Lifeboat Foundation

(A rendering of what X’s renewable energy storage plant would look like. X) X, the “moonshot” division of Google’s parent company Alphabet that has worked on everything from self-driving cars and delivery drones, has a new public project: storing renewable energy so it doesn’t go to waste.

The team working on the project is codenamed “Malta,” and it aims to efficiently store energy from solar and wind using salts. That way, renewable energy can still be used even if solar panels or wind turbines can’t collect energy.

Malta is part of X’s Foundry, which explores early-stage projects. It’s not an “official” project like Project Wing (drone delivery) or Project Loon (high-altitude balloons that beam the internet to the surface). X is announcing Malta now because it wants to build a prototype plant for testing how storing renewable energy can feed a power grid. It’s accepting applications for potential partners on its website.

Continue reading “Alphabet’s ‘moonshot’ lab has a new project to store renewable energy” »

SpaceX fans are extremely curious about a new robot that keeps appearing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” Some are calling it the “Roomba” robot while others insist it should be called “Optimus Prime.” There are theories as to what this robot is for, but there’s no confirmation from SpaceX itself, yet.

We reached out to SpaceX for more details about this mysterious robot, but it was unable to give us any information. However, we can tell you that SpaceX only refers to the machine as a robot and does not assign it any other name (like Roomba or Optimus Prime).

For this video, we connected with some of SpaceX’s fans. Photos shown in the video were taken by Julia Bergeron (@julia_bergeron) and David Akin, University of Maryland.

Continue reading “SpaceX has a ‘Roomba’ robot but no one knows what it really is” »

In our last film, we explored how the introduction of autonomous, self-driving cars is likely to kill a lot of jobs. Many millions of jobs, in fact. But is it short sighted to view self-driving vehicles as economic murderers? Is it possible that we got it totally wrong, and automated vehicles won’t be Grim Reapers — but rather the biggest job creators since the internet?

In this video series, the Galactic Public Archives takes bite-sized looks at a variety of terms, technologies, and ideas that are likely to be prominent in the future. Terms are regularly changing and being redefined with the passing of time. With constant breakthroughs and the development of new technology and other resources, we seek to define what these things are and how they will impact our future.

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You know that creepy black sphere used as a floating interrogation droid in Star Wars? It seems like scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) pretty much designed the complete opposite of that, and we want one for our very own.

Called Int-Ball, this adorable little camera drone resembles something Pixar might have come up with, but it’s totally real, and is now a floating companion to astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) – where it helps out by taking photos and recording video, freeing up valuable astronaut time.

Continue reading “Japan’s Ridiculously Cute Floating Camera Bot Is Now Operational on The ISS” »

Japan’s space agency has released photos and videos taken on board the International Space Station (ISS) by its grapefruit-sized robot drone. The drone, called Internal Ball Camera (or Int-Ball), can be maneuvered by controllers and researchers from Earth, according a press release from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

X-Ray Eyes in the Sky — drones are able to complete 3D map renderings of objects behind walls.

(This is a followup post to three earlier posts on forecasting. The first in May 2015 forecast both blimp-based and dedicated building-based drone deployments (later patented by Amazon); The second in October 2015 largely predicted Elon Musk’s Tesla Masterplan Part Deux by 9 months, the third in July 2016 among other things correctly hypothesised the use of Model X falcon wings for future possible Tesla bus designs. I try to get it right but I mainly enjoy the idle speculation).

I was recently in San Francisco and had a very random number of drinks with two very friendly employees of US telco AT&T. As is often the case I turned the conversation towards autonomous vehicles, and more specifically two of Elon Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX.

I was curious about how cars, such as a Model S, have much greater data connectivity needs than ever before. Right now, Teslas connect to AT&T’s network and it seems clear that data needs will only increase for data hungry vehicles that drive themselves. Already Tesla cars consume quite a few gigabytes of data per month.

Continue reading “Will SpaceX become the world’s biggest telecoms provider? Probably” »

Self-driving cars are pretty cool. Really, who wouldn’t want to spend their daily commute surfing social media, chatting with friends or finishing the Netflix series they were watching at 4 am the night before? It all sounds virtually utopian. But what if there is a dark side to self-driving cars? What if self-driving cars kill the jobs? ALL the jobs?

In this video series, the Galactic Public Archives takes bite-sized looks at a variety of terms, technologies, and ideas that are likely to be prominent in the future. Terms are regularly changing and being redefined with the passing of time. With constant breakthroughs and the development of new technology and other resources, we seek to define what these things are and how they will impact our future.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

DARPA tests drones to operate without human, GPS assistance.

DARPA’s FLA program recently finished its first phase, showing promising results.