Beyond Limits, a Glendale, Calif.-based company that builds human-like reasoning into its artificial intelligence, has taken its tech from outer space onto factory floors and to hospitals.
Now as it seeks to expand its global footprint, the company said it raised $133 million in Series C funding. In addition to an expansion of its services, it hopes to build up its software platforms.
The round was led by Group 42, an artificial intelligence and cloud computing company in Abu Dhabi, and its longtime and ongoing partner bp ventures, an investment arm of the British energy group. Founded in 2014, Beyond Limits is based on technologies developed at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and funded by NASA and the Department of Defense.
<p>"We are seeing unprecedented, world-wide demand for systems that go beyond the limitations of conventional AI," said AJ Abdallat, CEO and co-founder of Beyond Limits, in a statement. "Our cognitive software has the ability to understand situations and place problems in real-world contexts as well as to learn over time."</p><p>The company joined up with bp ventures early on when BP was looking for technological ways to prevent another industrial disaster like Deepwater Horizon, the largest recorded marine oil spill. The explosion and spill from an oil rig leased by BP killed 11 people and devastated sea and avian life in the Gulf of Mexico.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..."> Beyond Limits co-founders AJ Abdallat (L) and Mark James (R). </small></p><p>Beyond Limits' technology uses bio-inspired algorithms that attempt to imitate how the human brain works and provide explainable, transparent data rather than conventional "black box" AI results.<br/></p><p>Beyond Limits has worked with a giant energy production company to help expand and increase their production in mature subsurface reservoirs to lower the cost of production. It's also worked with healthcare providers to accurately diagnose patient conditions and major financial institutions on applying cognitive reasoning to fintech. </p><p>Beyond Limits said Tuesday it plans to use the Series C raise to launch Beyond Limits Asia, regionally based in Singapore and operating in Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo as it develops AI software that mimics human deduction and reasoning. The company also plans to expand into advanced manufacturing and financial services, a representative told dot.LA.</p><p>In 2019, the company received $25 million in financing from Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy to build an AI-controlled power plant.</p>
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With the fiery flash of a rocket launch, NASA's Perseverance rover headed out today for what's expected to be a decade-long campaign to store up and bring back Martian samples that may hold evidence of alien life.
United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 7:50 a.m. ET (4:50 a.m. PT), sending the rover into space for a seven-month cruise to Mars.
<p>Access to the area surrounding the launch pad was restricted due to the pandemic, but hundreds of thousands of people watched the liftoff via streaming video. And as if the pandemic wasn't enough of a challenge, in the minutes before launch, a <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?currentFeatureId=ci39322287&extent=9.18887,-142.11914&extent=59.31077,-47.90039" target="_blank">magnitude-4.2 earthquake</a> rattled through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover mission is managed.</p><p>Mission managers said the complications had no effect on the countdown.</p><p>"This is all about perseverance," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during the buildup to liftoff. "Going to Mars is all about persevering in general. Doing it now is more persevering than ever before."</p><p>An hour after launch, Perseverance's spacecraft separated from the Atlas 5's Centaur upper stage and flew outward to the Red Planet. NASA said the signal from the spacecraft was initially<a href="https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1288848763277029377" target="_blank"> "too loud for the antennas on Earth."</a> But in the midst of a post-launch news briefing, deputy project manager Matt Wallace reported that the operations team was eventually able to lock onto the signal properly.</p><p>Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said such adjustments came with the territory. "You want to be a rocket scientist, this is what you do. … You have to have a little bit of nerves if you're in this business," he said.</p><p>Adam Steltzner, the mission's chief engineer at JPL, said he expected in-space operations to settle into a routine. "I'm looking forward to, ideally, a very quiet and boring cruise to Mars, as we prepare for the never-boring and always stressful entry, descent and landing on the 18th of February," he said on NASA TV.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Mars 2020 launch</small>
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</p><p>Like its older cousin, NASA's Curiosity rover, Perseverance will land with the aid of parachutes and a retrorocket-equipped descent stage. A "Sky Crane" will lower the 1-ton rover to the surface of Jezero Crater, and then the descent stage will blast itself away from the landing site.<br></p><p>The six-wheeled, nuclear-powered robot is designed for a primary mission lasting at least one Martian year, which is the equivalent of nearly two Earth years. But if Perseverance follows Curiosity's example, it could be on the job for far longer.</p><p>Perseverance bears a strong resemblance to Curiosity, in that they're built on the same basic chassis with a similar-looking camera mast and robotic arm. NASA and its collaborators have added some new twists, however.</p><p>A mini-helicopter called Ingenuity is tucked under Perseverance's belly and will be deployed for unprecedented test flights after the landing. Another experiment called <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/" target="_blank">MOXIE</a> will test a technique for turning the carbon dioxide in Mars' thin atmosphere to oxygen. That trick will come in handy if and when NASA sends astronauts on extended trips to Mars as is planned in the 2030s.</p><p>The biggest difference between Curiosity and Perseverance is that the new rover's scientific instruments are fine-tuned to look for signs of life on the microscopic scale.</p><p>A laser-equipped camera system called SuperCam can detect organic compounds in rocks and soils from a distance of more than 20 feet. Two close-up imaging systems, <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/sherloc/" target="_blank">SHERLOC</a> and <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/pixl/" target="_blank">PIXL</a>, can theoretically make out the structural and chemical signs of fossilized microbes. And a radar imager called <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/rimfax/" target="_blank">RIMFAX</a> can map subsurface structure at a resolution of inches, to depths as deep as 30 feet.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Mission Overview: NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover</small>
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</p><p>The <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/nasa-mars-jezero-crater-2020-rover/" target="_blank">target landing site in Jezero Crater</a> is thought to have been a river delta in ancient times, and it was chosen in hopes that the minerals in Martian rock would preserve fossils — or at least the chemical evidence of biological processes.<br></p><p>It's unlikely that Perseverance will find indisputable evidence of life on Mars. Debates about Martian life detection tend to end inconclusively, whether we're talking about the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/47031923/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/viking-robots-found-life-mars-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Viking lander missions of the 1970s</a> or <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/tiny-blobs-tunnels-meteorite-revive-debate-over-life-mars-n38431" target="_blank">suggestions of "nanofossils" in Martian meteorites</a> that fell to Earth. But this mission has a long-term strategy for settling such debates.</p><p>Perseverance is designed to drill out and save dozens of promising core samples for later pickup. The current plan, which is still under development by NASA and the European Space Agency, calls for sending out a <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/mars-sample-return/" target="_blank">NASA lander</a> and a <a href="https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2020/06/airbus-wins-next-study-contract-for-martian-sample-fetch-rover.html" target="_blank">European-built rover in 2026</a>. That rover would fetch the samples and put them into a capsule, which would in turn be loaded onto a <a href="https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/20/nasa-narrows-design-for-rocket-to-launch-samples-off-of-mars/" target="_blank">mini-rocket</a> and launched into Martian orbit.</p><p>"It's kind of an interplanetary relay race we're doing," David Parker, ESA's director of human and robotic spaceflight, explained during a pre-launch briefing.</p><p><a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/05/Earth_Return_Orbiter" target="_blank">Yet another spacecraft</a> would take a trip to Martian orbit, capture the capsule and bring the samples back to Earth for study in 2031. That would mark the first opportunity to examine fresh samples from Mars with the best instruments that scientists have at their disposal — and the best opportunity to answer the age-old question about life on Mars..</p><p>"I do believe that the ultimate proof and the ultimate analyses that are really critical to that question, at the level of standard that we need to answer this, will come from laboratory analysis on Earth," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "So I believe this will be a process that will extend over 10 years or so, where evidence is mounting from remote sensing and in-situ measurements up there, but then really culminating in bringing these samples back."</p><p>More morsels about the Mars mission:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Both Perseverance and Ingenuity were named by students who participated in essay contests — and as a reward, Virginia seventh-grader Alex Mather <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/perseverance-nasa-reveals-name-next-mars-rover-suggested-seventh-grader/" target="_blank">(who named the rover)</a> and Alabama high-school junior Vaneeza Rupani <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/nasa-takes-high-school-students-suggestion-gives-mars-helicopter-new-name-ingenuity/" target="_blank">(who named the helicopter)</a> are <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/excited-to-be-here-students-who-named-nasa-rover-and-helicopter-arrive-at-ksc-to-view-launch/ar-BB17ienb" target="_blank">attending the launch</a> with their families at NASA's invitation.</li><li>Speaking of names, Perseverance is carrying three stamp-sized chips that bear the micro-etched names of<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8634/109-million-names-now-aboard-nasas-perseverance-mars-rover/" target="_blank"> nearly 11 million people</a> who responded to NASA's online "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign.<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/" target="_blank"> The campaign has been revived</a> to collect more names to be sent aboard the next Mars probe.</li><li>Perseverance is also carrying a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/nasas-perseverance-rover-will-go-mars-monument-covid-19-medical-teams/" target="_blank">3-by-5-inch plaque that pays tribute to healthcare workers</a> and their work to quell the coronavirus pandemic. The <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23921" target="_blank">COVID-19 Perseverance Plate</a> bears the serpent-and-staff symbol of the medical profession, topped by planet Earth.</li><li>The spacecraft is <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/microphones/" target="_blank">equipped with microphones</a> that scientists hope will pick up the sounds associated with Perseverance's descent and landing, as well as the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7591" target="_blank">zapping sounds created by the SuperCam's laser blasts</a>. Perseverance is the third Mars probe to carry a microphone, but <a href="https://www.planetary.org/sci-tech/mars-microphones" target="_blank">setbacks prevented the microphones from being used</a> during the two earlier missions (Mars Polar Lander in 1999 and Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008).</li><li>Perseverance is the last of three Mars missions to take advantage of this month's favorable launch opportunity — an opportunity that comes around only once every 26 months, due to the relative orbital positions of Earth and Mars. The other two are the <a href="https://cosmiclog.com/2020/07/19/hope-rises-emirates-first-mars-probe-lifts-off-from-japan/" target="_blank">United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter mission</a>, and <a href="https://cosmiclog.com/2020/07/22/china-launches-mars-probe-amid-big-questions/" target="_blank">China's Tianwen-1 mission</a>, which involves an orbiter, lander and rover.</li></ul><div></div><div><em>This story <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/liftoff-nasas-perseverance-rover-begins-odyssey-seek-traces-life-mars/" target="_blank">first appeared on GeekWire</a>.</em></div>
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A company that has its sights set on 3D printing rockets on Mars has gained another literal foothold toward making its launches reality.
Los Angeles-based Relativity Space announced Wednesday an agreement with the U.S. Air Force's 30th Space Wing to develop rocket launch facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Building 330 and an adjacent area, bringing its launch capabilities to both coasts. The military base, which is also used by SpaceX for launches, is located roughly 2 ½ hours north of Los Angeles.
<p>Relativity co-founder and CEO Tim Ellis said in an interview with dot.LA that the agreement, which took years of "intense vetting," is evidence of "signs of confidence from the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government" regarding the company's 3D printed rocket technology.</p><p>Relativity also said Wednesday it had secured a new launch contract with Iridium Communications Inc. that takes advantage of the new West Coast launch site at Vandenberg to deliver its satellites into orbit using Relativity's 3D printed launch vehicle Terran 1.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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</p><p>The contract with Iridium is for up to six launches to deploy spare satellites from storage into low-Earth orbit if needed. The constellation of 66 satellites provides low-frequency satellite connectivity for people and things on Earth. These launches aren't planned to take place before at least 2023.<br/></p><p>Matt Desch CEO of Iridium said in a statement that though the satellite constellation is operating well, "it's prudent to have a cost-effective launch option for future spare delivery."</p><p>Relativity already has a launch site agreement at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex-16 that was granted last year, and an exclusive-use agreement for rocket engine test sites at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The company has done more than 300 individual engine tests, Ellis said.</p><p>But Vandenberg specifically helps open up the ability to launch rockets on a southern trajectory over the open ocean into polar orbits and sun-synchronous orbits. Sun-sync orbits are helpful for satellites engaged in Earth imaging, analyzing weather patterns and surveillance because they keep the angle of sunlight on Earth's surface consistent to track changes over time.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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</p><p>The B330 site is also strategic because it is the southernmost spot on Vandenberg, which means that Relativity's rockets would not fly over any active launch sites and the company anticipates having the fewest scheduling conflicts from there.<br/></p><p>"We are impressed by Relativity's innovative approach to reinventing aerospace manufacturing via 3D metal printing and robotics," said Col. Anthony J. Mastalir, the 30th Space Wing commander, in a statement. "We look forward to working with Relativity as its West Coast launch partner for many years to come."</p><p>The 30th Space Wing of the Air Force also manages the Department of Defense's space and missile testing.</p><p>Relativity boasts the largest 3D metal printer in the world that uses a specially developed custom alloy that's stronger than traditional aluminum to build its Terran 1 rocket. A traditional rocket takes years to make and is comprised of about 100,000 individual parts, only a single digit percentage of it may be 3D printed. By comparison, Relativity's rocket is made up of less than 1,000 parts with about 95% of the rocket 3D printed and can be built from raw materials to launch-ready in less than 60 days, Ellis said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Relativity's New Partnership with Iridium Communications</small>
</p><p>Though they haven't yet launched a 3D printed rocket, the new contract with Iridium is the company's fifth publicly named launch customer — along with Momentus, Spaceflight, mu Space and Telesat — since April 2019. Relativity declined to discuss other contracted public-private partnerships that it has signed.<br/></p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has not seemed to slow Relativity's launch plans; it's still on track for its first orbital launch by the end of 2021 out of Florida, Ellis said. One factor in keeping those launch plans through the pandemic: the company's Stargate factory and Terran 1 rocket are all designed, built and operated in the United States.</p><p>In February, the company announced it would be moving its staff to a new, 120,000 square feet headquarters in Long Beach that will be the site of the first-ever autonomous rocket factory.</p><p>During the pandemic, the company has added roughly 25 new members to its team, bringing the total employee count to 165 people. Its staff members have been working from home since early March with a single person per building at the factory who has been able to run 3D printers remotely.</p><p>Among the new hires in June are new CFO Mo Shahzad, who left his role as CFO at The Honest Company, and Zachary Dunn, who was a SpaceX executive responsible for production and launch and is now Relativity's VP of factory development for the new 3D printing factory.</p><p>Relativity closed its $140 million series C funding round led by Bond and Tribe Capital in October. The company is also backed by investors Playground Global, Y Combinator, Social Capital, and Mark Cuban.</p><p><em>__</em></p><p><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" target="_blank"><em>@latams</em></a><em>. You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my Signal.</em></p>
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