Open Space Agency

Proud to share the Proceedings from @FDL_AI and @FDL_Europe 2019. Thanks to all the researchers and faculty who worked so hard and partners @NASAAmes @SETIInstitute @ESA_EO @Google @IntelAIResearch and @UniofOxford @LuxSpaceAgency @kx @LockheedMartin en.calameo.com/read/004812363…

@PalmerLuckey I think it’s worthwhile pointing out that the cooling was a temporary effect and the oceanic heating is baked into the system. So it’s not quite accurate to say the legislation caused the hurricane. However, it exposes a Faustian dilemma for our generation.

Hurricane Milton wasn't created by space lasers, but it was definitely made stronger by new regulations on shipping fuel composition that massively reduce cloud albedo. Nobody is talking about this. nature.com/articles/s4324…

It was a huge week of AI and robotics news. So I summarized everything announced by OpenAI, Apple, Google DeepMind, Adobe, The White House, Mistral, Tencent, Runway, and more. Here's everything you need to know and how to make sense out of it:

🌍✨ Save the date! FDL Europe | Earth Systems Lab 2024 AI SOTA Showcase - August 9: groundbreaking AI innovations in planetary stewardship and disaster response. 🕒BST: 12:30-15:30 | CEST: 13:30-16:30 📍Live on the FDL Europe website - RSVP bit.ly/esl2024livesho… #AI #TrustInAI

As a former physics faculty member with a PhD in philosophy of physics who also is very interested in cognition and artificial intelligence, I am happy to call this one a draw. Quantum mechanics in particular tells us that the metaphysics of the world isn’t at all like what we might have expected. On the other hand, one of the things physics hasn’t been helpful at is the hard problem of conscious or even explaining much about mental supervenience on the physical works at all. Best we get is elder statesmen physicists making shaky speculations that basically physics must have key gaps (sorry, Roger). Basically the two key questions are what are we and what is the world. So I think we can put physics and AI on par. In terms of actually progress and what would be a thrilling career if you’re a teen: I grew up completely drawn in by the “any day now” theory of everything excitement. I was mentored by John Wheeler at Princeton. It was very promising! But, well, it’s turned out to be sort of a fizzle. @skdh has a lot to say about that (and QM!). Now I look back and one of the most exciting things I saw was 1988 or so this guy I don’t know was so famous then proving that quantum computers are still limited to the scope of lambda calculus / Turing computable functions. As a way of exploring the Many Worlds Interpretation. That Wheeler had helped on. Now we all know @DavidDeutschOxf but I think I was in the first 1000 to stumble upon that paper. Speaking of stumble upon, I left all that for technology entrepreneurship and I’d argue that the intersection of that and physics and AI is probably the hat trick for profound and fun!

On the eve of the Starship test flight, a reminder of why full reusability is a game changer for access to space... While the industry is following the red line, SpaceX is on a different curve. Note: a straight line is an exponential on this semi-log graph.

The size of space — a visualization of the scale of the universe to help put things in perspective. 📽: Neal Agarwal

Excited to be part of this @FDL_Europe and congratulations to everyone involved.

Oxford is establishing a new Centre for Doctoral Training to combine strengths in AI, machine learning, Big Data, and environmental sciences. @IntelliEarth will train students to develop and apply cutting-edge AI tech to tackle environmental crises. ⬇️ ox.ac.uk/news/2023-10-3…

@DrPhiltill haha - yeah - at least twice a month, I would say.

My teenage daughter just asked me how often I think about the Roman Empire.

New Glenn flight profile. Spec wise, its a 50% bigger than a Falcon 9 and sports a 7 meter payload fairing (vs 5.2m for F9). The flight profile, it is exactly like a F9. Reusable seven BE-4 1st stage (the booster), expendable 7m fairings and expendable two BE-3U engine 2nd stage. The booster lands on a ship at sea. However, New Glenn, is more complex than, F9+2nd stage due to use of dual propellant. 1st stage uses liquefied natural gas (LOX/LNG), and 2nd stage uses liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen is crazy hard to keep liquefied due to its near absolute zero boiling temperature. Ground stage-zero equipment is more complex due to H2 usage as well. Obviously H2 is being used as a propellant by several different rockets currently and in the past, so it is duable. Finally, I can't wait to see New Glenn fly eventually. Although at current Blue Origin pace, I might die of old age first before we see it launch regularly. Maybe that's just the skeptic in me talking. Lets keep our fingers crossed. The good news is that Blue Origin seems to be moving out the stealth mode and finally letting us see more of the development and test articles. That maybe a sign that they are starting to get nearer the testing phase which will be public for all to see. Excitting!

Thanks to @BlueOrigin for an impressive tour! I got to see New Glenn manufacturing up close, which is an essential element of their Blue Moon human landing system architecture.

This is a neural network flying a drone at extremely high speed, beating human champions in FPV drone racing. - Reinforcement learning as a tool is so marvelously versatile. It's able to solve both fast, reactive tasks and slow, deliberate tasks (ChatGPT RLHF). - Trained in large-scale simulation, finetuned in real world - I believe this is the paradigm that will get us to generalist robot some day. Published on Nature's cover, "Champion-Level Drone Racing using Deep Reinforcement Learning." nature.com/articles/s4158… Authors: Elia Kaufmann, Leonard Bauersfeld, Antonio Loquercio, Matthias Müller, Vladlen Koltun & Davide Scaramuzza

We’ve collated all our learnings on #AI for flood response; in our very first ‘intelligence age’ publication.

Can we put AI onboard a spacecraft to help now-cast space weather from a useful vantage point? Meet our Heliophysics Onboard team, who has been hard at work to find out. Join us on Friday, August 18th to see their results: eventbrite.com/e/fdl-europe-2…

How can we develop foundation models for analysing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) EO data that can generalise to a range of downstream tasks & deliver robust results across time and space? Join us on Friday, August 18th to see their results: bit.ly/fdleurope2023l…

On August 18, three teams will present their findings on using AI for planetary stewardship and disaster response. Don't miss the @FDL_Europe Showcase, in partnership with NVIDIA, @ESA_EO, @esa, @uniofoxford, @scan_business, and @googlecloud. Book now > nvda.ws/47n4YOf

We are thrilled about the upcoming Live Showcase on Friday, August 18th, where our FDL Europe research teams will present their findings to the general public. eventbrite.com/e/fdl-europe-2…

We launched FDL-X HELIO last month in partnership with @NASA, @trillium_tech, @Google, @nvidia, & @SETIInstitute FDL-X HELIO’s goal is to enable powerful new capabilities for NASA Heliophysics & space exploration with a focus on solar activity.

What's going on in #space this week? 🤔 Key conferences, launches, and more in 🧵

@trillium_tech's Intelligence Age features discussions b/w today's AI & space leaders about tomorrow's most pressing problems & most promising ideas First edition next month is all about flood resilience & disaster prediction. Subscribe here: eepurl.com/itNMXk