aerospace, Business, News, startups, Virtual Reality (VR)

SpaceVR wants to take you to outer space

As its name implies, SpaceVR wants to take you into space. By itself, this isn’t that interesting: there’s already plentiful VR games and simulators taking place in space, for instance. What makes this one interesting isn’t the concept, it’s the execution. How does SpaceVR take you into space? By launching a satellite, called the Overview 1. Overview 1 utilizes multiple 4K cameras to capture 360 degree video from space, and this was made possible through multiple crowdfunding campaigns and a whopping $1.25 million investment from Shanda Group. A render of this satellite can be seen in our banner above. Using this satellite, users will be

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aerospace, Business, Companies, News, Space and Science

Virgin Hyperloop One Raises $50m and Names Branson Chair

In October, we wrote about Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Hyperloop One, the frontrunner of a number of companies competing to bring Elon Musk’s futuristic vision of a magnetically-propelled high-speed transport system to life. Now, however, it is confirmed that the company got a lifeline in the form of $50m from Russian and Dubai investors. “This investment provides Virgin Hyperloop One with a very robust financial platform for 2018,” chief executive Rob Lloyd said in a statement. “Our focus in 2018 will be on accelerating commercial agreements for both passenger and cargo projects.” The Los Angeles-based start-up also named investor Richard Branson

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aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, Companies, Google, Space and Science

Artificial Intelligence Helps NASA Discover New Planets

The Kepler space telescope was launched in 2009, and, since then has produced more than 30,000 signals measuring light from stars to search for possible planets in distant parts of the galaxy. With a little help of telescopic data, astronomers have found more than 3,500 planets, up from 329 known before the Kepler mission. Now artificial intelligence is helping to find even more. Last week, researchers from Google and University of Texas at Austin Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg, announced that a machine-learning algorithm had discovered two new planets, Kepler 80g and Kepler 90i. Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team Google AI, came

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aerospace, Companies, News, Space and Science, Technology Security

Boeing Wants To Beat Elon Musk on the Way to Mars

It is obvious now that the race to Mars is on, and Boeing’s CEO seems to believe that the megarocket his company is helping to build for NASA will deliver astronauts to the Red Planet before billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Boeing is the main contractor for the first stage of NASA’s giant Space Launch System , which is designed to launch astronauts on deep-space missions using the space agency’s new Orion spacecraft. (United Launch Alliance, Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne are also SLS contractors.) NASA hopes to build a “Deep Space Gateway” near the moon before using SLS and Orion vehicles to send explorers to Mars. The

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aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Companies, News, Space and Science

Airbus Coming Forward to a Pilotless Plane

According to Bloomberg, European multinational corporation Airbus is looking to construct both autonomous aircraft and technology that will allow a single pilot to operate commercial jetliners, helping cut costs for carriers. “The more disruptive approach is to say maybe we can reduce the crew needs for our future aircraft,” said chief technology officer Paul Eremenko. He added that they are pursuing single-pilot operation as a potential option and a lot of the technologies needed to make that happen has also put them on the path towards unpiloted operation. “We are increasingly shifting our focus towards these kinds of innovative concepts, in particular for the development

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aerospace, Business, Companies, Entertainment, News, VR World

Richard Branson invests in Hyperloop One

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Hyperloop One, the frontrunner of a number of companies competing to bring Elon Musk’s futuristic vision of a magnetically-propelled high-speed transport system to life. Musk is credited with creating the idea of the hyperloop, a super speedy method of passenger travel that involves pressurized capsules. He also founded The Boring Company, which is setting out to build hyperloop tunnels. Hyperloop technology is based on the idea of using an electric motor to accelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube, which could theoretically reach speeds of up to 670mph with no turbulence. The fastest recorded

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aerospace, Business, Companies, Entertainment, News, Nvidia, press releases, Space and Science, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Nvidia Finally Announced its VR Platform Holodeck

Nvidia announced this week that it has opened early access to Nvidia Holodeck, its intelligent virtual reality platform, for select designers and developers. Nvidia Holodeck brings designers, developers and their customers together from anywhere in the world to discover, build and explore creations in a highly realistic, collaborative and physically simulated VR environment. The platform’s immersive, photoreal experience drives creativity, provides a faster and more accurate understanding of a scene or model, streamlines the review process and reduces the need for physical prototyping. Because of its realistic graphics, accurate real-world physics and multi-user collaboration, Holodeck is already used as a powerful design lab for AI agents

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aerospace, Business, Companies, News, Space and Science, VR World

SpaceX Successfully Launches Another Rocket

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched another reused rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as it continues its mission to drive down flight costs through refurbishment and reusability. This Falcon 9 booster was first used for a cargo mission to the International Space Station in February. This marks SpaceX’s 18th rocket landing in the company’s history. The launch carried a high-powered communications satellite for customers EchoStar Corp. and SES SA to geostationary transfer orbit. The company’s main goal is to make spaceflight more accessible through reusability, bringing rockets back to Earth after multiple launches, refurbishing them and then launching again. SpaceX is

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aerospace, Breaking, Entertainment, Intel, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile, Mobile Computing, News, VR World

Intel Drones Fly Around the Campfire

There is dark and there is light. Fire. How long is it in human hands? Out there, at night, by the campfire. Magic of this entire, beautiful and sometimes dreadful world around us. Fire can put us in a bubble. Glittering stories that seem like they starting right there behind us, when we step into the darkness. Or perhaps silence by the campfire. Warmth and we with ourselves. How much today we have improved as people, become more noble than, lets say, Chinese people from the 12th century when they invented fireworks? Talk about the fire on the website dealing with the last cries of

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aerospace, Entertainment, News, transportation, Virtual Reality (VR)

French Airline Adopts Fully Immersive Entertainment System

Getting entertained while flying in an aluminum tub some tens of thousands of feet above ground is a multi-billion dollar question. There are two approaches – one that doesn’t offer any form of IFE (in-flight entertainment), telling passengers to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). On the other hand, carriers can offer lavish displays with hundreds of hours of entertainment. Thanks to the French airline XL Airways, there is a third option – a Virtual Reality Cinema Theater. This tourist-focused airline is introducing a trial run of headsets from Skylights, a French virtual reality startup. For the next several months, XL Airways will implement 2D and 3D movies through its ‘SkyTheater’ application,

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aerospace, Auto, Military, News, Space and Science, VR World

HRL’s 3D Printed Ceramic could Change Everything

 3D printing is slowly, but certainly becoming an evolution or even a revolution of manufacturing. Every week we receive news pitches from companies claiming they’re the next big thing in the world of 3D printing, but there are innovations which are really making you think we’re changing for the better. From 3D printed vertebrae and skin in medicine to airplanes and rockets, 3D printing or ‘additive manufacturing’ is becoming an everyday reality for mission critical tasks. One company known for its innovation since inception – Hughes Research Laboratories (known today as HRL Laboratories, LLC – a joint-venture of General Motors and Boeing) just announced a technological breakthrough in

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aerospace, News, transportation, VR World

Boeing’s Vision on Future of Flying Revealed

Beginning of each year is filled with New Year resolutions and how can we improve ourselves. This goes for the companies too – just the same as people reading this site. We received a video from Boeing’s corporate communications featuring their vision of travel. None of the seats in this video are nothing more than a concept, but it would be interesting to see how the company will tailor its future ‘cash-cow’ aircraft, the Boeing 777-8 and 777-9 (Boeing decided to remove the ‘X’ from the name). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkOJDt5I-cc It’s not directly mentioned, but this cabin concept and its seating arrangement clearly show that it is a concept design

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aerospace, VR World

Vladimir Putin Disbands Roscosmos Just To Form It Up Again?

Russian President and practical ruler of Russia, Vladimir Putin signed an order that disbanded troubled Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency. The space agency is now disbanded partly due to operating issues and rockets going up in flames, but also due to the creeping, multi-billion dollar corruption affair that endangered the success of space going ventures. The decree is a simple work of a pen – disbanding a couple of billions of worth of space going things – but it is something that needed to be done. The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности “Роскосмос”) formerly The Russian Federal Space Agency (Russian:Федеральное космическое агентство

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aerospace, Entertainment, News, transportation

Watch the First Single Jet General Aviation Plane in Action

Ever wanted to fly a jet engine powered aircraft? If your career was not set into becoming a commercial or a military pilot, you could only dream of getting your hands behind the steering yoke or flightstick of a plane costing into tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. Not kidding here, world’s largest airplane, Airbus A380-800 goes for 428 million USD, and that’s without those four engines beneath its wings. Airbus’s realistic entry level plane, the A320-200 goes for 97 million. Without engines, of course. Those prices are just crazy, so what do you do? Do you dig deep into X-Plane and Flight Simulator and

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aerospace, Business, News, transportation

Buy Your Own Jetpack for $200,000?

Peter Coker, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Martin Aircraft, innovative New Zealand aerospace company is finally making progress on what many thought it was impossible – to develop and manufacture a personal jetpack, enabling a single person to experience flight like never before. Martin Aircraft spent years in development of a ‘jetpack’, and while many considered it a vaporware, past couple of weeks saw the public debut at the Dubai Airshow and – test flights which go into higher altitudes. Recent tests added maneuverability, which go hand in hand with the achieved flight test that saw P12.3 prototype reaching 5000 feet above sea level, or

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aerospace, Biotech, Business, Global Politics, News, Space and Science

VIDEO: Elon Musk Speech at the Climate Conference in Paris

Elon Musk, serial entrepreneur and hands-on executive for his disruptive businesses, Tesla Motors, SpaceX and Solar City gave a short, but sweet speech during the 21st Climate Change conference, which takes place in Paris, France. There’s no denying that humans are impacting the environment, but even if that could be argued, one cannot argue that we as a society have to become more efficient. Just as tractors replaced horses and oxes in the fields, and those replaced human labor, we need to look beyond the tractor to increase efficiency and consequentially, productivity of the said piece of land. Instead of giving you a long article filled

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