To the Stars with Data: February 13 2022
Record investing in space tech and indoor farming, a star seen 18 times, deep geothermal, and much more
Hello Datanauts!
This week, I geek out about investment in the space and indoor farming industries, the James Webb Space Telescope seeing a star 18 separate times, some people tackling the space debris problem and others making it worse, and much more.
Now, let’s go to the stars with data!
P.S. - Does anyone keep bees? We are considering a bee colony and would love to hear peoples’ experiences!
Thought-Provoking Data Viz
🚀 Space Capital releases their Q4 2021 report on investment in the space industry
Quick hits. Space Capital, a venture capital firm focused on space technology, released their fourth-quarter (“Q4”) 2021 report that generally details investment in the space industry and also focuses on Q4 in particular. Notably, 2021 saw $46.3 billion of investment in the space industry while Q4 saw $14.7 billion, which makes it the second-highest quarter on record. To put these amounts into perspective, venture capitalists invested $17.1 billion into space companies in 2021, which is 3% of global capital flows in 2021.
Digging deeper. Though 2021 was heavy in venture capitalist funding in general, 3% of global capital flows ending up in space technology is significant and indicative of space tech’s increasing importance. If you’re interested in learning more about investing in the space industry, I’ve found the Payload newsletter to be quite informative (and thorough).
Earth News
💰🌱 Indoor farming startups raised over $1.6 billion in 2021
Quick hits. According to an analysis from PitchBook, indoor farming startups raised $1.6 billion (yes, billion with a “B”) in 2021. Indoor farming includes vertical farming startups I’ve talked about in the past, like Infarm and Little Leaf Farms, as well as what I like to call “automated greenhouses”. Notably, 2022 is starting off strong, with Green Labs raising $140 million and Plenty raising $400m (and starting a partnership with Walmart in California), among many other rounds.
Digging deeper. Yes, I know I’m going a bit heavy into investing so far in this newsletter, but I promise it’s a feature and not a bug. Understanding investing is important for two key reasons (among many others). First, it allows us to understand where investors feel safe investing their money in hopes of a return. Second, investment hints at what is to come in the near future from the companies receiving funds.
Having grown up surrounded by family farms in rural Wisconsin, I’ve always been fascinated by farming tech. The idea of automating farming while 1) eliminating the use of pesticides, 2) reducing resources required to produce the food, and 3) doing so closer to population centers is *chef’s kiss*.
Other Earth news…
💨 Researchers create a carbon capture device that removes up to 99% of carbon dioxide from air. Amazingly, the researchers created the product after recognizing that fuel cells were incredibly sensitive to carbon dioxide present in the air. Understanding that this deficit could actually be a benefit when viewed from another perspective, they designed this carbon capture device!
🩺 Nightingale Open Science unveils a 40TB medical dataset available for open, non-commercial use. Notably, the creators aimed to be as objective and outcome-oriented as possible when creating the dataset. Here’s a deep dive into the “why” and “what” dataset. (Note, this happened in December, but I just found out about it and absolutely had to share.)
Space News
🔭 NASA releases the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope… a star x18
Quick hits. Earlier this week, NASA released the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and it contained one star seen 18 times, once for each of its mirrors. Over the next month or so, JWST will align each of its mirrors so the star becomes more focused and ends up in the same place in the camera. Impressively, the image of 18 stars is actually an image stitched together from separate images from all 18 mirrors; the larger image is over 2 billion pixels (yes, again, billion with a “B”).
Digging deeper. The JWST team also captured a “selfie” of the telescope to visually aid in aligning the mirrors; you can see the image near the bottom of the news article. (I personally think the selfie is more for the optics from the global audience, but I’m also not a scientist.) Interestingly, the camera being used to calibrate the mirrors, NIRCam, is operating far above its optimal temperature, even though it’s currently a balmy -360F / -218C. Where Is Webb has all the details on mirror alignment if you find yourself intrigued.
Fun fact. NASA added JWST to their interactive, 3D web tool, NASA’s Eyes!!! Don’t mind me, I’m geeking out only a little.
Other space news…
🪐 A new exoplanet has been discovered around our closest star system, Proxima Centauri. Amazingly, the exoplanet is about a quarter the size of Earth and orbits its star every 5.12 days. The researchers detected it by measuring its gravitational impact on its star, which moved the star a mere 40 centimeters per second. Considering that the star system is ~4.25 light-years away (~23.5 trillion miles), count me impressed. Here’s the research article.
🛰 The International Astronomer’s Union (IAU) founded a new center to fight against mega-constellations. The new center, the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, aims to unite astronomers’ voices against mega-constellations. Now if only they had a name that wasn’t so mega.
🛰 E-Space announces a plan to launch 100k satellites to “clean space” by capturing space debris. I’m still baffled by how 100k satellites can ameliorate the space debris problem, especially when the primary purpose of the satellites isn’t even space debris capture. To put 100k satellites into context, humans have only launched less than 15,000 satellites. Ever. If anyone has any ideas on why E-Space’s plan is a good one, I’d really like to know.
Future-Thinking Companies
🔥 Quaise. They’re pioneering sophisticated drilling technology (“millimeter-wave”) to access deep geothermal energy. They raised $12m in August 2021 and another $40m Series A in Feb 2022. Here’s a video (included above) and an interview with the founder of Climate Tech VC.
💨 Verdox. They utilize an electrochemical approach to carbon capture and storage (AKA capturing CO2 directly from the air). Considering they source their electricity from renewable sources, this makes their approach greener than some other carbon capture and storage methods. They raised $80m in Jan 2022.