Hardware Podcasts

Stratospheric Mirrors from Aerosol Injections: Make Sunsets' Approach to Cooling Earth

Hardware to Save a Planet · 13 Mar 2025 · 57m · Episode 74

What this episode covers

Luke Iseman, founder of Make Sunsets, explains his company's approach to stratospheric aerosol injection by launching biodegradable balloons filled with sulfur dioxide to reflect sunlight and cool the planet. He details the hardware challenges of recovering payloads from the stratosphere, the unit economics of selling 'cooling credits' to individuals, and the ethical debates surrounding solar geoengineering. Iseman argues that immediate, scalable cooling is necessary alongside long-term decarbonization efforts, citing the low cost and high leverage of his current balloon-based MVP compared to academic proposals for aircraft fleets.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Make Sunsets, YC, Project Loon, NASA, Stop Oil
Also
Mount Pinatubo

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Catalyst · 26m

    The Carbon Copy: A rogue geoengineering startup sparks worry

    Time staff writer Alejandro de la Garza profiles Make Sunsets, a rogue startup founded by Luke Iseman and Andrew Song, which is attempting to implement solar geoengineering by launching weather balloons filled with sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Experts Dr. Kevin Surprise and Dr. Holly Buck criticize the company's unverified 'cooling credits' and warn that their uncoordinated, illegal launches risk delegitimizing the entire field of geoengineering while creating unpredictable environmental and geopolitical consequences. The episode highlights the tension between academic caution and the 'move fast and break things' mentality of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are pushing the technology from theoretical debate into uncontrolled real-world experiments.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    11 chapters

  • Catalyst · 43m

    Making sense of solar engineering

    Dan Visioni, a climate modeler at Cornell University, explains the technical mechanisms and governance challenges of solar geoengineering, specifically stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, and space mirrors. He argues that while these methods are significantly cheaper than Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), they carry unknown ecological risks and raise critical ethical questions about who controls the planet's temperature. Visioni suggests that solar geoengineering could serve as a temporary 'peak shaving' tool to buy time for emissions reductions and CDR scaling, provided robust international governance frameworks are established to prevent rogue deployment.

    Energy & climate techPolicy, trade & tariffs
    8 chapters

  • Catalyst · 37m

    Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering

    Yanai Yedvab, CEO and co-founder of Stardust Solutions, explains the company's proprietary solar radiation management (SRM) technology, which uses biodegradable amorphous silica and calcite particles instead of toxic sulfuric acid to cool the planet. Yedvab details the estimated cost of $100 million per million tons of particles and the 'clinical trial' approach to testing, emphasizing that deployment requires strict authorization from multiple governments to mitigate moral hazard and governance risks. The discussion covers the technical challenges of stratospheric injection, the potential for ozone layer depletion, and the ethical imperative of providing safe options alongside decarbonization efforts.

    Energy & climate techPolicy, trade & tariffs
    8 chapters

  • Just Gonna Send It · 54m

    Solange Massa (CEO/Founder, Ecoatoms)

    Solange Massa, CEO and founder of EcoAtoms, explains her unconventional journey from professional opera singer to medical researcher and space payload builder. She details how a PhD struggle with sensor coating led to a NASA grant, resulting in four successful microgravity missions and the development of redundant, twin-payload designs. Massa discusses the high costs of space access, the technical challenges of thermal management for lunar missions, and her strategy of bootstrapping while seeking strategic venture capital to scale operations.

    Starting a product companyFundraising & investors
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 38m

    ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher

    Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, explains how his company is building the world's largest direct air capture facility, the Orca plant in Iceland, which removes 4,000 tons of CO2 annually. He details the technology's modular design, using filter materials that capture CO2 and release it when heated, allowing for permanent underground storage in basaltic rock. Wurzbacher discusses the company's journey from selling CO2 to greenhouses and Coca-Cola to securing $650 million in Series 6 funding to scale operations. He argues that while emission reductions are critical, removing 10 billion tons of CO2 yearly by 2050 requires scalable technological solutions like Climeworks, which he compares to the rapid cost reduction seen in solar PV.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    9 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hardware to Save a Planet. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.