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XMission to Mars: Dream of Analyzing Martian Soil for Signs of Life May Soon be Reality
Tami Abdollah was dot.LA's senior technology reporter. She was previously a national security and cybersecurity reporter for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. She's been a reporter for the AP in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times and for L.A.'s NPR affiliate KPCC. Abdollah spent nearly a year in Iraq as a U.S. government contractor. A native Angeleno, she's traveled the world on $5 a day, taught trad climbing safety classes and is an avid mountaineer. Follow her on Twitter.

It's been a dream of scientists for generations: actually studying samples of Martian soil for signs of life. With Monday's announcement of President Donald Trump's 2021 budget for NASA, that dream appears likely to be funded and on the cusp of becoming reality.
The more than $25 billion budget is a 12% increase from last year's and would be NASA's largest in decades, investing in a variety of ongoing scientific, technological and aerospace goals. It is in contrast to the proposed deep cuts that would hit domestic programs, like food stamps, federal housing assistance, and Medicaid, federal disability and student loan programs.
The Trump Administration has prioritized American astronauts returning to the moon by 2024 and the use of it as a "launching pad to ensure that America is the first nation to plant its flag on Mars," the president said during his State of the Union address last week.
"We're going back to the moon to stay this time, and to build a sustainable presence at the moon and Mars eventually," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, speaking in front of rocket engines at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
NASA is also working with commercial "partners" at SpaceX and Boeing, Bridenstine said, to launch Americans on U.S. soil back to the space station this year.
Other technological efforts that will be undertaken on the red planet as part of Mars 2020 mission include the use of technology to turn the carbon dioxide on Mars into oxygen as well as the first ever helicopter to fly in another world, which would be a feat especially due to the extremely thin atmosphere on Mars that makes such flight much more challenging.
The Mars rover is in the process of being shipped to Cape Canaveral, where it will be launched this summer. NASA's budget included roughly $12.4 billion to send astronauts to the moon and prepare for the exploration of Mars and beyond.
The Mars sample return, however, is what has many people at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, psyched.
"These are missions and programs that we've talked about for decades," said Michael Watkins, JPL's director. "These are not just another Mars mission. Mars sample return is a campaign that's been top ranked by the decadal survey (done every 10 years to identify priorities) for a number of (its) years. As a mission we've been trying to get going for more than 20 years."
Austin Nicholas, the Mars sample return lead mission engineer, spoke to dot.LA during an interview in the test bed area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge where small sample tubes were strewn about on imaginary Martian soil as a demonstration. He demonstrates how these tubes will end up loaded into a circular sample container that gets placed on a rocket.
By Tami Abdollah
Austin Nicholas, the Mars sample return lead mission engineer, spoke to dot.LA during an interview in the test bed area at JPL on Monday, where small sample tubes were strewn about on imaginary Martian soil as a demonstration.
The Mars 2020 rover will drill into the the ground and capture samples of Martian soil in small tubes that will then be sealed and placed inside the rover for storage. The rover will have the capacity to capture samples for as many as 43 tubes from diverse regions of the red planet, depending on how the rover's exploration goes.
Once the tubes are all filled, they will be dropped in a cluster at a spot on the surface of Mars so that they can be picked up during a mission to retrieve the samples.
The next steps involve the launch of both a lander and orbiter in 2026. Once the lander arrives on Mars in 2028, it will deploy a "fetch rover" to pick up the tubes left on the ground years earlier. They'll be retrieved and loaded onto a rack and the fetch rover will drive to the lander, which will use a long mechanical arm to transfer the rack, and load the tubes into a circular sample container on the rocket.
The return of that container is complex. It requires a highly intricate choreography that includes the first-ever launch of a rocket off the surface of another planet. Once the rocket reaches space, it will eject the sample container. The orbiter will travel more than a thousand miles to the container and use a basket to catch the container filled with soil samples.
If all goes well, the return of the orbiter back to Earth with the samples would occur in 2031 at which point there would be efforts to isolate and quarantine samples before they are ultimately doled out to scientists around the world to study.
Scientists are searching for evidence of past habitable life and for fossilized ancient microbial life in the samples, but such an analysis requires instruments that are truly massive - as large as a major city block, for example - which is why the samples must be brought back to Earth for study.
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Tami Abdollah was dot.LA's senior technology reporter. She was previously a national security and cybersecurity reporter for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. She's been a reporter for the AP in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times and for L.A.'s NPR affiliate KPCC. Abdollah spent nearly a year in Iraq as a U.S. government contractor. A native Angeleno, she's traveled the world on $5 a day, taught trad climbing safety classes and is an avid mountaineer. Follow her on Twitter.
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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Spencer Dinwiddie’s Calaxy Taps New CEO, Nativo Lures New Marketing Chief
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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Calaxy, a Web3 social media app co-founded by NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, promoted former chief operating officer Solo Ceesay to chief executive officer. Former CEO Dinwiddie is now executive chair of the company.
Brand marketing platform Nativo appointed former Modern Luxury Media chief marketing officer Raquel Cadourcy as its first CMO.
AI platform Ferret hired fraud prevention industry veteran Greg Loos as chief operating officer, and former Fullsteam marketing executive Melissa Yearta as director of marketing.
Nonagen Bioscience, a cancer diagnostics company, appointed Wayne Hogrefe, as chief operating officer.
Health care startup Greater Good Health named Matthew Gagalis as chief commercial officer. Gagalis previously led business development at Eleanor Health.
ChangeUp, a financial software company, named Raj Kamachee as co-founder and chief technology officer. Kamachee previously served as CTO and chief information officer at Team Rubicon.
Arcules, a cloud video-surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS) provider, hired Steve Prodger as chief revenue officer. Prodger previously served as executive vice president of sales at Turing Labs.
Spanish language media company Estrella Media promoted René Santaella to chief digital and streaming officer. He was previously the company’s executive vice president of digital and streaming media.
Bluemercury founder and former CEO Marla Beck joined beauty brand BeautyHealth’s board of directors.
Clean energy veteran Tom Werner joined H2U Technologies, a developer of green hydrogen technologies, as chairman of the board.
Holoportation company Proto named comedian and “America’s Got Talent” judge Howie Mandel as an advisor.
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
‘Raises’: Tom Brady’s Production Company Lands $50M, Wavemaker 360 Closes $64M Health Care Fund
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
This week in “Raises”: San Diego led the way with big funding hauls for a pair of biotech and aviation startups based there, while yet another L.A.-based Tom Brady venture landed a raise of its own. Meanwhile, a Pasadena health care VC launched its second fund.
Venture Capital
Resilience, a San Diego-based biomanufacturing company, raised a $625 million Series D financing round from undisclosed investors. The company also disclosed a previously unannounced $600 million Series C round raised last year.
Shield AI, a San Diego-based developer of AI pilots for aircraft, raised a $90 million Series E equity round led by Snowpoint Ventures’ Doug Philippone.
Religion of Sports, a Santa Monica-based sports media production company co-founded by NFL legends Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, raised a $50 million Series B funding round led by Shamrock Capital.
Trovata, a San Diego-based open banking platform, raised a $27 million Series B funding round led by Fin Capital.
Calaxy, an L.A.-based Web3 social media app co-founded by NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, raised $26 million in new funding co-led by the HBAR Foundation and Animoca Brands.
Just Women’s Sports, an L.A.-based media platform dedicated to women’s sports, raised a $6 million funding round led by Blue Pool Capital.
Adim, an L.A.-based Web3 content creation platform co-founded by actor Rob McElhenney, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon.
Gander, an L.A.-based ecommerce startup, raised a $4.2 million seed round co-led by Harlem Capital and Crossbeam Venture Partners.
Aliso Viejo-based medical device company Bright Uro raised $4 million in seed financing from Academy Investor Network, Fred Moll, and other angel investors. It also received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
IndieFlow, a Santa Monica-based platform for independent music artists, raised $4 million in funding led by State of Mind Ventures.
Curio, a Santa Monica-based NFT analytics startup, raised a $3.7 million seed funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s 776.
Ivella, a Santa Monica-based fintech startup targeted toward couples, raised $3.5 million in funding from Anthemis, Financial Venture Studio and Soma Capital.
Revolution RE, an L.A.-based data and analytics platform for residential real estate companies, raised a $3 million funding round from investors including 29th Street Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Techstars, PLG Ventures, Silicon Badia and Jason Calacanis' LAUNCH.
De Oro Devices, a San Luis Obispo-based startup specializing in devices for people living with Parkinson’s disease, raised a $2.8 million seed funding round led by True Wealth Ventures.
L.A.-based blockchain gaming site Haste Arcade raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Logic Boost Labs CEO Jonathan Cogley.
Funds
Wavemaker 360 Health, a Pasadena-based venture fund focused on seed-stage health care startups, closed its $64 million second fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Fintech Startup Albert Lays Off 20-Plus Employees: Sources
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Albert, a Culver City-based fintech startup backed by investors including General Atlantic and Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG, is in the process of laying off a chunk of its locally-based staff, dot.LA has learned.
At least 20 Albert employees were informed Friday that they were being laid off, multiple sources inside the company told dot.LA. The cuts affected members of the company’s Genius customer support team as well as its engineering, operations and legal staff.
Albert employees were notified that the company would be holding an internal meeting at 2 p.m. PT Friday. The six-year-old company—part of a wave of fintech startups that help customers plan and budget their financial lives—recently celebrated hitting 250 staffers, sources noted.
Representatives for Albert did not immediately return requests for comment on the layoffs.
Some Albert employees who were among those laid off have already posted on LinkedIn about looking for new work. According to sources at the company, Albert is looking to offshore jobs on its Genius customer support team to remote locations that offer cheaper labor. The startup already operates a team in the Philippines that handles customer support and is planning to launch another team overseas, they said.
One source with knowledge of Albert’s fundraising efforts said the company has been struggling to raise its upcoming Series D round amid an ongoing slowdown in venture capital funding. Albert most recently raised a $100 million Series C round last January led by General Atlantic that took the company’s total funding to more than $170 million.
Like its fellow L.A.-based fintech startup Dave, Albert is among a cadre of so-called “neo-banks” that provide digital financial services targeted toward millennial and Gen Z consumers. Albert’s offerings include a mobile banking app, access to cash advances, an investing platform and a savings tool.
Have a tip? Email samsonamore@dot.LA.
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him