Rosotics is halting the commercialization of its giant metal 3D printers and relocating to Cape Canaveral, where it will manufacture its own orbital transfer vehicles to conquer the space!
The Atomic Layers: S6E14 (00161)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
Quite a title, right...? And that's not even half of the news, which might have seemed fairly secondary if it weren’t for the massive promise behind them.
You might recall that back in July last year, a sensational announcement shook the AM industry: an unknown startup, Rosotics, unveiled a giant metal 3D printer capable of producing parts up to 6 meters tall on the Z-axis.
The system, named Halo, was a derivative of DED technology. Its key innovation was a multi-phase electromagnetic process designed to replace traditional laser techniques. This process was executed by a printhead called Mjolnir (a nod to Thor’s hammer). Mjolnir could preheat, intricately fuse material at high feed rates, and sustain a prolonged thermal cycle to achieve a smooth “net-shape” finish.
Halo was priced at $950,000, with deliveries supposedly starting on August 26, 2024, in the U.S. and Europe.
The machine was also intended to build components for proprietary orbital transfer vehicles, as well as large-format parts for the aerospace and marine industries. In this last area, Rosotics had partnered with Siemens to develop the “Next Generation Super-Heavyweight Platform” for naval manufacturing.
So, in summary:
Rosotics developed a proprietary metal 3D printing process via deposition welding, but using a completely innovative method.
Based on this, they created a giant 3D printer capable of constructing multi-meter metallic structures.
They planned to use it to build their own space vehicles to create orbital infrastructure.
It was also meant to be commercially available for traditional heavy industry sectors.
Well, most of that is no longer happening...
Just before the weekend, Christian LaRosa reached out to me and shared a list of updates. We also had a video call yesterday to discuss them.
Here’s the breakdown:
Halo will no longer be offered commercially and will instead be used exclusively by Rosotics for the production of orbital transfer vehicles.
The company won’t just manufacture these vehicles but also aims to become an operator of a fully autonomous orbital infrastructure.
To achieve this, Rosotics is relocating its operations from Mesa, Arizona, to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The company will exit all industries outside of space, including marine and related sectors. From now on, it’s all about space exploration!
Co-founder and COO Austin Thurman has left the company. LaRosa assures that the departure was “positive on both sides and full of optimism for both of our journeys ahead.”
What’s interesting in all this?
Theoretically, the story of a groundbreaking, massive 3D printer would’ve been fascinating if it were still available for purchase. But now that it’s becoming a proprietary, closed technology for very niche, in-house applications, who really cares?
A company in the AM sector relocating from the Midwest to the East Coast? A co-founder parting ways? With all due respect, that’s standard business fare.
What sounds genuinely intriguing—and, at the moment, almost implausible—is Christian LaRosa’s goal. It boils down to this:
Rosotics will realign its team and manufacturing platforms, solely to the industrialization of space.
This plan, is focused on a point of gravitational stability near the Earth and the Moon, known as the L5 Lagrange point, originally advocated for by O’Neill in 1974 as an ideal location for heavyweight infrastructure.
Using a low-energy, lunarassisted flight profile the company has been architecting for five years, Rosotics plans to send multiple autonomous spacecraft around the moon in a complex maneuver before injecting them into orbit around L5, where they will benefit from the location’s gravitational stability.
These spacecraft, heavily mass-optimized for the profile by the use of a large 3D printed, unpressurized hull, will each deliver dozens of smaller vehicles to L5, used to facilitate the construction of a large orbital station by means of cold welding.
As detailed, this station is intended to serve as a propellant depot, though servicing missions over time will expand the range of capabilities into power generation and materials processing.
Yes. Rosotics plans to build a large orbital station. Ultimately, this infrastructure will function as a fuel depot and, over time, evolve into a hub for energy generation and materials processing. And Rosotics intends to manage it all.
Impressive, right?
So far, the company has raised just $2.6 million to reinvent the field of large-scale metal 3D printing. It has been backed by Tim Draper and scouted by both Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
For me personally, that’s a lot of money. I’m not sure if, after getting that kind of funding, I’d still feel motivated to send you daily newsletters!
But in the context of space exploration, it’s not much. I asked Christian several times about their plan to secure funding for this ambitious project, but the only response I received was that it wouldn’t require as much as one might think (I know the amount, but I’d prefer not to disclose it).
So, there’s a big question mark hanging over this extraordinary project. If LaRosa manages to secure funding—say, even half of what Relativity Space has raised—it’s possible that yesterday I spoke to one of the greatest visionaries of the 21st century.
And if not? Well…
Atomic Layer from the Past:
01-14-2000: Raindrop Geomagic announced the release of Geomagic Studio 2.0.
News & Gossip:
Tethon 3D partnered with CONCR3DE to advance 3D printed ceramics in the US. The collaboration combines Tethon 3D's material expertise with CONCR3DE's binder jetting technology to develop next-generation ceramic materials and hardware. Both companies will showcase their innovations, including Silicon Carbide and technical ceramics, at ICACC 2025.
LEHVOSS launched the LUVOPRINT brand, offering high-performance materials for fused granulate fabrication (FGF) 3D printing. The portfolio includes eco-friendly GFRP grades such as PC/ABS, PA6, PPS, and PESU, optimized for industrial applications. LEHVOSS provides material solutions, testing data, and support for serial production, with plans to expand the product line.
I think most of you have probably already seen our new work:
I have made some minor changes to the main menu and my archived article about the Three Laws of the AM Market has been added to the Articles section. For technical reasons I had to republish it. If anyone hasn't read it yet - I invite you to do so!
