James Yenbamroong

During his initial years in the US, Yenbamroong worked as part-time staff at Talesai, a Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. He was later a physics lab assistant at Santa Monica College and an intern at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

While studying at the University of California Los Angeles, Yenbamroong worked as a system engineer for satellite projects at Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense technology company.[1] He was later promoted as project lead for unmanned vehicle systems at Northrop.[3] Yenbamroong left the US and moved back to Bangkok in 2014.[4]

In June 2017, Yenbamroong founded mu Space and Advanced Technology, or mu Space, using his personal money.[4] The company researches and develops satellite and smart city services for urban and rural areas.[15][16] mu Space initially had 6 staff[12] and later increased to 30 after the company raised US$3 million in funds.[17]

In December 2017, Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission granted mu Space a 15-year license until 2032 to provide satellite services in the country.[18] The company is temporarily using the satellites of another company SES[19] to provide broadband services, pending the launch of the company's own satellite in 2021.[18] Worth up to US$150 million,[20] the satellite will use the 50.5-degrees East orbital slot to provide coverage over Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.[21]

Initially focused on the implementation of a satellite-powered broadband project in Thailand,[15] the company under Yenbamroong, later on, started doing space-related activities. In July 2018, mu Space became the first Asian company to send a payload aboard the New Shepard rocket of Blue Origin to test the effects of microgravity on properties of materials.[22] The payload included a silicon bleeding-prevention device used in hospitals, a carbon nanotube and a vacuum-sealed food product.[3] In April 2019, Yenbamroong revealed that mu Space has submitted a proposal to NASA to build a lunar landing system.[23]

Yenbamroong is opening in 2019 a venture capital unit to provide funds to startups and medium-sized companies working on artificial intelligence, robotics, space research and deep space exploration.[24] The venture unit, with an initial fund of US$100 million, will be set up in Singapore.[25]

Yenbamroong sent several engineers of mu Space to help in the rescue mission to save the 12 boys and their football coach trapped inside Tham Luang cave in 2018.[26] His company mu Space also collaborated with Google and Weather Decision Technologies to provide rescuers with weather forecast models in the cave area.[27]

Elon Musk, the founder of The Boring Company, a US-based tunnel construction company, also discussed with Yenbamroong his plan to help in the rescue.[28] Over Twitter, Musk initially suggested using a ground penetrating radar to dig holes to reach the boys, and then to install a giant air tube that the boys can use as a temporary passageway.[28] Later on, Musk settled on the idea of using kid-sized submarines for the rescue mission, which he had personally flown to Thailand on his private jet.[29] However, Thai authorities did not use the kid-sized submarines,[30] and decided to send divers to extract the trapped boys and their football coach out of the cave.[31]