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Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 966

Feb 5, 2016

Space and Technology Review: Our Home Among the Stars

Posted by in categories: energy, food, materials, policy, singularity, space

At Singularity University, space is one of our Global Grand Challenges (GGCs). The GGCs are defined as billion-person problems. They include, for example, water, food, and energy and serve as targets for the innovation and technologies that can make the world a better place.

You might be thinking: We have enough challenges here on Earth—why include space?

Continue reading “Space and Technology Review: Our Home Among the Stars” »

Feb 4, 2016

Astronauts and Arugula: Using Space-Station Technology to Grow Food — By Davina van Buren | Modern Farmer / smithsonian.com

Posted by in categories: human trajectories, science, space, space travel

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“Unlike other vertical farms that use market-ready technology, Romano developed Infinite Harvest’s proprietary building management system from the ground up, using his knowledge of space habitat design.

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Feb 4, 2016

Luxembourg launches plan to mine asteroids for minerals — By Clive Cookson | Financial Times

Posted by in categories: business, geopolitics, governance, policy, space

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“Mining in space will take a leap from the realms of science fiction towards commercial reality on Wednesday when Luxembourg launches an official initiative to promote the mining of asteroids for minerals.”

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Feb 4, 2016

NIST Develops Novel Technology

Posted by in categories: energy, space

A few years ago, my friend and I were brainstorming on some NextGen Technologies to look at for investment purposes. And, he suggested Polymer Coating. And, was he ever right. Google and others are using it for screen imaging on Lens, etc. Love this stuff.


Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have combined advanced nanometer-scale gratings and a Space Age-era thin-film polymer, to invent a novel technology. This technology can be used to fabricate routers and switches for optical signals, energy-efficient full-color video displays, and smart windows and coatings.

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Feb 4, 2016

The Race To Mine Asteroids Gains International Support

Posted by in categories: law, space

Welcome to the future, folks.

There is more mineral wealth just floating around our solar system than a million times the amount Earth EVER contained. As these asteroids are mined, tunnels will be built, forming the basis for a space station and/or colony. This fact more than doubling the usefulness of the entire operation, AND it’s return on investment. I think THIS is going to be the way in which we’ll begin to colonize our Solar System. Also, a lot of the hazardous (to the environment, human beings, and/or both) that are an inevitable byproduct of heavy industry on our planet could be exported to stations like these, tripling the value of the entire operation.

Continue reading “The Race To Mine Asteroids Gains International Support” »

Feb 3, 2016

“Some scientists refer to this as the Singularity. I call it Transcendence.”

Posted by in categories: biological, energy, neuroscience, robotics/AI, singularity, space

http://www.transcendencemovie.com/

Dr. Will Caster: “For 130,000 years, our capacity for reason has remained unchanged. The combined intellect of the neuroscientists, engineers, mathematicians and hackers in this auditorium pales in comparison to even the most basic AI. Once online, a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology. And in a short time, its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. So now imagine such an entity with the full range of human emotion. Even self-awareness. Some scientists refer to this as ‘the Singularity’. I call it ’Transcendence’. The path to building such a super-intelligence requires us to unlock the most fundamental secrets of the universe. What is the nature of consciousness? Is there a soul? And if so, where does it reside?”

Luddite: “Dr. Caster.”

Continue reading “‘Some scientists refer to this as the Singularity. I call it Transcendence.’” »

Feb 2, 2016

Yamaha, SRI team up on humanoid robot to test motorcycle safety, push performance — and much more

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, robotics/AI, space, transportation

The San Jose Mercury News took a look at SRI’s collaboration with Yamaha to develop Motobot, the first motorcycle-riding humanoid robot. “Consider it a high-tech diagnostic tool for motorcycles that just happens to look like a cyborg.”

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Feb 2, 2016

Our Galaxy Might Have Already Died — We Just Don’t Know It Yet, Scientist Warns

Posted by in category: space

It sounds fairly alarming — but a scientist claims that our galaxy may not just be in the process of dying, but already be dead. Kevin Schawinski of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, explains that galaxies ‘die’ when they stop forming new stars from gas. ‘This may sound scenic, but refers to the population between the blue star-forming galaxies (the ‘blue cloud’) and the red, passively evolving galaxies (the ‘red sequence’).

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Feb 2, 2016

NASA’s Next Great Space Telescope: The Quest Begins

Posted by in category: space

The hunt is on! NASA has begun a quest to select its next big instrument to study the cosmos.

Observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope have revolutionized humanity’s view of the cosmos. And upcoming projects, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the WFIRST-AFTA mission — which the agency aims to launch in 2018 and the mid-2020s, respectively — promise to make big discoveries of their own.

But what will happen after that? What kind of space telescope does NASA aim to build a few decades from now? The picture is getting a little clearer: Earlier this month, the space agency announced that it is forming four working groups to investigate possible concepts for a large-scale space mission that would likely launch in the 2030s. [The Most Amazing Views of the Cosmos from Hubble].

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Feb 2, 2016

The Big Business Future Behind Self-Driving Cars: Future of Transportation P2

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI, space, transportation

The year is 2021. You’re driving down the highway on your daily commute. You approach a car that’s stubbornly driving at the max speed limit. You decide to pass this overly law-abiding driver, except when you do, you discover there’s no one in the front seat.

As we learned in the first part of our Future of Transportation series, self-driving cars will become publicly available in only a few short years. But due to their component parts, they will likely be far too expensive for the average consumer. Does this mark self-driving cars as an innovation that’s dead in the water? Who’s going to buy these things?

Most articles about autonomous vehicles (AVs) fail to mention that the initial target market for these vehicles won’t be the average consumer—it will be big business. Specifically, taxi and car sharing services. Why? Let’s look at the opportunity self-driving cars represent to one of the biggest taxi/rideshare services on the planet: Uber.

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