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Frangipani
Regular
Are you suggesting it might be Akida technology that will enable the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover to navigate autonomously?
I very much doubt it. Alf Kuchenbuch’s post doesn’t suggest so. He refers to Rosalind’s “children”, hence to a new generation of rovers. If BrainChip were indeed involved with said Mars rover (already under construction), he would have worded his comment differently. Apart from that, the time line doesn’t match either, as in the This Is Our Mission podcast in March (Episode 31), Laurent Hili and Luis Mansilla made it clear that neuromorphic technology will initially be tested in non-critical applications.
Also, Laurent Hili’s comment that I posted earlier today points to Akida technology being envisioned for a lunar lander initially - an ESA mission to the Moon, not to Mars.
I believe the Argonaut lunar lander is what we might be looking at - ESA recently announced that it is targeting 2031 for the lander’s first mission to the Moon’s surface.
Argonaut
Argonaut is Europe’s autonomous access to the Moon, allowing us to play a major role on the surface of our natural satellite. The lunar lander is being designed for a series of missions with many options for its payloads – from cargo and infrastructure delivery to scientific operations, a rover...
www.esa.int
SCIENCE & EXPLORATION
Argonaut
46942 VIEWS221 LIKESESA / Science & Exploration / Human and Robotic Exploration / Exploration
Argonaut is Europe’s autonomous access to the Moon, allowing us to play a major role on the surface of our natural satellite. The lunar lander is being designed for a series of missions with many options for its payloads – from cargo and infrastructure delivery to scientific operations, a rover or a power station, Argonaut is being designed as a versatile access to the Moon.
Argonaut elementsArgonaut will launch on an Ariane 6 rocket in a direct flight to the Moon. An Argonaut mission from launch to landing could take from a week to a month, depending on orbits and mission design. No area is off-limits for Argonaut, the spacecraft will be able to land at any region on the Moon.
The Argonaut spacecraft has three main components: the lunar descent element that takes care of flying to the Moon and landing on target, the cargo platform element that is the interface between the lander and its payload, and finally, the element that mission designers want to send to the Moon.
Adaptability is key in the Argonaut design, the cargo platform element is designed to accept any mission profile: cargo for astronauts near the landing site, a rover, technology demonstration packages, production facilities using resources on the Moon, a lunar telescope or even a power station.
Argonaut is continuing Apollo and Artemis tradition to name lunar missions after Greek mythology. Argonaut is the name given to the sailors of the Argo ship who took Jason on the quest to find the golden fleece. ‘Argonaut’ means ‘sailors of the Argo’ and the individual missions using ESA’s lunar lunar delivery service will be named after the individual mythical Argonauts.
Space agencies have much in store on the Moon for humankind and Argonaut is offering autonomous European access as well as strong possibilities for partnership. As part of the Artemis programme, ESA is participating in NASA’s Orion service module that ferries astronauts, and Europe is supplying modules to the international Gateway in lunar orbit. Argonaut could be an independent complement to the Artemis programme offering cargo delivery and more.
Leading Moon exploration with strong partners
ArgonautThe lunar lander is being designed with versatility in mind as a strong part of ESA’s lunar strategy and Argonaut could be included in the Artemis programme to deliver cargo, rovers and more, or as stand-alone scientific missions.
The Apollo astronauts never lived and work through the lunar night – a night on the Moon is 14 days long and temperatures on the surface plummet to a chilling –150°C.
One capability of the lander will be to bring a sizable share of the food, water, air, and equipment for a crew of four women and men working on the Moon through the night. The Argonaut lunar descent element will be able to bring up to 2100 kg worth of cargo platform element and payload to the Moon – equivalent to a camper van. The European lander can deliver much more than simple cargo: it could function as a survival kit for the explorers of our new frontier.
Sustaining Moon science for decades
What is ESA’s Moonlight initiative?
Access the video
For scientists, the Moon’s qualities of being interesting, close, and useful are an enticing motivation to understand our place in the Universe. Argonaut will allow going beyond short excursions with just a handful of instruments. Driven by scientists’ priorities, the European lander would allow samples to be analysed from previously unexplored and hard-to-get-to regions of the Moon.
Argonaut will use ESA’s Moonlight navigation and telecommunication capabilities around the Moon, allowing for fast communication with the Gateway and Earth to return scientific or operational data, as well as location finding for the automated landing – Argonaut will be able to land with an accuracy of less than 100 m.
Terrae Novae destinations: Moon
The teams in ESA, international partner agencies, European industry, and in the scientific institutions are on this journey together that will bring benefits in the form of inspiration, innovation, and economic growth to all Europeans.
Argonaut was approved at ESA’s Council at ministerial level in 2022 and is now in development. Five missions are foreseen in the next decade, fitting in with ESA’s Terrae Novae strategy for human and robotic exploration.
Technical details
| Launcher | Ariane 64 |
| Launch Site | Kourou, French Guiana |
| Mass on Earth | 10 000 kg |
| Mass on the Moon without cargo | 1600 kg |
| Delivered mass (CPE+ payload) | up to 2100 kg |
| Size | 4.5 m in diameter, up to 6 m tall |
| Landing accuracy | 50–100 m |
| Mission types | Multiple and diverse:
|
A CAD model for illustration purposes of the Lunar Descent Element is available here. Please consider mentioning ESA if any material is made using this CAD model
Update:
I just noticed that Alf Kuchenbuch has meanwhile edited his post, adding (“That is my dream.”), and that Laurent Hili posted an identical comment twice in response to a) that post resp. b) Alf Kuchenbuch’s comment under yesterday’s post by Steve Thorne, making it crystal-clear that it will still take time until Alf’s dream might come true (and at the same time also stresses that it is by no means 100% guaranteed - he literally says BrainChip “could” play a role, not “will” play a role and that it is one of the technologies they are seriously looking at - I am not sure whether he wanted to express the alternatives they are looking at are non-neuromorphic or whether that could also point to one or more neuromorphic competitors being evaluated in parallel by ESA…)
“We are actively working on it to make it a reality
(…) #brainchip could play a role and is one of the technology [sic] we are seriously looking at.”Sounds to me as if either someone from ESA or BrainChip requested Alf Kuchenbuch to edit his post in order to clarify we’re not there, yet, and to stop the rumour mill…
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Frangipani
Regular
Are you suggesting it might be Akida technology that will enable the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover to navigate autonomously?
I very much doubt it. Alf Kuchenbuch’s post doesn’t suggest so. He refers to Rosalind’s “children”, hence to a new generation of rovers. If BrainChip were indeed involved with said Mars rover (already under construction), he would have worded his comment differently. Apart from that, the time line doesn’t match either, as in the This Is Our Mission podcast in March (Episode 31), Laurent Hili and Luis Mansilla made it clear that neuromorphic technology will initially be tested in non-critical applications.
Also, Laurent Hili’s comment that I posted earlier today points to Akida technology being envisioned for a lunar lander initially - an ESA mission to the Moon, not to Mars.
I believe the Argonaut lunar lander is what we might be looking at - ESA recently announced that it is targeting 2031 for the lander’s first mission to the Moon’s surface.
Argonaut
Argonaut is Europe’s autonomous access to the Moon, allowing us to play a major role on the surface of our natural satellite. The lunar lander is being designed for a series of missions with many options for its payloads – from cargo and infrastructure delivery to scientific operations, a rover...www.esa.int
SCIENCE & EXPLORATION
Argonaut
46942 VIEWS221 LIKES
ESA / Science & Exploration / Human and Robotic Exploration / Exploration
Argonaut is Europe’s autonomous access to the Moon, allowing us to play a major role on the surface of our natural satellite. The lunar lander is being designed for a series of missions with many options for its payloads – from cargo and infrastructure delivery to scientific operations, a rover or a power station, Argonaut is being designed as a versatile access to the Moon.
Argonaut will launch on an Ariane 6 rocket in a direct flight to the Moon. An Argonaut mission from launch to landing could take from a week to a month, depending on orbits and mission design. No area is off-limits for Argonaut, the spacecraft will be able to land at any region on the Moon.
The Argonaut spacecraft has three main components: the lunar descent element that takes care of flying to the Moon and landing on target, the cargo platform element that is the interface between the lander and its payload, and finally, the element that mission designers want to send to the Moon.
Adaptability is key in the Argonaut design, the cargo platform element is designed to accept any mission profile: cargo for astronauts near the landing site, a rover, technology demonstration packages, production facilities using resources on the Moon, a lunar telescope or even a power station.
Argonaut is continuing Apollo and Artemis tradition to name lunar missions after Greek mythology. Argonaut is the name given to the sailors of the Argo ship who took Jason on the quest to find the golden fleece. ‘Argonaut’ means ‘sailors of the Argo’ and the individual missions using ESA’s lunar lunar delivery service will be named after the individual mythical Argonauts.
Space agencies have much in store on the Moon for humankind and Argonaut is offering autonomous European access as well as strong possibilities for partnership. As part of the Artemis programme, ESA is participating in NASA’s Orion service module that ferries astronauts, and Europe is supplying modules to the international Gateway in lunar orbit. Argonaut could be an independent complement to the Artemis programme offering cargo delivery and more.
Leading Moon exploration with strong partners
The lunar lander is being designed with versatility in mind as a strong part of ESA’s lunar strategy and Argonaut could be included in the Artemis programme to deliver cargo, rovers and more, or as stand-alone scientific missions.
The Apollo astronauts never lived and work through the lunar night – a night on the Moon is 14 days long and temperatures on the surface plummet to a chilling –150°C.
One capability of the lander will be to bring a sizable share of the food, water, air, and equipment for a crew of four women and men working on the Moon through the night. The Argonaut lunar descent element will be able to bring up to 2100 kg worth of cargo platform element and payload to the Moon – equivalent to a camper van. The European lander can deliver much more than simple cargo: it could function as a survival kit for the explorers of our new frontier.
Sustaining Moon science for decades
What is ESA’s Moonlight initiative?
Access the video
For scientists, the Moon’s qualities of being interesting, close, and useful are an enticing motivation to understand our place in the Universe. Argonaut will allow going beyond short excursions with just a handful of instruments. Driven by scientists’ priorities, the European lander would allow samples to be analysed from previously unexplored and hard-to-get-to regions of the Moon.
Argonaut will use ESA’s Moonlight navigation and telecommunication capabilities around the Moon, allowing for fast communication with the Gateway and Earth to return scientific or operational data, as well as location finding for the automated landing – Argonaut will be able to land with an accuracy of less than 100 m.
Terrae Novae destinations: Moon
The teams in ESA, international partner agencies, European industry, and in the scientific institutions are on this journey together that will bring benefits in the form of inspiration, innovation, and economic growth to all Europeans.
Argonaut was approved at ESA’s Council at ministerial level in 2022 and is now in development. Five missions are foreseen in the next decade, fitting in with ESA’s Terrae Novae strategy for human and robotic exploration.
Technical details
Launcher Ariane 64 Launch Site Kourou, French Guiana Mass on Earth 10 000 kg Mass on the Moon without cargo 1600 kg Delivered mass (CPE+ payload) up to 2100 kg Size 4.5 m in diameter, up to 6 m tall Landing accuracy 50–100 m Mission types Multiple and diverse:
- Cargo logistics
- Science & exploration missions
- technology demonstration packages
- Power generation, storage and distribution systems
- in-situ resource utilisation plants
- and more...
A CAD model for illustration purposes of the Lunar Descent Element is available here. Please consider mentioning ESA if any material is made using this CAD model
Update:
I just noticed that Alf Kuchenbuch has meanwhile edited his post, adding (“That is my dream.”), and that Laurent Hili posted an identical comment twice in response to a) that post resp. b) Alf Kuchenbuch’s comment under yesterday’s post by Steve Thorne, making it crystal-clear that it will still take time until Alf’s dream might come true (and at the same time also stresses that it is by no means 100% guaranteed - he literally says BrainChip “could” play a role, not “will” play a role and that it is one of the technologies they are seriously looking at - I am not sure whether he wanted to express the alternatives they are looking at are non-neuromorphic or whether that could also point to one or more neuromorphic competitors being evaluated in parallel by ESA…)
“We are actively working on it to make it a reality
Sounds to me as if either someone from ESA or BrainChip requested Alf Kuchenbuch to edit his post in order to clarify we’re not there, yet, and to stop the rumour mill…
View attachment 69145
View attachment 69144
Just a slight correction regarding my previous post:
The Rosalind Franklin Mars rover was actually completed and ready to be launched by 2022 - it has been in storage ever since, after ESA suspended cooperation on the joint ExoMars mission with Roscosmos due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is merely a new lander that is under construction, with Thales Alenia Space being the prime contractor.
ESA awards contract to Thales Alenia Space to restart ExoMars
The European Space Agency awarded a contract to resume work on a Mars rover mission that was derailed two years ago by geopolitics.
spacenews.com
ESA awards contract to Thales Alenia Space to restart ExoMars
Jeff FoustApril 10, 2024
-
ESA’s ExoMars rover will join an orbiter launched in 2016 on a mission to search for evidence of past life on Mars. Credit: ESA
COLORADO SPRINGS — The European Space Agency awarded a contract to a consortium of companies to resume work on a Mars rover mission that was derailed two years ago by geopolitics.
ESA announced April 9 it awarded a contract worth 522 million euros ($567 million) to a team led by Thales Alenia Space to restart work on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission. That mission will deliver to the surface of Mars the Rosalind Franklin rover, equipped with a drill that will go up to two meters into the surface, collecting material to analyze for evidence of past or present life.
ExoMars was scheduled to launch in September 2022 on a Russian Proton rocket, part of a partnership between ESA and Roscosmos that also included Russian development of a landing platform for the rover. However, ESA suspended cooperation on the mission weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and put the completed rover in storage.
The new contract covers work to replace some of the contributions Russia provided. Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor, will lead the design of a new landing platform to replace the Russian design, and will handle assembly, integration and testing work. Airbus Defence and Space, which built the rover, will provide mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems for the landing platform. ArianeGroup will be responsible for the landing module’s heat shield and OHB a carrier module.
“There is a complementary difference in technologies and experience that each of the major players in the consortium have,” said Massimo Comparini, deputy chief executive and senior vice president for observation, exploration and navigation at Thales Alenia Space, said in a briefing about the new contract at the 39th Space Symposium.
Besides getting ExoMars back on track, the contract will help Europe develop key technologies in entry, descent and landing, or EDL. “The key aspect is that we develop new capabilities in Europe, industrial capabilities,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA director of human and robotic exploration, at the briefing. “EDL is a key topic.”
The new lander will not require any major modifications to the rover itself, he said. Thales Alenia Space noted in a statement that its work on the contract will include a “full audit and tests” of the rover and other mission hardware, as well as the installation of a new infrared spectrometer instrument on the rover.
ExoMars will also incorporate contributions from NASA under a partnership between NASA and ESA announced after Russia was removed from the mission. NASA will provide aerobraking engines and radioisotope heating units (RHUs), small devices that use the heat produced by the decay of plutonium to keep the spacecraft warm.
NASA will also provide a launch of the mission, currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2028. Neuenschwander said NASA is currently procuring a launch vehicle for ExoMars but has not selected one yet. “There are natural candidates that you can imagine that are currently operational launchers currently going from U.S. soil” that could be used for ExoMars, he said.
Comparini said there was no one specific factor on the critical path to that late 2028 launch date. “It’s more the complexity of what must be refurbished and adapted for the mission,” he said.
“We are now facing the classical challenges we have in these types of missions,” Neuenschwander added, calling the new contract a “major stabilization” of the program. “Now, a lot of work remains to be done, but we are back on track in a nominal, typical space program.”
Frangipani
Regular
Interesting like of a BrainChip post on LinkedIn by a Fraunhofer ITWM (Institut für Techno*- und Wirtschaftsmathematik / Institute for Industrial Mathematics) research scientist, given this Fraunhofer Institute’s High Performance Computing division is co-coordinating a project called STANCE (Strategic Alliance For Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering) alongside Fraunhofer IIS (Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen / Institute for Integrated Circuits), which aims to push for the adoption of spiking and neuromorphic technologies in industrial production by bringing together users and solution providers. The STANCE project got underway five months ago.
*Ich musste echt zweimal hinschauen, aber die forschen wohl doch nicht über Raves…
@cosors, ohne Bindestrich wäre das ansonsten doch echt der perfekte Arbeitsplatz für dich gewesen, oder?!
*Ich musste echt zweimal hinschauen, aber die forschen wohl doch nicht über Raves…
@cosors, ohne Bindestrich wäre das ansonsten doch echt der perfekte Arbeitsplatz für dich gewesen, oder?!
Frangipani
Regular
View attachment 68967 View attachment 68968 View attachment 68969 View attachment 68970
Edward Lien, Executive MBA on LinkedIn: Please come by the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit and check out the latest…
Please come by the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit and check out the latest advancements with BrainChip! We'll be at booth #58. See you there.www.linkedin.com
Speaking of LinkedIn likes:
Fair chance this catch-up between our new Regional Sales Manager in Taiwan and the gentleman working for NVIDIA is going to be more of a private nature than talking business - they both worked for AMD around the same time and Jackie Soussan used to organise overseas sales meetings, including one or several in Taiwan. I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Edward Lien:
Jackie Soussan:
Frangipani
Regular
Wrong. I am not a guy, to start with.
You, however, seem to be more of a “glass is overflowing” kind of guy? Right?
Over the past couple of years I've found more than 30-40 likes (at least) both ways on LinkedIn between nvidia and brn so yes, i believe there's more to itWrong. I am not a guy, to start with.
You, however, seem to be more of a “glass is overflowing” kind of guy? Right?
Dyor
The fact you are a woman makes SO MUCH SENSE right now, thanks for sharing
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Just reposting that thumbnail image of yours in full size, as it reveals the name of a new demo on the right monitor as well as on the info leaflet next to it:
View attachment 69108
View attachment 69109
It says: “LLMs on the Edge with RAG” resp. “LLM with RAG on Akida”
I googled RAG, which means “Retrieval-Augmented Generation”.
Retrieval-augmented generation - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
“Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is a type of generative artificial intelligence that has information retrieval capabilities. It modifies interactions with a large language model (LLM) so that the model responds to user queries with reference to a specified set of documents, using this information in preference to information drawn from its own vast, static training data. This allows LLMs to use domain-specific and/or updated information.[1] Use cases include providing chatbot access to internal company data, or giving factual information only from an authoritative source.[2]”
Intel Labs on LinkedIn: #deeplearning #lvlm #rag
Learn more about Multimodal RAG from our very own Vasudev Lal in the latest DeepLearning.AI course. Andrew Ng explains more about what to expect in the video…
TheDon
Regular
thank me later buddy
… I know it’s hard for beginner to understand the system… here is a simple guide… don’t overdo it! Step by step Hi @Frangipani ,
The excerpt I posted immediately below the post from which you inferred a suggested Akida link refers to an algorithm.
Further on, that article continues:
In artificial intelligence, machine learning is a way that computers learn from data—lots of data—to identify patterns and make decisions or draw conclusions.
This automated process can be powerful when the patterns might not be obvious to human researchers looking at the same data, which is typical for large, complex data sets such as those involved in imaging and spectral analysis.
In MOMA's case, researchers have been collecting laboratory data for more than a decade, according to Victoria Da Poian, a data scientist at NASA Goddard who co-leads development of the machine learning algorithm. The scientists train the algorithm by feeding it examples of substances that may be found on Mars and labeling what they are. The algorithm will then use the MOMA data as input and output predictions of the chemical composition of the studied sample, based on its training.
"The more we do to optimize the data analysis, the more information and time scientists will have to interpret the data," Da Poian said. "This way, we can react quickly to results and plan next steps as if we are there with the rover, much faster than we previously would have."
The collected data will be used in building various AI models which can be used by the AI algorithm for classification or "labelling" as well as for navigation. If NASA are using a conventional CNN algorithm, this will be a significant drain on their elctricity supply.
BRN has been engaged with NASA for some years. It would be surprising if Victoria Da Poian were to be unaware of Akida. In particular NASA would have been aware of TeNNs for a couple of years.
The rover must navigate autonomously, and Akida has famously been found to enable an increase in cruising speed of such rovers due to its real time processing capabilities. The rover is said to have a range of several km.
While Akida has been radhardened by Vorago, there is nothing to suggest the Akida SoC is incorporated in the rover. Indeed, as you point out, time would be against this possibility ... but next time?
Sean Hehir recently acknowledged that BRN now has an additional product line for algorithms.
Rosalind is not due to be launched til 2028, so there is time to incorporate TeNNs/Akida 2 algorithms in the Mars rover. But who knows? It may already be there.
FN:
https://www.esa.int/Science_Explora...th_of_ESA_s_ExoMars_Rosalind_Franklin_mission
FAQ: The ‘rebirth’ of ESA’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission
13/03/2023...
There is a plan to re-use in the new Lander the qualified onboard computer, the radar doppler altimeter and the parachute system that had been developed for the previous version of the mission.
...
This refers to the lander module, but the rover will also have a "qualified" processor which will not be readily replaced. However:
Any obsolescence of parts will be taken care of with appropriate refurbishments during the development of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Mission.
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davidfitz
Regular
Easy to get excited with any positive move but unfortunately, it's just the same games being played day in day out.
Labsy
Regular
Battle of the bots... The powers that be want an increase now for who knows why.... Maybe coz they successfully bought a bunch at 15.5 cents again...and want to sell at 30 cents again
Pom down under
Top 20
Hopefully not to long now to we get a real announcement, but must admit I’m a bit fed up with the wait.
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