News

Futurism

Ingenious Plan Could Save NASA’s Hubble Telescope

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is slowly falling to its death — but now, a couple of startups have a solution that may just be crazy enough to work. This collab, Gizmodo notes, is a big deal given that Momentus already has a space tug craft in the works and, earlier this week, announced its water-propelled system, which a spokesperson confirmed to the online news site would be used for the proposed Hubble mission should NASA choose to select the joint project.

CNET

How Hundreds of 24-Ton Bricks Could Fix a Huge Renewable Energy Problem

Imagine a gigantic brick, packed full of tightly compressed dirt. As big as a pickup truck but about five times heavier. An elevator powered by solar panels or wind turbines hoists it over 300 feet up the side of a huge building. A trolley stows it inside and an automated system lifts and stores hundreds more bricks as the sun shines and the wind blows. Now imagine the building's control system lowering those hundreds of bricks one by one, spinning electrical power generators in the process. They drop down every evening just as demand for power peaks but solar panel output fades away.

Popular Mechanics

For Gravity Batteries, It’s Time to Put Up or Shut Up

Nuclear microreactors, lithium-metal batteries, and even the far-future promise of nuclear fusion are all examples of technologies that could solve this renewable energy shortcoming. Then, there’s gravity batteries, a novel idea that you could leverage Isaac Newton’s universal force to create kinetic energy when renewables are producing at their lowest. After many years of design and small-scale trials, one the biggest companies behind this approach, Energy Vault, is almost ready for its first real-world test.

SpaceNews

Quantum Space Moves up Development of Ranger Transfer Vehicle

Quantum Space is accelerating work on a transfer vehicle designed to take payloads to both geostationary orbit and cislunar space to support growing demand from commercial and government customers. The company established last year to develop spacecraft called Scouts to provide services such as space domain awareness and communications between the Earth and moon, planned to deliver those spacecraft using a tug called Ranger.

Futurism

Company Builds Facility That Lifts and Lowers 24-Ton Bricks to Store Energy

Switzerland-based startup Energy Vault has broken ground on two huge facilities in Texas and just north of Shanghai to test whether we can store energy by raising and lowering hundreds of 24 metric-ton bricks made of compressed dirt. By lifting the massive bricks to the facility's upper levels during periods of excess renewable energy production, the facility's cranes can store large amounts of power — and release it by subsequently lowering them back down when demand is high and the energy supply is low.

CNBC

Nuclear Fusion Will Not Be Regulated the Same Way as Nuclear Fission — A Big Win for the Fusion Industry

The top regulatory agency for nuclear materials safety in the US voted unanimously to regulate the burgeoning fusion industry differently than the nuclear fission industry, and fusion startups are celebrating that as a major win. As a result, some provisions specific to fission reactors, like requiring funding to cover claims from nuclear meltdowns, won’t apply to fusion plants. Fusion reactors cannot melt down.

TechCrunch

Robust.AI Raises $20M as It Scales Robot Deliveries for Pilot Customers

Founded in 2019, Robust.AI operates in the extremely popular — and wildly competitive — warehouse space. A number of companies formed in the wake of Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva already have large footprints in the category. The category has since grown into arguably the most competitive in all of robotics. Piggybacking on the concept that drove Rethink, human-robot interactions are at the heart of Robust’s offering.

Ars Technica

A Passenger Aircraft That Flies Around the World at Mach 9? Sure, Why Not

On a cloudy day in late March, Andrew Duggleby guided me a safe distance away from a rocket engine. We did not have to go far, maybe 50 meters, because the prototype engine designed and built by his small engineering team is not that large. We waited for a few minutes before steam began to hiss out of the engine. And then, for a few seconds, the engine emitted a distinctive whistling sound. "There it is!" Duggleby exclaimed. By it, he meant the sound of a rotating detonation engine firing after its ignition. The sound indicated that a reaction was successfully rotating at 20,000 times a second around the engine.

Axios

Air Taxis Are Coming to Chicago

Air mobility startup Archer Aviation and United Airlines are working to bring air taxi service to Chicago. The planned service will run between O'Hare International Airport (a vital United hub) and Vertiport Chicago, a helicopter facility about three miles west of the city's South Loop. The plan is for United passengers to be able to hop aboard an Archer eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft for a 10-minute cruise to O'Hare — a trip that can take 45 minutes or longer, depending on traffic.

CBS

How Does the World’s First Vaccine for Honeybees Work? “It’s Like Magic”

Bee colonies are collapsing all over the world, threatening large parts of our food supply. But there's good news in the fight to slow their decline: the US government has approved the use of the world's first vaccine for honeybees. "It's like magic," said Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health, which partnered with the University of Georgia to develop the vaccine. "You vaccinate the queen and she passes it on to the millions of offspring that make the colony."

Fast Company

How Axiom Space Took a Giant Leap Toward Building a Commercial Space Station

With the International Space Station set to close by 2031, NASA has entered into commercial agreements with three companies—Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman Systems—to develop replacements, though it’s not clear they will be ready in time. Axiom Space has a head start on all of them, with the sole contract to build a commercial module that will be attached to the ISS—and eventually detach to become its own free-floating commercial station, offering a new place for humans to live and work in space long-term.

The Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Backs New Class of Psychedelic Drugs

Wall Street is betting tens of millions of dollars on psychedelic drugs that backers say could treat mental illness for a fraction of what it costs to do therapy with better-known treatments. Transcend Therapeutics raised $40 million from venture-capital investors in January to develop a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment that its 29-year-old CEO Blake Mandell says would require about half the amount of therapy as MDMA, or ecstasy, a popular hallucinogen. Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals has announced capital raises of about $100 million since November for similar products addressing depression.

Forbes

This Radar Tech Startup Just Raised $17 Million To Make Automated Driving Cheaper And Safer

Autonomous cars and trucks won’t be a big business for years, but the market for automating some driving functions is booming and most new vehicles now come equipped with cameras and radar. Spartan Radar, a Southern California startup created by ex-defense industry engineers, just raised $17 million to help commercialize sensor software that it says lets even cheap radar units track their surroundings in greater detail and will improve the performance of current hands-free driving systems.

Business Insider

A Y Combinator-Backed Startup Just Raised $39 Million to Develop New Psychedelic Treatments for Depression

Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals is trying to develop a new type of psychedelic medicine — one that has all the mental health benefits of psychedelic treatment, but without the drawbacks. The Y Combinator alumnus is developing new treatments that work similarly to psychedelics like psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms, or DMT, the hallucinogen found naturally in many animals and plants, but that have been engineered to work faster, last shorter periods of time, or lack hallucinogenic effects all together.

The New York Times

Are Mushrooms the Future of Alternative Leather?

MycoWorks uses mycelium, the substance in the root structure of mushrooms, to make Reishi, which has the look and feel of leather and big-name companies are very interested. The company has obtained more than 75 patents and now has over 160 employees in the United States, France and Spain. It has also secured collaborations with high-end companies like Hermès and, most recently, the furniture maker Ligne Roset and GM Ventures, the investment arm of General Motors. If it continues to scale up, MycoWorks has enormous potential: The leather goods market is expected to surpass $720 billion by 2030.

Forbes

National Lab Unlocks Nuclear Fusion — True Breakthrough, Novelty Act, Or Both?

For a half-century fusion scientists have been limited by the power of their lasers and the strength of their magnetic fields — never before figuring out how to milk more energy out of their atom smashing than they put in. Until now. Today scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will reveal that for the first time, they have managed to achieve energy gain of greater than 1 — that is, more energy was emitted from the reactions inside their deuterium-tritium fuel capsule (2,000 megajoules) than was contained in the 192 lasers that they blasted it with.

Reuters

Boom Supersonic to Make Engines for Its Jets in Alliance With Kratos Unit

Boom Supersonic charted plans on Tuesday to develop an engine for its jets in partnership with a unit of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS.O) after a snub from legacy civil engine makers left the US startup with few options. Boom, the latest US entrant seeking to bring back supersonic flying, did not disclose any financial details related to the announcement, which also outlined deals with GE Additive and maintenance, repair & overhaul firm StandardAero.

Inc.

Founder-Friendly Investors: How Private Equity and Venture Capital Are Helping Founders Level Up

Since we last published this list, US businesses have had to contend with record inflation, fears of a coming recession, and a Great Resignation that, uh, just won't quit. Finding an investment partner to help you handle these challenges could make the difference between your business gaining an edge or taking a turn for the worse. After all, private equity and venture capital firms don't fear change. They engineer it.

PR Newswire

Prime Movers Lab Named to Inc.'s 2022 List of Founder-Friendly Investors

Inc. Magazine named venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab to its fourth annual Founder-Friendly Investors list, honoring the private equity and venture capital firms with the best track records of success backing entrepreneurs. Inc. recognized Prime Movers Lab for its successful track record of remaining deeply supportive of the businesses it invests in. The list singles out firms that entrepreneurs collaborate with and trust as they receive the financial support they need to help drive growth.

Forbes

Prime Movers Lab Raises A $500 Million Early Growth Fund To Invest In Breakthrough Science

Venture capital investment firm Prime Movers Lab announced that it has raised a $500 million fund to expand its investments in growth-stage startups. The fund will be focused on growth rounds for companies in its existing portfolio as well as new investments. “One of the big motivators was we have both tons of companies in our current portfolio and a fantastic pipeline of Series B and Series C companies that need growth capital,” explains Prime Movers founder and general partner Dakin Sloss.

CNBC

A-Rod and Marc Lore Invested in This Startup Trying to Make Fusion With Insanely Powerful Lasers

As the effects of climate change become more obvious, the promise of nuclear fusion — a virtually unlimited source of carbon-free energy — is getting a new wave of attention. The field has drawn almost $5 billion in funding, with recent interest off the charts. One of the newest efforts to commercialize fusion comes from startup Focused Energy, founded by a pair of physics professors with expertise in extremely high-powered lasers, Todd Ditmire and Markus Roth. The startup launched last summer and has a strong bench of veterans, including Prav Patel, who spent 23 years at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The Wall Street Journal

American Airlines Agrees to Buy 20 Boom Supersonic Jets

American Airlines agreed to buy 20 planes from Boom Supersonic, betting on the future of an ultra-fast plane that is still years away. American put down a nonrefundable deposit on its initial 20 aircraft, known as the Overture, and has the option to purchase 40 more. Aerospace startup Boom is developing new planes capable of traveling at supersonic speeds, faster than the speed of sound. Overture is being designed to carry 65 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 over water, or 1.7 times the speed of sound—about twice as fast as commercial planes can fly today.

The Wall Street Journal

United Airlines Puts Down Deposit on Flying Taxis

United and a regional airline it partners with last year invested in Archer Aviation and struck a preliminary agreement to buy up to 200 of the flying taxis that the San Francisco Bay Area-based company is developing. Other airlines and leasing companies have announced their own investments in flying-taxi startups and preliminary orders. But the aircraft haven’t yet been approved by regulators to fly passengers, and customers generally haven’t had to put down cash.

CNN

Take a Look at the ‘World’s Only Carbon-Neutral Spaceship’

The space tourism race is now firing on all rockets, but one company is hoping to carve out a niche as "the only carbon-neutral, zero-emission way" to travel to the edge of space. Florida-based Space Perspective plans to take passengers up to 100,000 feet for suborbital adventures in a pressurized capsule suspended from an enormous high-tech version of a hot-air balloon. New images released July 27 show the latest patented capsule design for its Spaceship Neptune craft.

Bloomberg

Mushroom Leather Is Here. Will Shoppers Care?

In a warehouse outside Oakland, California, the air smells like decaying trees. Workers toss microorganisms onto sawdust to grow mushroom roots into a leathery material. A few hundred yards away in a separate building, a competitor cultivates its own fungi fabric. These firms, MycoWorks and Bolt Threads, are leading a burgeoning industry to make materials that mimic the feel, durability and smell of leather, but without the animal hides. It’s taken years to get close to the real thing, but now they say their fabrics made with the whitish root of mushrooms, called mycelium, are on the cusp of breaking into a global luxury leather goods market that according to Euromonitor International will hit $78 billion this year.

The New York Times

Can a ‘Magic’ Protein Slow the Aging Process?

Several years ago, scientists studying aging at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute used a somewhat Frankensteinian technique known as parabiosis – surgically joining a young mouse and an old mouse so that they share blood – to see what would happen to the heart and skeletal muscle tissue. They knew from previous research that putting young blood in old mice caused them to grow biologically younger, and that young mice exposed to old blood age faster.

Business Insider

See 7 Supersonic Passenger-Jet Concepts That Will Connect Cities in as Little as One Hour and Fly Up to 9 Times Faster Than the Speed of Sound

Texas-based startup Venus Aerospace is the most recent manufacturer to unveil a new supersonic jet — except the company hopes to go hypersonic, at Mach 9, meaning the plane will fly nine times faster than the speed of sound. According to Venus Aerospace, its Stargazer jet will connect any two cities on Earth in an hour or less by flying along the edge of space.

Fierce Wireless

Tarana Wireless Spent $400M and a Decade Perfecting Its FWA Gear

Tarana Wireless says its fixed wireless access (FWA) gear is better than other providers’ because it has created silicon, software algorithms and its own antennas from scratch, specifically designed for FWA. Dirk Gates, President of Tarana Wireless, said the company created a “clean-sheet design” specifically for fixed wireless outdoor, point-to-multi-point. “It's taken a decade and $400 million, which is insane, but the results are phenomenal,” he said. “That's what's allowed us to really take this leapfrog approach to the solution.”

CBS News

Fungus Fashion: Mushrooms Used as an Alternative to Animal Leather

Out west, where cattle ranches have long held sway, cowhide leather may be losing its luster. "You can't grow a cow to spec," said MycoWorks co-founder Sophia Wang. "Cows just do what they do. So, that is what's remarkable about a natural material that you can grow to form." This material, an alternative to animal-hide leather, is made from mushrooms, under the watchful eyes of Bay Area technicians. The all-natural, plant-based alternative has none of the environmental or cruelty concerns that can come with animal skins.

Gizmodo

Hypersonic Plane From Venus Aerospace Will Travel to the Edge of Space

Earlier this week, Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based aeronautics startup, released renderings for Stargazer—an incredibly fast high-altitude vehicle it’s hoping to develop. Venus Aerospace has been working on the hypersonic aircraft since 2020, according to a company press release, and it has raised $33 million to build the plane, of which $1 million came from government funding. Hypersonic refers to vehicles or missiles capable of traveling Mach 5 or faster, and Stargazer has the potential to reach Mach 9, or nine times the speed of sound. The vehicle is being designed to hold 12 passengers while it travels at an altitude of 170,000 feet (51.8 kilometers).

Fox Business

NASA Announces Who Will Develop New Spacesuits for Lunar Astronauts

NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to develop the next spacesuits for astronauts working outside the International Space Station (ISS), exploring the moon on Artemis missions and preparing for future human missions to Mars. The agency said that the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract enables vendors to compete for task orders for spacewalking missions in low-Earth orbit and on the moon through 2034.

The Dallas Morning News

Vaxxinity Vaccine to Treat Alzheimer’s Wins FDA Fast-Track Designation

It’s been a promising month for Vaxxinity, the Dallas biotech company testing a new wave of vaccines to treat chronic diseases. The company announced Monday its vaccine candidate to treat Alzheimer’s disease, called UB-311, received fast-track designation from the Food and Drug Administration that will expedite the review process through more frequent discussions between Vaxxinity and the federal regulatory agency.

TechCrunch

OneWeb Founder Greg Wyler’s New Startup Wants to Launch a ‘Sustainable’ Satellite Mega-Constellation

It’s not just military action that could exacerbate the space junk problem: Satellite mega-constellations, like those planned by SpaceX, Amazon and Telesat, could also generate more debris, if only for the reason that more objects in LEO means more opportunities for those objects to collide. Does that mean mega-constellations are incompatible with cleaning up LEO? Greg Wyler doesn’t think so. His new venture, E-Space, is aiming to reconcile the two by sending up a mesh communications satellite network composed of spacecraft that will also capture small debris before deorbiting at the end of their useful life.

CNBC

Here’s What the World’s First Floating City in Busan, South Korea, Could Look Like

The United Nations, a floating city development firm called Oceanix, and the South Korean city of Busan unveiled the prototype for a floating, sustainable version of the key shipping hub. Floating cities could be a way to mitigate the effects of sea level rise caused by climate change. “Sea level rise poses an existential threat for some small islands and some low-lying coasts,” according to policymaker-summary remarks in the most recent IPCC report out from the United Nations at the end of February. Rising sea levels threaten coastal electricity and transportation infrastructures, according to the report.

TechCrunch

Pyka Adapts Its Autonomous Electric Plane for Cargo Runs With a $37M Round

It isn’t easy getting a new plane certified and flying — let alone an autonomous one, and electric at that. But Pyka has done just that, clearly impressing the powers that be enough to raise a $37 million A round and get to work on a new cargo-carrying variant of the Pelican aircraft. The company raised an $11 million seed round in 2019, and since then has tested and deployed several of its Pelican small aircraft, which can take off, perform complex spraying patterns and land entirely autonomously. It can be checked and operated by a single person. And the benefits of electric versus gas motors hardly need to be explained.

The Wall Street Journal

A Different Kind of Solar Power Attracts Attention

When you think of solar energy, you probably picture the photovoltaic panels that capture sunlight to be converted to electricity. But there are other ways to harness the sun’s power. One method attracting growing interest is called concentrated solar-thermal power, or CSP, which uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate the sun’s energy. CSP has been held back by technical challenges and a shortage of funding and government incentives compared with other sources of renewable energy. But as the sense of urgency about replacing fossil fuels continues to grow, spurring demand for carbon-free energy, a number of increasingly well-funded entities are trying to improve the technology. Proponents say the heat that CSP systems produce and their storage capacity offer advantages over other renewables for generating grid-scale electricity and fueling various industrial processes.

Entrepreneur

The Future Is...Fungi?: This Biotech Company Transforms Mushrooms Into Luxury Materials Used by Hermès

On a rainy New York City day in late March, sheets of what appear to be leather hang on the wall of one Chelsea art gallery, sleek black draped over tawny and beige. "I like to put out these samples because there's so much variation that we can design for," MycoWorks co-founder and chief of culture Sophia Wang tells Entrepreneur. "You could go for something very homogenous, or you could go for something that actually brings out the signature unique grain."

TIME

TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022: Axiom Space

The travel industry is extending to low earth orbit, thanks in part to Houston-based Axiom Space, which aims to fly paying customers for stays of up to eight days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The company also recently inked deals with NASA to build up to four new ISS modules, with the first launching as early as 2024. Before the ISS is retired in 2030, Axiom’s modules will separate, becoming their own private station.

Bloomberg

Wireless Home Broadband Venture Tarana Valued at $1 Billion

Tarana Wireless Inc’s valuation has more than doubled to $1 billion on the promise of technology that can beam broadband into homes with speeds that compete with fiber connections. The lead investors in a $170 million round closed February were Axon Capital LP and growth funds at Khosla Ventures LLC and Prime Movers Lab LLC. They were joined by Kaiser Permanente, the Michigan state pension fund, and I Squared Capital Advisors.

Financial Times

OneWeb Founder Plans to Launch 100,000 Satellites in Space Comeback

Greg Wyler, the space entrepreneur who founded Britain’s OneWeb, plans to put up to 100,000 satellites in orbit this decade with his latest business venture E-Space. The company said it had raised $50mn in seed funding from Prime Movers Lab, a fund that invests in breakthrough scientific startups. E-Space aims to create a vast “mesh” network of small satellites that can deliver bespoke and commercial services to business and government, from secure communications to remote infrastructure management.

Bloomberg

Energy Vault Strikes Deal to Provide Gravity Storage in China

Energy Vault, a provider of systems that store energy by elevating heavy objects, agreed to license its technology to a company that plans to build storage facilities in China. Atlas Renewable will pay $50 million in 2022 for a multi-year licensing agreement and will begin construction in the second quarter on the first project outside Shanghai, according to a statement Tuesday from Energy Vault, marking the storage company’s first deal in China.

CNBC

Boom Supersonic Picks North Carolina to Build and Test Ultra-Fast Planes

Boom Supersonic, which is developing ultra-fast airplanes it believes will lead to the return of commercial supersonic flights, has picked Greensboro, N.C., to build and test those planes. The Greensboro-based plant, which is expected to employ 1,750 workers by the end of the decade, is the latest example of a new aviation manufacturing facility being built in the region. In the last 11 years, Boeing and Airbus have established new final assembly plants in North Charleston, SC, and Mobile, AL, respectively.

Forbes

Atom Computing Plans to Build a Bigger and Better High-Tech Quantum Computer With Its Latest $60 Million Series B Funding

Atom announced it had secured $60M Series B round of financing led by Third Point Ventures. The round also included Prime Movers Lab and insiders Innovation Endeavors, Venrock, and Prelude Ventures. Atom was founded in 2018 with $5M in seed funds by Benjamin Bloom and Jonathan King. Over two years, the duo used those funds to secretly staff and build a quantum computer with a unique technology. What set Atom’s computer apart from other quantum machines was that it was the first quantum computer to use nuclear-spin qubits created from optically-trapped neutral atoms.

TechCrunch

Upward Plans to Open a 250,000-Square-Foot Vertical Farm in PA Early Next Year

Brooklyn-based Upward Farms this week unveiled plans to launch a massive 250,000-square-foot vertical farm. Set for an early-2023 opening, the site will be located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It’s a massive footprint for a vertical farm — particularly for a category that prides itself on limited land use. The roughly six acres of land puts the farm at multiple times the size of the competition’s space. The location is Upward’s third farm.

Vogue Businesss

Mushroom Leather Just Got One Step Closer to the Mainstream

Hermès-backed startup MycoWorks says it is ready to scale its mushroom leather alternative after proving its efficacy at scale via production runs for Hermès and securing new funding. The biotechnology firm has raised a $125 million Series C funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. The investment will be used to build its first full-scale manufacturing plant in South Carolina, giving it the capacity to produce several million square feet of its proprietary Fine Mycelium material, called Reishi, each year.

TechCrunch

MycoWorks, Making Leather From Fungi, Closes $125M to Scale Production

MycoWorks, a company making a fungal-based biomaterial that can replace leather, brought in a fresh round of funding — $125 million in Series C financing — to fund a production plant for scaling the manufacture of its flagship product Reishi. CEO Matt Scullin says what his company is doing in terms of fabrics is different from its competitors, touting the company’s Fine Mycelium process as “a biotechnology platform that engineers mycelium to grow the only made-to-order, made-to-specification luxury material.”

Popular Science

The Air Force Is Investing Millions in What Could Be the Next Concorde

Ever since the Concorde stopped soaring around at supersonic speeds in 2003, it’s been impossible for people to book a ticket on an airliner that travels faster than the speed of sound. A Colorado-based startup called Boom Supersonic—named for the sound a plane typically makes when it breaks the sound barrier—wants to change that with a yet-to-be-built passenger aircraft called Overture. Earlier today, Boom said they’d scored a new investment from the Air Force for as much as $60 million. The money will focus on “research and development on Overture,” the company said in a press release.

60 Minutes

Startups and NASA Working to Return Passenger Supersonic Flights to the Sky

The last commercial supersonic flight was almost 20 years ago, and even then super-fast flights were only on very limited routes. Most of today’s jetliners actually fly more slowly than they did 20 or 30 years ago, in order to save fuel. But that may be about to change. It’s still a long shot, but private start-up companies – with a big assist from NASA – may just give us all another chance to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Business Insider

UN-Backed Floating City Built to Withstand Category 5 Hurricanes Is Headed to South Korea

More than two years ago, a group of builders, engineers, and architects crowded around a table at the United Nations to discuss an ambitious concept: a floating city that could withstand natural disasters, including floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes. The UN-backed project cleared that hurdle when the city of Busan, South Korea, agreed to host a floating city in collaboration with the project’s designer, OCEANIX, and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). Like many coastal cities, Busan is threatened by rising sea levels.

TechCrunch

Cognixion Raises $12M to Build Its Brain-Monitoring Headset for People With Disabilities

Cognixion, a startup designing an intuitive brain-monitoring headset and interface for people with physical disabilities, has raised a $12M A round to pursue its accessibility ambitions. Armed with this funding, it should be able to complete the long list of requirements necessary for any medical or assistive device to be made widely available. The company makes a headset that uses electroencephalography to detect certain patterns of brain activity, which are then used to guide a cursor and navigate a full-featured interface. It uses an iPhone as its own “brain” and for a display, and connects to accessories like speakers and accessibility devices so that the user can do everything they need to in a single UI.

TechCrunch

Spartan Radar Raises a Total of $25M to Help Radar Compete With Lidar Tech

Take a dollop of machine learning, a handful of radar sensors and a market that is clamoring for autonomous cars not mowing down hordes of pedestrians, and you’ve got yourself a particularly frothy fundraising environment. Hot on the heels from the $10 million round Spartan Radar announced in August, the company today announced it snagged another $15 million from investors led by Prime Movers Lab. Additional investors include 8VC and Mac VC.

Fast Company

This Startup Is Reinventing CO2 Capture to Reduce the Costs

Direct air capture—technology designed to suck CO2 from the atmosphere—could be a critical tool in fighting climate change. Climate models, including the one used by the IPCC, show decarbonizing society won’t be enough; we’ll also need huge capacity for “negative emissions” to reach climate goals. But at the moment, direct air capture is too expensive to be a valuable tool. One direct air capture startup, called CarbonCapture, wants to help bring costs down by changing a key material used in the technology.

TechCrunch

Space Perspective Raises $40M Series a for Stratospheric Balloon Rides

Instead of going to space on a rocket, which are prohibitively expensive to develop and may not appeal to all customers, the startup plans to offer rides to the stratosphere using a capsule attached to a large balloon. Its plans have attracted investor interest: the company said it had raised a $40 million Series A to take it through to its first planned commercial flights in late 2024. Space Perspective has already collected 475 reservations, each of which was secured by a deposit between $10,000-$25,000, depending on how soon the passenger is looking to fly. The total cost of a seat is $125,000.

Reuters

SoftBank-Backed Storage Developer Energy Vault Raises $100M

Energy Vault, a developer of utility-scale battery storage technology backed by SoftBank Group Corp and the venture arm of Saudi Aramco, has raised $100 million in a funding round, its chief executive told Reuters. The company, dual-headquartered in Westlake Village, California, and Lugano, Switzerland, is aiming to tackle one of the biggest impediments to wider deployment of renewable generation - the ability for power companies to store energy for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

TechCrunch

Diamond Age Raises $8M to Speed up Home Construction With 3D Printing and Robot Arms

Bay Area-based Diamond Age this week announced that it has raised $8 million. The seed round is led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC and features a slew of additional firms, including Dolby Family Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, GFA Venture Partners and Suffolk Construction. The startup looks to put a slew of key emerging technologies to work in service of building houses with fewer workers in a significantly truncated time frame. Diamond Age claims that when, fully realized, its tech will be able to reduce manual human labor by 55% and shrink the construction time on a single family home from nine months to 30 days. Part of this funding will go toward putting the processes in place to construct a 1,100-square-foot “demonstration house” as proof of concept.

Reuters

Aerospace Startup Boom Supersonic Aims to Revive Commercial Supersonic Air Travel

Boom Supersonic, an aerospace startup, hopes to resurrect faster-than-the-speed-of-sound commercial air travel across the Atlantic, not seen since the SST Concorde flown by British Airways and Air France in the 1970s. The Boom Overture is expected to fly 65 passengers from New York to London in just over three-and-one-half hours, Newark to Frankfurt in four hours and, eventually, San Francisco to Tokyo in six hours. Boom is building a 1/3 scale prototype of the aircraft and hopes to begin test flights next year. It also plans to break ground for a factory for the Overture in 2022, with planes rolling off the assembly line in 2025, followed by the first passenger flights in 2029.

TechCrunch

Pyka Shows off Its New Electric Passenger Plane the P3

Pyka appeared out of nowhere in 2019 with an unusual take on electric aircraft: a pilotless crop duster. The success of this first plane led the company to begin developing its next one, the P3: a nine-passenger craft with a totally unique propeller setup aimed at making regional flights cheaper and simpler. It could be flying as soon as next year. The company also has a new president in Dan Grossman, formerly of Zipcar, Ford and Maven. The transportation sector DNA he brings could help Pyka create the networks and partnerships it needs to get off the ground in local air travel.

Bloomberg

Neuralink Competitor Raises $20 Million for Brain Implants

A competitor to Elon Musk’s Neuralink said it raised $20 million, enough to get it on track to introduce a new generation of powerful and tiny electrodes to the human brain. Paradromics Inc., founded in 2015 about a year ahead of Neuralink, is building brain-computer interfaces that could help people with disorders ranging from paralysis to speech impediments. “Once you start to realize that the best way to describe the brain is through data, you start to reframe a lot of classically hard-to-treat conditions,” said Matt Angle, CEO of Paradromics. “What the brain really is—it’s a data system.” For example, where a biological approach to blindness might be to attempt to regrow the retina, his approach would be to get visual data to the right part of the brain, even if it means using a computer.

Forbes

Heliogen and Bloom Energy Agreement Signals the Start of the Hydrogen Age

Today, Heliogen and Bloom Energy announced a partnership to produce “green hydrogen” – a powerful industrial energy source – using only concentrated solar power and water. I believe hydrogen to be the world’s best candidate to solve what Bill Gates calls “The 75% Problem”: three-fourths of all emissions are related to agricultural, industrial, and other hard-to-decarbonize processes. High heat and cheap electricity produced using Heliogen’s innovative AI-powered concentrated solar power (CSP) arrays provide the energy that allows Bloom’s highly efficient solid oxide electrolyzers to produce hydrogen at very low cost.

The Wall Street Journal

Concentrated Solar Power Firm Heliogen to Go Public in $2 Billion SPAC Merger

Heliogen is combining with the SPAC Athena Technology Acquisition Corp., one of the few so-called blank-check companies led by women. Cybersecurity executive and former US Army officer Phyllis Newhouse and venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim are the SPAC’s CEO and board chair, respectively. Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is one of its advisers. Based in Pasadena, Calif., Heliogen has been testing its technology in a demonstration facility since 2019. It now hopes to scale operations to bring down costs and emissions in energy-intensive industries like mining, Mr. Gross said in an interview.

Bloomberg

A New Space Travel Company Is Offering Cheaper, Safer Flights

Let go of a balloon, and it will float up into the air, ascending higher and further away until it’s eventually out of sight. And maybe—if it’s a very special balloon—it will reach the stratosphere. That’s the simple, underlying idea behind the latest space travel venture. Space Perspective aims to use giant “space balloons” to bring eight people at a time to a 19-mile-high (30.6-km-high), pitch-black lookout for $125,000 views of the planet Earth. Its tourist flights go on sale on June 23, after a private pre-sale period that has already sold out at least three initial trips—all slated for takeoff in 2024.

Forbes

Space Perspective Opens Reservations for Flights to the Edge of Space

While Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX are making regular headlines by pushing the boundaries of commercial space exploration, other companies have also been working to develop the space tourism industry and provide alternative flight options at a lower cost. One such company is Space Perspective, a Florida-based balloon company that’s the brainchild of former World View Enterprises founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum. Today, Space Perspective announced they were opening reservations to book a ticket on their spaceship Neptune One, which will reach the edge of space with balloon assistance.

CNN

On Sale: $125,000 Balloon Trips to the Edge of Space

If you're trying to avoid airborne viruses, heading to a near vacuum might not be the worst idea. A Florida company is planning to fly passengers to the edge of space in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon, with a pilot and up to eight travelers riding in a pressurized capsule suspended from an enormous blimp. Human space flight company Space Perspective is now taking reservations on its Spaceship Neptune for flights in early 2024, with tickets priced firmly in the once-in-a-lifetime bracket at $125,000 per person.

TechCrunch

Solar Concentration Startup Heliogen Basks in $108m of New Funding

Utilities and a major mining and steel-making company are now investors. Heliogen raised a $25M A-2, led by Prime Movers Lab, but soon also pulled together a much larger “bridge extension round” in their terminology of $83M that brought in the miner ArcelorMittal, Edison International, Ocgrow Ventures, A.T. Gekko, and more. The money will be used both to continue development of the “Sunlight Refinery,” as Heliogen calls it, and deploy some actual on-site installations that would work in real production workflows at scale.

Forbes

Activity At Bill Gross’s Heliogen Is Heating Up!

For those of us following climate science stories, news flow over the last weeks and months has been pretty tough. In the face of these news, our civilization’s only concerted response seems to be the production of yet more glossy, carefully written, multi-hundred-page reports warning of imminent danger. The tide turned today, as Heliogen, founded by Idealab’s Bill Gross, announced that it had raised $83 million in an oversubscribed funding round. The new investment, added to a previous $25 million round, totals $108 million of institutional investment into Heliogen’s concentrated solar power (CSP) technology.

CNBC

United Airlines Will Buy 15 Ultrafast Airplanes from Start-up Boom Supersonic

United Airlines is planning to turn the friendly skies into the ultrafast skies with the addition of supersonic jets. The carrier announced it’s buying 15 planes from Boom Supersonic with the option to purchase 35 more at some point. Boom’s first commercial supersonic jet, the Overture, has not been built or certified yet. It is targeting the start of passenger service in 2029 with a plane that could fly at Mach 1.7 and cut some flight times in half. That means a flight from New York to London that typically lasts seven hours would only take 3½ hours.

Business Insider

Los Angeles to Tokyo in an Hour — A Texas Startup Is Building a Mach 12 Hypersonic Plane That Could Dramatically Reduce Travel Times

At top speed, the aircraft would be moving about 12 times the speed of sound. Most commercial flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo make the trip in about 12 hours. The company said that it’s made breakthroughs in engine efficiency, aircraft shape, and edge cooling technology. That tech would make “one-hour global transport cost-effective,” the company said. The aircraft would travel at an altitude of about 150,000 feet, or about 28.4 miles, almost four times higher than most passenger jets.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Space Plane Startup Promises One-Hour Rides to Anywhere on Earth

Traveling in a space plane is a lot like traveling in a regular plane, except for the middle part. After reaching cruising altitude, the pilot hits the rocket boosters and blasts the aircraft to the edge of space at more than 9,000 mph, or about 12 times the speed of sound. The plane travels at that speed for about 15 minutes, then glides against the atmosphere to slow itself down, cruising back to Earth to land at a conventional airport. Venus is aiming to use this technique to ferry people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour.

Bloomberg Businessweek

A Startup Takes a $292 Million Swing at Building Wireless Broadband

Tarana Wireless is working on a novel approach to direct wireless signals around obstacles. With sufficient computing power and the right algorithms, Tarana’s antennas can send multiple signals to each customer, rapidly hop among the best-performing connections for each one, and combine them to strengthen the signal. Tarana’s service can reach speeds of about 800 megabits per second, depending on how far customers are from the antenna and how many people are using each one, which is much faster than satellite internet.

Benzinga

Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals Raises $27M in Series a With Prime Movers Lab

Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company that uses psychedelic-related drugs to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, reported Thursday it has raised $27 million in a Series A funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. With the newly raised capital, New York-based Gilgamesh plans to add more members to its team, including a COO, head of R&D and CBO. It will also work on advancing its programs toward clinical candidate selection and broadening its IP portfolio.

Endpoints News

The Harvard Scientist Acting as ATAI’s Treasure Trove Launches a New Psychedelics Firm Focused on Drug ‘Analogues’

A former Harvard and NIH scientist is returning to the psychedelics field with a new biotech after selling his last effort to the buzzy ATAI Life Sciences. Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals completed its $27 million Series A on Thursday, the company announced, with plans to use the cash to prep four programs for INDs and continue expanding its leadership team. The biotech is led by CEO Jonathan Sporn, and it’s not his first rodeo in psychedelics.

Press Release

Boom Supersonic Appoints First Chief People Officer and Adds New Board Member

The aerospace company building the world’s fastest and most sustainable commercial airliner announced that Barb Bidan has joined as the company's Chief People Officer. Bidan will be responsible for helping Boom attract highly skilled talent and shape its progressive culture as the company develops Overture, its flagship commercial supersonic airliner. Overture is built upon industry-leading principles of speed, safety and sustainability. Bidan has held senior HR leadership roles with several top technology and consumer brand names including Peloton, BlackBerry, Yahoo, Indeed.com, and InVision.

CNN Business

This Bill Gates-Backed Startup Will Soon Help Power a Giant Mine

Heliogen is bringing its field of mirrors to the Mojave Desert. In a bid to bring carbon-free power to heavy industry, Heliogen announced that mining behemoth Rio Tinto plans to deploy the startup's breakthrough solar technology at California's largest open pit mine. Heliogen says this will be the first concentrated solar technology used to power a mine in the United States, and perhaps the world. Heliogen will use artificial intelligence and an array of 40,000 computer-vision-controlled mirrors to harness the power of the sun, almost like a smart magnifying glass. The first system at Rio Tinto will be the size of about 100 footfall fields.

TechCrunch

FORT Raises $13M for Its Robotics Safety Software

FORT Robotics announced a $13 million raise. Led by Prime Movers Lab, the round also features Prologis Ventures, Quiet Capital, Lemnos Labs, Creative Ventures, Ahoy Capital, Compound, FundersClub, and Mark Cuban. The Philadelphia-based company was founded in 2018 by Samuel Reeves, who previous headed up Humanistic Robotics. FORT is focused on safety software, for collaborative robotics and autonomous systems. Among the other issues being tackled by the company is cybersecurity vulnerability among these sots of workplace robotics.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Philly’s Fort Raises $13 Million to Save You From Killer Robots

Center City-based FORT Robotics, whose software keeps robots from killing people, plans to double its staff of 33 with $13 million from investors led by Prime Movers Lab. FORT Robotics, which plans to move its office at the Curtis Building to a full floor at the Pew brothers’ long-ago Sun Oil headquarters to fit all the new people, was started three years ago by Samuel Reeves, a 2005 Wharton graduate who previously cofounded Humanistic Robots, which clears land mines.

Longevity Technology

Prime Movers Lab: “Longevity Is Clearly Our Interest”

At the end of last year, Elevian’s $15 million funding caught the eye of many – in part because of the involvement of US venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab, which has since announced raising a whopping $245 million for its second early-stage investment fund. Prime Movers’ new fund is intended for investments in “breakthrough scientific start-ups” across a wide range of sectors, but the Elevian funding indicates one of those sectors is clearly longevity. We recently spoke with Dr Caleb Bell, one of the firm’s newest partners, about why the longevity opportunity excites him.

Press Release

Prime Movers Lab Adds Two Investment Veterans to Help Fuel Scientific-Based Company Growth

Prime Movers Lab – an investor in breakthrough scientific startups working to revolutionize the world's most important industries and transform billions of lives – today announced the addition of general partners David Siminoff and Zia Huque, two respected investment veterans, to focus on later-stage, growth investments. Prime Movers Lab, which invests in science-based ventures, has quickly become a leading choice for startup company founders who are on a mission to do two things: commercialize breakthrough science and serve humanity.

CNBC

Private Spaceflight Specialist Axiom Space Raises $130 Million to Become the Latest Space Unicorn

Houston-based Axiom Space is going full tilt into scaling production of private space stations, while also flying paying passengers on trips to orbit, with the company announcing it received $130 million in a new round of funding. Axiom declined to comment specifically on its valuation, but CEO Michael Suffredini said the company is now “well past the point” of becoming a unicorn, meaning its valuation has surpassed $1 billion. This puts Axiom among the 10-most valuable private US space companies.

PitchBook

Electric Air-Taxi Startups Get a Lift From Flurry of SPAC Deals

Air-taxi startup Archer Aviation has announced plans to go public through a SPAC merger with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., following a similar deal by rival Wheels Up and reports that Joby Aviation is also in talks with blank-check companies. The Archer deal is part of a growing trend, with 26 mobility tech providers announcing or completing mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies last year. Archer was valued at just $100 million last July and is backed by investors such as Greycroft, Prime Movers Lab, and Gaingels.

Forbes

Archer to Go Public in Reverse Merger as United Airlines Places Order for Its Electric Air Taxis

Less than a year after coming out of stealth, Archer Aviation has struck a deal to go public in a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition vehicle — and it’s also won a $1 billion order for up to 200 its yet-to-fly aircraft from United Airlines, in the first step by an airline into urban air mobility. Archer has agreed to merge with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., a $500 million SPAC. United is also investing an undisclosed amount in an accompanying PIPE offering that will raise $600 million, resulting in $1.1 billion in funding for Archer, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange, with a valuation of $3.8 billion.

TechCrunch

Archer Lands $1B Order From United Airlines and a SPAC Deal

Archer Aviation, the electric aircraft startup targeting the urban air mobility market, has landed United Airlines as a customer and an investor in its bid to become a publicly traded company via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Archer Aviation said Wednesday it reached an agreement to merge with special purpose acquisition company Atlas Crest Investment Corp. The combined company, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with ticker symbol “ACHR,” will have an equity valuation of $3.8 billion.

SpaceNews

Alpha Insights Reveals Plans for Dual-Band SAR Satellites

Entrepreneur Scott Larson, who co-founded Urthecast and Helios Wire, is leading Alpha Insights, a Toronto company established in 2020 to acquire the SAR assets of Urthecast, which filed for protection from creditors in 2020 to avoid bankruptcy. Alpha Insights announced a seed investment from Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital fund focused on scientific startups. With the undisclosed level of seed funding, Alpha Insights plans to expand its engineering staff and prepare for spaceflight.

TechCrunch

Prime Movers Lab Raises $245 Million for Second Fund to Invest in Early Stage Science Startups

After revealing its first fund just last year, a $100 million pool of investment capital dedicated to early stage startups focusing on sustainable food development, clean energy, health innovation and new space technologies, Prime Movers Lab is back with a second fund. Prime Movers Lab Fund II is larger, with $245 million committed, but it will pursue the same investment strategy, albeit with a plan to place more bets on more companies, with an expanded investment team to help manage the funds and portfolio.

Forbes

Axiom Space Announces Ax1 – First All-Private Crew To Visit ISS

Four years ago, Axiom Space announced plans to build a private space station; like for many companies with similar plans before them, the news was generally well received but with a healthy dose of “we’ll believe it when we see it.” Over the intervening years, Houston-based Axiom has continued the steady march forward and today took a major step on the planned path to create a private space station – and prove the demand for those willing to pay to reach it. Today, Axiom Space announced the four members selected for the first private crew to visit the International Space Station.

Silicon Valley Business Journal

Palo Alto Flying Taxi Startup Archer Gets a Lift From Fiat Chrysler

A Palo Alto startup in the race to put flying taxis in the sky won a powerful partner, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Archer Aviation said it will lean on the auto giant’s low-cost supply chain, advanced composite material capabilities and engineering and design experience. Archer said it will take the wraps off of its aircraft early this year, but production won’t start until 2023. The company said its first aircraft will be able to travel as far as 60 miles at 150 miles an hour. Fiat Chrysler has already collaborated on the design of the cockpit.

Tony Robbins Podcast

The Future of Food, Energy, and Space

It would be easy to believe that we as a society are headed in a negative direction, to be fearful of the future – but as Tony says, Fear is simply imagination undirected. What happens when you give direction to your imagination? That’s what we call faith. Faith is not learned, it’s something we are born with. Faith is what fuels us through times of fear and uncertainty. It is more powerful than any emotion, even fear. When all hell is breaking loose, it gives us the ability to find our center, to help ourselves and others to find answers, to find a higher meaning in the midst of our pain and in spite of our fear. And if you’re a leader, you take that certainty and transfer it into others, because human conviction has a viral effect and will spread.

Forbes

Momentus and the Business of Space

One aspect of space travel that has not exactly captured the public's imagination is the grunt work required to transport payloads between orbits. Vessels handling this essential task are known as space tugs, the "tow trucks" of outer space. Founded in 2017 by Russian immigrant Mikhail Kokorich and launched from the Y Combinator start-up program, space tug company Momentus has partnered with SpaceX and counts NASA and Lockheed Martin as early customers. Momentus says it has $90 million in signed contracts and $1.1 billion under negotiation.

Seeking Alpha

Want SpaceX Stock? Momentus May Be the Closest Thing

Space is the ultimate fantasy and final frontier. That includes for investing. There’s major thirst for this sector, which is yet to be created. For space pure plays, there’s almost nothing in the public markets. Even in the private secondary market, it’s nearly impossible to get shares in the granddaddy of them all; SpaceX. While you can’t buy SpaceX, you soon may be able to buy one of their customers; Momentus. They call themselves "the space infrastructure company" and one could argue they will be the first pure play space company in the public markets.

Pharma Business International

COVAXX to Deliver More Than 140M COVID Vaccine Doses to Emerging Countries

COVAXX has advanced purchased commitments of more than 140 million doses of its UB-612 vaccine – totalling over $2.8 billion – to deliver vaccines in multiple countries, including Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. These public and private commitments follow the start of human trials in Taiwan and the September agreement with Diagnosticos da America SA (DASA S.A.), the largest clinical diagnostic company in Brazil, to conduct Phase 2/3 clinical trials and distribute vaccines within Brazil.

SpaceNews

Stratospheric Ballooning Company Space Perspective Raises $7 Million

Space Perspective announced it closed the seed round, led by funds Prime Movers Lab and Base Ventures. Others participating in the round included Kirenaga Partners’ Central Florida Tech Fund, 1517 Fund, Schox, E2MC Ventures and SpaceFund Venture Capital, as well as entrepreneur and author Tony Robbins. The company, with about 15 employees currently, will use the funding to continue development of Spaceship Neptune, a stratospheric balloon system designed to carry people to an altitude of 30 kilometers. Such flights would give people an experience similar to some aspects of spaceflight, notably the view.

Barrons’s

Momentus Wins a Moon Order as Space Economy Heats Up

The space logistics company Momentus—a rare, publicly traded pure- play space investment—has signed up a customer for lunar missions in a deal that helps validate its strategy and appears to be another first for commercial companies in space. Momentus has signed an agreement with Canadensys Aerospace to deliver a 50-kilogram spacecraft to low lunar orbit in 2023 or 2024. Moon missions are usually the domain of national space agencies, such as NASA. Momentus doesn’t have, or plan to build, its own capability to launch rockets from Earth like SpaceX and its competitor Blue Origin do. Instead, the company wants to be the last-mile delivery option in space—or, in the case of the moon, the last 240,000 miles.

European Pharmaceutical Review

COVAXX Commits to Deliver 140 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses to Emerging Markets

COVAXX has announced advanced purchase commitments for more than 140 million doses of its UB-612 vaccine for COVID-19. The public and private agreements, totalling over $2.8 million, are to deliver vaccines in multiple countries, including Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. The commitments follow the start of human trials for UB-612 in Taiwan and the September agreement with Diagnosticos da America SA (Dasa S.A) to conduct Phase II/III clinical trials and distribute vaccines within Brazil.

Reuters

COVAXX Gets Supply Deals Worth $2.8 Billion for Potential COVID-19 Vaccine

COVAXX, a unit of United Biomedical Inc, said it has received purchase commitments totaling $2.8 billion to deliver more than 140 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries, including Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. The multitope peptide-based vaccine is currently in early-stage trials in Taiwan, lagging some of the frontrunners in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine. The US-based company signed an agreement in September with Brazilian lab and hospital group DASA S.A. to conduct mid-to-late stage trials in Brazil for the vaccine. COVAXX estimates it can produce 100 million doses in first half of next year and 1 billion by end of 2021.

TIME

TIME Names Heliogen’s HelioHeat to List of the Best Inventions of 2020

Creating the tons of steel and concrete we use to build our world requires a massive amount of heat—and most of it comes from burning dirty fossil fuels. HelioHeat cleans up that process by using the power of the sun. Here’s how it works: A field of 100,000 motorized, computer-controlled mirrors concentrates sunlight in the direction of a 40-m-tall tower, “like a giant magnifying glass,” says Heliogen founder Bill Gross. There, a hot spot gets up to 2,000°F, where the heat can be harnessed to melt steel or make cement or electricity. Future iterations of the tech, says Gross, could use the sunlight to create hydrogen to power zero-emission automobiles.

The Motley Fool

SpaceX President Prefers Space Tugs Over Small Rockets

Known as “orbital transfer vehicles” or OTVs, Gwynne Shotwell, the SpaceX COO, noted that this part of the ground-to-space-to-final orbit continuum could be a “perfect market opportunity”. SpaceX believes that its gigantic Starship reusable spacecraft (still under development), which is designed to be refueled in space, can fill this need. But the company is also partnering with privately held Momentus (which will soon be publicly traded after merging into Stable Road Acquisition Corp (SRAC)) to tow satellites, carried to orbit by SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, into their final orbits.

Reuters

Concentrated Solar Power Startup Heliogen Scores $39 Million in DOE Funding

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded concentrated solar developer Heliogen $39 million to build and operate a 5 MW CSP plant with supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycle and thermal energy storage. Heliogen will commit $31.1 million to the project, the DOE announced November 12. The project will include a newly-built heliostat field and act as a demonstration plant for the integrated sCO2 power cycle and storage system. The plant will limit the turbine inlet temperature to 600° C in order to use widely-available stainless steel alloys.

Barron’s

Zero Gravity Is Getting a Logistics Player – Think of It as the FedEx of Space

Investors can’t buy SpaceX stock because it is privately held, run by Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla. However, there is a space-logistics franchise named Momentus, with ties to SpaceX, that is set to go public in coming months through a merger with special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Stable Road Acquisition (SRAC). Momentus won’t launch rockets into space. But it will leverage lower launch costs to offer space services to others. It plans to be the first provider of hub-and-spoke space infrastructure as well as last-mile space delivery.

BusinessWire

Stable Road Acquisition Corp. and Momentus Announce Three Independent Directors to Join Post-combination Company

Stable Road Acquisition Corp and Momentus today announced that Chris Hadfield, David Siminoff, and Vince Deno will join the Board of Directors of the combined company that will result from the previously announced combination of Stable Road, a special purpose acquisition company, and Momentus. The appointments are contingent upon approval by Stable Road’s stockholders and the expected completion of the pending business combination that would result in Momentus becoming the first publicly listed space infrastructure company.

SpaceRef

Momentus Announces Service Agreement for Gran Systems NUTSAT

Momentus and Gran Systems, a newspace service provider for Taiwainese and Southeast Asia, today announced a service agreement for Gran System’s 2U CubeSat NUTSAT to fly on Momentus’ Vigoride demo mission. The 2U NUTSAT was designed by the National Formosa University with the backing of the National Space Organization (NSPO) in Taiwan. One of the three NSPO cubesats launching this year, NUTSAT is a systems engineering training education program integrating an ADS-B receiver onto the cubeSat to demonstrate and enhance commercial aviation safety technology. NUTSAT is the first of the three cubesats to go for the launch integration.

Reportable

COVAXX and Maersk Enter Partnership to Supply COVID-19 Vaccines Globally

COVAXX developing a multitope synthetic peptide-based vaccine to fight COVID-19, today announced a global logistics partnership with Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping and integrated logistics providers. The agreement lays out a framework for all transportation and supply chain services that will be needed to deliver COVAXX’s vaccine candidate UB-612 around the world, once approved by regulatory authorities. Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

SpaceNews

Momentus and Kepler Announce Service Agreement

Momentus Space announced an agreement with Canada’s Kepler Communications to arrange the 2021 launch of two satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight and delivery to their desired orbital altitude in the Vigoride in-space transportation vehicle. Kepler’s first two GEN1 satellites, Kepler-4 and Kepler-5, launched in late September on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket. GEN1 satellites are designed to link customers with Kepler’s wideband high-capacity data service and narrowband internet-of-things applications.

Businesswire

Tarana Secures $30 Million Financing Led by Prime Movers Lab

Tarana Wireless today announced a $30 million preferred stock financing led by new investor Prime Movers Lab. Others participating in the round included new investors Liberty Latin America Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures, as well as individual and previous investors. The proceeds will be used to continue customer trials of Tarana’s revolutionary Gigabit 1 (G1) wireless broadband solution and to prepare for and commence the commercial launch of its G1 products.

SolarPaces

At the SolarPACES Conference, Heliogen Introduces Solar Heat at 1 cent/kWh

Well before Bill Gross started Idealab to “look for big problems in the world, invent technological solutions, then build companies to fix them” he was doodling designs for the solar thermal mirrors that reflect concentrated sunlight onto a solar receiver, instead of attending to his high school English class. With climate change bearing down ever more insistently on the human species, one big problem the world must fix is cutting the cost of clean energy to supply heat to the industries with over 20% of all greenhouse emissions like cement, steel, fertilizer and hydrogen that now depend on fossil energy for heat.

Forbes

Pyka Bets the Path to the Future of Passenger Planes Runs Through Banana Plantations in Latin America

Oakland-based Pyka shares a goal common to many high-tech California aviation startups: to build an autonomous electric passenger aircraft. However, its first steps to get there have taken the company far away from the pack, first to New Zealand and now to banana plantations in Costa Rica and Ecuador, where it’s preparing to field a robotic crop-spraying airplane called Pelican that CEO Michael Norcia says will prove out technology he believes will lead the way to an era of green, low-cost passenger planes.

Businesswire

Momentus to Become Public Through Merger With Stable Road Acquisition Corp

Momentus, a commercial space company offering in-space transportation and infrastructure services, today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement with Stable Road Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SRAC, SRACU, SRACW) (“Stable Road”) that will result in the Company becoming publicly listed. Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined operating company will be named Momentus. and its securities will be listed on Nasdaq and trade under the ticker symbol “MNTS”.

Reuters

Space Startup Momentus to Go Public at $1.2 Billion Valuation via Blank-Check Merger

Space transportation company Momentus Inc said on Wednesday it will go public through a merger with blank-check firm Stable Road Acquisition Corp SRAC.O in a deal valued at $1.2 billion including debt. As part of the deal, Momentus will get $172.5 million from Stable Road and $175.0 million from other private equity investors. The California-based startup sells in-space shuttle services that help move satellites between orbits. The combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “MNTS” after the deal closes.

Fast Company

‘Last-Mile’ Space Delivery Startup Momentus Is Going Public: Here’s What to Know

Momentus, the space infrastructure startup that offers so-called last-mile delivery services through partnerships with companies like SpaceX, is heading for the public markets. The three-year-old firm said this morning it will merge with Stable Road Capital, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The merged entity will have an approximate valuation of $1.2 billion and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MNTS. The deal is expected to be finalized sometime next year.

MarketWatch

Outer Space Cargo Delivery Company Momentus to Go Public Through SPAC Merger

Momentus said it is going public through a merger with company Stable Road Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the space infrastructure company at about $1.2 billion. After the deal closes, which is expected to occur in early 2021, the combined company will be named Momentus Inc. and the stock will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "MNTS". Momentus said it offers last-mile satellite and cargo delivery, payload hosting and in-orbit servicing options, in partnership with launch operators including SpaceX.

Bloomberg

Space-Cargo Company Momentus Is in Talks to Go Public Via SPAC

Momentus, a startup with ambitions of providing “last-mile delivery” in space by transporting in-orbit satellites and cargo, agreed to go public through a merger with Stable Road Acquisition Corp. The merger of Stable Road, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, and Santa Clara, California-based Momentus will give the combined entity an enterprise value of about $1.2 billion, according to a statement Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report.

The Wall Street Journal

Bill Gross, 1990s Dotcom Trailblazer, Is Now Betting on Green Energy

Bill Gross bet early on the internet and got rich with a stable of startups. He’s hoping to be right a second time in staking his money and reputation on green energy. The pandemic, by decimating oil demand, crashing prices and challenging the economics of some fossil-fuel projects, has accelerated some industry moves toward low-carbon energy. In Mr. Gross’s view, it has also leveled the playing field for green energy’s drive to displace fossil fuels.

Press Release

COVAXX Initiates Phase 1 Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine UB-612 in Taiwan

COVAXX announced today the first healthy adult volunteers were safely dosed in the company's Phase 1, open-label, dose-escalation study of the UB-612 vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in Taiwan. The study is partly supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan of up to 430M (NTD) or approximately $15M (USD). This clinical trial expands the international collaborations of COVAXX after the recently announced agreements with DASA, the largest diagnostic medicine company in Brazil and Latin America, and with The University of Nebraska Medical Center to conduct large scale human efficacy clinical trials in Brazil and the United States, respectively.

Forbes

Space Tug Company Names DARPA Military Veteran As New President

Momentus is about to benefit from a person who has been in the senior echelons of US military space activities for many years. Fred Kennedy became president of Momentus effective this week and his most recent roles were as inaugural director of the US Department of Defense's Space Development Agency (SDA), and before that head of the Tactical Technology Office for DARPA. Bringing Kennedy on board could help the company get a hold of lucrative military contracts, due to the new president’s contacts, allowing Momentus a potential anchor customer to attract other clients to the fold.

GEN

Beyond the Spike: The COVAXX Approach to a COVID-19 Vaccine

COVAXX’s UB-612 program focuses on developing its Multitope Peptide-based Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, constructed from a peptide-based platform first deployed by parent company United Biomedical. COVAXX has launched a Phase I trial of UB-612 in Taiwan, with a US Phase I trial and a readout of data in non-human primates planned this fall. Last week, COVAXX said it will advance UB-612 into a Phase II/III trial in Brazil, through a collaboration with that country’s largest diagnostic medicine company, DASA and vaccine distributor Mafra.

Reuters

Brazil Lab DASA to Do Tests for COVID-19 Vaccine Being Developed by COVAXX

Brazilian lab and hospital group DASA S.A. said on Wednesday it has agreed to conduct clinical Phase 2 and 3 trials in Brazil for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by COVAXX, a unit of US privately-owned United Biomedical. COVAXX co-founder Peter Diamandis said in a remote press conference the UB-612 multitope peptide-based vaccine is currently undergoing Phase 1 tests in Taiwan. Brazil has the third worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States and India, and has become a testing ground for COVID-19 vaccines under development in Britain, China and Russia.

Press Release

COVAXX Synthetic Multitope Vaccine Selected for Human Trials in Brazil by DASA, the Largest Diagnostic Company, and Mafra the Leading Private Vaccine Distributor

DASA, the largest diagnostic medicine company in Brazil and Latin America, and COVAXX, the subsidiary of United Biomedical Inc, a recognized leader in antibody diagnostics and vaccine development, announced today that they have signed a letter of intent to work together to conduct a large scale human efficacy clinical trial in Brazil to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.

Forbes

NASA Signs Pact to Transport Storm Monitoring Satellite During Busy Hurricane Season

It's been a rough hurricane season in both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. To keep better track of storms, NASA and startup Momentus announced a service agreement to launch a pathfinder satellite in less than a year. The agreement will see Momentus transport the TROPICS Pathfinder CubeSat to low Earth orbit no later than June 30, 2021. This mission is supposed to test out technologies and reduce risk ahead of launching the larger TROPICS constellation mission of six CubeSats, which could enter service in the next couple of years.

CNN

This Young Entrepreneur Skipped College to Create Robotic Limbs That Users Can Control With Their Minds

Ten years ago, Easton LaChappelle was a teen watching YouTube videos in his Colorado bedroom on how to build robot arms from LEGOs. Today, he's the founder of Unlimited Tomorrow, a company that designs low-cost, 3D printed prosthetic limbs that can be operated with the mind. It was a chance encounter in the eighth grade that set him on the path to entrepreneurship. At a science fair, he met a 7-year-old girl who had an $80,000 prosthetic arm that he described as "archaic" and offered very little help with her physical needs.

CNET

TrueLimb Robotic Arms Look Real and Cost Less Than Traditional Prosthetics

Unlimited Tomorrow recently started taking orders for TrueLimb, its customized, 3D-printed robotic arm. TrueLimb candidates scan their limbs using a 3D-scanner at home with the help of a friend or family member. Traditionally, getting fit for a prosthetic requires working with a prosthetist, which can drive up the cost. A traditional device can cost up to $80,000. TrueLimb costs $8,000, largely because there's no middleman involved.

Fortune

Why COVAXX Thinks It Has a COVID-19 Vaccine Game Changer on Its Hands

Vaccine development isn't magic. It's science and—especially during a pandemic—logistics. The coronavirus crisis has led to a veritable gold rush in the biopharmaceutical industry. One company thinks it has a major advantage in that particular race: manufacturing. COVAXX, a spinout of companies within the biotech firms United Biomedical and United Neuroscience, tells Fortune that its specific technology can give it a leg up over the dozens of larger companies in the necessary aspect of delivering a vaccine to people on time.

TechCrunch

Private Space Industrialization Is Here

The universal glee that surrounded the launch of the crewed Dragon spacecraft made it easy to overlook that the Falcon rocket’s red glare marked the advent of a new era — that of private space industrialization. For the first time in human history, we are not merely exploring a new landmass. We, as a biological species, are advancing to a new element — the cosmos. The whole history of humanity is the story of our struggle with space and time. Mastering new horizons, moving ever farther; driven by the desire for a better life or for profit, out of fear or out of sheer curiosity, people found ever faster, easier, cheaper and safer ways to conquer the space between here and there.

The Wall Street Journal

The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

When the Crew Dragon splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico last Sunday—completing the first manned space mission from American soil in nine years—Mikhail Kokorich was exultant. Which is striking, given that he’s Russian. Crew Dragon was conceived and constructed by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space-transport company. “It’s remarkable,” Mr. Kokorich, a physicist and aerospace engineer, says of the mission, “because it marks the transition of space exploration from the nation-state into the hands of private entrepreneurs.”

SpaceNews

Lockheed Martin Teams With USC and Momentus on Cubesat Program

Lockheed Martin and the University of Southern California are collaborating on a small satellite program with the goal to launch four cubesats over the next two years. Momentus, a space transportation and logistics startup in Silicon Valley, was hired to provide the launch services. The company has arranged for the 3U cubesat to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare scheduled for February 2021. The cubesat will be mated with a Momentus “transfer vehicle” that, once released from the SpaceX rocket, will take the cubesat to a sun synchronous orbit about 550 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

SpaceNews

Momentus to Fly Hosted Payloads in 2021

In-space transportation startup Momentus announced plans to begin flying hosted payloads for customers in 2021. The Santa Clara, California, company plans to offer space for technology demonstrations, qualification missions and short-term demonstrations in its Vigoride transfer vehicle. The hosted payload experiments can be conducted in the Vigoride transfer vehicle after it finishes its primary job of moving customer payloads from the point in orbit where their rocket drops them off to their ultimate destination and prior to Vigoride re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Inverse

Smart, Made-to-Order Limbs Are the Future of Prosthetics

An estimated 40 million people across the world need a prosthetic limb. but the functionality of commercial limbs has remained stagnate -- not to mention expensive. A new prosthetic can cost anywhere between $5,000 – $50,000, according to the Jordan Thomas Foundation, and considering how growing children need upgrades every few years, the cost can easily reach past $200,000. With the introduction of its customizable "TrueLimb" prosthetic, Unlimited Tomorrow hopes to fix this problem.

The Packer

Seed & Roe Rebrands to Upward Farms With Aquaponic Expansion Plans

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Upward Farms is expanding and rebranding, including a rebrand from Seed & Roe and construction of a new Brooklyn aquaponics farm headquarters. The plans come after $15 million in new funding, including investments led by Prime Movers Lab, according to a news release. Upward Farms grows and sells ready-to-eat leafy greens grown at an aquaponics greenhouse that uses fish to fertilize crops in a closed ecosystem.

The Spoon

Aquaponics Company Seed & Roe Rebrands as Upward Farms, Announces $15M in Fresh Funding

Seed & Roe, an indoor farming and aquaponics company, announced today it has rebranded as Upward Farms and plans to build a new headquarter farm in Brooklyn, NY to increase production of both leafy greens and fish. Today’s announcement also comes just as the company has closed a $15 million funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. The company has raised $20 million total to date. The company, which was called Edenworks before it was Seed & Roe, said in today’s release that it plans to open its Brooklyn facility in 2020 and increase production by more than 20x its original facility (also located in Brooklyn).

CNBC

Space Startup Momentus Provides ‘Last Mile Delivery’ for Satellites Launched on Any Rocket

A space startup offering a “last mile delivery” service for spacecraft is continuing its deal spree this year, becoming an increasingly important player in the growing small satellite market. Momentus, a Santa Clara, California-based company, has so far struck $40 million worth of customer contracts this year and announced on Thursday its latest deal with Dutch small satellite specialist ISILaunch. Its the eighth such deal Momentus has unveiled in 2020, with the company providing its orbit transfer services for ISILaunch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in December.

SpaceNews

Momentus and Endurosat Sign Two Launch Agreements

In-space transportation provider Momentus announced agreements with Bulgaria’s EnduroSat to provide transportation for two cubesats scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight in February 2021. Under the agreement, Momentus will enclose Kuwait’s first spacecraft, QMR-KWT, and EnduroSat’s Shared Platform for Applied Research and Technology Affirmation in its Vigoride orbit transfer vehicle for the Falcon 9 launch. At the conclusion of the Falcon 9 flight, Vigoride will transport the cubesats to different orbits.

SpaceNews

Momentus Signs Contract With OrbAstro for SpaceX Rideshare Flight

Momentus announced a contract with OrbAstro, a small United Kingdom company developing hardware and software to enable satellites to operate in flocks or constellations. Under the contract, Momentus will fly a three-unit OrbAstro cubesat on a SpaceX Falcon 9 dedicated rideshare mission scheduled for launch in 2021. Momentus plans to enclose the OrbAstro cubesat in its Vigoride orbit transfer vehicle for the Falcon 9 launch. At the conclusion of the Falcon 9 flight, Vigoride will transport the OrbAstro cubesat to a higher altitude.

TechCrunch

Momentus Set to Deploy Satellites for a Free 4K Space-Based Earth Live-Streaming Service

Space bus company Momentus has signed a new contract that will see it provide in-space transportation and deployment for Sen, the U.K. company that’s building a 4K real-time video streaming service providing live, high-quality views of Earth, both free for individuals and via an open source data platform for developers and service creators. Santa Clara-based Momentus is an in-space transportation startup that provides services to satellite companies looking to move payloads after launch.

NET

UNMC, COVAXX Partner To Develop Large-Scale COVID-19 Antibody Testing

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has partnered with a New York-based company known for vaccine development to work toward effective COVID-19 antibody testing and processing. COVAXX is a subsidiary of United Biomedical. Dr. Steven Hinrichs, Chairman of UNMC’s Pathology and Microbiology Department, said antibody testing relies on blood samples to determine whether a person has had an immune response to COVID-19, rather than detect if the virus is present. He said the tests are an important step in the development of a vaccine for the virus.

Berkeleyside

Small Business Week May Be Postponed, but Berkeley Businesses Keep Innovating

Other businesses who are more reliant on their physical location, like manufacturers, have found ways to support “essential” functions under shelter-in-place orders. PolySpectra had a wide array of applications for its specialized materials and 3D-printing services before the pandemic, including dental equipment, consumer electronic devices, and vehicle parts. In the last few months, it has homed in on using its Cyclic Olefin Resin, or COR, to create medical devices that can support hospitals. Its first rollout could be ventilators through a partnership with RespiraWorks.

Business Wire

Heliogen Wins 2020 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award for Its Technology That Replaces Fossil Fuels With Sunlight

Heliogen, the clean energy company that is transforming sunlight to replace and create fuels, today announced its selection by Fast Company as a recipient of a 2020 World Changing Ideas award. Winning the Energy category, Heliogen was recognized for its technology that – for the first time commercially – replaces fossil fuels with sunlight in a wide range of industrial processes.

CIO Review

Nelumbo Raises $14M from its Series A Expansion Round

Nelumbo, a renowned industry player in the field of advanced-surface modifications, closed its Series A-expansion funding after raising $14 million. The funding round was led by Prime Mover's Lab and the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) along with the participation from Safar Partners, Neue Fund, Darwin Venture Management, and additional support from its existing shareholders Photon Fund, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, and Danfoss.

eVTOL

Already Flying in New Zealand, Pyka Makes a Case for Electric STOL

For most players in the emerging urban air mobility space, UAM is synonymous with eVTOL aircraft: vehicles that can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, but with a fraction of the noise and cost. For the most part, if a vehicle can’t touch down within the space allotted to a conventional helipad, it’s not seen as a viable air taxi. Michael Norcia, the co-founder and CEO of Pyka, begs to differ and believes there’s a sweet spot between eVTOL aircraft — which achieve their vertical takeoff and landing capability at a daunting technical cost — and eCTOL airplanes, which require thousands of feet of runway to operate safely.

The Rising

The HVAC Industry Is Creating a Cyclical Problem for Our Environment

When it comes to global warming, cooling systems like air conditioners and refrigerators usually don’t come to mind. But according to the US Department of Energy, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) are responsible for 40% of all energy consumption in buildings. Additionally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that air conditioning alone used about 13% of all electricity in the world. It also produces 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. The Guardian pointed out that that’s the same amount of carbon dioxide India produces every year.

Cooling Post

Surface Innovator, Nelumbo, Raises $14m

Nelumbo, a pioneer in advanced surface modifications, which could improve heat exchanger performance and corrosion resistance, has raised $14m in new funding. The investment, part of a Series-A expansion led by Prime Mover’s Lab and University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), includes additional investment from its existing shareholders. One of those shareholders is Danish manufacturer Danfoss, which plans to develop and produce advanced, customised solutions for the air conditioning and refrigeration market.

The Engineer

Heliogen: The Bill Gates Backed Startup Hoping to Use Mirrors to Power Heavy Industry

A breakthrough in concentrated solar power – and potentially for industrial green energy – was claimed last November from an unexpected source. A hitherto unknown company, Heliogen, announced its arrival with the revelation that it had been able to concentrate solar energy to achieve a temperature of over 1000°C, on a commercial scale, for the first time. This meant it could replace fossil fuels in critical industrial processes such as cement or steel, and potentially for thermally splitting water to produce hydrogen.

SpaceNews

Momentus Signs up Taiwanese Customer for Vigoride Flight

Momentus announced a launch service agreement with Odysseus Space, a satellite applications startup based in Taiwan. Under the agreement, Momentus will provide in-space transportation for a satellite mission called Intelligent Remote-Sensing and Internet Satellite (IRIS)-A. Odysseus is providing pre-launch testing and arranging launch services for the IRIS-A mission developed by Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. IRIS-A is designed to test technology to improve the quality of downlink signals.

The Washington Post

Testing Coronavirus Survivors’ Blood Could Help Reopen US

At the root of almost every plan to restart society is a new kind of coronavirus test that searches not for the virus itself, but the remnants floating in people’s blood of the battle between their immune systems and the infection. These “serology tests” aren’t aimed primarily at people who currently have the disease caused by the coronavirus. Those people may have disease-fighting antibodies that give them some immunity to the new coronavirus.

The Denver Channel

Entire County in Colorado Getting Tested for COVID-19

Telluride is a small mountain town in Colorado that is famous for its world-class ski slopes. But soon, it might be known for its effort to fight the coronavirus. “We were approached by a couple that lives in town, long time locals who happen to own a biomedical company,” said Dr. Sharon Grundy, San Miguel County Public Health Officer. “They were gracious and offered the testing for free to our entire county which is just an unheard-of opportunity,” said Grace Franklin, Public Health Director, San Miguel County.

ABC News

Why Coronavirus Antibody Testing in One Colorado Town Could Provide a Way Forward

While it might be impossible to figure out who is going to become sick with novel coronavirus, some public health experts believe the more critical question may be who has already been exposed. In Telluride, Colorado, last week, one biotech company put that idea to work. United Biomedical is now working with San Miguel County to test all 8,000 residents for COVID-19 antibodies – making it the first community in the country to do widespread antibody testing.

The Atlantic

Why a Tiny Colorado County Can Offer COVID-19 Tests to Every Resident

San Miguel County in Colorado has, in ordinary times, fewer than three full-time employees in its public-health department. It has no hospital. Its total population is only 8,000. And yet last week, the county became the first in the United States to announce that it would be offering all its residents a new kind of test for COVID-19. The tests are being donated by United Biomedical, a multinational biotech company whose executives happen to live part of the year in Telluride, the resort town that is also San Miguel’s county seat.

Fast Company

The Most Innovative Space Companies of 2020

As the Trump administration toyed with the idea of a Space Force, the privately funded space industry chugged along with essential infrastructure and technological advances. SpaceX continued work on its Starlink mega-network of satellites, which hopes to provide high-speed internet to organizations including the US Air Force in even the most remote corners of the world, while companies including Momentus set their sights on democratizing the space industry by providing alternatives to high-tech, high price-tag options.

Jackson Hole News & Guide

Jackson Hole Venture Capital Fund Backs “Breakthrough Inventors”

Space tugboats. Artificial intelligence personas you can talk to one on one. Crop-spraying airplanes that fly without a pilot onboard. Those aren’t Jackson Hole inventions, but a venture capital fund started by a Jackson Hole resident is helping to bring them into the commercial realm with funding and coaching. Prime Movers Lab, founded by valley resident Dakin Sloss, said it has raised approximately $100 million for its first early-stage fund and backed more than a dozen “breakthrough inventors.”

SpaceNews

Momentus Announces Customers for In-Space Shuttle Service

SteamJet Space Systems is the latest customer to sign up for Momentus’ Vigoride space transportation service. Momentus announced plans at the SmallSat Symposium here to deploy a SteamJet cubesat on its Vigoride demonstration mission scheduled to launch later this year on a Russian Soyuz rocket. SteamJet, a United Kingdom propulsion startup founded in 2017, builds water-fueled resistojet propulsion for small satellites and cubesats.

TechCrunch

Pyka and Its Autonomous, Electric Crop-Spraying Drone Land $11M Seed Round

Modern agriculture involves fields of mind-boggling size, and spraying them efficiently is a serious operational challenge. Pyka is taking on the largely human-powered spray business with an autonomous winged craft and, crucially, regulatory approval. Pyka’s approach is unlike that of many in the drone industry, which has tended to use multirotor craft for their maneuverability and easy take-off and landing.

Lead by Example

Angel Investor, Suzanne Fletcher, Shares Her Career Journey & Stanford GSB Experience

Suzanne Rombeau Fletcher is an active angel investor and venture partner with Prime Movers Lab. Previously, Suzanne was the manager of the Stanford-StartX Fund. Prior to her work at StartX, she was a Managing Director in the Secondary Private Equity Group at Paul Capital Partners. In this interview, Suzanne shares her career journey — including her MBA experience at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and her journey into Venture Capital.

Cooling Post

Danfoss Set to Deploy New Surface Technology

A partnership agreement, signed last month with US company Nelumbo, follows Danfoss’ investment in the California-based company last year. Together the companies plan to develop and produce advanced, customised solutions for the air conditioning and refrigeration market. Founded in Berkeley in 2015, Nelumbo has developed a special surface treatment technology that can be used for improved heat exchanger performance and corrosion resistance.

Los Angeles Business Journal

Solar Startup Heliogen Looks to Power Plants, Refineries

For decades, solar technology experts have sought to harness the sun to generate electricity. But Pasadena-based serial entrepreneur Bill Gross is looking to change that with a new technology that swaps fossil fuels for solar energy to directly heat heavy industry units such as kilns, furnaces, and forges. Heliogen uses solar thermal technology to produce heat intense enough to turn limestone into cement or to forge steel.

Wired

A Solar ‘Breakthrough’ Won’t Solve Cement’s Carbon Problem

Anyone who says there’s nothing new under the sun hasn’t made a recent trip to Lancaster, California. There, on the outskirts of the Mojave desert, 400 giant mirrors, each the size of a large flatscreen TV, twitch in the sunlight. Their reflective faces are turned toward a nearby tower that looms over the lot like an industrial eye of Sauron. Each of these robotic heliotropes are at the beck and call of an algorithmic conductor, which directs them to focus their sunbeams toward a small target on the tower.

TechCrunch

Heliogen’s New Tech Could Unlock Renewable Energy for Industrial Manufacturing

For Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab and brains behind the excursion, the unveiling was simply the latest in a string of demonstrations for new technologies commercialized by his nearly three-decade old startup company incubator. However, it may be the most significant. What Gross is pursuing with Heliogen, offers a way forward for renewable energy to be applied to manufacturing processes for some of the most energy intensive and polluting industries that exist in the world today.

TechCrunch

Relativity Space Signs the Satellite Transportation Company Momentus as a New Customer

Relativity Space, the startup developing manufacturing technologies for entirely 3D printed rockets and space equipment, has signed its latest paying customer, the orbital transportation startup, Momentus. Relativity’s Terran 1 rocket will carry Momentus’ small and medium-sized satellite payloads on its rocket and Momentus will then move those satellites into geosynchronous orbit using its own in-space shuttle technology.

Teslarati

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rideshare Program Secures Its First Customer

Spaceflight startup Momentus Space and launch heavyweight SpaceX announced the first public launch contract to fall under the umbrella of the latter company’s recently-announced Satellite Rideshare Program. Meant to provide a reliable, consistent, and affordable form of shuttle-like access to orbit, SpaceX’s rideshare program will involve no less than one dedicated Falcon 9 launch per year, capable of placing 15+ metric tons into low Earth orbit.

Forbes

Art Is at the Core of Entrepreneurship, Ignore It at Your Peril

Noble.AI, a California-based company which makes artificial intelligence to enable faster and cheaper research and development, is predictably full of engineers. Less predictable is the fact that around a quarter of its staff are artists and designers. Dr Matthew Levy, CEO and founder of Noble.AI, says that his emphasis on aesthetics means that the products they make have to be beautiful and pleasing to use, as well as technologically advanced.