrepreneur who says they had perfect balance in year two. I haven’t found that yet.

Right now, my passion is my family and my work. I used to be a professional singer. I love music. I just don’t have time at the moment. Maybe that passion project will return in the future.

Susan Wise: It’s good to have goals. It’s exciting to hear about Ecoatoms. We’ve set our sights on the Moon, on Mars, and beyond — and we need companies like yours to make it happen.

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story.

Solange Massa, MD, PhD: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

Susan Wise: Be sure to join us where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and subscribe. Until next time — keep looking up.