US Space Force Is Funding a Chip That Claims to Pull Power From Empty Space
A Texas startup has won a US Space Force contract to test a chip it says generates electricity from quantum vacuum fields — no battery, no solar panel, no fuel. Casimir Inc received a SpaceWERX STTR Phase I Award in August 2026 to validate its MicroSparc chip for use in remote and hard-to-reach military locations. If the underlying physics holds up in real-world conditions, it could reshape how small sensors and embedded devices stay powered indefinitely.
The chip
MicroSparc measures 5mm × 5mm and produces 1.5V at 25 microamps — roughly 40 microwatts of continuous power, comparable to a small rechargeable battery with no degradation and no replacement cycle. The design exploits the Casimir effect, a quantum phenomenon first predicted in 1948 and experimentally confirmed in 1997: two conductive surfaces held nanometers apart experience an attractive force driven by quantum vacuum fluctuations. The company fixes plates on a silicon substrate, places electrically connected nano-pillars between them, and relies on quantum tunneling to push electrons into a directed current. Millions of these nano-cavities on a single chip close the loop and keep electrons cycling.
Current output is modest — on par with a small ceramic battery or a tiny solar cell. Casimir's roadmap targets a 3D multi-layer architecture that could multiply output by 100×, with a commercial launch aimed at 2028.
The catch
SpaceWERX Phase I contracts typically run $75,000–$180,000 over 3 to 12 months — enough to prove or disprove technical feasibility, not to build a product. No independent lab has publicly confirmed that MicroSparc produces net continuous energy output. Critics have already drawn comparisons to "free energy" devices and perpetual-motion claims, which have a long history of failing thermodynamic scrutiny.
Casimir's co-founder Harold G. White has prior history at NASA EagleWorks — the lab behind warp drive and EM Drive experiments — which brings institutional credibility but also invites fringe-physics comparisons. White's position is that the Casimir effect itself is established quantum mechanics; what's being tested is the engineering to make it useful.
What's next
The company raised a $12M seed round in May 2026 and has a broader roadmap that extends well beyond the military — tire pressure monitors, wearables, and embedded IoT sensors are all on the list, targeting a US market the company values above $10 billion. Whether any of that arrives depends on the Phase I results and, crucially, on peer-reviewed confirmation that the device does what the spec sheet says it does.