Category Archives: Mars Colony

The indefatigable William Shatner is about to embark on a Red Planet mission, or at least a simulated one.

Fox is heating up summertime television by approving a full season of the sci-fi reality series, "Stars on Mars," a celebrity-fueled unscripted show spotlighting "Star Trek" luminaryWilliam Shatner in a host-style role, according to Variety (opens in new tab). This extra-planetary series will premiere in June and is centered around Earthly entertainment stars as they slip on spacesuits to reside inside a colony habitat designed to simulate environments that a Mars astronaut might encounter on a future mission.

"Stars on Mars" will launch on Monday, June 5, at 8 p.m. exclusively on Fox. This intriguing show arrives from the creative folks at Fremantle's Eureka Productions and follows this crew of celebrity contestants competing in the Mars-ish setting with Shatner handing out certain tasks and commands to the stars from a simulated Mission Control until only one "celebronaut" remains standing.

Related: Watch SpaceX launch a Starship to Mars in this gorgeous new animation

"The moment I heard the pitch for 'Stars on Mars,' I knew a show this bold, this big and this outlandish simply belonged on Fox," said Fox unscripted programming president Allison Wallach in a press statement, Variety reported. "Watching celebrities take giant leaps out of their comfort zone and step into the unexpected will no doubt be truly transformational and comical. Throughout, we will learn a lot about these stars, and when you factor in William Shatner leading the charge from Mission Control, we have the makings of a show that's ready for blast off."

Here's the official description of this far-out Martian free-for-all:

The show will open with the celebrities living together as they live, eat, sleep, strategize, and bond with each other in the same space station. During their stay, they will be faced with authentic conditions that simulate life on Mars, and they must use their brains and brawn or maybe just their stellar social skills to outlast the competition and claim the title of brightest star in the galaxy. The celebrities will compete in missions and will vote to eliminate one of their crewmates each week, sending them back to Earth.

Cue the intergalactic alliances and rivalries. "Stars on Mars" will send these famous rookie space travelers where no one has gone before and reveal who has what it takes to survive life on Mars.

Eureka Productions' Chris Culvenor conceived this clever "Stars on Mars" concept and will act as executive producer alongside Paul Franklin, Wes Dening and Eden Gaha. Charles Wachter is aboard the project as executive producer and showrunner.

"Stars on Mars" will premiere on Fox on June 5, 2023.

Follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), or on Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).

Read the original:

William Shatner is back in the captain's chair in wild new 'Stars on ... - Space.com

POLAND - 2022/01/21: In this photo illustration, HBO MAX logo is displayed on a smartphone with stock market graphics in the background. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A new workplace comedy has entered into the streaming game! The upcoming Max animated comedy dystopian series Fired on Mars premieres Apr. 21 on the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max. The service has been switching their focus from family-based programming to adult animation withFired on Marsarriving on the platform at perfect time.

The series explores the precarious relationship between work and selflight years away from Earth. Jeff Cooper, the lead character, finds himself adrift in an office colony and is forced to reinvent himself and find meaning in a dangerous, alien, yet all-too-familiar corporate landscape.The animated series is based on the 2016 short film of the same name from newcomer writer/directors Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey. This movie will join the same slate of adult animated series that will live on the platform including the upcoming Clone High reboot.Are you looking to find out whos voicing the characters on the show? Read on to find out!

Previously, it was reported that SNL alum Pete Davidson would lead the series but has since not been mentioned in any current promotional media as the lead. The remaining cast of Fired on Mars has not yet been revealed.Want to see what to expect before the episodes are released? Look on to find out!

Watch the trailer below on the official Max YouTube channel:

Let us know in the comments below if you plan on watching! You can stream all eight episodes of Fired on Mars starting Apr. 20 on Max. Make sure to keep up todate with Hidden Remote for more Fired on Mars news and coverage.

Read the original:

Fired on Mars cast: Who stars in the animated comedy series - Hidden Remote

In SYFYs The Ark (airing Wednesday nightson SYFY, and streaming next day on Peacock!), the surviving crew of the colony ship Ark One are on a one way trip to Proxima Centauri b, humanitys new home, but only if they can get there alive. While the circumstances of their departure from Earth werent ideal, there is something appealing about the opportunity to see another world up close. One way to do that is to hop a ship off planet and endure the grueling trip to another world. Another option is to stay on the couch, crunching popcorn, while you globetrot around Mars in your jammies.

Jay Dickson, an image processing scientist at the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization at Caltech, led the project to build a global mosaic of Mars, using data from NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The project was funded as part of NASAs Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration and Tools (PDART) program, whose aim is to develop new tools and resources from existing NASA data.

RELATED:'The Ark' writer Rebecca Rosenberg on perspective as only woman in SYFY series' 4-person writers' room

I wanted something that would be accessible to everyone. Schoolchildren can use this now. My mother, who just turned 78, can use this now. The goal is to lower the barriers for people who are interested in exploring Mars, said Dicksonin a statement.

The mosaic was created by stitching together more than 110,000 images taken by the MROs black and white Context Camera. In fact, the MRO has three cameras onboard, each of which is useful for different types of work. The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) produces a low-resolution global map of Mars every day. It doesnt have the sorts of surface features that are fun to look at, but its useful at tracking weather patterns across wide areas and over extended periods. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) provides full color, high-detail images of small areas, on the same scale as a kitchen table. If they represent two extremes of the imaging spectrum, the CTX sits somewhere in the middle. It doesnt provide color, but it does gather data at the right scale for this kind of global surface map creation.

Images from the CTX have a resolution of roughly 270 square feet (25 square meters) per pixel, making this mosaic the highest resolution global image of Mars ever created. If you tried to print the whole mosaic to make your own scale model of the red planet, youd need an area about the size of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, according to JPL. Thats about 900 feet in diameter, in case youre not a fan of collegiate level athletic architecture. Suffice it to say, you could spend a while walking around the virtual red planet.

Building the mosaic was no easy feat and took tens of thousands of hours over the course of six years to complete. The MRO has been in orbit around Mars since 2006 and has been absolutely crushing its job as space paparazzi ever since. In the course of its orbit, it has seen the planet from almost every conceivable angle, and there arent any instructions for stitching thousands of images into the ultimate planetary panorama. Building a mosaic like this is like putting a puzzle together, except most of the pieces have duplicates, some pieces are the wrong shade, and others are missing entirely.

RELATED: See Mars Jezero Crater for yourself in this stunning video tour

To make the job manageable, Dickson created an algorithm to sift through images, identify features, and use those features to stitch images together. When it was done sifting through the MRO data, Dickson had the foundation of his mosaic, but there were still 13,000 images the algorithm couldnt parse. He stitched those together himself manually, one at a time. By the time the project was finished, every single image had been put in its proper place. Any remaining gaps represent areas which hadnt yet been imaged at the time of the project or images which were obscured by clouds or dust.

Already, more than 120 peer reviewed scientific papers have reverenced the mosaic, demonstrating the value of these sorts of tools for research, but you dont need an advanced degree to use it. The MRO mosaic is designed to be as user friendly to as many people as possible. Users are presented with a list of popular destinations, including Jezero Crater, hometown of the Perseverance Rover, with the click of a button. Once you land at your destination, you can click around, zoom in and out, then jump to the next port. You could even circumnavigate Mars manually, like some sort of virtual interplanetary Magellan. Embark here for Gale Crater, Olympus Mons, and all stops between! What are you waiting for? The water is frozen and mostly trapped underground. But still!

If Mars is too near a destination, you can catch the last ship to Proxima Centauri b on The Ark!The Season 1 finale airson SYFYthis Wednesday, April 19, at 10 p.m. ET. Catch up on the story thus far with Episodes 1-11 streamingon Peacock. The series wasofficially renewed for a second seasonearlier this week.

Read more:

Thanks to NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can now circumnavigate the Martian surface - Syfy

For a full landscape of the commercial space market, see our previous post: Space: A Market Map.

Few achievements illustrate American Dynamism in a more visceral way than a rocket blasting off. It is, in a sense, controlled chaos the culmination of expertise in a number of scientific disciplines, harnessing explosive forces to escape our planets grip. In recent years, technical innovations and market opportunity have ushered in an ecosystem of new launch providers, and a domain once reserved for nations is now led by private companies.

Their simple goal is to put mass, in the form of commercial or government spacecraft, into orbit. Of course, this is literally rocket science, so theres actually nothing simple about it. Earths atmosphere and gravity attempt to restrain us, and although we regularly break free today, theres still much innovation to come if were going to truly open up space for anything beyond satellites and exploratory research missions.

This resurgence of the launch ecosystem is young, but segments are emerging. There are a lot of rocket companies, and more are popping up every year. What follows is an explanation of how the launch market works and where it might be headed.

Launch prices have dropped precipitously in recent years, expanding the potential for profitable applications. Notably, in this period, weve seen satellites dramatically shrink in size. But while they may differ in mass, they remain similar in principle:The largest segments of the space economy today are satellites transferring information through the electromagnetic spectrum. Doing this in space is really cheap, as it is on Earth, and is especially worth it if that data can only be supported by space-based infrastructure (e.g. remote sensors, satellite internet, GPS, etc.). As of now, information technology is the king of space and both commercial and government customers are driving demand.

Understandably, customers want to quickly and successfully reach orbit for the cheapest price. Reliability and speed aside, price is commonly measured in $/kilogram (kg). This is often expressed as the price per unit if the rocket is full; more practically, the lowest costs fall between $3,000/kg and $6,000/kg. This is due in part to reusability, scheduling, and volume requirements. However, most customers wont fill a rocket alone, as few companies have payload demands exceeding tens of thousands of kilograms.

Cost per launch better reflects the true price of reaching orbit. You can either fill the full payload capacity and achieve the lowest $/kg costs, or fill only a small fraction of the total capacity and pay more per unit. But the launch company charges the same price whether its at full capacity or empty. Naturally, rideshares enable multiple companies to split the cost per launch, which is why $/kg is commonly used for comparisons (more on this later).

For optimal efficiency and pricing, launch capacity would be matched to payload demand. Large rockets that arent filled end up being far more expensive than a smaller rocket that is fully filled; economical viability can trump technical capability, in that sense. The launch market is commonly categorized by how much mass the rocket can carry small, medium, heavy, super heavy. Ive elected to simplify this according to the groupings of customers and use cases, not just launch capabilities: Big rockets launch big payloads, often mega constellations, and Small / Medium rockets launch smaller payloads, enabling dedicated scheduling and deployment location for spacecraft.

Today, the launch market is roughly $12 billion, but is estimated to grow to $30 billion or more by 2030. The western launch providers that flew at least once in 2022 are illustrated below, including legacy players like United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Arianespace.

If you can fill them, big rockets are the cheapest per-unit launch option. The SpaceX Falcon 9 has proven to be the most effective vehicle for this market, making up a whopping 60 of the 91 western launches in 2022 and there is no close second. But that stat only illustrates whos dominating the launches: Unpacking the customers in this segment reveals broader insights about the launch market and where its headed.

Lets start with SpaceX. In 2022, over 50% of SpaceXs launches were dedicated to Starlink, which now makes up the majority of objects in low-Earth orbit (LEO). These are very full launches. Its worth noting here that Falcon 9s listed max payload 22,800 kg is for the expendable version; its reusable rocket version peaks at around 80% of listed capacity roughly ~18,000 kg for LEO. Even so, Starlink missions regularly pack in over 16,000 kg (approximately 50 satellites), and geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) missions pack over 4,000 kg. In 2022, four of Falcon 9s launches were dedicated to U.S. government payloads, and three others were for allied governments.

For ULA, six out of eight launches on their Atlas V and Delta IV rockets flew U.S. government hardware. The majority of these government payloads are expensive, research-focused or classified, and demand reliability; they cant risk a failed launch.

SpaceXs Falcon Heavy found a unique use case in this government market, and its present usage illustrates the broader importance of matching rocket size with payload demand. Heavy was initially designed for the massive thrust to get large telecom satellites into GTO a highly elliptical orbit that circulates into geosynchronous orbit (GEO) with time, and is much easier to reach than heading to GEO directly. However, the Falcon 9 improved so much over the years that it stole this market from its sister rocket. In 2022, roughly 20% of Falcon 9s launches were for large commercial payloads entering GTO.

Though Heavys unit prices are very low when full, few customers will pay the $97 million launch price when the Falcon 9s $67 million cost maps better to their needs. Heavy would be flown for Starlink missions, but its payload volume is actually similar to the Falcon 9. Effectively, you cant fit more Starlinks in a Heavy anyway, so the added thrust is worthless. On top of this, difficulties with coordinating large enough launchpads makes scheduling difficult. Falcon Heavy only flew once last year, carrying heavy Space Force satellites directly to GEO.

Still, the majority of the launch market is in deploying large constellations in LEO. This will not just be Starlink. Other large telecom deployments, like Amazons Project Kuiper and OneWeb, will also demand high-volume, cheap launches. Given the competitive atmosphere, however, both of these constellations appear to be avoiding launching with SpaceX. Project Kuiper is looking at Arianespace, ULA, and, of course, Blue Origin for their future needs. And OneWeb selected Indias space program and Relativitys future rocket, Terran R. Additionally, OneWeb is launching a couple of payloads with SpaceX due to the last minute cancellation of their Russian Soyuz launches because of the war in Ukraine.

There is also significant demand from other satellite operators, albeit not at the scale of communication satellites. For example, since 2017, Planet Labs has launched from the Russian and Indian state space organizations, Arianespace, Rocket Labs, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX. Today, of the ~7,000 satellites in various orbits, around 1,000 operate in a remote sensing capacity like Planet Labs.

Building and maintaining increasingly large constellations of satellites requires big rockets, and there is certainly demand in this market available to whoever is able to launch reliably. Noteworthy big rockets in development include:

Existing players will likely dominate this market, and steep development costs hundreds of millions, minimum put new entrants at a disadvantage. The majority of the satellites going into space will continue to belong to and be launched by SpaceX; the rest of the market will likely be fighting for chunks of other large constellations. Additionally, the loss of Russian launch has effectively taken offline around 20% of global capacity, and Amazon bought up nearly all remaining viable launch partners until around 2025. Many companies that started building smaller rockets, like Relativity and Rocket Lab, are now moving upmarket to meet this opportunity. Well see rockets get as large as regular payload demand can fill by some estimates, tens of thousands of satellites by 2030.

However, although larger rockets are potentially very profitable, there is still demand in the smaller market, buoyed by significant startup activity.

If you have a single, 200-kilogram satellite you want to get into LEO, you wont be buying out an entire Falcon 9. The common solution to this is to buy a ride with a big rocket thats already launching and is sharing capacity. Last year, for example, SpaceX operated 3 rideshares to LEO to serve this remainder market starting at roughly $6,600/kg.

However, like a bus, you are subject to their timelines and destinations and, frankly, youre competing for capacity against their own Starlink satellites. An additional concern, in some situations, is that precise deployment into a specific orbital position is impossible without a dedicated launch. Currently, there also is a two-year (or more) wait time for rideshare missions. Many smallsat companies are already dealing with tight timelines, so any uncertainty or waiting around for launch is painful. This reality has opened the door for smaller, dedicated launch providers that map closer to smaller payload demand and have more personalized schedules and destinations effectively, a space courier.

There are dozens of companies working in this segment. Because the rocket is smaller and has lower development costs, weve seen a bit more flexibility on launch system design: launching from a mid-flight plane, hypersonic platforms, kinetic first stage, and fully reusable rockets. Right now, Rocket Labs Electron is the leader in this small / medium launch category, flying nine times in 2022 (I wouldve placed Rocket Lab in the Big category, given Neutrons development, if not for the success of Electron). Others, like Astra and Firefly, also succeeded in launching last year, and more are just behind them.

Candidly, though, I expect this market to be tough. While there is demand for dedicated launch, and it will surely increase in the coming years, there will likely only be a handful of players (or fewer) with meaningful market share. Today, whoever can actually launch will get business, although I expect this to change as more systems go online. (However, even successful launches wont save you if the economics dont work out, as recently exhibited in the case of Virgin Orbit.) Reliability and scheduling will be important differentiators against bigger rockets, but within the smaller rocket ecosystem, cost will be a differentiator in order to win business. Price declines will likely fall into three categories:

Were also already seeing companies like Rocket Lab, Relativity, and Astra focus their efforts on building larger, cheaper per unit rockets, like the Neutron, Terran R, and Rocket 4. Small rockets want to become medium rockets, if not larger SpaceX, too, began with the small Falcon 1 before focusing on the bigger Falcon 9. Additionally, companies in this segment have extended into adjacent markets; Rocket Lab actually makes much of their revenue from their Photon spacecraft, and Astra is focusing revenue efforts on their acquired propulsion system. All of this to say that the size of this dedicated launch market remains unclear, and survival might require expanding into other, higher-margin, spaces.

More pessimistically, as the big launch market grows to fuel mega constellations and higher-energy orbit destinations, they might also operate more rideshares. These alone wont cover the development costs of big rockets, but they can still be profitable to launch on a regular basis and they will likely draw demand away from dedicated launch. Furthermore, the development of efficient satellite propulsion systems and space tugs might eliminate the desire for precise orbital drop offs. Rideshare could do the hard part, then you can find another way to go that last mile once in orbit.

As noted above, governments are also large buyers of launch services, and their involvement definitely matters when it comes to how the launch market will evolve. In fact, 109 of the 186 launches globally last year were dedicated to government payloads. When it comes to industries relevant to national security, governments will go out of their way to maintain a healthy industry of domestic suppliers and, of course, space is becoming increasingly critical.

Today, only a handful of nations can regularly enter orbit. There are effectively three players the United States, Russia, and China with distant rivals in Europe, India, Iran, Israel, and South Korea. Perhaps most concerningly, China has accelerated their launch efforts in recent years and plans to deploy a 13,000-satellite mega constellation of their own. In 2022, the launch geographic split looked like this:

There is global demand for launch; last year, SpaceX flew 3 missions consisting of foreign government hardware, and there are many international satellite companies seeking orbital access. The largest launch providers will remain in the largest economies, but growing international demand will likely be subsidized by the governments that want it and channeled toward domestic industry. The days of SpaceX launching German or Japanese government satellites will likely disappear.

If a nation doesnt have launch capacity, and can afford it, they will likely develop it. South Korea has recently achieved this, and Australia is attempting to follow later this year. However, accessible launch pads are a limiting factor here, as most countries lack good locations. Many of Europes launches, for example, take place in French Guiana. To address this, well likely see countries partner to develop shared launch pads, or focus on alternative launch methods that do not require them like launching from a mid-flight plane.

Why does launch capacity matter? Tactical response: the ability to quickly design and launch a spacecraft to replace a damaged satellite or other more kinetic things. A country with security concerns should not rely on another nation for this service. In time, I expect most advanced nations to develop a domestic launch industry, likely small payloads, if only to maintain rapid response capabilities in times of conflict. Tactical response is an explicit goal of the U.S. Space Force, and last year Firefly was selected to take part in the third TacRS exercise, Victus Nox

The rise of the commercial launch industry catalyzed the growth of the modern space economy both directly in orbit and in markets enabled by assets in space. Like the transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century, many of these companies will not survive, but their efforts will lay the foundation for a new frontier. No doubt, SpaceX has been the chief architect of this progress so far.

However, even with weekly Falcon 9 launches, it is still incredibly expensive to move mass into and around in space. This is in part because even the best rockets suffer from the tyranny of the rocket equation, a physics principle illustrating one of the fields great challenges that it takes propellant to lift propellant. While aircraft typically take off with around 50% of their mass being fuel, rockets hover around 85%, counting both fuel and oxidizer (liquid oxygen). To minimize total propellant needed for a mission, weight is shed mid-launch. Often this involves dropping the heavy and high-thrust first stage after ascending beyond the thicker parts of the atmosphere. By reducing weight mid-flight, achieving orbital velocity with the second-stage engine is easier. Typically, the second stage burns up in the atmosphere upon re-entry.

SpaceX has achieved a number of firsts here. Namely, pioneering rapid re-use of the first stage through vertical landing, and developing some of the best rocket engines with the Merlin and Raptor, the latter vying to be the first full-flow, methalox propulsion system to reach orbit. In terms of rocketry, this would be a significant achievement that helps balance specific impulse (fuel economy), propellant storage mass, and pure thrust tempering the tyranny of the rocket equation.

Like an aircraft, however, building a rocket is far more expensive than fueling it the Falcon 9s propellant costs are only around $200,000 per flight. By far the most expensive part of a rocket is the massive first stage, nearly 60% of the total cost for the Falcon 9. A reusable first stage amortizes this across a number of launches, now exceeding 10 for the Falcon 9. Naturally, reducing the largest cost factor shook the launch market.

The question now is: What is next for launch in its current state? Looking farther forward, what new opportunities will open up when the next step function decline in launch costs occurs?

A wave of new rocket companies seek to dethrone the Falcon 9 by achieving even greater reusability and further reducing production costs. Personally, Im excited for Stoke Spaces fully reusable rocket, Relativity Spaces 3D-printed engines, and Rocket Labs structural innovations in their Neutron launch system. Real competition in the launch market is coming, and its likely well see Falcon 9s dominance and margins erode as competition comes online.

However, SpaceXs Starship, a 100,000-kg-payload, fully reusable rocket will completely change the space ecosystem. And this is not just for deploying large volumes of Starlink satellites. Starship makes space markets of physical goods, and moving people, become very real possibilities.

While Starship will not launch at breakeven, nor severely undercut existing prices, it will nonetheless usher in an era of larger payloads, unconstrained by mass, for both in-orbit and deep space objectives realistically, something closer to $1000/kg would still shake up the market. A Starship sitting in LEO could also act as a gas station, fueling a web of spacecraft activity serving commercial stations and transporting assets throughout cis-lunar space. With Starship for logistics, budgets for a Moon base become comparable to other government research programs, and the supply chain necessary for a Mars colony becomes achievable.

Looking further ahead, we might envision a science-fiction-inspired single-stage space plane something like a Star Wars X-Wing that can take off from a standstill, reach cruising speeds, and then accelerate into deep space. Completely optimizing launch systems for specific atmospheres and speeds a transition from jet engines into rockets is incredibly difficult, but it is theoretically optimal when it comes to high-speed flight. At slower speeds, air-breathing jet engines would minimize the perils of carrying oxidizer, and wings enable assistance from aerodynamic lift. Reaching orbit is a speed, not an altitude, and if you leverage jet engines when accelerating in the thicker parts of the atmosphere, before igniting faster rocket engines, competing with Starship prices might be feasible. In this sense, one could consider many hypersonic companies as efficient launch booster stages. I remain hopeful that more advanced technology will make this sci-fi vision achievable, pioneering orbital access that mirrors modern air freight rates of around $2 to $5/kg.

Launch is the beautiful beginning of a never-ending journey. To reach orbit, let alone build a business out of it, is exceedingly difficult. In a world of increasing unseriousness, the sheer complexity of it all gives you hope, reflecting mankinds fiery spirit and deep, eternal curiosity for the mysteries of space.

* * *

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (a16z) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

Here is the original post:

Space Launch: Who, What, and Where We're Going - Andreessen Horowitz

The University of Miami professor, National Geographic Explorer, inventor, and fashion photographer has created and developed next-generation remote sensing instruments capable of mapping the seafloor in remarkable detail.

One misstep and Ved Chirayath would have been a goner. Cut off from civilization and his cell phone useless, he knew that medical aid would never reach him in time if he were bitten by one of the countless sea snakes that surrounded him.

Theyre curious creatures, the University of Miami researcher and National Geographic Explorer said of the highly venomous snakes. Theyll swim right up to you and lick you. And when they sleep, they sleep head down in the rocks. So, my real concern was not to step on one.

But despite the very real prospect of death, Chirayath concentrated on the task at hand: mapping a colony of stromatolites in Australias snake-infested Shark Bay.

He would spend the entire two months of that 2012 field campaign navigating around the deadly snakes, the thought of dying only occasionally entering his mind. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge allowed him to stay focused.

Its that same thirst that drives him today in his quest to explore Earths last unexplored frontier: its oceans.

We have mapped more of Mars and our Moon than we have of our planets seafloor, and we know more about the large-scale structure of our universe and its history than we do about the various systems in our oceans, said Chirayath, the G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. And we know so much more about our universe because we can see very far into space and in different wavelengths.

Peering into the deep ocean, however, is another matter. Light penetrates only so far below the sea surface, and ocean waves greatly distort the appearance of undersea objects.

But using a camera he invented that literally sees through ocean waves, Chirayath is removing those distortions and helping to reveal the trove of deep secrets hidden by our oceans. Mounted on a drone flying above the water, FluidCam uses a technology called Fluid Lensing to photograph and map the ocean in remarkable clarity. From American Samoa and Guam to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, he has used the device to map more than a dozen shallow marine ecosystems such as coral reefs at depths as low as 63 feet.

That still pales in comparison to the average depth of the ocean, which is nearly 4,000 meters. And 99 percent of the habitable volume of our planet is in that region, said Chirayath, who also directs the Rosenstiel Schools Aircraft Center for Earth Studies (ACES).

So, he created the more powerful MiDAR. The Multispectral Imaging, Detection, and Active Reflectance device combines FluidCam with high-intensity LED and laser light pulses to map and transmit 3D images of the sea floor at greater detail and depths. Chirayaths research will be on display April 2021 at the Universitys showcase exhibit during the eMerge Americas conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Recently, he used MiDAR to conduct multispectral mapping of corals in Guam, validating the airborne images during subsequent dives.

Still, even MiDAR will not illuminate objects 4,000 meters deep. But install the device on a robot sub that can dive thousands of meters deep, and the possibilities of imaging the seafloor in the same detail and volume that satellites have mapped land are limitless, according to Chirayath.

It keeps me up at night, he said of MiDARs potential. He envisions his creation, awarded NASAs invention of the year in 2019, exploring not only the Earths deep oceans but worlds beyondfrom sampling minerals on Mars to looking for signs of life beneath the icy ocean moons like Jupiters Europa.

Chirayaths fascination with studying and surveying the ocean deep was born out of his love of the stars.

He grew up in Los Angeles, looking up at the stars and contemplating the possibility of life on other planets. As a youngster, he would attend open house events at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in nearby Pasadena, learning from the scientists and engineers who were building the Cassini space probe that explored Saturn and its intricate rings.

I knew at 5 years old that I wanted to work for NASA and make a contribution to discovering other worlds, Chirayath said.

By the time he was a teenager, astronomy had been his passion for more than half his life. It was also an escape, a methodology, he said, to deal with some of the challenges he faced at that time. I was homeless for about three years, and I used that time to sit on top of a mountain and do as much astronomy as I could, Chirayath noted.

At 16, he detected an exoplanet one and a half times the size of Jupiter and 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, doing so with a consumer digital camera he modified and attached to a telescope. His refashioned scope allowed him to employ the transit photometry method for detecting exoplanets. Whenever a planet passes directly between a star and its observer, it dims the stars light ever so slightly. Chirayaths modified telescope detected just such a dip in light.

Earth- and space-based observatories that look continuously at stars for weeks and even months at a time use the technique. It took Chirayath three years to locate the planet, but his patience paid off in the form of a scholarship he won and used to help study theoretical physics at Moscow State University in Russia.He later transferred to Stanford University, where he earned his undergraduate degree.

To help pay the bills while he attended college, he worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue. His pictures have also appeared in Elle, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

He earned his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, reconnecting with his passion for astronomy and always asking himself, What can I do with small telescopes? How can I make an impact? How can I develop new technologies and explore our solar system?

He came to the University of Miami in 2021 after a decade-long career at NASAs Ames Research Center, where he founded and led its Laboratory for Advanced Sensing, inventing the suite of next-generation remote sensing technologies that are now the cornerstones of his work at ACES.

While at NASA, he also created NeMO-Net, a single player video game in which players help NASA classify coral reefs. The space agency awarded Chirayath with its 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Medal for organizing its first participation in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade.

His fluid lensing mapping of the ocean promises to improve the resilience of coastal areas impacted by severe storms as well as assess the effects of climate change on coastal areas around the world.

While his origins are in astronomy, today he is more of a marine scientist than an astrophysicist. Still, the two fields are incredibly similar, Chirayath pointed out. Theyre both very difficult to study and require thinking beyond our terrestrial comfort zone. I love them both, and they can easily coexist. You can have large space observatories, and they can even help one another. A lot of the technologies that Ive created were inspired by things I learned in astrophysics and applied astronomy. But theres not that curiosity for understanding our own planet in a way that there is for space, and Im hoping to change that.

He applauds the $14 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which has been taking the deepest infrared images of our universe ever taken.

But weve never invested $14 billion into an ocean observatory, into something that looks critically at a piece of the puzzle that if we miss, we do so at our own peril, Chirayath explained. Im one of the many technologists who are looking inward and saying, This is what we understand about the universe and its large-scale structure, but a lot of the questions that are being posed to understand our universe and whats in it can also be posed for the ocean. If we dont map it, if we dont understand it, if were not able to characterize it, then when it fails or changes, humans may not be a part of the future.

The University of Miami is a Titanium Sponsor of eMerge Americas. Visit the Universitys research and technology showcase April 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Registration for an Unlimited TECH Pass is free for all University of Miami students and faculty and staff members.

More:

Ved Chirayath is on mission to map world's oceans - Mirage News

2001: A Space Odyssey is a name that is engraved into the emblems of science fiction. A film that has revolutionized the sci-fi genre and has been an inspiration to countless movies and TV shows. The movie's awe-striking visuals and cinematography are way ahead of their time and remain very relevant to pop culture to this day. 2001: A Space Odyssey has influenced films like Star Wars, Alien, and Interstellar, and its mesmerizing score has sparked the music industry into a renaissance.

The Kubrick Masterpiece has paved the way for several incredible sci-fi and space travel movies like Contact (1997) and Moon (2009), taking the space genre in cinemas to new heights. Today's world is home to some great films with similar immersive experiences to 2001: A Space Odyssey. And so we have curated for you a list of Movies to Watch if You Loved 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Silent Running is a sci-fi space drama directed by the visual effects maestro Douglas Trumbull. The movie is based on aspects like space journey, the future world, environmentalism, preservation, etc., and strongly links to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The world has seen the extinction of its flora and fauna, and the only existing plants and animals are now aboard a spaceship surviving inside domes. One such dome comprising a forest is tended by the botanist Freeman Lowell who has formed a deep connection with the living beings. Due to increasing expenses, the ship's crew are ordered to destroy the forests and return to Earth. Lowell refuses to abide by the orders and eventually flees with the ship with the help of his companion robots.

The movie focuses on his journey toward the unknown, filled with dramatic events to preserve the last surviving plants and animals. Silent Running is a thought-provoking film that emphasizes nature preservation and sheds light on isolation. An incredibly shot film with amazing visual effects that gives a certain vibe of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

RELATED: 12 Movies to Watch if You Love the Before Trilogy

The popular classic sci-fi horror film Alien was released in 1979 and was directed by Ridley Scott. The film focuses on a crew of the mining spacecraft Nostromo who answers a distress call on a distant planet on their way home. After landing, they discover a hive colony of eggs inside a strange ship. The horror aspects start when a facehugger hatched from the eggs attacks one of the crew members and plants an alien form inside him. The alien creature bursting out from the attacked individual starts stalking and killing the other crew members one by one.

The story is paced with jump scares and thrilling twists. The film revolutionized the sci-fi space genre by incorporating horror aspects to it. Even though the movie's core doesn't really relate to the one of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film's blend of thriller and space certainly helps create the unique atmosphere.

The lesser-known successor to the highly acclaimed 2001: A Space Odyssey is our current pick, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984). The film, directed by Peter Hyams, is based on the later events of Kubrick's film and follows the crew of the spacecraft Leonov on their journey to Jupiter. The crew ventures to Jupiter to investigate the lost ship Discovery One and unravels several mysteries surrounding it. The film answers the secrets of the monolith and brings down curtains to the incredible duology.

Even though the film failed to reach the heights of its predecessor, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) still managed to create a concrete footing in terms of cinematography, screenplay, special effects, and suspense.

The modern-day sci-fi film Annihilation is a horror thriller directed by Alex Garland. The film follows Lena Double (Natalie Portman), a biologist and former soldier who, searching for her husband, volunteers to enter an environmental disaster zone named "The Shimmer." Four scientists, including Lena, are sent into the mysterious, rapidly growing ecological zone to discover its secrets. They encounter strange phenomena and mutated creatures inside the area, and as they venture more and more, they face intense psychological effects.

Their journey to search out the root cause is filled with thrillers and horrors. The film sheds light on alien creatures and philosophical themes and keeps a constant sense of mystery. The film's unique cinematography and story remind us of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir comes the sci-fi adventure film The Martian. The film, directed by Ridley Scott, focuses on Mark Watney(Matt Damon), a NASA astronaut left alone to survive on Mars. The film starts with a group of astronauts on a mission on Mars when suddenly they are hit by a massive storm where Mark is impaled and assailed away. Mark is left alone to survive until the next mission arrives after his crew leaves him, presuming his death.

The movie portrays Mark's survival on the unhabitable planet through his wit and mental strength. As Mark faces issues with his acuity, like growing food, reestablishing communication, ensuring a safe habitat, etc., back on earth, NASA plans a dangerous mission to rescue him unharmed. The film is a representation of space survival and facing alien issues with ingenuity, which relates to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Sunshine is a sci-fi thriller directed by Danny Boyle and released in 2007. The film follows the Icarus II mission crew, tasked to revive the sun and save humanity from mass extinction. Sun is dying, and Earth is about to face its eternal doom; in such circumstances, the Icarus II spacecraft is on a mission to reignite the sun using a bomb. With Cillian Murphy leading the cast, the crew aboard the ship faces hurdles one after another as they proceed toward their goal.

With issues like system failures, accidents, making contact with Icarus I, etc., the crew must give the ultimate test of perseverance to save life on Earth. The film is an intense space thriller, and its suspense creates a similar atmosphere to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

From the famed director Robert Zemeckis, comes the classic sci-fi film Contact. The film, released in 1997, is a drama thriller that follows Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), a SETI scientist who has worked all her life searching for Extraterrestrial intelligence. While facing many hurdles and skepticism, Dr. Ellie and her colleagues finally detect a signal of Extraterrestrial intelligence. They perform a seemingly impossible task with the help of a billionaire and send Dr. Ellie to make contact with Extraterrestrial life.

The film includes aspects like alien contact, space journey, skepticism, etc., and creates a great deal of mystery and suspense throughout. Contact incredible sci-fi film viewers would love to watch if they liked 2001: A Space Odyssey.

One of the cinematic feats of Christopher Nolan, Interstellar is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller adventure film. Favorite to many sci-fi lovers, Interstellar follows the story of Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA pilot who is tasked to lead a mission to find a habitable planet. The Earth is now prone to disasters and droughts, and humanity suffers from intense food shortage; in such circumstances, Cooper and a team of scientists and two robots, TARS and CASE, venture on an immersive and dangerous interstellar journey. Along with their search for a habitable planet, they face intense time dilation, effects of relativity, gravitational anomalies, etc., and at times they are met with tough choices.

The movie brilliantly brings up concepts like black holes, wormholes, interstellar journeys, etc., and beautifully portrays the emotions and sacrifices of the characters. The movie's outwardly cinematography and screenplay are something that lovers of 2001: A Space Odyssey would love to enjoy.

RELATED:20 Great Movies to Watch for People In Their 20

Moon is a sci-fi mystery film directed by Duncan Jones and released in 2009. The sci-fi drama follows the story of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), who has been living on the Moon with a robot named GERTY for almost three years, working for a Helium mining company Lunar Industries. As he nears the end of his contract of three years with the company, Sam starts to face hallucinations and delusions. Suddenly he suffers a severe accident at his mining site, and after his recovery, he starts to discover several mysteries, which leads him to question the reality of his existence. Unearthing the company's dark secrets, Sams plans to return to Earth by himself.

The film is a brilliant representation of isolation, identity, psychological toll, living in space, etc. The film has incredible visual effects and screenplay and is a must-watch for the fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

From the great Andrei Tarkovsky comes one of the greatest sci-fi films to ever hit the silver screen, Solaris. This masterpiece of a sci-fi mystery was released in 1972 and focuses on the story of Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), a psychologist tasked to investigate the strange abnormalities instilled by the planet Solaris. Kris is sent to the space station orbiting the planet Solaris after reports of the crew facing psychological events and hallucinations. After arriving, Kris also starts to face these occurrences, where he meets his wife, Hari, who has been dead for years. Upon further investigation, he begins to unravel the psychological mysteries of the planet, which also affects his psyche.

The film brilliantly explores human consciousness, the deeper meanings of life, and the impacts of memories. The film's imagery is exceptional, and its atmosphere and screenplay are like no other. This thought-provoking masterwork is a must-watch for any sci-fi fan and is a worthy contemporary to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Link:

10 Movies to Watch if You Loved 2001: A Space odyssey - MovieWeb