From Earth to the Moon: Offworld CEO Talks Swarm Robotics & Touchless Mining Tech

Intro:
Welcome to Launch Pod, where we chat with innovators who are overcoming challenges, pushing boundaries, and collaborating to make space more accessible and sustainable for humanity—one launch at a time, one small step for man. Here’s your host, Susan Wise.

Susan Wise:
Hi, and welcome back to Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research. We are thrilled to have a very special guest with us today from Offworld—the CEO and Chief Architect, Jim Keravala. Welcome, Jim.

Jim Keravala:
Hi Susan, nice to see you.

Susan Wise:
It’s great to be in your world for a little while. We’d love to hear more about what’s going on at Offworld.

Jim Keravala:
Well, you know, the premise of Offworld was really born from our vision and passion for seeing humanity expand beyond Earth’s ecosystem into the solar system. I’ve always had trouble making a business work on the lunar surface or around the Moon—it’s a bit difficult when there aren’t too many customers. So, I decided to start by building a space program here on Earth—where there are, thankfully, a lot of aliens with bank accounts!

The industrialization of civilization typically starts with mining, followed by construction, manufacturing, and fabrication. So we focused our first autonomous robot fleets on the mining sector and pioneered a swarm robotic mining architecture—multiple species of robots built on a modular, common platform that can perform a wide variety of tasks. Think of them like swarms of large ants.

We’ve deployed pilot robotic programs here on Earth—in both underground and open-pit mines—and we’re using that experience to architect our lunar swarm robotic mining system.

Susan Wise:
So you’re going to be building our cities on the Moon, or Mars, or wherever we go?

Jim Keravala:
Yes, that’s exactly the plan—to take that intelligent robotic architecture and deploy hundreds, if not thousands, of these little “robo-puppies” to mine, construct, and manufacture on the Moon, on Mars, and eventually even in free space.

Susan Wise:
That’s so exciting—first of all, it saves lives. You’re taking humans out of dangerous environments. Plus, from a sustainability perspective, they reduce the carbon footprint. And these “robo-puppies” can work 24/7—something humans can’t do.

Jim Keravala:
As a system, yes. Each robot has a runtime of about six to eight hours per shift due to battery limitations. The power consumption is pretty intense—anywhere from two kilowatts steady-state to about five or six kilowatts peak, especially when they’re doing heavy work.

Given current battery energy densities, that gets us a solid shift of six to eight hours. We’ve developed battery swap robots in our architecture that can quickly replace depleted batteries, allowing the frontline robots to continue working with two or three shifts per day. Add in some downtime for maintenance or cleanup, and yes, the system can run continuously—24/7.

Susan Wise:
So you’re already doing this here on Earth. What kinds of things are you mining, or is the focus more on refining the process?

Jim Keravala:
Our focus is on high-value, critical metallic minerals—platinum, copper, nickel, and so on. What’s really exciting—and also challenging—is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of end-of-life mines here on Earth, especially underground mines.

These are mines where conventional mining has become too uneconomical, even though up to 30–40% of the ore may still be left underground as structural pillars. Once a mine is designated “end of life,” it can become a massive liability—sometimes billions of dollars—for cleanup and compliance with permitting requirements.

Mining companies are desperate for ways to reactivate those mines to avoid these liabilities. That’s where Offworld can come in. With our autonomous robots, we can safely harvest that remaining ore without sending a single person underground.

It’s a logical and exciting step toward lunar and asteroid mining—and it’s already a game-changer for terrestrial mining.

Susan Wise:
Jim, what has been your biggest challenge—and how did you overcome it?

Jim Keravala:
Honestly, the biggest challenge is narrowing it down to just one!

We’ve been lucky to have excellent partnerships with top-tier mining companies. They were intrigued by what we were doing, and we managed to generate ten times more revenue than we raised in investment. So we bootstrapped the company quite effectively.

That said, the mining industry moves slowly and is highly cyclical. Commodity prices fluctuate, and with them, the appetite for innovation. As a small company, navigating those cycles—while maintaining operations and progressing programs—has been difficult.

We hit a big roadblock during one of those downturns, which was tough for the team, but also a powerful opportunity to learn and refine. I’m a pathological optimist—so even when things fall apart, I’m immediately looking at how to turn rubble into lessons.

That period helped us refine not just the architecture, which remains solid, but our entry point—how we connect with the industry and get customers to pay for ongoing services, not just development.

Susan Wise:
Did you have an “aha” moment where everything clicked—where you thought, “Yes, this is it”?

Jim Keravala:
Yes—actually, there were a few of those.

In a previous company, we built a lander that could reach the lunar surface, but didn’t have enough propellant to return. So, we were forced to figure out how to make our own propellant on the Moon in order to come back.

That experience taught me the importance of full autonomy and a complete end-to-end architecture. In any business, a broken link in the chain makes sustainability difficult. That led to the idea of modularizing the architecture and deploying multiple suites of robots.

Another big “aha” came during our tooling development. We advanced technologies using microwave and electric pulse beam energy to break rock. Geology fact: crystalline rock is about ten times stronger in compression than it is in tension. So if you can get inside and pull it apart instead of crushing it—you use about 10 times less energy.

Using beamed energy to target grain boundary bonds—via microwave or electric pulses—lets us break rock without touching it. We call this “touchless mining.” It could reduce mining costs by an order of magnitude.

Susan Wise:
Wow.

Jim Keravala:
And the third “aha” was realizing that if we could process and refine metals right there in the mine—separating the valuable ions from the waste—we could grow metal ingots on-site with processing robots. Think of it as “treasure bots” emerging from the mine with pure metal.

Currently, mines haul out millions of tons of ore that’s often less than 1% metal—and we’re crushing all of it. Crushing alone uses 3–4% of the world’s energy. If we could just extract hundreds or thousands of kilograms of purified metal directly at the source, it would be a game-changer.

We’re talking about transforming 10,000 years of mining practice—all through engineering, imagination, and the intelligent manifestation of machines. And I believe it’s all coming together in the next five to ten years.

Susan Wise:
Before we wrap up, do you have one piece of advice you’d like to share with our listeners?

Jim Keravala:
Sure. If you’re starting a space business—or any business—the old wisdom still applies: Find customers. Get to revenue as fast as possible. Do something that works.

It may sound cliché, but it’s critical. There’s no such thing as a “space business.” There’s just business. And while space may extend your ROI timeline a bit, your goal should be recurring revenue within 36 months. Investment should supplement—not replace—income.

If you deviate from that baseline, understand the risks you’re taking. Too many startups chase moonshots with no clear path to revenue, asking investors to carry all the risk. That’s a fast way to give away a lot of your company.

Focus on ARR—Annual Recurring Revenue—as your foundation. From there, you can build layer by layer.

Susan Wise:
It sounds like Offworld is well on its way—and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Where can our listeners find you?

Jim Keravala:
You can find us at www.offworld.ai.

Susan Wise:
Jim Keravala, CEO and Chief Architect of Offworld—thank you so much for joining us today. This has been fascinating. We’re excited to see where you go—on this world and Offworld!

Jim Keravala:
Thanks very much.

Susan Wise (closing):
This has been Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research. If you enjoyed the episode, leave us a review and subscribe. And until next time—keep looking up!

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