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Space Perspective raises $40 million for stratospheric ballooning system

October 23, 2021

With its new $40 million Series A round, Space Perspective says it is fully funded through the start of commercial operations of its stratospheric ballooning system, currently projected to be in late 2024.

by Jeff Foust

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Space Perspective, a company developing a stratospheric ballooning system intended to give people views like those from space, has raised $40 million to fund the company through the start of commercial operations.

Space Perspective announced Oct. 14 the Series A round, led by Prime Movers Lab, a “deep technology” venture capital fund. Several existing investors joined the round, along with new investors LightShed Ventures, a consumer and media VC fund, and Explorer 1 Fund, a new commercial space VC fund.

“We firmly believe that Space Perspective is the best-positioned company to democratize space tourism,” Anton Brevde, partner at Prime Movers Lab and a member of the board of Space Perspective, said in statement. “It’s clear that there is massive consumer demand to explore this final frontier, and we believe Space Perspective will provide the most accessible way for travelers to experience space.”

Space Perspective will use the funding to complete development of its Spaceship Neptune stratospheric balloon system, featuring a capsule designed to carry eight passengers and a pilot to an altitude of 30 kilometers. The capsule will spend two hours at that altitude before slowly descending to an ocean splashdown.

AI, Science & Technology News

Mark Cuban-backed Alethea AI is building a metaverse of NFT avatars

October 23, 2021

Owners can bring their NFTs to Alethea’s “Noah’s Ark” metaverse to give them human-like behaviors.

Just when we were getting our heads around non-fungible tokens—crypto tokens that represent a unique digital asset—they’re now gaining sentience and moving to the metaverse.

Some of the best-known NFTs are unique avatars that people buy and sell, such as those in the CyberPunks series or Bored Ape Yacht Club. But NFTs don’t do much. Now, Alethea AI, a new company backed by entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, is wrapping avatars in AI that animates them, giving them conversation skills and knowledge. Collectively, the company calls this the avatar’s “pod” or “soul,” Alethea CEO Arif Khan tells me. Then, these intelligent NFTs, or iNFTs, become something like chatbots that can be owned, trained, or sold. Khan says his company originally used OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language model to give the NFTs their speech and intelligence, but now uses an AI model it developed in-house.

“It’s a way of giving not only a personality to an avatar but to apply interactivity and to make it extensible,” Cuban said in an email to Fast Company. “You can take Alethea AI and let it grow into almost anything.” One of these NFTs, called “Alice,” already sold for $478,000 on Sotheby’s Natively Digital market in June.

Aviation

World’s First Liquid Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft Boasts Unmatched Range and Endurance

October 22, 2021

by Otilia Drăgan

There’s an ongoing debate about sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) versus hydrogen when it comes to the subject of sustainable aviation. Some say that SAF is the best available solution right now, while others think that liquid hydrogen is the answer for long-term green aviation.

While the U.S. Government is investing millions of dollars into SAFdevelopment-related projects, and giants such as United Airlines are signing huge purchase agreements for alternatives to conventional fuel, a small startup in the Netherlands is slowly working on the world’s first manned liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft.

AeroDelft is an impressive company not just because of its very ambitious goal but also because its team consists of 50 students from various institutions, including TU Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Utrecht University, representing a total of 17 nationalities. Each of these students is bringing a unique expertise to Project Phoenix, set to become the first zero-emissions aircraft running entirely on liquid hydrogen.

The company was set up in 2018 and is currently working on both the 1:3 scale prototype and the full-scale version. The prototype (Phoenix PT) is an E-genius airplane with a wingspan of almost 20 feet (6 meters) and a maximum take-off weight of 110 lbs (50 kg). In comparison, the full-scale version (Phoenix FS) is a two-seater Sling 4 aircraft with a wingspan of almost 33 feet (10 meters) and a take-off weight of 2,000 lbs (920 kg).

Virtual Reality

How virtual reality can be used to treat anxiety and PTSD

October 22, 2021

Patients can “confront the situations that cause them fear and anxiety, but in a safe and controlled environment.”

By Meera Navlakha

Virtual reality may become instrumental in the workplace, could potentially be vital for reimagining crime scenes, and has even salvaged strip clubs in the midst of a pandemic. Its possibilities and applications are vast, still being discovered and toyed with. Now, new research shows that VR may be an effective treatment for anxiety.

Published by open access digital health research publisher JMIR Publications, the study looked into virtual reality exposure therapy, or VRET. This particular form of therapy is a method in which patients are steadily exposed to a traumatic stimulus with the help of virtual environments. So not confronting the traumatic stimuli in its actual form, but gaining the benefits of overcoming or managing trauma through virtual exposure.

The study in question was funded and conducted at Massey University Strategic Excellence Research Fund and Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus, New Zealand. The authors reviewed several past studies about VRET and anxiety, concluding that this type of immersive therapy is a viable and potentially revolutionising method to treat certain mental health conditions.

Robots

Blockchain Technology Could Act as a Communication Tool for Teams of Robots

October 22, 2021

ByAlex McFarland

New research out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrates how blockchain technology could be used as a communication tool for a team of robots, providing security against deception. The research was a collaboration between MIT and the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and it was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

The new research could impact multi robot systems of self-driving cars, which deliver goods and transport people in certain cities.

Robots

Uh Oh, They Strapped a Sniper Rifle to a Robot Dog

October 21, 2021

It’s what experts have been warning about for years.

For years, we’ve been warning that it was only a matter of time — and now, the inevitable has happened.

Somebody strapped an honest-to-god sniper rifle to the back of a quadrupedal robot dog.

An image shared on Twitter by military robot maker Ghost Robotics shows the terrifying contraption in all its dystopian glory.

“Keeping our [special ops] teams armed with the latest lethality innovation,” the caption reads.

It’s a nightmare come to life, a death machine designed to kill with precision on the battlefield.

“This is sad,” one Twitter user commented. “In what world is this a good idea? I bet police is salivating at the chance to use these.”

Robotics

Watch Nissan’s awesome new ‘Intelligent Factory’ in action

October 21, 2021

Nissan has launched its most advanced production line to date as it works toward creating an emissions-free manufacturing process for its next-generation vehicles.

Using the very latest robotic technology, the Nissan Intelligent Factory started operating this week in Tochigi, Japan, about 50 miles north of Tokyo.

The automaker shared a video (below) showing off the new facility, which will manufacture vehicles such as the all-new Ariya electric crossover destined for the U.S. in 2022.

As the video shows, the Nissan Intelligent Factory not only builds the vehicle, but also performs incredibly detailed quality checks using robots programmed to search for foreign objects as small as 0.3mm.

Nissan said it built the futuristic factory to create a greener production process while also helping it to deal more effectively with Japan’s aging society and labor shortages.

Driverless cars

Hyundai Mobis develops a foldable steering wheel system for self-driving car

October 21, 2021

The ‘foldable steering system’ is movable to forward and back by up to 25cm.

The SBW is a high-tech control system that transmits steering power generated from the steering wheel to wheels through electronic signals.

Seoul: A foldable steering wheel system for self-driving cars has been developed by Hyundai Mobis.

Hyundai Mobis announced on Monday that it has developed the ‘foldable steering system’ that can store the steering wheel of the driver’s seat invisible by folding it.

It is a new technology that has not been globally commercialized before, and Hyundai Mobis successfully developed in around 2 years and is currently filling patents in Korea and overseas.

brain hacking

First Personalized Deep Brain Stimulation Treats Depression

October 20, 2021

Severely depressed patient treated via a personalized neural biomarker.

By Kaja Perina

Personalized medicine is the applied treatment or medication that is based on information about a patient’s genetics, lifestyle, and environment. A new study published in Nature Medicine shows how the combination of precision-medicine and deep brain stimulation (DBS) successfully treated a patient with severe treatment-resistant depression.

Led by Andrew Krystal, PhD, professor of psychiatry and member of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Weill Institute for Neurosciences, the study opens the possibility of using a precision-medicine approach combined with deep brain stimulations for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Researchers discovered a neural biomarker by finding the pattern of brain activity associated with the onset of symptoms and used that data to personalize a DBS device to activate when the pattern is spotted. Specifically, the device gave a 1mA electrical stimulation for six seconds when it detected the neural biomarker.

Space

‘Analog astronauts’ isolate on fake Mars desert to prepare humans for future missions

October 20, 2021

A group of “analog astronauts” will spend four weeks on a simulated version of Mars to prepare for the challenging environment on the Red Planet.- Advertisement –

The mission, hosted by the Israel Space Agency, will take place in the Negev desert, and will be managed by ‘Mission Control’ at the Austrian Space Forum with a 10-minute delay to simulate the time difference between Mars and Earth.

They will be placed in a habitat similar to the design astronauts will use on future missions to Mars. Geologically, the composition of the Negev Desert is very similar to that of Mars, making it an ideal setting for testing practices, the researchers say.

“This is our first mission where our analog astronauts will live and work completely independent in their habitat for three weeks. A small on-site support team is available for technical problems and maintenance,” said Dr. Gernot Grömer, director of the Austrian Space Forum. but will not be allowed to interact with analog astronauts.

The simulation, known as AMADEE-20, will see five men and one woman wearing “detailed space suit prototypes” as they step outside or drive the rover.

Driverless vehicles

Germany unveils world’s first automated, driverless train

October 20, 2021

The project, which Siemens and Deutsche Bahn called a “world first”, is part of a 60 million euro ($70 million) modernisation of Hamburg’s rapid urban rail system.

by Shubhangi Gupta

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn and industrial group Siemens on Monday unveiled the world’s first automated, driverless train in the city of Hamburg, billing it as more punctual and energy efficient than traditional trains.

Four such trains will join the northern city’s S-Bahn rapid urban rail network and start carrying passengers from December, using the existing rail infrastructure.

Other cities like Paris have driverless metros while airports often have automated monorail trains plying terminals, but those run on exclusive single tracks while the Hamburg train will be sharing tracks with other regular trains.

Food

Relocalize Raises $1.4M to Feed Humanity Sustainably with Micro-Factories

October 19, 2021

Relocalize, a North American food-tech company, today announced the closing of a $1.4M pre-seed round to fund the development of the first ever automated food micro-factory.

The round is led by grocery retail and industry leaders including senior executives from Slack, Emerson, ex-Sobeys and an undisclosed USA-based retail chain.

“Our food system is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Relocalize CEO Wayne McIntyre. “At Relocalize, we drastically reduce the carbon footprint of production by eliminating long-haul transportation. We’re making food where people live, unlike conventional centralized producers.”

The company plans to deploy thousands of micro-factories at grocery distribution centres across North America. Their first micro-factory, which will produce packaged ice, will be deployed in November 2021.

“Consumers increasingly factor sustainability into their buying decisions and retailers have taken note,” says Marc Poulin former Sobeys CEO. “Our industry needs innovative suppliers like Relocalize to achieve our sustainability objectives. Their technology reduces both cost and CO2, which is transformative.”

Since the company’s founding in November 2020, Relocalize in-licensed, designed, patented, prototyped and tested its technology, as well as secured a leading Southern-US retail launch partner for their first sustainable premium ice micro-factory.