Old Fish | Moon Ice | Martian Doggos - The Convo Kit - Issue #2

Three celestial bodies, two have water, one has a robot that will pour it for you. Fortunately you live on the one that has this newsletter!

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Old Fish

The 100 year old Coelacanth takes life slowly. It is one of a few known marine species that can live for a full century.

• Embryos can live 5 years before being born

• Fossil evidence dates back 400 million years

• Slow aging process threatens their existence due to low replacement rate

The Coelacanth’s long lifespan leaves their species much more susceptible to climate change. Region based population size can be an indicator of local ecosystem health. No word on how their generational rivalries stack up to millennials vs. baby boomers.

Picture of the fish with a cheeky smile in the article.

Moon Ice

Mining ice from our moon could provide valuable water to moon missions. Masten Space Systems’ rover will use controlled blasts to extrapolate ice from moon debris.

• The name: Rocket M

• The destination: Lunar south pole, holding ~154m lbs. of ice

• Top Speed: 2.14 mph

Potential lunar ice marketing opportunities: Space Slushies, Moonbucks, Lun-Nar-Ice, and Ice Cube’s next album “Lunar Injection”. Suspiciously missing in this coverage is the prospect of lunar cheese mining.

Impressive video breakdown on Interesting Engineering.

Robo-Doggo Built for Mars

ETH Zurich’s SpaceBok hopes to be the first robo-dog on the red planet. The quadruped has been designed specifically for exploring where traditional rolling rovers cannot.

• Named after the springbok antelope

• Trained in simulated Martian terrain

• Can hop around in low gravity

I’m still partial to BostonDynamics’ Spot, but competition is always good! A mission with 2 or 3 robo-dogs would be exciting to watch and minimize risk if one brand (breed?) were to fail.

Watch SpaceBok’s slow sand steps in action.

Fast(er) Food, Now With Robots

Miso Robotics is working on an automated beverage pouring robot. The startup already has a fun burger flipping robot, Flippy, so building out their fast food offering is a good fit.

• Orders are synced with point of sale

• Labor shortages add value

• Lids use less plastic

Beverage bot has potential to gain speedier adoption than Flippy. Installation of a drink dispenser will be far less disruptive to existing kitchens than the co-bot cook. Backyard chefs will cling to their grills, but no one will fight to efficiently pour fountain drinks.

Gif of Flippy’s soon to be over-achieving sibling on Tech Crunch.

Air Water

ETH Zurich turns air into condensation, aka water. Their condenser uses reflective and semi-permeable surfaces to regulate temperature.

• Collects 88% of possible moisture

• Water container is 27 °F cooler than surroundings

• Requires no external power

Not requiring external power enables this condenser to run 24/7 from almost anywhere. Potentially reducing water scarcity in some of our most remote countries in need of a solution. On a slightly smaller scale, if someone knows how to collect the condensation from my iced coffee before it drips on my shirt, I’m all ears.

More from the source that invented 40% of this issue, ETH Zurich.

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