Zenno's CEO just made history — first superconductor ever run in space. And he thinks a war in orbit is now "highly likely." 🧲🚀
Max Arshavsky is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zenno Astronautics, the company building the world's first superconducting technology platform for space. Since launching from New Zealand in 2018, Zenno has gone from a $100K university challenge win to landing government contracts with Germany's SPRINT program and Japan's Mitsubishi Electric, and just this year became the first company in history to successfully operate a superconducting product in orbit. Max joins Hendrik and Mark to catch up a year after their first conversation — and a lot has changed.
This episode dives deep into the physics and geopolitics of the new space race: why energy is the resource that will define who dominates space, why Max believes a war in space is now "highly likely," and why rocketry — once the hardest problem in the industry — is now the easy part. Max breaks down the economics of intercepting missiles from orbit, why data centers might really be headed to space within years, and how his own company's magnets could one day replace rockets entirely with mass drivers on the Moon.Along the way, Max explains why he relocated Zenno's US presence to Los Angeles's "entrepreneur paradise" near SpaceX and Impulse Space, why he thinks self-replicating robots — not humans — will colonize Mars, and why he's convinced the Moon will belong to somebody sooner than most people think. It's a conversation about magnets, geopolitics, and what it actually takes to build hardware for a place with no room for failure.
🧲 The world's first superconductor in space — how Zenno's Z01 SuperTorquer works and why it could end satellites' dependence on fuel
🚀 Why Max believes rocketry is a solved problem and the real challenge now is what happens once you're in orbit
⚔️ The blunt economics of space warfare — why cheap, high-volume interceptors beat expensive one-shot systems
🌍 Why Max moved Zenno's US operations to Los Angeles, and what makes it the "epicenter" of the new space economy
🔋 The case for data centers and energy infrastructure in space — and how close we really are
🌕 Mass drivers, magnetic launch systems, and a future where the Moon replaces rockets for shipping cargo to Earth
🤖 Why Max thinks self-replicating machines, not humans, will be the ones to colonize Mars
🎧 Listen On:
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbB
Spotify: https://bit.ly/4earYWc
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1
Connect with the Guest:
Max Arshavsky
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-arshavsky/
Zenno Astronautics
Website: https://www.zenno.space
🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz
Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/
Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/
Timestamps:
00:00 — Calling from LA
01:09 — Why LA is deep tech's epicenter
02:05 — SpaceX's IPO03:33 — Space is only going up
04:41 — Data centers in space
07:13 — Zenno: space superconductors
08:35 — German & Japan contracts
10:56 — America's 10x orbit push
12:13 — Is Rocket Lab overvalued?
15:14 — Star Wars and lasers
17:44 — What starts a space war
20:21 — Cheap interceptors win
26:27 — Mass drivers explained
30:17 — How Zenno builds products
33:33 — AI speeds up the algorithms
36:08 — Self-replicating machines
38:57 — Why Max moved to LA
41:20 — National security drives space race
44:00 — Who owns the Moon?
48:13 — Books that inspired Max
49:44 — Rapid fire round
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