The Finnish food-tech start-up has managed to grow a nutrient rich protein called solein. It is made from a single microbe using carbon dioxide – from the air – and hydrogen that is split from water using electricity.

The gas fermentation process used to create the protein is comparable in some ways to how you make beer or wine, Solar foods CEO, Pasi Vainikka, says. He added:

“Typically, for example, in winemaking you add yeast to this sugarish liquid, and this yeast eats sugar for carbon and energy to grow and express some alcohol to surrounding liquid. We do the same, but our microbe does not eat sugar, but it is hydrogen and carbon dioxide that we bubble in as gases in the fermenter. And that’s where the very fundamental point is how to disconnect from agriculture. No agricultural feedstock is used.”

The technology could have far-reaching benefits for the future of our species both on Earth and in outer space, if it‘s scalable.

Construction of its first large-scale factory began at the end of 2021. It will be a hundred times larger than this pilot plant. It is expected to produce four million Solein meals a year when it becomes operational in the first half of 2023.

Blue Origin’s federal suit accuses NASA of having been “unlawful and improper” in its evaluation of proposals concerning its human landing system program, SpaceNews reported.

In April, NASA awarded a nearly $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX to collaborate with the agency to design and develop a lunar lander to carry astronauts to the moon — ensuring that SpaceX will likely play a big role in the first lunar landing with humans since 1972.

In July, Blue Origin argued in an open letter that NASA gave SpaceX an unfair advantage during the proposal process. Bezos’ company also said by choosing only one company to receive a contract, the space agency made it possible for one firm possibly to “have insurmountable leverage over NASA.”

Without competition, Blue Origin said:

“Short-term and long-term lunar ambitions will be delayed, will ultimately cost more, and won’t serve the national interest.”

In the letter, Blue Origin offered to sacrifice up to $2 billion in future payments should NASA amend its decision.

Blue Origin and Dynetics, another private company, filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office over NASA’s decision to work solely with SpaceX.

But the GAO concluded in July that NASA did nothing wrong. NASA said in its initial announcement that the agency had the option of issuing multiple awards, a single one or none at all, dependent on funding, GAO said. NASA in the end went with only one company because it didn’t have enough funding for more than one award. The GAO also said that NASA evaluated all proposals fairly.

NASA must respond to Blue Origin’s suit by Oct. 12, according to BBC News. However, the details of the suit will likely remain a mystery; Blue Origin was granted a protective order, sealing details of the case, on Monday, according to Space.com.

Representatives for NASA told The Verge that they are “currently reviewing” the case.

A solar telescope has a tough job. Staring at the Sun takes a harsh toll, with a constant bombardment by a never-ending stream of solar particles and intense sunlight. Over time, the sensitive lenses and sensors of solar telescopes begin to degrade. To ensure the data such instruments send back is still accurate, scientists recalibrate periodically to make sure they understand just how the instrument is changing.

Launched in 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has provided high-definition images of the Sun for over a decade. Its images have given scientists a detailed look at various solar phenomena that can spark space weather and affect our astronauts and technology on Earth and in space. The Atmospheric Imagery Assembly, or AIA, is one of two imaging instruments on SDO and looks constantly at the Sun, taking images across 10 wavelengths of ultraviolet light every 12 seconds. This creates a wealth of information of the Sun like no other, but—like all Sun-staring instruments—AIA degrades over time, and the data needs to be frequently calibrated.

Since SDO’s launch, scientists have used sounding rockets to calibrate AIA. Sounding rockets are smaller rockets that typically only carry a few instruments and take short flights into space—usually only 15 minutes. Crucially, sounding rockets fly above most of Earth’s atmosphere, allowing instruments on board to to see the ultraviolet wavelengths measured by AIA. These wavelengths of light are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and can’t be measured from the ground. To calibrate AIA, they would attach an ultraviolet telescope to a sounding rocket and compare that data to the measurements from AIA. Scientists can then make adjustments to account for any changes in AIA’s data.

There are some drawbacks to the sounding rocket method of calibration. Sounding rockets can only launch so often, but AIA is constantly looking at the Sun. That means there’s downtime where the calibration is slightly off in between each sounding rocket calibration. Dr. Luiz Dos Santos, a solar physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said:

“It’s also important for deep space missions, which won’t have the option of sounding rocket calibration. We’re tackling two problems at once.”

Researchers needed to train a machine learning algorithm to recognize solar structures and how to compare them using AIA data. To do this, they give the algorithm images from sounding rocket calibration flights and tell it the correct amount of calibration they need. After enough of these examples, they give the algorithm similar images and see if it would identify the correct calibration needed. With enough data, the algorithm learns to identify how much calibration is needed for each image.

Because AIA looks at the Sun in multiple wavelengths of light, researchers can also use the algorithm to compare specific structures across the wavelengths and strengthen its assessments.

Machine learning beyond the Sun

Researchers have also been using machine learning to better understand conditions closer to home.

As machine learning advances, its scientific applications will expand to more and more missions. For the future, this may mean that deep space missions—which travel to places where calibration rocket flights aren’t possible—can still be calibrated and continue giving accurate data, even when getting out to greater and greater distances from Earth or any stars.

The launch of New Shepard’s first crewed flight will be broadcast beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) at BlueOrigin.com and at Space.com. Liftoff is scheduled for 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), but that will depend on the weather forecast and other technical factors.

A typical New Shepard flight lasts 11 minutes, and a live broadcast with the astronauts will be available at BlueOrigin.com after the landing, Blue Origin said in a press release Monday (July 12). The company will also be sharing mission updates all day via @BlueOrigin on Twitter.

Riding along with Bezos will be Mercury 13 aviator Wally Funk, whom he personally invited to join the crew, along with his brother Mark and a so-far anonymous auction winner who paid $28 million for a seat.

The New Shepard rocket and capsule will launch from Launch Site One, a remote area in the west Texas desert that will be closed to all spectators, even along nearby sections of State Highway 54, Blue Origin said.

Bezos (best known for creating Amazon) founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the hopes of eventually bringing rich space tourists to suborbital space. Sheer altitude has become one of the points in which Blue Origin hopes to differentiate itself from competitor Virgin Galactic, which was founded in 2004 and just launched its own billionaire founder Richard Branson last Sunday (July 11).

Days before Branson’s flight, Blue Origin released an infographic snarkily comparing the two systems and criticizing Virgin Galactic’s design decision to fly below the Kármán line, the 62-mile (100 kilometers) mark that is internationally recognized as the boundary of space. That said, all Virgin Galactic astronauts do soar well above 50 miles (80 km), the demarcation point recognized by NASA, the U.S. military and the Federal Aviation Administration.

NASA announced its decision to pick SpaceX’s Starship rocket system on April 16th, citing the spacecraft’s proposed cost and cargo capacity as key reasons for beating both Blue Origin and Dynetic.

Blue Origin’s 175-page protest, filed with the Government Accountability Office less than two weeks after SpaceX won the contract, accuses NASA of misjudging several parts of its proposal for Blue Moon, the lunar lander it’s developing with a “National Team” of established space and defence contractors: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the protest with a tweet: “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol,” he said, apparently referring to the fact that Blue Origin hasn’t launched anything into orbit.

In its protest, Blue Origin asked the GAO to recommend that NASA rescind its award to SpaceX, reissue the competition with a new statement that reflects the funding shortfall, and convene discussions with all bidders on the new process

However, this isn’t Blue Origin’s first bid protest. In 2019, the company challenged the Air Force’s strategy to pick two of four bidding companies to launch the Pentagon’s satellites into space for the next several years.