US Space Force Turns to SoCal Aerospace Firm And Hollywood Studio For its Next Gen Training Platform
Oct 08 2020
El Segundo-based Slingshot Aerospace Inc. and a Hollywood visualization studio known for its design work on films like The Martian," "The Mandalorian" and "Gravity" are working on a next generation space-simulating training tool for the U.S. Space Force.
The tool, which is being built now for PCs, aims to teach airmen concepts like astrodynamics and let them experience how objects move in space. The goal is to make the platform adaptable for augmented reality on mobile phones and virtual reality on headsets in the future.
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"The Air Force has pumped millions of dollars into that foundational education (but) in space, that ground school doesn't exist," said Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Slingshot Aerospace. Instead, she said, airmen go through a professional military education "that just skims the surface."
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Slingshot Aerospace, which has its second headquarters in Austin, Texas, announced Thursday it received $2 million to develop its Slingshot Orbital Laboratory, an educational platform that is built on top of its existing "air traffic control system" that tracks and helps users manage the burgeoning numbers of objects in space.
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The total amount includes a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase 2 contract from the U.S. Space Force and $1 million from ATX Venture Partners, an early-stage capital firm based in Austin.
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">In its motion picture visualization work, The Third Floor builds virtual versions ofenvironments, vehicles and characters to help the filmmakers to block their ideas and shots.Previs by THE THIRD FLOOR fromCaptain Marvel. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Image copyright Marvel 2019 and courtesyof The Third Floor</small>
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Stricklan, a retired Air Force veteran of two decades, worked at the Space Force's predecessor, the U.S. Space Command. In 2017, she co-founded Slingshot Aerospace. The new Space Force still uses tools built in the 1980s that are heavy, hard to use and involve an "antiquated simulator," Stricklan said.
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"They're still using things like a Hula Hoop and a beach ball for those operators and students to start understanding how orbits work around the Earth. This allows them the opportunity to actually use their hands and their own laptops or iPads to manipulate those types of orbits and orbit parameters in order to see how a spacecraft reacts to the physics around the Earth."
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Existing simulation tools tend to be incredibly sophisticated and require operators to have a graduate degree. Slingshot said that their educational laboratory would be accessible for those with a GED or above.
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Slingshot has teamed up with subcontractor The Third Floor, a Los Angeles-based visualization studio known for creating physics accurate content that has been showcased in the design blueprints and CGI for "The Martian," "The Mandalorian," "Gravity," as well as many of the Star Wars films and all the Marvel films.
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In fact, the founders of The Third Floor worked on Star Wars episode three as part of George Lucas' visualization team and started their company in 2004 after the movies ended, said Albert Cheng, the creative director for the immersive department at The Third Floor.
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The two companies are in the process of building a functioning prototype and working "hand-in-hand" with the instructors at the Space Force and the U.S. Air Force Academy as well.
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The laboratory design is foremost an education tool but in its effort to improve accessibility, the team is designing the laboratory with a slight video game sensibility, including making visually engaging graphics and a very responsive interface, Cheng said.
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The Air Force "really wanted the next gen of space operators to be engaged in the learning environment," Cheng said. "What we're trying to teach and what instructors have said is the hardest part is visualizing the spatial relationships of data. These immersive tools are designed to help do that. If you can see orbits and spatial relationships in 3D (for example), that is a great way of helping people see information that is inherently spatial."
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U.S. Air Force Col. Max Lantz, a commandant at the National Security Space Institute, said in a statement that "building an immersive environment to drive better comprehension of these foundational theories will be vital to support the Space Force."
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The contract ends in early December 2021, and the company hopes to have the end-to-end prototype be completed by then. It will then either move forward with a phase 3 contract for more sustainable work or license the product back to the Space Force as a commercial subscription.
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"Either way, we'd like to get out of the high license costs that they currently pay for other technologies and provide this to them at a more reasonable price point," Stricklan said.
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Nominal image of Slingshot Orbital Laboratory provided by Slingshot Aerospace</small>
</p><h2>Space Traffic is Becoming "Contested And Congested"
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Space has become increasingly accessible due to the drop in pricing and more access for the commercial sector to launch a satellite with many of the rules and regulations to regulate behavior or mitigate debris, Stricklan said. As a result, "orbits are becoming congested and contested" she said. There are more than 2,000 active satellites in orbit right now and U.S. companies have filed to launch 58,000 new satellites into orbit over the next several years, Stricklan said.
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Meanwhile, the U.S. Space Force is gearing up to move from a more space situational awareness role, historically speaking, Stricklan said, to a more "protect and defend" mission. The Department of Defense is passing its space traffic management role eventually over to the U.S. Commerce Department per a White House directive issued in 2018.
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Slingshot Aerospace has won more than $6 million in government contracts from the U.S. Air Force since it was founded in 2017, according to public data. That includes a contract for the Space and Missile System Center to help provide details about objects on orbit, including their payloads, when they launch and what the objects have been doing to do predictive analysis.
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The underlying Slingshot Orbital data tool characterizes space objects, detects threats and enables decision intelligence, while also identifying inconsistencies among data sources including commercial data sources. It's a platform that brings in both commercial and government sensor data to provide a view of objects in orbit around the Earth. She said the ultimate goal, still a ways away, is to build a live simulation that sits on top of a digital twin, for training purposes.
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"With 58,000 objects on orbit, and that's not counting the debris that's already up there and will (be created) through the launch process," Stricklan said. "This is the time for these professionals to learn this domain from the ground up."
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<em>___</em>
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<em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Twitter @latams</em></a><em> You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my contact on Signal, for more secure and private communications.</em>
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Hollywood took another step closer to Silicon Valley today.
San Francisco-based venture capital firm Benchmark is investing a Series A round into a new "creative accelerator" founded by film and TV heavyweights Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.
The Academy Award-winning duo founded Imagine Impact in September 2018 to bring new voices to an entertainment industry that can be difficult to break into.
"The old way of sourcing talent in the entertainment industry is based on who you know, which presents high barriers-to-entry for the fresh voices we need to hear from," Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley said in a statement. "Impact is knocking down these barriers through a marketplace model that reduces information asymmetry and levels the playing field. Ultimately this leads to more opportunities and better outcomes for everyone involved."
<p>Modeled after influential Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, the program takes applications and connects participants with mentors to develop their projects and conducts speaker series with the likes of JJ Abrams and Malcolm Gladwell.<br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-vimeo">
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</p><p>Benchmark's investment, which is reportedly in the range of $10 - $20 million, will create a new standalone company called Impact Creative Systems ("Impact"). Tyler Mitchell will be its chief executive and Howard and Grazer will remain involved as founders.<br/></p><p>On a panel Thursday hosted by TechCrunch featuring the three, Howard said Grazer developed the model for the accelerator based on his realization that creating a show or movie is much like developing a startup: it requires building a product, a team and finding a product-market fit. </p><p>Gurley, somewhat of a superstar in the venture world, was introduced to Grazer through Michael Lynton, former Sony Pictures chairman and chief executive and current chairman of Santa Monica-base Snap Inc. Gurley, who spearheaded the deal, will sit on Impact's board. </p><p>The accelerator evaluates about 2,000 applications a week with the help of technology, Mitchell said on the panel. It has also built out a "LinkedIn-meets-Slack" marketplace called Creative Network, which the company says is currently used by producers and executives from across the entertainment industry, including Amazon, Netflix, Warner Brothers and many others. </p><p>Having Gurley on board will help Impact to further build this marketplace out. Many of his investments at Benchmark have been in tech companies with a similar two-sided supply and demand component, including Uber, Ebay, OpenTable and Yelp. </p><p>"Sitting around a white board meeting with Bill Gurley talking about our business and where it could go as a central clearing house for jobs – it's exciting, it's creative; I find it really creatively stimulating," Howard said on the panel.</p><p>The Impact accelerator has developed 72 projects, 25 of which have gone on to major studios. One example is Tunga, <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/02/tunga-netflix-animated-musical-zimbabwe-newcomer-godwin-jabangwe-imagine-impact-1-1202557570/" target="_blank">an animated musical from Zimbabwean screenwriter Godwin Jagangwe</a>, who was connected via the accelerator to Bojack Horseman creator Kate Purdy to develop the idea, Mitchell said. </p><p>Beyond embracing tech industry funding models and product development approaches, Howard and Grazer have turned to tech platforms to distribute their films and shows. The Impact accelerator has sold a project to Quibi, and Jax Media, another one of their companies, is doing projects with the L.A.-based short-form streaming app. </p><p>Impact also recently launched its own podcast, announced a deal with Netflix to source and develop content from across the world, and opened an accelerator program in Australia last month.</p><p>Grazer also said that he and Howard recently signed a deal with an unnamed celebrity to turn one of his Instagram Stories into a major motion picture. Grazer said the video he saw included a large man with two donkeys named Whiskey and Lulu. That description points pretty squarely <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/arnold-schwarzenegger-coronavirus-donkey-mini-horse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">to Arnold Schwarzenegger</a>. </p><p>"I think we're going through a creative renaissance," Grazer said, noting that media that has been disconnected from Hollywood — such as social platforms and podcasts — are becoming more ingrained in the entertainment landscape. </p>
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The health and wellness market has boomed in recent years as more consumers become conscious of how the choices they make in everyday life impact their long-term health. The industry has done particularly well in Los Angeles, where juice bars and supplement companies pop up regularly. But how do you differentiate yourself in a market where companies promise consumers the world?
According to one CEO, the answer is data.
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<p>In this installment of <em>dot.LA Dives In</em>, we talk with Christoph Bertsch, founder and CEO of <a href="http://vejo.com" target="_blank">Vejo</a>, producer of the "smart," eco-friendly, pod-based blender. As he was building the company, Bertsch says he pulled together a team of doctors and nutritionists to help design specialized wellness programs in a system called <a href="https://www.vejo.com/pages/vejo-plus" target="_blank">Vejo+</a>. The system, he says, uses individual data to develop personalized blends based on each member's goals and individualized lab tests. </p><p>Bertsch created Vejo first for high-level athletes and Olympic competitors to help them improve their performance and play at their best. Those early users include Kevin Love (NBA), Todd Gurley (NFL), Conor Dwyer (Olympic Gold Medalist in swimming), Manchester City Football Club, as well as celebrities Zac Efron, Hugh Jackman, Kevin Costner, and Vin Diesel who use Vejo+ to prep for movies and as part of their daily routines. Some believe so much in the results, they invested in Bertsch's vision.</p>
<p>"When you ask Kevin (Love) today how he feels, and how long he actually wants to play, he says 'Listen, I feel like I'm 23,'" Bertsch says. "So Kevin did the program, liked it so much, we just got his bloodwork in such a different place. He came back and said 'Hey guys, I see it, it works in my system, and I want to be a part of the company.' So he became a shareholder."</p><p>But Vejo is not just for the elite athlete or actor. Bertsch says he designed the product with the aim of helping anyone achieve an optimal balance through its personalized nutrition recommendations. He laments how many people consume supplements without knowing what deficiencies they need to manage for, or worse - indulge in an unhealthy diet, expecting wonder pills to cancel out the negative effects. Bertsch emphasizes that optimal health and longevity are achievable even for the average consumer. How? Through data.</p><p>"Everything somehow has to be based on data," Bertsch says. "The data, which we have already from people who checked in and we transformed them... The knowledge which we have is huge, and just grows everyday."</p><p>With Vejo, Bertsch says he hopes to create a positive impact for his consumers, but also for the planet. Vejo's pods are 100% biodegradable. In collaboration with his European partners, Bertsch has been developing a water-soluble pod solution for the past few years. </p><p>"I never wanted to create a company which does not live in alignment with the planet," Bertsch says. "Once this is out there, and you have the device which is a reusable bottle, you have a pod which leaves no waste behind and it's single serve so there is no food waste, you have a solution which is quite cool."</p><p>Bertsch also hopes to utilize Vejo to give back to the community. The pandemic saw the company grow 5 times its size. Vejo launched the "Nourish Our Heroes" program to support frontline workers. For every blender a customer donates to those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the company will match 150% of value in its nutrient pods.</p><p>"We are just happy that we can play a little part in supporting the community. And we still do it - this topic is not over, it's ongoing. I think that is the most important thing for the DNA of Vejo. If we start something, we are very consistent."</p><p>Watch the full interview here:</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3aab7d63ee3dec9dfda0bd00eac77a7d"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oTIq_iOE3kY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Democratizing Nutrition Through Data with Vejo Founder & CEO</small>
</p><p>---<br/></p><p>
<em>Kelly O'Grady runs video and serves as the chief host & correspondent for dot.LA. Find her on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kfogrady" target="_blank">@kfogrady</a> and email her at <a href="mailto:mailto:kelly@dot.LA">kelly@dot.LA</a>.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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