FAQ
Common questions about our mission and methodology
The concept is not new, so what is unique about your approach?
Safety, practicality and control; we've built a practical end-to-end technology that is safe and controlled, translating sunlight reflection from a theoretical concept to a real-life deployable option. Using safe materials, as well as a holistic and practical approach, differentiates us from previous methods.
What happens when your particles fall on the ground?
Our particles are composed of materials that naturally occur in the biosphere. When they fall to the ground they recycle back into natural processes to serve as structural materials for living creatures.
How do you know your particles are safe?
The highest level of safety and compliance with regulations are our prime considerations; our particles were successfully tested by reputable third-party independent agencies against the strictest regulatory requirements to make sure they are benign to humans, animals, and plants. We welcome any external scientific scrutiny of these findings.
Why should we trust you?
We hold ourselves to the highest level of professionalism and integrity standards and our work is routinely peer-reviewed by leading universities worldwide; however, like you wouldn't trust a company developing a drug for cancer testifying to the safety of its products, here as well our products should and will be tested by regulators and independent validation authorities long before any operational deployment will occur.
Why a company?
Almost every groundbreaking technology that benefited humanity in the last 70 years was invented by the private sector, many times in partnership with academia, including medicines, space, genome sequencing, and now sunlight reflection. The ability to attract top talent and incentivize it is critical. In our humble view, the question is not whether you are a company or not, but what values you hold yourself to. Stardust cannot and will not act alone. Our role is to responsibly develop safe and practical research tools under independent oversight. Any potential deployment of this capability would be a decision for governments and authorized international bodies, not for us.
Has this been deployed?
No, deployment should be conducted only after governments choose to do so. We are researching and developing a safe and responsible capability in a gradual approach. We firmly believe that deployment should be conducted only after this technology has been thoroughly validated, under an adequate governance framework established by governments. Such frameworks are essential in our view for the evolution of this field and we advocate for their development.
What regulations exist?
Plenty of existing environmental regulations address air, water, and soil quality, and Stardust complies with all these standards; however, in our view, given the global implications of Sunlight Reflection, there is a need for more specific oversight for this field.
Patents and transparency
There is no contradiction between intellectual property and transparency. We are committed to publishing all our results, including unfavorable ones, since we believe this is critical for gaining public trust. As we see across many fields, from software to materials science, patents and transparency go hand in hand - protecting innovation while ensuring full disclosure of methods and results.
Deploying your solution might reduce the urgency for broader environmental and economic transitions. What is your view on this?
Even with the worldwide push toward a more sustainable future, reaching that goal will take many decades. Our technology offers a practical way to stabilize Earth's temperature while global systems continue to adapt. It's not either/or - it's a complementary approach to managing risks.
No question is too big or small, we welcome them all.