To the Stars with Data: April 17 2022
To the Stars with Data: April 17 2022
The solar system at scale... in the desert, futuristic artistic AI, hammer throwing meets rocket launches, and more.
Hello Datanauts!
It’s me again, your friendly neighborhood Joe, dropping off a fresh issue to your inboxes. My week off left me feeling rejuvenated and inspired!
Let’s dive into the solar system at scale in a desert, artistic AI, hammer throwing meets rocket launches, and some awesome companies bringing us into the future.
Now, let’s go to the stars with data!
Thought-Provoking Data Viz
🌌 To Scale: The Solar System
Quick hits. “On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends builds the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits: a true illustration of our place in the universe.” The reason they had to use a dry lakebed in the desert? To create a scale model with the Earth the size of a marble, seven miles (11.2km) of empty space is needed.
Digging deeper. Amazingly, this model only captures the planets of the solar system. If the Kuiper Belt—think the Asteroid Belt but beyond Neptune and with objects made of ices—were taken into account, twelve miles (~19km) would be needed to create the Solar System at this scale. Do you want to get yet another sense of how far apart everything is? Check out If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (and be prepared to scroll). There’s a reason space is called space; that’s mostly what it is!
Earth News
🖼 OpenAI just revolutionized digital image-making
Quick hits. OpenAI just released DALL-E 2, an upgrade to its DALL-E AI system, that can create photorealistic images, artistic images, or edit images based on natural language input. (You have to see it to believe it; some of its generated images cannot be discerned from actual images!) In an effort to curb misuse, OpenAI has limited the ability of DALL-E 2 to generate violent, hateful, or adult images. Here are a few links for those whose interest is piqued:
Are you interested in trying out DALL-E 2 for yourself? You can join the waitlist!
DALL-E 2 even has an Instagram account
Digging deeper. DALL-E 2 is impressive for numerous reasons, but chief among them is its ability to recognize relationships between objects. Humans take for granted our ability to recognize relationships between objects (e.g. a person sitting on a couch or a dog drinking water from a bowl), but this has to be trained in AIs. DALL-E 2’s ability to interpret and correctly visualize obscure relationships such as “a koala dunking a basketball” is an incredible feat. For those feeling like “hasn’t AIs made art for years at this point?”, you’re correct (take Wombo, for example). But DALL-E 2 takes art and photogeneration to the next level.
Other Earth news
🧬 Researchers rejuvenated skin cells to be 30 years younger. Don’t think you’ll be rejuvenating your cells anytime soon; it will take many years for anything commercial to develop. Here’s the research paper.
🧠 Researchers released BrainChart, a 125,000+ collection of brain scans over a human’s lifetime. The earliest brain scan represented a brain 15 weeks after conception and the oldest scan belonged to a centenarian. 😱 Here’s the research paper and here’s Brainchart itself.
🐮 The US’s Food and Drug Administration approves beef from a breed of cattle whose DNA was edited using CRISPR. The breed of cows, known as PRLR-SLICK, have slicker coats that allow them to more effectively cope with warmer weather. The FDA has already approved breeds of other animals edited with CRISPR, such as goats, chickens, and salmon.
Space News
🚀 Spinlaunch procures NASA contract to demonstrate its unique launch system
Quick hits. As a part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, Spinlaunch scored a contract to demonstrate its unique launch system later this year. Spinlaunch launches a craft by spinning it at several times the speed of sound in a vacuum-sealed centrifuge before releasing it (kind of like a hammer throw). The upcoming launch includes a test payload that’s 3 meters long and looks like a torpedo. It will be launched at about March 2 (~1,500 mph / ~2,400 kmph) and deploy a parachute once it reaches the desired altitude.
Digging deeper. Compared to many types of rocket fuel, using kinetic energy (and renewably-sourced electricity to power the generation of that kinetic energy) to launch to suborbit is much more sustainable and cost-effective. As noted on SpinLaunch’s website, their launch method reduces the amount of fuel required by 4 times and is 10 times more cost-effective. Additionally, they claim to be able to launch multiple times per day and operate with reusable craft.
Other space news
👨🚀 SpaceX and NASA have launched the first-ever fully-private trip to the International Space Station (ISS). The ticket price was reported to be $55m and includes 8 days on the ISS. It’s not space tourism, though, as the members are performing a number of experiments (including with TESSERAE, which I featured two weeks ago).
🌌 Astronomers spot the most distant galaxy to date. The galaxy is 13.5 billion light-years away, or just a few hundred millions of years after the Big Bang. Considering that we can basically only theorize about what the universe looked like back then, seeing this galaxy is incredibly helpful for our understanding.
🎈 Space Perspective unveils the interior of their Spaceship Neptune, a capsule brought to 100,000 feet with a huge balloon. The craft features ambient lighting, drinks, and even wifi. Tickets are currently on sale for a $125,000 6-hour flight. Here’s a promotional video that features what the views may look like (included below for reference).
Future-Thinking Companies
⚡ Itselectric
Itselectric allows building owners to set up electric vehicle chargers near parking spots outside their buildings. In areas with only street parking available (like large swatchs of New York City), this is a huge step in the right direction. They’re currently looking for host properties to test out their equipment.
🌊 Brilliant Planet
Brilliant Planet grows big pools of algae in deserts, then dries the algae and buries it underground. Because the algae absorb a lot of carbon dioxide, drying and burying it sequesters a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere. Fascinated and want to learn more? Check out this feature in Climate Tech VC.