Silicon Beach Report June 3: Oceanic Mapping Firm Wins XPrize for Robotic Boat

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Goncalves to lead WarnerMedia streaming development; SpaceX plans for Mars; Xprize awards oceanic mapping firm $7 million

SpaceX Plots Mars Approach

At a recent conference in Washington, D.C. SpaceX development engineer Paul Wooster told a crowd that the Hawthorne-based aerospace firm remains “on track to send humans to Mars in the mid-2020s,” according to ArsTechnica. The company is working to simplify logistics to get people on a craft to the Red Planet. Measures include making sure the spacecraft can withstand a heavier cargo load than current launches.

Xprize Awards $7 Million Oceanic Mapping Prize

Playa Vista-based Xprize Foundation Inc. awarded a $7 million to Durham, N.H.-based Nippon Foundation’s GEBCO-NF team for its work on a robotic boat and submersible. The Xprize was sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell and awarded to a company that wants to develop technology to map the entire ocean floor. The BBC reports that only 20 percent of the planet’s ocean floor is mapped accurately.

WarnerMedia Appoints Goncalves to Lead Streaming Venture

Tony Goncalves was tapped to lead the forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service from AT&T’s WarnerMedia. Variety reports that Goncalves, the former chief executive of Santa Monica-based Otter Media, will be joined by former Hulu Chief Executive Andy Forsell. Forsell will be general manager of WarnerMedia’s streaming service, which is set to launch in the first quarter of 2020.


Tech reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335. Follow him on Twitter @samsonamore.

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