Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief The Tesla Model 3 is about to hit the streets. CEO Elon Musk announced via Twitter that, after passing all regulatory requirements, the first series of Model 3s could be out by Friday this week. Arrival of the Tesla Model 3

When it comes to Elon Musks ventures, it seems like theres alwayssomething to look forward to. This past weekendSpaceX launched itsthird mission in nine days which came after their historic doubleheader last weekend.Then theres the progress on MusksBoring tunnels under L.A.But the most recent announcement hadmore than 400,000 peoplein wait; those who have signed up for pre-orders for the Tesla Model 3.

In a tweet Sunday night, Musk said that the Model 3 has already passed regulatory hurdles.

He expects that the serial number 1 (SN1) for Teslas electric vehicle will be finished by the end of this week. Musk also said in a second tweet that the handover party for the first 30 Model 3 customers will take place on the 28th of this month.

Musk was clearly pleased to make the announcement, and hed done the legwork ahead of potential questions, too. He also shared on Twitter just how manyModel 3s are expected to berolled out by the end of 2017. Continuing on in his Twitter thread, the Tesla CEO said that they expect 100 cars by August and over1,500 by September. By December, Tesla hopes to be producing20,000 Model 3s per month.

It should come as no surprise that Tesla has ramped up production for the Model 3. Previous reports revealedtheModel 3 production line runs onwhat Musk called an alien dreadnaught of Kuka robots. This was certainly the right move,considering the amount of pre-orders Tesla received for the Model 3 was staggering.

While the Model 3 is Teslas most affordable EV yet, the energy company isnt going cheap in terms of its design and capabilities, which will includeTeslas self-driving Autopilot software.

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Get Ready. The Tesla Model 3 Goes on Sale This Week. - Futurism

In BriefScientists have developed a tool that can test an entiregenome against a CRISPR molecule to predict potential errors andinteractions. This will allow doctors to ensure treatments aresafer and more effective. Editing The Editor

The CRISPR gene-editing tool is already in use by scientists all over the world who are racing to cure deadly diseases by editing the genomes of patients. However, as human trials for various treatments are slated to begin, we still face the hurdle of ensuring that any errors in CRISPR edits wont causing problems. Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin may have come up with a possible solution. Theyve developedsomething that works like a predictive editor for CRISPR: a method for anticipating and catching the tools mistakes as it works, thereby allowing for the editing ofdisease-causing errors out of genomes.Click to View Full Infographic

Scientists have already learned how to use CRISPR to edit errors in almost any genome and its these errors that can cause a wide range of diseases. Many forms of cancer, Huntingtons disease, and even HIV can be targeted usingCRISPR. That being said, itsnot a perfect solution. Just as the autocorrect on your smartphone can cause you to send an unintentional and embarrassing text message, CRISPR can correct something that was actually right the consequences of which can make it adangerous mistake. One that actually causes a disease as opposed to an embarrassing social gaffe.

The researchers developed a method for quickly testing a CRISPR molecule against a persons entire genome, rather than onlythe target area,in order topredict other segments of DNA the tool might accidentally interact with. This new technique functions like an early warning system, giving doctors a chance to more closely tailor gene therapies to specific patients, while ensuring they are effective andsafe.

If were going to use CRISPR to improve peoples health, we need to make sure we minimize collateral damage, and this work shows a way to do that,Stephen Jones, UT Austin postdoctoral researcher and co-lead author of the study, told the UT News.

This research will also allow scientists to improve their own predictive skills when it comes to CRISPR molecule behaviors even without genome testing. This is because the work is actually revealing the rule book CRISPR molecules follow when they choose targets.

One CRISPR molecule the team tested, Cascade, targets DNA sequences but pays less attention to every third letterin the sequence. So if it were looking for the word shirt and instead found the word short, it might be fine with that, Jones said, explaining the significance of the quirk to the UT News.

As researchers master these rules, they will be able to develop better predictive models for CRISPR therapies. This will make the technique faster and cheaper, which will in turn render personalized gene therapies more accessible to more patients. Most important of all, it will also help make theentire process far safer.

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This New Gene-Editing Technique Can Spot CRISPR's Mistakes - Futurism

In BriefOver its 1,000 day orbit, MAVEN has revealed the weird andwonderful history of Mars, which NASA has now codified into a listof top ten discoveries. As well as being scientificallyfascinating, what does this knowledge allow us to prepare for? The MAVEN Mission

On June 17th, NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) celebrated 1,000 days in orbit around our solar system neighbor it entered into this orbit in September 2014. To commemorate the 1,000 day anniversary, NASA released a list of its 10 most exciting findings.

MAVENs goalis to explore the Red Planets upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the sun and solar wind in order to gain insight into the history of Marss atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. The changes that caused its transition from a habitable world to the rocky tundra we see today are mainly caused by the dissipation of Marss volatiles (the low-boiling point compounds that make up the atmosphere) into space.

The mission is remarkable because it is the first to explore Marss atmosphere rather than its surface. In order to do this, MAVEN is using eight separate instruments and fluctuates between 3,728 miles (6,000 km) and 77 miles(124 km) from Marss surface this allows it to study the entire spectrum of Marss atmosphere. It contains no tools to search for life on the planet, because adding a detector for methane (a gas indicative of extant life) would have exceeded the projects budget.

MAVEN has made a number of interesting discoveries during the last 1,000 days. Gas is exchanged between the upper and lower halves of the Mars atmosphere in a way that will require further study; the ionosphere of the planet has a layer of metal ions; and there are two new types of aurora that have been discovered,calleddiffuse and proton and, informally, Christmas Lights.

What NASA thinks is most important is the explanationbehind how it lost such a significant proportion of its atmosphere. It was stripped layer by layer from the top by the the sun and the solar wind, which were more violent millions of years ago. Bruce Jakosky, Mavens principal investigator, said that it was like the theft of a few coins from a cash register every day, the loss becomes significant over time.

These arent all of the discoveries made by MAVEN; you can read the full list on the NASA website.

MAVEN has given us an incisive look into the nature of Mars, which is pivotal if we want to colonize the planet in the future, as both Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have proposed. This is because a knowledge of the past allows us to make more accurate predictions about the future: it will inform us of the nature of the challenges we may face when we reach the Red Planet, and allow us to prepare for them in advance.

An example of this early preparation is the recent concept of what a human driven Mars rover could look like, which is informed by the information gathered by MAVEN and other, land-based Mars exploration missions like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

These missions also show us what we dont know, which allows us to send tailored spacecraft to Mars to fill in gaps in our knowledge. Our next mission to Mars will be NASAs InSight Mars Lander, which is due to launch in 2018 and aims to study the planets deep interior. InSight will complete our study of the layers of Mars, giving us a schematic of the planet from the subterranean to atmospheric level.

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After 1000 Days in Orbit, Here Are the 10 Most Remarkable Things MAVEN Taught Us - Futurism

In Brief SpaceX is launching yet another Falcon 9 rocket later this evening, its third launch in just nine days. The company is burning through the backlog caused by the Falcon 9 disaster last September. Hefty Launch

SpaceX is gearing up for yet another launch into space this weekend weather-permitting. Sundays launch will be the third for SpaceX in just nine days, and the 39th Falcon 9 rocket launch. The mission is to put a massive communications satellite into orbit for the company Intelsat. Takeoff is scheduled for tonight at 7:36 PM EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You can watch the launch liveat Space.com.

What sets this launch apart from the other recent missions is that the client is not interested in utilizing reusable rocket tech. Ken Lee, senior vice president for space systems for Intelsat said, I would have no qualms about using the pre-flown hardware in the future once they have fully demonstrated their reusability, which he defines as [t]ypicallya minimum of three. As of now, SpaceX has managed to launch and land a reusable rocket twice. Also, given the heft of the satellite, the booster will not have enough fuel to make the journey back to the surface.

SpaceX did have a sizable backlog of planned launches due to the unfortunate catastrophe where a Falcon 9 rocket exploded at launch. However, in the first half of 2017, SpaceX has already broken its previous record for launches in a single year. They are planning for a total of 20 launches before the end of 2017. This is important to Intelsat, and likely other entities looking to use SpaceXs tech to get into space. Whats important for us is not whether you launch every other week, but [that] once you plan, you execute to that plan, Lee said.

SpaceX is well on its way to definitively proving the reliability of their rockets. While the price difference of using the reusable boosters may not be enough at this time for Intelsat, the price difference will continue to drop as the rocketscontinue to be reused. SpaceX is pioneering in this field and is revolutionizing what it takes to get into space.

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SpaceX is Launching Its Third Mission in Just Nine Days - Futurism

In Brief Henrik Fisker has given us a sneak peak of his luxury EV with an official reveal of the prototype scheduled for later today, and pre-orders of the car are available to the public. His company's statements about the car's potential are staggering, and establish it as fierce competition for Tesla. Fiskers Coming Soon

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker has unveiled a prototype of his luxury electric vehicle (EV) the EMotion on Twitter, ahead of the official unveiling event that will occur later today. Pre-orders for the $129,000 vehicle have also opened, which require a $2000 deposit. Production of the car is set to begin in 2019.

The company also took to Vimeo to release a video of the hotly anticipated vehicle.

The car will, reportedly, have a range of over 643 km (400 miles), a top speed of 260 km/h (161 m/h), a charge time of nine minutes for 100 km (62 miles), and utilizesthe wonder material graphene in its battery, which wasdeveloped in collaboration with Nanotech Energy Inc. Fisker has previously announced that the cars other salient feature isfully autonomous driving capabilities. A press release stated:

The EMotion will be equipped with hardware that will allow fully autonomous driving when approved and released by a soon-to-be-announced partnered supplier. The interior will emphasize ultimate comfort and user interface from both front and rear seats, and all seats will have access to screens and infotainment features.

The development of EVs at all ends of the spectrum is pivotal to the success of the technology. Fiskers price indicates he is aiming for the luxury car price range, and if the figures stand up to scrutiny, the vehicle will be able to compete with its petrol or diesel powered counterparts.

If Fiskers bold claims are true, the car will exceed almost any other EV on the market including the Tesla model S, the car Fisker claims to have helped design and now seems to be taking aim at. Teslas vehiclehas a rangeof up to 300 km (186 miles) if you use the $10,000 85-kwh battery, and takes an hour to charge if you use a Tesla Supercharger station.

There is also promising competition from Porschein the form of the Mission E. The company aims to be producing the EV by 2020, which they estimate will have a range of 450 km (250 miles), and a charge time of 15 minutes.

This competition is good news for the EV market, as it will encourage innovation that will drive the more environmentally friendly type of car forward. Whoever wins the EV supercar race, the planet wins too.

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Here's a First-Ever Look at the New Electric Vehicle That Charges in ... - Futurism

In Brief Lightyear is a company that is promising a solar powered electric car. The car could be charged both by regular home outlets as well as the sun. Lightyears Ahead

Even before electric cars officially take over as the new normal, clean driving just isnt enough for some. One company is looking to take green personal transportation to unprecedented heights. Lightyear is a next-generation car company from the Netherlands that is making some truly lofty promises. The company is working on bringing the world a vehicle powered not just by electricity, but by energy generated from the sun.

According to the companyswebsite, all cars of the world combined drive one light year, every year. Their mission is to switch from a fossil fuel powered light year of travel to one powered by the sun by 2030.

Lightyear is hoping to sidestep one of the major limitations and anxieties of electric vehicles: range. Mass adoption of electric vehicles could be hindered by a lack of investment in charging infrastructure. The website claims that [o]nly 3% of the world population lives within 100 km of a publicly accessible charging station.

The vehicle promised will be powered by energy stored in a battery that can be charged both by a standard (3.7 kW) outlet, as well as solar panels in the vehicles body. In a sunny environment like Hawaii, the car could theoretically run for months between charges. Even without the sun, the car could run for a significant range. Depending on your battery configuration you have between 400 800 km of range buffered in the battery, Lightyear says on their websitesFAQ section.

This technology has yet to be proven, although the company is planning to haveten vehicles produced in 2019. Cost is also a considerable barrier to obtaining one of these future cars. You can reserve one for 19,000 (around $21,700) a small chunk of the overall 119,000 ($135,800) price tag. Its an interesting addition to the EV lineup, so well be sure tokeep an eye on the development of this technology asthe first prototype gets closer to hitting the road.

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This Next Generation Car Company is Developing Solar-Powered EVs - Futurism