True Anomaly secures $100 million in funding for the expansion of space security technology

true anomaly has closed $100 million in new funding, a strong signal that the appetite for startups operating at the intersection of space and defense is not slowing down.

The new round was led by Riot Ventures with participation from Eclipse, ACME Capital, Menlo Ventures, Narya, 645 Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Champion Hill Ventures, and FiveNine Ventures. The funds will be used to continue expanding all parts of the business, according to a press release.

True Anomaly aims to fill critical gaps in space situational awareness and defensive operations through software and hardware, including a line of autonomous reconnaissance and tracking spacecraft called Jackals. These vehicles are equipped with an array of sensors and cameras to track, monitor, and collect data on objects in space. On the software side, the company is developing an integrated operating platform called Mosaic that will eventually be able to work in conjunction with the Jackal in orbit.

In a previous interview with TechCrunch, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers pointed to a significant “information asymmetry” between the United States and its adversaries in space. Jackal, Mosaic, and the company’s other efforts in space domain awareness aim to fill that gap.

Founded in 2022 by a quartet of former Space Force members, the startup is rapidly moving towards this goal. During the company’s first full year of business, he opened his 35,000 square foot facility in Centennial, Colorado and doubled his headcount to more than 100 people.

In September, True Anomaly won a $17.4 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to help warfighters find and track objects in space, characterize those objects, and use artificial intelligence to predict changes in space. The agreement was signed to build a suite of space domain awareness capabilities, including prediction and identification. Object behavior.

The first two Jackal spacecraft are scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 10 rideshare mission in March. In August, the company received permission from regulators to conduct imaging beyond Earth and demonstrate close space rendezvous operations with two spacecraft. This is such a huge technical challenge that I have no doubt that many people in both Silicon Valley and Washington will be paying close attention to how the demo mission unfolds.

Source: techcrunch.com

The Revealed True Nature of Magellan’s Stars After 50 Years of Exploration

An artist’s rendition of the Magellanic Star Stream, depicting the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, the Milky Way’s nearest neighbors, is shown in the diagram. The gaseous Magellanic Stream swirls behind the galaxies, spreading across the southern sky as they move, with 13 red giant stars discovered within the stream.

Astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University and the Smithsonian University have solved a 50-year-old mystery by identifying stars within the Magellanic Stream. The discovery helps reveal the distance to the stream, providing new insights into the history and characteristics of our galaxy and its neighbors.

The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, showcases the discovery of 13 stars within the stream and their unique characteristics that place them precisely within the mysterious structure. The stars’ distances and chemical compositions offer clues to the formation of the Magellanic Stream and the interactions of the Magellanic Clouds with the Milky Way.

By conducting a spectroscopic analysis of distant Milky Way stars, researchers were able to determine their chemical makeup and velocity, ultimately allowing them to identify stars within the Magellanic Stream. This discovery also sheds light on the origin and gravitational pull of the stream, as well as its potential role in the future formation of new stars within the Milky Way.

The Magellanic Stream, which acts as a supplier of cold neutral gas for the formation of Milky Way stars, also holds valuable insights into the composition of galaxies and the distribution of dark matter. Further study of the stream and additional discoveries of stars are expected to provide more surprises and lead to a deeper understanding of our galaxy’s outer reaches.

Source: scitechdaily.com

The Impact of Green Accounting on the True Cost of Cheap Food for a Better World

In these difficult times, it seems like complete nonsense to say that food prices are cheap. In the UK, the average grocery bill is Up more than 12% in the past year. But it is. The price tag on food is about two-thirds lower than it would be if we paid full price. But don’t worry. We have a plan to resolve this issue.

That may sound unpleasant. Who wants their grocery bills to go up even more? But in reality, we are already paying the real price, and most of it is just being secretly hidden from us. “In total, he pays four times as much for meals,” he says. Alexander Muller At the sustainability think tank TMG in Berlin. First, pay at the cash register. And we pay the health, environmental and social costs of producing that food, primarily through taxes.

green accounting

These costs are “externalities”. Things that are not free are treated as free, such as the environmental destruction caused by agriculture and the health costs of obesity. Now the producers are ignoring them and letting the rest of us pick up the bill. Maybe it won’t last very long. Economists and accountants – don’t yawn in the back. – We are working on a system called True Cost Accounting (TCA) that aims to internalize these externalities and upend decades of economic tradition. If we play our cards right, we won’t all end up spilling more cash at the register, but rather a massive rebalancing of global supply…

Source: www.newscientist.com