DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

 DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF

              By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane

RACE TO BUILD NEW COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION

                                                    Source:  Voyager Space & Airbus

• France-based aerospace and aviation giant Airbus has officially partnered in a JV with Denver-based Voyager Space to develop, build and operate a commercial international space station to replace the soon-to-retire ISS (International Space Station)
• Here are some pertinent facts:

1. Voyager's space station under development is called Spacelab
2. Spacelab has received significant funding from NASA and has cleared most spaceflight and operational requirements
3. Airbus just became the co-owner of Spacelab
4. The goal is to become ISS' permanent successor when it retires in 2030
5. Spacelab is in competition with several other spacelab concepts, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Northrup and Axiom, all of which also received NASA funding
6. Starlab expects to launch and go into low-Earth Space in 2028
7. It hopes to ensure continuing US-European cooperation in space

• Whatever concept is chosen to replace ISS in 2030, it will become a focal point in humanity's journey to continue to explore space and learn the secrets and innovations that abound in the universe around us.

VW'S CALIFORNIA CONCEPT

                                                                            Source:  VW

• Volkswagen is teasing with sketches and renderings a new plug-in hybrid California concept camper
• Here's what we know:

1. Will debut August 25, 2023 at the Caravan Salon Show in Dusseldorf, Germany
2. Goes into production in 2024 and on the market in 2025
3. Built and based on the Multivan
4. Designed to be a smarter and cleaner camping option
5. Sleeps family of 4
6. Connected via a removeable tablet command center that tracks battery levels, gas levels and controls refrigeration & lighting
7. Pop up roof adds 6&1/2 feet of height
8. 1.4-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder combustion engine and an electric engine
9. 215 hp
10. 10.4 kilowatt hour battery
11. 30 miles of electric range
12. Available with an eHybrid PHEV powertrain

• VW considers the electric camper category an important avenue of growth as it plans to expand its portfolio of models.

NASA-IBM AI EARTH-CLIMATE CHANGE OPEN MODEL

                                                                Source:  AI Stock & NASA

• NASA and IBM's Watson have created a 1st-of-its-kind AI model, that is open source and contains NASA's geospatial data
• Key facts:
• Purpose:  widen access to NASA earth science data to accelerate Climate Change and earth science related innovations & discoveries
• 1st open source AI foundation model built with NASA's geo-spatial data
• Open access on AI platform Hugging Face
• First likely uses: 

1. Track deforestation
2. Predict crop yields
3. Detect & monitor greenhouse gas emissions

• This innovative AI resource is aimed at accelerating new solutions by accelerating the analysis of satellite images by scientists to boost scientific discoveries.

For more news stories like this, FLIGHT PATH TO THE FUTURE

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"Daily Innovation Brief" © By Edward Kane