Startup Istari Digital used AI to make Blue Origin’s moon dust battery
Artificial intelligence has created a device that converts moon dust into energy.
Lunar void announced by Blue Origin on Wednesday AmazonThe re:Invent 2025 conference in Las Vegas was built from the ground up using critical technology Istari Digital.
“So what it does is it absorbs the moon dust and extracts the heat so it can be used as an energy source, like turning the moon dust into a battery,” Istari CEO Will Roper told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan.
Spacecraft performing missions on the lunar surface are typically constrained by lunar night, a two-week period every 28 days during which the moon remains dark and temperatures experience extreme drops, crippling hardware and rendering it unusable unless a powerful, long-lasting power source is available.
“It’s kind of like vacuuming at home, but you create your own electricity while doing it,” he added.
Roper, who was deputy secretary of the Air Force during President Donald Trump’s first term and is known for transforming the procurement process in both the Air Force and the then-newly created Space Force, said the battery was designed entirely by artificial intelligence.
A big part of the progress in Istari’s technology is the way it handles and limits AI hallucinations.
Roper said the platform meets all the requirements a part needs and creates guardrails, or a “fence around the playing field,” that the AI can’t let go of as it develops designs.
“In this playing field, artificial intelligence can produce as it wishes,” he said.
“In the case of Blue Origin’s lunar battery, [it] “It doesn’t tell you that the design is good, but it tells us that all the requirements are met, the standards are met, there are things you need to check before you go into operation,” he added.
Istari is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and is already working with the US government, including as a prime contractor. LockheedMartin on an experimental x-56A unmanned aircraft.
Watch the full interview above and dive deeper into the stars’ work with the Manifest Space podcast.
