Category Archives: Space Exploration

Venus is Earths nearest planetary neighbor. It may have been the first habitable world in our solar system, but its not any longer. The intense pressure, heat and corrosive gases of Venus surface are enough to disable even the most robust spacecraft in a matter of hours. But a few dozen miles overhead, the thick atmosphere is far more hospitable to robotic exploration.

A new space exploration concept envisions pairing a balloon with a Venus orbiter, the two working in tandem to study Earths sister planet. While the orbiter would remain far above the atmosphere, taking science measurements and serving as a communication relay, an aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, about 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter would travel into it.

Paul Byrne, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is a science collaborator for a prototype aerobot built by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Near Space Corp. A scaled-down version of the aerobot that could one day take to the Venusian skies recently completed two Nevada test flights.

The success of these test flights is a huge deal for us: Weve successfully demonstrated the technology well need for investigating the clouds of Venus, said Byrne, who is a faculty fellow of the universitys McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. These tests form the foundation for how we can achieve long-term robotic exploration high above Venus hellish surface.

The shimmering silver balloon ascended more than 4,000 feet (1 kilometer) over Nevadas Black Rock Desert to a region of Earths atmosphere that approximates the temperature and density the aerobot would experience about 180,000 feet (55 kilometers) above Venus. The prototype is about one-third the size of the future balloon that scientists envision for space flight.

The tests represent a milestone in proving the concepts suitability for accessing a region of Venus atmosphere too low for orbiters to reach, but where a balloon mission could operate for weeks or even months.

Read more about the aerial robotic balloon from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Venus balloon prototype aces test flights - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis

LITTLETON, Colorado, October 13, 2022 (NewSpace Global PR) For the first time in 50 years, humans are preparing to venture out beyond Earth orbit to the moon. This new era will bring exciting new commercial opportunities from Earth orbit to the lunar surface and beyond.

A new report, Cislunar Market Opportunities In-Space Business within the Earth-Moon System, provides an in-depth analysis of this emerging economy. The 161-page report provides detailed information on programs being undertaken by leading companies and space agencies around the world. There are in-depth analyses of commercial prospects as well as resources sections with links to official websites, stories, reports and press releases.

The report is broken down into five sections.

Cislunar Market Opportunities provides a comprehensive overview of all the major activities and players in the sector. It is an update on NewSpace Globals 2019 report on the cislunar sector.

The report is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand this emerging space sector. Download it today: https://cislunar.report/

About NewSpace Global

NewSpace Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Multiverse Media Group, has been a leading market analysis firm specializing in emerging commercial space opportunities since 2011. The new Cislunar Market Opportunities report marks the return of scheduled and timely reports from NewSpace Global, which is under new management.

About the Multiverse Media Group

The Multiverse Media Group is a media company focusing on space exploration, science, and technology. Multiverse Media has three divisions: digital news and intelligence, publishing, and film. Our film division created the multiple award-winning documentary, The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. ONeill, which is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Apple TV.

Media Contact: cislunar.report@newspaceglobal.com

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From the Earth to the Moon (and Beyond): New In-depth Report Provides Detailed Review of Commercial Opportunities in Cislunar Space Parabolic Arc -...

NASA and SpaceX recently announcedthat they had signed a Space Act Agreement to study the possibility of reboosting and even servicing the Hubble Space Telescope with the Crew Dragon. Its welcomed news for those who care about space exploration and science. Hubble has returned an incredible amount of scientific data, not to mention beautiful images, in the over 30 years it has scanned the heavens.

NASA designed the Hubble Telescope to be serviceable by the space shuttle. The decision was fortuitous when the Hubbles mirror turned out to have a flaw in it soon after it was launched in 1990. The first shuttle service mission in 1993 fixed the flaw and implemented several other enhancements. In all, NASA performedfive Hubble service missions, the last taking place in 2009, soon before the space shuttle program ended.

NASA had planned to use the Hubble as long as possible.According to Ars Technica, the space telescopes orbit is slowly decaying.Three out of the Hubbles six gyroscopeshave failed. NASA estimates that the Hubble Space Telescope will have to be retired in a controlled reentry at the end of the current decade.

The SpaceXCommercial Crew program, which replaced the space shuttle to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), is in its third presidential administration. After suffering a bumpy start, thanks to Obama administration political missteps and congressional hostility, the initial Commercial Crew flights took place during the final year of the Trump administration. Currently, SpaceXs Crew Dragon is not only keeping the ISS staffed with astronauts, but it has also started to fly private flights, such as last years Inspiration4. The much-delayed Boeing Starliner is also scheduled to start launching to the ISS in 2023.

Against the backdrop of a successful commercial space industry, SpaceX and billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman made NASA an intriguing offer to study the possibility of sending a Crew Dragon to reboost and possibly service the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA and SpaceX signed an agreement to conduct a six-month study for just such a mission.

Isaacman already financed theInspiration4 missionthat raised an incredible amount of money for St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital. He has started a series of Crew Dragon missions called the Polaris Program, the first of which is scheduled to occur in March 2023. A future Polaris mission could visit the Hubble Space Telescope.

If NASA approves a Crew Dragon mission to the Hubble, the iconic space telescope could see 15 to 20 years added to its useful life. That is upwards of two decades more of useful science and mind-blowing images returned for scientific advancement and inspiration for the general public.

A private reboost and servicing mission to Hubble will have several challenges. The space telescope is a delicate instrument and any crew visiting it will have to be careful with it. The space shuttle crews that conducted Hubble servicing missions trained for many months to make sure they would not damage the space telescope. A private mission would entail some measure of risk.

Still, if SpaceX and NASA undertake a Hubble mission, the wisdom of commercializing space travel will have been proven once again. Commercial spacecraft are already keeping the ISS supplied and crewed at a fraction of the cost of NASAs space shuttle. Extending the Hubble Space Telescopes useful life by two decades for a fraction of a space shuttle servicing missions cost is a compelling notion.

Recently, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope successfully launched and deployed. The James Webb is already returning its own treasure trove of science and images. If the Hubbles life is extended, the two telescopes can work in tandem. The Hubble can image celestial targets in the visible light spectrum. The James Webb can image the same targets in infrared. Together, the Hubble and James Webb telescopes can unlock the secrets of the universe.

Farther in the future, astronauts returning to the moon on private lunar landers such as theSpaceX Starshipwould be able to erect telescopes on the moons surface, starting with theLunar Crater Radio Telescope. Such telescopes would become even greater windows through which humanitys knowledge of the heavens can flow, expanding that knowledge and inciting awe and wonder.

MarkR.Whittingtonis the authorofspace explorationstudiesWhy is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?as well asThe Moon, Mars and Beyond,andWhy is America Going Back to the Moon?He blogs atCurmudgeons Corner.

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SpaceX studies extending the life of NASAs Hubble Space Telescope - The Hill

The United Arab Emirates Rashid rover which is to be sent to regions of the Moon unexplored by humans has cleared all tests, pushing the mission one step closer to its launch into outer space.

As part of the Emirates Lunar Mission, the 10-kilogram robotic explorer which has been built in the UAE by Emirati engineers working with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) - will send back images and collect data on lunar soil and dust once it reaches the Red Planet.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The mission is expected to launch from a spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida, next month on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Congratulations to the ELM team that worked tirelessly to get Rashid Rover ready for the launch, said Salem AlMarri, Director General of MBRSC. The lunar mission will engineer a new scientific reality for Emiratis and pave the way for more space exploration missions by MBRSC.

This mission also exemplifies the nation's spirit of innovation and scientific progress, while also contributing to global space science research and explorations.

Over the last four months, the rover was exposed to a series of rigorous internal and external reviews, state news agency WAM reported Thursday.

The reviews were designed to test out every one of the multitudes of systems and subsystems of the rover during the launch stage, cruise stage, and descent stage.

At the beginning of the year, the ELM rover completed the assembly and first set of full functional tests of the flight model in the laboratories of MBRSC. This phase of testing included assessments of all the functionality of the hardware and software within all the possible on-surface (lunar) scenarios.

This phase also included a heavy vibration test of the model at the EDGEs Electro-Optics Centre of Excellence (EOCE) laboratories based in Abu Dhabi.

In the second phase, the Rashid rover completed a series of environmental tests in Toulouse, France.

This included two sections of the evaluation: The first was the final thermal and vacuum tests within the Airbus facility, in which the Rover was heated and cooled to simulate the pressures and temperatures of its journey through space and on the Moon's surface.

The second and last section of the environmental tests included rigorous vibration and shock checks of the flight model at the CNES Labs.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre's Rashid rover, the UAEs first mission to the lunar surface, officially cleared all required tests, pushing the mission one step closer to its launch pad rollout and liftoff. (Supplied)

For this, the rover was shaken on a vibration table simulating the environment the rover will encounter during the launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as well as be subjected to the same shocks it will experience decelerating in the lunar atmosphere, the intense impact of deployment and touchdown.

The tests campaign concluded in Germany with the final phase of checks on the interfaces with the ispace lander that will safely deliver the rover to the Moon's surface. This phase also included instrument alignment checks, such as imaging systems, and a final functional test of the integrated system following the environmental campaign.

Dr. Hamad AlMarzooqi, Project Manager of the Emirates Lunar Mission added: MBRSC cant wait to see Rashid rover begin its long-awaited flight to the moon. We are now all cleared and ready for the next step, which is the launch vehicle integration process, which is the final stage of our lunar mission before launch.

The science and technology of this mission are going to help us address major questions about the geologic and surface science of the moon that weve been working on for years, and were excited to share our journey with the world.

Rashid Rover is now ready for the final integration process with the launch vehicle before its launch window of November 9 15, 2022.

The primary goal of the mission is to study the moons plasma and to provide answers about moon dust, the lunar surface, mobility on the moons surface, and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles.

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Dubais space center to simulate life on Mars in the Metaverse

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UAEs Moon rover passes final tests before heading to outer space - Al Arabiya English

HOUSTON & NEW YORK, October 13, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intuitive Machines, LLC ("Intuitive Machines" or the "Company"), a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company founded in 2013, which recently announced its proposed business combination with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: IPAX, IPAXU, IPAXW) ("Inflection Point"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced the filing of a registration statement on Form S-4 (the "Registration Statement") with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

The Registration Statement contains a preliminary proxy statement/prospectus in connection with the previously announced proposed business combination. While the Registration Statement has not yet become effective and the information therein is subject to change, it provides important information about Intuitive Machines and Inflection Point as well as the proposed business combination.

As previously announced on September 16, 2022, Intuitive Machines signed a definitive business combination agreement with Inflection Point that is expected to result in Intuitive Machines becoming publicly listed. Completion of the transaction is subject to approval by Inflection Points shareholders, the Registration Statement being declared effective by the SEC, and other customary closing conditions.

About Intuitive Machines

We are a diversified space company focused on space exploration. We supply space products and services to support sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Our products and services are offered through our four business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure. For more information, please visit intuitivemachines.com.

About Inflection Point Acquisition Corp.

Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: IPAX, IPAXU, IPAXW) is a blank check company formed for the purpose of identifying and partnering with North American and European businesses in the consumer and technology sectors. Inflection Points financial sponsor is an affiliate of Kingstown Capital Management, LP, an investment firm with AUM from some of the worlds largest endowments and foundations and more than 15 years of operating history. For more information, please visit: inflectionpointacquisition.com.

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Additional Information and Where to Find It

This press release relates to a proposed transaction between Intuitive Machines and Inflection Point (the "Business Combination"). In connection with the Business Combination, Inflection Point has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 (the "Registration Statement") with the SEC, which includes a preliminary proxy statement/prospectus to be distributed to holders of Inflection Points ordinary shares in connection with Inflection Points solicitation of proxies for the vote by Inflection Points shareholders with respect to the Business Combination and other matters as described in the Registration Statement, as well as a prospectus relating to the offer of securities to be issued to Intuitive Machines equity holders in connection with the Business Combination. After the Registration Statement has been filed and declared effective, Inflection Point will mail a copy of the definitive proxy statement/prospectus, when available, to its shareholders. The Registration Statement includes information regarding the persons who may, under SEC rules, be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies to Inflection Points shareholders in connection with the Business Combination. Inflection Point will also file other documents regarding the Business Combination with the SEC. Before making any voting decision, investors and security holders of Inflection Point and Intuitive Machines are urged to read the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus contained therein, and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the Business Combination as they become available because they will contain important information about the Business Combination.

Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC by Inflection Point through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, the documents filed by Inflection Point may be obtained free of charge from Inflection Points website at http://www.inflectionpointacquisition.com or by written request to Inflection Point at Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., 34 East 51st Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

No Offer or Solicitation

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall neither constitute an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor a solicitation of a proxy, vote, consent or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with the Business Combination, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdictions. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act, or an exemption therefrom.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to the Business Combination. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document, including but not limited to: (i) the risk that the Business Combination may not be completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect the price of Inflection Points securities, (ii) the risk that the Business Combination may not be completed by Inflection Points business combination deadline and the potential failure to obtain an extension of the business combination deadline if sought by Inflection Point, (iii) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the Business Combination, including the receipt of the requisite approvals of Inflection Points shareholders and Intuitive Machines equity holders, respectively, and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, (iv) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the business combination agreement, (v) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the Business Combination on Intuitive Machines business relationships, performance, and business generally, (vi) risks that the Business Combination disrupts current plans of Intuitive Machines and potential difficulties in Intuitive Machines employee retention as a result of the Business Combination, (vii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Intuitive Machines or against Inflection Point related to the agreement and plan of merger or the Business Combination, (viii) the ability to maintain the listing of Inflection Points securities on Nasdaq, (ix) the price of Inflection Points securities may be volatile due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Intuitive Machines plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Intuitive Machines business and changes in the combined capital structure, (x) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the Business Combination and identify and realize additional opportunities, (xi) the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, (xii) the market for commercial human spaceflight has not been established with precision, it is still emerging and may not achieve the growth potential Intuitive Machines expects or may grow more slowly than expected, (xiii) space is a harsh and unpredictable environment where Intuitive Machines products and service offerings are exposed to a wide and unique range of environmental risks, which could adversely affect Intuitive Machines launch vehicle and spacecraft performance, (xiv) Intuitive Machines business with various governmental entities is subject to the policies, priorities, regulations, mandates and funding levels of such governmental entities and may be negatively or positively impacted by any change thereto, (xv) Intuitive Machines limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate its future prospects and the risks and challenges they may encounter and (xvi) other risks and uncertainties described in Inflection Points registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-253963), which was originally filed with the SEC on September 21, 2021 (the "Form S-1"), in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended 2021 and its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus contained therein, and any other documents filed by Inflection Point from time to time with the SEC. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by investors as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Form S-1, the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended 2021, the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus contained therein, and the other documents filed by Inflection Point from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties may be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused significant economic uncertainty. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Intuitive Machines and Inflection Point assume no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities and other applicable laws. Neither Intuitive Machines nor Inflection Point gives any assurance that either Intuitive Machines or Inflection Point, respectively, will achieve its expectations.

Participants in the Solicitation

Inflection Point and Intuitive Machines and their respective directors and officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Inflection Points shareholders in connection with the Business Combination. Information about Inflection Points directors and executive officers and their ownership of Inflection Points securities is set forth in Inflection Points filings with the SEC. To the extent that holdings of Inflection Points securities have changed since the amounts printed in Inflection Points Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended 2021, such changes have been or will be reflected on Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. Additional information regarding the interests of those persons and other persons who may be deemed participants in the Business Combination may be obtained by reading the proxy statement/prospectus regarding the Business Combination when it becomes available. You may obtain free copies of these documents as described in the preceding paragraph.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221011005026/en/

Contacts

For investor inquiries:

investors@intuitivemachines.com

For media inquiries:

press@intuitivemachines.com

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Intuitive Machines Announces Filing of Registration Statement on Form S-4 in Connection with its Proposed Business Combination with Inflection Point...

At the newly renovated and reopened gallery spaces at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum visitors can lay their eyes on a mockup of the International Space Station and view the historic Wright Flyer aircraft in a new environment. Renovation work began on the 45-year-old museumabutting the National Mall in Washington D.C., in 2018. The project, a 7-year endeavor with a $360 million price tag, is led by Quinn Evans Architects and, when complete, will completely overhaul several parts of the 604,000-square-foot complex. Core focus areas include a redesign of all 23 of its exhibition spaces, recladding the exterior, and modernizing outdated mechanical systems.

Originally built in 1976 with a design by Gyo Obata, the National Air and Space Museum occupies four city blocks with four marble volumes, each separated by glass and steel atriums. A portion of the building will be demolished to make way for the Bezos Learning Center, an educational facility on the site that will host programming and activities related to science and technology. It is named for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who generously donated $200 million to the project, $70 million of which will help fund the adjacent museum renovation. The remaining funds are going toward the design and construction of the new building. Five design proposals for the learning center were unveiled last month.

Under the latest renovation, interiors of the existing buildings were reworked to accommodate new artifacts while exhibition and programming space in the buildings west wing was renovated. The sprawling complexs planetarium and museum store both got a refresh while a new eatery, the Mars Caf, was added. Accessibility upgrades were also made throughout. Following a six-month closure, the space- and aviation-themed museum will partially reopen to the public on October 14, 2022.

We are thrilled to finally unveil the first part of the newly renovated museum, said Chris Browne, director of the museum in a statement. Visitors will have a more modern and engaging experience, visiting favorite icons as well as many new artifacts never before seen at the museum in D.C. We hope each visitor will see themselves in these exhibitions and that young people will be inspired by all that is possible in aviation and space exploration.

The partially reopened museum will allow visitors to experience eight new and updated exhibitions with 100 digital and interactive components. In the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery, patrons can saunter along the surface of another planet through an immersive simulation; meanwhile, in One World Connected visitors peek inside a model of the International Space Station that allows them to view Earth as seen from outer space.

Hundreds of new artifacts will be on display in the newly renovated exhibition spaces, with objects that will pique the interest of cosmophiles and aviation geeks alike. Among these objects are the WR-3 air racer built by pioneering African-American racing pilot, airplane designer, and aeronautical engineer Neal Loving, and a T-38 aircraft flown by Jackie Cochran, the first woman to break the sound barrier. Star Wars and Star Trek fans can view a life-size X-Wing Starfighter, a prop from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,and the prosthetic ear tip costume fabricated for Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series.

Museum favorites like the 1903 aircraft famously flown by the Wright brothers will be reinstalled in the newly renovated Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age. Astronaut Alan Shepards Mercury spacesuit and the Mercury Freedom 7 capsule he used to drop back down after Earth after becoming the first American in space will be displayed alongside the Apollo 11 command module. A new planetarium will connect with planetariums located across the country through screencasts.

The east wing of the museum remains closed as the renovation work continues. Work on the exterior of the museum will involve replacing the original marble and redesigning the main entrance to feature a wing-like entry that takes cues from aircraft design.

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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to reopen eight renovated galleries, as part of major museum overhaul - The Architect's Newspaper

Two years ago, I left my engineering position at Iceye to join a pre-seed space startup consisting of two people, one of which was me. As a newly minted CTO at a startup lacking capital, I was thrust into the fundraising game with no deeper understanding of finance or business strategy than youd expect of the average 40-year-old engineer with an oscilloscope.

Daunted but undeterred, I set off into the depths of venture capitalism, strategy, marketing, pitches, PowerPoint slides, NewSpace, small talk, zero-sum games, and artificial politeness.

What follows is a sort of paper trail for those coming from similar places and thinking of embarking on the same adventure. Its also a reflection (more than a criticism) on the things that must change.

Heres the story. As I started pitching investors, my first impression was that there was no manual with rules for playing the game. For an engineer like me with a mind shaped by equations, this was particularly unsettling as I was struggling to find clues in a field riddled with jargon like USPs, pre-money, post-money, dilution, moats, seed stage, Series A through D and exit.

It turns out, there were some rules. Unwritten, highly dynamic rules, though. The right strategy for approaching one venture capital fund might be the opposite of whats worked with another fund. For this VC, press the guy with calls. For that one, let the guy alone to make him feel the fear of missing out. For this one, moats were the single most important thing ever. For that other one, it was the charisma of the startups founders.

This feverish quest for funding can frequently lead to polite rejection. Reasons vary:

In the VC universe, cause and effect might be easily interchangeable. If you read the rejection reasons above, you can quickly see that most of those (lack of recurring revenues, lack of maturity) are typical for early stage startups. After all, you are fundraising because you want to increase your maturity and improve your revenues. Therefore, the investors are disappointed at the lack of precisely what you aim to accomplish with their money. Unless, of course, the polite rejections above are just euphemisms for hidden, more subtle things such as I just dont like your face, or Im not vibin with your idea.

Fair enough.

In any case, VCs who provide honest feedback and not just polite excuses are more helpful because startup founders can use that feedback to correct the trajectory and retry again later. Most of the VC tales we tend to hear are success stories told by those who got and continue to get funded. They make it sound so easy. The more valuable stories come from those who failed miserably, for their experience can depict the quirks of the process like success stories cannot. Survivorship bias at its best.

While machine learning and artificial intelligence are the darlings of our post-industrial economy, fundraising is an extremely human-oriented, analog activity whose methods probably havent changed in the last 50 years. There is very little reliance on data, despite most VC websites claiming they are data-driven. Theres a lot of talking, endless presentations, body language you can tell how excited a VC is from how they sit and autocratic decision-making structures.

Theres also a generous dose of bluffing from every side: startups trying to look bigger than they are; markets presented as more attractive than they are; investors trying to look more successful than they are; technical reviewers trying to sound more accomplished than they are. In my experience, there are two kinds of tech reviewers:

All this leads to one of the biggest problems present in the space VC sector: a lack of space technology knowledge. There is a concerning knowledge gap a politer term than ignorance about space systems engineering. VC partners, associates, and investment assistants are all similarly bewildered about what satellites are made of, the complexities behind developing them, and the applications they can unlock. This is true even for those who brand themselves as space investors. The knowledge gap results in industrial quantities of time wasted by startup founders having to educate prospective investors about basics like why satellites dont fall back to earth, how antennas work and what flight software is for. This is time that could be spent building the technology before the runwaythat is, the money left in the bank accountfades away.

True story: one investor I had been pitching went down the rabbit hole and bought seven books about space. Looking at that pile of books on his desk was very visual feedback on how badly I had overdosed the guy with unfamiliar concepts. Point taken.

Wherever there is ignorance, there is also someone ready to take advantage of the ignorant. Therefore, consultants and advisers with dubious credentials spring up like mushrooms, and investors are frequently misled to perform half-baked assessments using the wrong yardsticks or bizarre metrics such as the infamous Elon Musk factor.

For space VCs, the SpaceX founder and Tesla chief executive is the gold standard. When space VCs talk to you, they are secretly (even openly!) gauging if they feel the Elon vibe. That is, assessing if any of the companys founders can be the next Elon Musk. Which is ridiculous: they are comparing early ideas with a 20-year-old company whose undeniable success is precisely based on solid engineering and resilience from failure, and whose support from its early investors who probably did not get hung up assessing whether young Elon was the next Steve Jobs or whoever made it possible for SpaceX to be what it is today. Doing good engineering takes time, effort and a fair amount of failure. Plans for colonizing other planets are making lots of headlines these days, but serious space exploration cannot be done on crappy technology whose accidental reliability makes you want to cross your fingers before launch. You cant go to space on a Ford Pinto.

Its all understood: limited partners the money behind the VCs want their returns, and VCs try their best to please them and in the process earn substantial commissions. The current VC game is short-termist by design: throw money at a startup based on qualitative things such as the founders charisma (the future Elons whose management skills stop scaling beyond 30 people); sit on their boards to steer their strategy to balloon valuations while consistently neglecting the technology; exit, profit and repeat. The result? NewSpace is slowly becoming a synonym for crap space technology, where rockets flying sideways are celebrated as wins worthy of an IPO.

Failing is part of the game, and you may fail many times, but failure is the foundation of consistent victory. Engineers shouldnt be checking their companys share price as they design.

This boring engineers fundraising adventure provided an obvious takeaway: the current model is broken. Something else needs to materialize; something genuinely data-drivenmore quantitativeand with patience built in to let tech mature at its right pace. Something to help build companies that can last 20,50, or 100 years the time scales compatible with what it will take to make human presence on other planets a reality.

Ignacio Chechile is the chief technology officer at Reorbit, a Helsinki, Finland-based startup exploring novel space architectures beyond LEO. He previously was vice president of spacecraft engineering at Iceye.

This article originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

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Op-ed | You cant go to space on a Ford Pinto (and other harsh truths I learned courting venture capital) - SpaceNews

Science & Exploration

13/10/20221898 views27 likes

ESAs Mars Express has captured the rare moment of Mars small moon Deimos passing in front of Jupiter and its four largest moons the focus of ESAs upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launching next year. Celestial alignments like these enable a more precise determination of the martian moons orbits.

Since arriving in orbit at the Red Planet in 2003, Mars Express routinely observes the planets geology. It also monitors the planets two moons Phobos and Deimos to understand more about their surface composition, in particular Phobos mysterious grooved terrain, and ultimately the moons puzzling origin. This includes tracking their orbits.

The moons experience strong tidal forces from Mars, causing their orbits to fluctuate constantly. Phobos orbits extremely close to Mars at just 6000 km, and is moving towards the planet, while Deimos moves away from it.

It is difficult to measure their orbits from Earth due to the brightness of Mars in comparison to these small bodies.

The fortuitous alignment of Deimos passing in front of Jupiter on 14 February 2022 enabled the position and orbit of Deimos to be more accurately pinpointed. That is, by measuring the duration of the occultation when the light from one celestial body is blocked by another the orbit can be calculated.

Such an alignment is extremely unusual because Deimos must be exactly in the orbital plane of Jupiter's moons for the alignment to occur.

The animated sequence of 80 High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) images shows the bumpy surface of the small and irregularly shaped 15 km-wide moon as it passed in front of Jupiter. The moons of Jupiter appear as small white specks, due to their distance of almost 750 million km from Mars Express. This staggering separation is five times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

The animation first shows Deimos passing in front of the icy moon Europa. The largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, is then obscured from view. The gas giant Jupiter, appearing as a large white spot in the centre, then vanishes behind Deimos.

Deimos then covers the extremely active volcanic moon Io, which is a similar size to Earth's moon. Finally, the cratered moon Callisto disappears behind Deimos.

Deimos appears to move up and down in the animation due to the small swaying movements of Mars Express while it rotates to place the HRSC camera into position. The motion of the solar wings, which extend 12 m from the spacecraft, as well as two long radar antennas, also contribute to the small vibrations.

Jupiter and its three largest icy moons will be visited by the ESA-led JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (Juice) mission, scheduled to launch in 2023 for arriving in the Jupiter system in 2031. Juice will conduct flybys of the moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa to study their surface and interior, which are thought to harbour oceans. These observations will help to study the conditions for the emergence of life in our Solar System and how planets are formed

After imaging the alignment with Jupiter, Mars Express cast its gaze towards the moment Deimos was blocked by its larger sibling, Phobos, which measures about 27 km along its longest axis. The animation is pieced together from 19 HRSC images, taken on 30 March 2022 when Phobos was 12 km away from the camera. From this perspective it is difficult to see the size difference between the martian moons, as Deimos is further from the camera at a distance of 28 km.

Much is still unknown about the formation and composition of Mars moons. Future missions, such as the JAXA-led Martian Moon eXploration mission (MMX) with contributions from ESA, will help to understand more. MMX will observe Deimos and place a lander on Phobos to collect and return a sample from the surface.

Precise orbit measurements, such as those provided by occultations, are required to pinpoint the exact positions of moons for future missions like MMX and Juice.

Mars Express observations of the moons over 14 years, including occultations with other Solar System objects, have enabled a correction of 1-2 km in our knowledge of where the moons are, with an accuracy on the order of a few hundred metres.

In June 2022, Europas orbital data was refined for the Juice mission through the occultation of a star. This occultation was predicted using ESAs Gaia mission.

The new images demonstrate that Mars Express continues to shine a light on Mars, the immediate surroundings of the Red Planet, and beyond.

For more information, please contact:ESA Media Relationsmedia@esa.int

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ESA - Mars and Jupiter moons meet - European Space Agency

Sygnia has today listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) the Sygnia Itrix Sustainable Economy Exchange Traded Fund (SYGSE), expanding the suite of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that the financial services provider is offering to investors looking for offshore investment diversification.

The ETF tracks the S&P Kensho Sustainable Technologies Index, which measures the performance of companies with exposure to smart transportation and manufacturing, sustainable agriculture, clean power, space exploration, intelligent infrastructure, and the technologies that enable remote working.

Finding themes that provide growth in a low-growth world is critical to successful investing, and innovation stocks focused on building a sustainable economy present key opportunities, says Kyle Hulett, Head of Investments at Sygnia.

The listing of SYGSE happens at a time the JSE is preparing to usher in new amendments to its listings requirements, paving the way for issuers to list and trade Actively Managed ETFs (AMETFs) for the first time in the bourses history.

The amendments will come into effect on 14 October 2022 and are expected to stimulate the growth of the ETF sector, which after todays listing of SYGSE has seen listed ETFs growing to 94 with an ETF market capitalisation exceeding R114 billion.

AMETFs are funds that are traded on the market in which the investment manager uses an active investment strategy to produce a return for the investor instead of passively tracking an index or other type of asset. Traditionally, ETFs listed on the JSE are passively managed.

Valdene Reddy, Director of Capital Markets at the JSE, says she is pleased that issuers are continuing to flock to the JSE, giving South African investors an opportunity to diversify their portfolios while fulfilling their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment objectives.

The JSE is a magnet for ETF issuers who take seriously their responsibility to strike a balance between generating returns for investors and addressing ESG related concerns. Investors have the opportunity to invest in ETFs like SYGSEO and gain exposure to the underlying companies who contribute towards growing a sustainable economy, concludes Reddy.

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Sygnia lists ETF that invests in clean energy and space exploration - african markets

Ryan Whites documentary Good Night Oppy tells the inspirational true story of Opportunity, a rover sent to Mars for a 90-day mission in 2003 that ended up surviving for 15 years. Per an official synopsis, the film follows Opportunitys groundbreaking journey on Mars and the remarkable bond forged between a robot and her humans millions of miles away. Watch the trailer below.

Angela Bassett narrates the documentary about the rover that outlasted its estimated survival date by more than 60 times. The rover was initially launched into space in 2003 to look for ancient water on Mars; it died in 2019 on the Red Planet after discovering that Mars stayed wet for an extended period and that conditions could have been suitable for sustaining microbial life, per NASAs website. Its twin rover Spirit was active on Mars until 2010.

Good Night Oppy director White told IndieWire that Steven Spielberg played a huge role

Link:

Good Night Oppy Trailer: Mars Exploration Doc Follows a Rover to the Red Planet - IMDb