Tech Up S2E6 - News From Futurism [Virtual Twins, Rescue Drones, Dark Matter, Tattoo Removal]
TechUp S2 Episode 6 premiers in March on Bell Aliant Community One. Follow us on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/TechUpOne Like us on Facebook - http://www....
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An artist rendering of SkyTran. (Credit: Skytran)
This article is a companion piece to Hyperloop Is Real: Meet The Startups Selling Supersonic Travel from the March 2, 2015 issue of FORBES
The Hyperloop isnt the only radical transportation project out there. Here are a few that may lay ahead for the future and one from the past.
SKYTRAN Inspired by the 40-year-old personal rapid transit system in Morgantown, W.V., Skytran is a high-speed (150 mph) network of two-person pods that whisk people on suspended maglev tracks. A test system is slated this year in Tel Aviv, with a bigger city network projected for completion by the end of 2016. Skytran says tickets will sell for less than a bus fare. We doubt that. Cost: $80 million.
TERRAFUGIA FLYING CAR Its 2015 and we still dont have flying cars? Terrafugia aims to change that with its Transition street legal airplane, enabling you to commute like the future Marty McFly. There have been successful test flights, and deliveries are anticipated for 2016. Still, flying cars have been promised for so long well believe it when we take one to work. Cost: $279,000
PROJECT HARP Jules Verne imagined a day when the astronauts would be fired from a gigantic gun to the Moon. In the 1960s, the U.S. and Canada tried to build guns that could shoot satellites into Earth orbit. Despite perpetual funding woes and political obstacles, the project was able to fire test payloads into space up to 112 miles before it was shut down in 1967.
SHWEEB Google invested $1 million into Shweeb, which is developing a system of monorails with individual pods that you pedal with your feet. The company built a 220-yard prototype at an amusement park in New Zealand. Cool for cities, but what rhymes with Shweeb?
ET3 Two weeks before announcing Hyperloop, Elon Musk met with the founder of ET3, who is talking up a network of vacuum tunnels through which car-sized capsule fly using magnetic levitation. The company claims its system could be built for a quarter of the cost of a freeway and support more traffic. Its currently seeking out sites to build a three-mile prototype that can travel at speeds over 370 mph.
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The December 28, 1959 issue of Life magazine featured this illustration of life in 1975. It's over the top and cartoonish, of course, but it perfectly sums up all of the techno-optimism that was so prevalent in the late 1950s the Golden Age of Futurism.
The article that accompanied the illustration spelled out the wondrous things that people could expect by the year 1975. Americans were promised that they'd be working less, taking home more money, and enjoying longer vacations and more leisure activities than they could even imagine. And don't forget about the amazing technological advances. High-tech communications satellites? Check. Family helicopters? Check. Replaceable organs and robot-diagnosed medicine? Check and check.
The article in Life also assured readers that they weren't just making these predictions up as they went along. They were referencing the hard data from the Research Institute of America, a private research firm:
The Institute's basic over-all prediction is that in 15 years, given a peaceful world, America will be a consumer's utopia. By 1975 more Americans (230 million) will have more money (average national family income up from the present $5,000 to 7,500) and more time to spend it (15% fewer work hours, 50% more holidays). Technology and salesmanship and industry will conspire to make every American's life safer and easier. Rockets will whisk special delivery mail anywhere in the world and relay stations on orbiting space satellites will speed his radio messages on their way. Electronic devices will cook his food faster, purify his air supply, diagnose the weather and also his health. If something goes terribly wrong with his insides, tiny, complex self-powered spare human parts hearts, kidneys and livers will be available.
But we have to remind ourselves that the people of any given generation don't all think alike. For instance, the illustrator of this cartoon, Jim Flora, also drew some rather scary robots for an article in Parade that very same year.
In that piece we see a dystopian world filled with too much automation, too much leisure time, and even suicide as a result. Never forget that no matter the decade, one person's time-saving robot is another person's job-stealing tyrant.
Image via Super Retro
Contact the author at novak@gizmodo.com.
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This Cartoon Perfectly Sums Up the Optimism of 1950s Futurism
Last summer, satellite deployers on board the International Space Station belonging to space science company NanoRacks developed issues that prevented some cubesats deployed into their orbits. After several months of work and repair, that company has been able to solve those issues and celebrated a deployment of two satellites belonging to Planet Labs on Friday.
The satellite deployment system allows commercial space companies to deliver cubesats small satellites just a few inches around into orbit at a low cost. The cubesats get delivered to the space station during its normal cargo runs and then are deployed by astronauts from the station itself. The satellite deployers were developed and built by NanoRacks.
Planet Labs satellites deployed from the space station. (Credit: NASA)
Directing the repairs required the company to coordinate with NASA as well as the Russian and Japanese space agencies and astronauts on board the space station.
Over the last six months, NASA and JAXA have worked tirelessly with NanoRacks to ensure that the on-orbit hardware adaptations make our CubeSat deployers safe and ready for operations. Its a testament to the ISS Programs ability to cooperate with commercial partners and utilize the resource they have on orbit. NanoRacks External Payloads Account Manager Conor Brown said in a statement.
The repairs to the deployment system included a new commanding system as well as latches to ensure that the deployers remain attached to the space station in case of any malfunction so that they dont pose a danger to the station. The hardware was delivered in January on a SpaceX Dragon capsule and installed earlier in February.
NanoRacks has also developed a new satellite deployment system thats capable of sending larger microsatellites into orbit up to a mass of about 100 kg. That system will be delivered on a SpaceX Dragon launch currently slated for June 2015.
You can watch footage of the satellites being deployed below:
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Nanoracks Resumes Satellite Deployment From The International Space Station
Artist rendering of LauncherOne (Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic announced today that it has leased a new facility in Long Beach, California for the design and manufacture of its small satellite launcher, LauncherOne.
The 150,000 square foot facility is intended to produce LauncherOne rockets at quantity, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said in a statement. With New Mexicos magnificent Spaceport America for our commercial spaceflight operations, our Mojave facilities for WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo production, and now our new facility in Long Beach for LauncherOne, we are building capability to serve our expanding customer community.
LauncherOne is a two stage rocket that is intended to deliver small satellite payloads of 500 pounds or less. Like Virgin Galactics passenger spacecraft, it will be launched by the companys WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft. The company aims to be able to deliver satellites into orbit for a price of less than $10 million.
Virgin Galactics new manufacturing facility. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
The new manufacturing facility is located across the street from Long Beach Airport, where the WhiteKnightTwo will fly from to deliver its customers payloads. The company also announced today that it was going to be hosting a job fair in March, looking for positions to work at its new manufacturing facility.
The company has already contracted with several companies to deliver satellites. Among them is satellite internet service is OneWeb, which the Virgin Group and Qualcomm have both invested in.
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Virgin Galactic Unveils Manufacturing Facility For Its Satellite Launcher
Image Credit: Spaceport America
The New Mexico legislature is currently considering legislation that would result in the sale of its Spaceport America. The bill, SB 267, moved from the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee to the Senate Finance Committee in a vote yesterday. No hearing date on the legislation has been scheduled in the Finance Committee as of this writing.
The legislation is sponsored by Senator George K. Muoz, who didnt mince any words in a statement regarding the legislation.
Spaceport has one launch director. He probably plowed a lot of snow but hes never hit a launch button, he told the Committee.
The spaceport opened to a great deal of fanfare in 2011 with an eye to being a hub for space startups and tourism. SpaceX leases space there to conduct tests of its reusable rocket designs, and other small space startups like Armadillo Aerospace and UP Aerospace have conducted test flights at the facility.
The main draw for the spaceport, though, is its anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, which plans to use the site for its tourist operations. However, the past few years have seen continuous delays in Virgins plans to get its space tourism operations off the ground. Those operations have been delayed even further by the the crash of its SpaceShipTwo last Fall.
There was a lot of hoopla before that if We build it, they will come, but its been several years now and nobodys shown up yet, Muoz said in his statement. New Mexican taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for a $250 million empty facility that is providing the Legislature shaky operational information at best.
Senator Muoz also stated that he feels that Virgin Galactic is in violation of its lease.
Virgin Galactic emailed me the following statement on the matter:
Virgin Galactic remains fully committed to the efforts of NMSA and Spaceport America. We have made a lot of progress on the build of our second spaceship, and our plans for commercial operations remain the same: we will test in California and operate our spaceline from New Mexico. We signed a 20 year lease with the State and have been paying rent monthly since January 2013. We are committed to our New Mexico suppliers and New Mexico based staff and will continue to add both.
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New Mexico Considering Legislation To Sell Spaceport America
Mashrafe Dedicating Win to the Freedom Fighters of 1971
Bangladesh cricket team #39;s Captain Mashrafe bin Murtozadedicating his win to the freedom fighters of our Independence War and the hard working people of Bangladesh. Salute! March 9, 2015.
By: Mohammad Rahman Jalal
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Mashrafe Dedicating Win to the Freedom Fighters of 1971 - Video
Freedom Fighters (PC) Vgigjtszs/Walkthrough #13 - Na most j volt a gondolatmenet
rdemes elolvasni! Read this! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lompioppayoutube?ref=hl Gpigny profil: http://gepigeny.hu/profile.php?lookup=19820 Gpigny weboldal (Hungary): http://gepig...
By: Lompi
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Freedom Fighters (PC) Vgigjtszs/Walkthrough #13 - Na most j volt a gondolatmenet - Video
Martin Sexton @ City Winery in Napa, CA - Freedom of the Road
Martin Sexton singing "Freedom of the Road" from the album - Black Sheep March 7, 2015 martinsexton.com.
By: dkolarik1
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Martin Sexton @ City Winery in Napa, CA - Freedom of the Road - Video
AJ Bell Youinvest Pensions Freedom - The Basics
By: AJ Bell Youinvest
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Freedom Machine Parent Kid Game Shootout
Freedom Machine Parent Kid Game, December 20, 2014. The Shootout.
By: Troy Peterson
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Tibet Freedom March London 2015
To commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day on 10th of March and to stand in solidarity with Tibetans in Tibet, supporters took to the streets of London on Saturday 7th of March. http://freetibet.org/march.
By: FreeTibetUK
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Freedom Planet - Launch Trailer
This 2D action-adventure platformer stars three anthropomorphic animal heroines.
By: IGN
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Freedom Flyers: ordinary days
new member of the group OLIVER!!! AKA the kid in green and grey but make sure to like and subscribe and enjoy!! took a while Comment for more vids with the go pro.
By: Freedom Flyers
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Scandalous Freedom
A short clip exhibiting the exceptional vocal talents of Neo-Soul, R B artist Dana Ali.
By: Sid Szydelko
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Lion Bridge GoPro test run - The Zachary Freedom Duo tidbits
Thought we #39;d just set a GoPro on a stool and capture some pieces at a casual show at Lion Bridge Brewing Company in the Czech Village of Cedar Rapids, IA. Just testing out our brand new GoPro...
By: Zachary Svoboda
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Lion Bridge GoPro test run - The Zachary Freedom Duo tidbits - Video
Laboratory Beagle Rescue - South Korea
In February 2015 10 laboratory beagles were rescued from their "research" life. They spent over 5 years in cages, never knowing affection, freedom, or the comforts of a home. Three Korean organizat...
By: BeagleFreedomProject
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Freedom Fighter Riddim Part 2
Al Campbell + Clarence Parks + Version.
By: Jamaican Roots
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San Mateo School District In Concert 2015 Freedom Jazz Dance
By: Logan Williams
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San Mateo School District In Concert 2015 Freedom Jazz Dance - Video
Connecticut Teen Who Refused Chemo Now in #39;Remission, #39; Seeks Freedom
17-year-old girl who initially refused treatment for a highly curable cancer is now in remission and is seeking release from state custody to finish her last two months of chemotherapy at home,...
By: My New Style
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Connecticut Teen Who Refused Chemo Now in 'Remission,' Seeks Freedom - Video