Ecoatoms

Ecoatoms is a Reno, Nevada startup, founded in 2022, that builds AI-driven automated payloads and onboard computers for in-space manufacturing, positioning itself as a provider of autonomous production hardware rather than a single product. Its A.N.I.M.A. onboard computer handles process monitoring and decision-making for orbital manufacturing payloads; A.R.E.S. performs automated in-space coating of biosensors; H.E.R.M.E.S. automates DNA extraction in orbit; and L.E.T.O. is a smaller flight-proven payload line.

The company has flown hardware on multiple vehicles. L.E.T.O. and a custom payload launched on SpaceX's Transporter-14 rideshare mission on 23 June 2025. A.N.I.M.A. operated during a 2025 Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital flight, and the A.R.E.S. biosensor-coating payload, powered by A.N.I.M.A., flew and was validated on New Shepard mission NS-35 on 18 September 2025, demonstrating simultaneous coating of hundreds of biosensors and confirming the feasibility and repeatability of the process for orbital production. H.E.R.M.E.S. is scheduled to launch in 2026 under a NASA Space Act Agreement.

Ecoatoms has been funded primarily through non-dilutive government awards rather than disclosed venture rounds: it received its first NASA grant in 2022, a NASA Space Act Agreement in 2024 to build A.N.I.M.A., a second Space Act Agreement in 2025 for H.E.R.M.E.S., and separately won NASA's TechLeap STP Challenge (June 2025), NASA's UPIC/UPI Challenge (June 2024) and Blue Origin's Reef-Starter Challenge (December 2022). The company markets its payloads for biological, chemical and sensor-manufacturing applications and is accepting flight bookings.