Tapping into Tough Tech

This is Telemetry, our first broadcast for The End Effector’s membership. I intend for it to be a synthesis of signals spanning diverse sources, both in-house and external, recent and retrospective. I’ll tinker with it on a weekly cadence for a while and adjust tack if necessary.

If you are receiving this in your inbox, you are among the earliest supporters of my endeavor to be the voice for the champions of science-advantaged startups.

Check out what I’ve prepared below. I hope you find it worth your time. Plus, free drinks on me if you venture over to our inaugural community event, Tough Tech On Tap! 🍻

Your personal feedback is warmly welcome. No one builds alone.

– Jonathan “JMill” Miller

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Illustration by JMill

I’m excited to share with you Space for Earthlings, a collection of articles about how to think about emerging space-based infrastructure and how it is changing the way business is conducted right here on Earth. Launch into Space for Earthlings.

MONITOR

A self-driving future: the musical

Autonomous cars present a prickly problem set. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Ford's BlueCruise. Tesla's Autopilot has undergone on-again off-again investigations. Waymo robotaxis mix up what side of the road is the right one. (Hint: when in doubt, pick the right one.) So I am getting nostalgic for simpler times when we didn't know what we didn't know about autonomous command and control on a rolling chassis. Pour a glass, turn up the volume, and enjoy the musical short, "Key to the Future," produced by General Motors for the 1956 Motorama auto show. It envisions self-driving cars in the far-off future of 1976.

Quantum speculations on Sim, Sense, Comms, Crypto

We've all heard about quantum computing, but less so about its equally-exciting siblings, quantum sensing and quantum communications. One of our buddies over at SandboxAQ composed a piece about how artificial intelligence is boosting the capabilities of various quantum technologies.

(Also, keep a look out over at Tough Tech Today because we are about to dive into our 'quantum quarter' – several episodes featuring the who's who of quantum folks!)

Collage by JMill. Sources below and Brian Cairns

International Space Station, humanity's orbital petri dish

The ISS is a smelly place, with years of accumulation of bacteria shed by astronauts. It's been a few years since the original bacterial study of the ISS revealed that the gravitational environment (or lack thereof) is leading to the mutated bacteria not seen on Earth. The stowaway biofilms – microörganism communities – are resistant to standard decontamination procedures and this is a dangerous problem for the future of humans in space. I'm aware of at least one team from MIT working on interesting mitigation techniques. A recent study shows it's very much needed.

BLIPS

On the topic of hygiene, this time of the cyber sort: Be a good citizen and do your part to impede adversary meddling in infrastructure. Small modular nuclear reactors more expensive than large reactors. (But they could be great for datacenters and outposts.) Guess who’s now hiding their methane from the eyes in the sky?

EVENT

We all grow wiser together, so it’s time to cultivate our ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, regulators, and other tough tech champions. Get involved in solving our world's toughest challenges.

Not in Beantown this time? Put your name on my list to keep in the loop for future Tap events.

No One Builds Alone.

/NOBA

ASK↔OFFER

Got an ‘ask’ of our readership for help, contacts, services, or a second set of eyes to look at your slide deck? Having something to offer, such as skillz, cash, or good vibes? Let’s hear it.

Respond to this email, tell me – it would be cool to relay your Ask↔Offer in our next newsletter.

Questions, feedback? Let me know by replying to this email.