4/19/22: Space Balloon by Space Perspective
With other companies like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX offering trips into space (with a true goal, it seems to further space travel); there is another player in the arena of "space ride sharing" in Space Perspective. There aim is to provide more luxurious accommodations into the space traveling experience and instead of a spaceship, they will be using a balloon with a 360 degree peripheral view of the world around them.
With this being a thing, I think it will add less pollution for the experience, but not sure what they aim to empower with the revenue they are trying to gain with a per ticket price tag of $125,000. Is this just a money grab or do they have plans to invest into more space travel?
They plan to begin their trips into space as soon as 2024. It seats eight plus a pilot and includes a drinks and refreshment bar. Before launch, it stands higher than the Space Needle in Seattle and lands on a cone shape into the water providing little turbulence. While landing, a parachute is used (much like during the lunar landers back in the Apollo missions) during the decent back into the Earth's atmosphere. The parachute is as large as a football stadium.
When launched the total trip to the end of the climb into space will take 6 hours and being that no rocket is used to propell it out of the atmosphere, one doesn't need to go through training to be apart of this experience. The first year is sold out for all 25 planned flights, so people will have to vie for the tickets they will offer in their second year of operation.
References:
https://news.yahoo.com/peek-inside-space-balloon-lifting-181000613.html
4/9/22: ALI Technologies: Hoverbike Going Public
Yes, ALI Technologies from Japan is trying to make the first flying motor vehicle available to the public. In October of 2021, they started taking pre-orders for their XTURISMO bike. So The Fifth Element type street traveling maybe coming sooner than we thought possible. Flying motorbikes that can cruise on paved streets and in the sky, I wonder if you'd need a pilots license.
The steep price tag is listed as $777,000 and it hovers at two meters off the ground. It also brings us to another aspect, the wealthy being the only ones able to afford such an item will decide the fate of such a company and technological advancement (much like SpaceX, using the wealthy to fund the furtherment of space travel aimed at making us into a multi-planet species).
It is said to be more ideal in places like Dubai, where there is an enormous amount of wealth and space to operate such a device.
References:
https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-maker-777000-flying-motorbike-plans-public-listing-2022-4
4/3/22: Lucid Motors: The Current Champion in the Electric Car Market?
MotorTrend seems to think so, being as they made the Lucid Air 2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year. It has an industry leading 520 mile range per charge. With "an elegantly efficient design- inspired by California (quote taken from their website)".
It has a maximum hp output of 1,111hp with the price reportedly starting at $77,400. It is also reported that it takes 20 minutes for a full charge with a 0-60mph clocking in at 2.5 seconds (impressive). So look out Tesla, looks like you have a Cold War-esque rivalry on your hands.
References:
4/2/22: SpaceX's "Rideshare" Spaceflight
Many of the Americans that can't afford being a "space tourist" are wondering about the benefits of this undertaking. Well let's see, most of our new technologies are first targeted to the Earth's financial elites (because they can afford to pay the first editions inflated prices) to test out their usefulness or to further fund their next step into mid-level pricing and low-level pricing (which usually comes after the patent opens up to be utilized by other corporations to create lower-level inferior products or affordable alternatives).
That is exactly what is behind Elon Musk's rolling out of the first generation of "space tourists" much like the first users of the automobile. What is Elon Musk's ultimate goal behind these ventures? He wants us to be a multi-planet species. Recognizing that human beings are expanding faster than what the Earth can provide, he sends people into space for a very high price. Both Bezos of Blue Origin (and Amazon) and Branson of Virgin Galactic (and Virgin), have also joined in the venture of a tourist in space. It is said to cost between $250k to $500k a seat. With these high costs, it is to be sure that the money earned will be going towards furthering our reaches into space in ways depicted in many science fiction motion picture titles.
References:
- 8 ways that SpaceX has transformed spaceflight | Space
3/25/22: Machine Learning
Can this be what spawns The Matrix? Machine learning is a subcategory of Artificial Intelligence in which it is given much freedom (depending on the purpose) to learn from data inputted into the database without a specific programmed function (essentially). It learns from the data it collects or is given in ways that are now used in our everyday life, like Amazon's Alexa, cellphone apps and features, banking programs, internet search engines, emails to sift through to organize spam from "primary" mail, and voice recognition software (and many more).
Machine Learning is included in New Techology 2022, because it is new to most of us and the process and strength of this technology is only growing in potency. Machine learning is designed to imitate human intellectual behavior and it is more effective than humans due to the fact it stays focused on its task.
On a scientific level, it is also semi-scary because AI is getting closer to surpassing human intelligence capabilities. It is said that it will be possible in the early 2030s. Stephen Hawkings said this about AI: It will either be the best thing that's ever happened to us or it will be the worst thing. He also has said that, If we're not careful, it may very well be the last thing.
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