Category Archives: Futurism

Last summer, satellite deployers on board the International Space Station belonging to space science company NanoRacks developed issues that prevented some cubesats deployed into their orbits. After several months of work and repair, that company has been able to solve those issues and celebrated a deployment of two satellites belonging to Planet Labs on Friday.

The satellite deployment system allows commercial space companies to deliver cubesats small satellites just a few inches around into orbit at a low cost. The cubesats get delivered to the space station during its normal cargo runs and then are deployed by astronauts from the station itself. The satellite deployers were developed and built by NanoRacks.

Planet Labs satellites deployed from the space station. (Credit: NASA)

Directing the repairs required the company to coordinate with NASA as well as the Russian and Japanese space agencies and astronauts on board the space station.

Over the last six months, NASA and JAXA have worked tirelessly with NanoRacks to ensure that the on-orbit hardware adaptations make our CubeSat deployers safe and ready for operations. Its a testament to the ISS Programs ability to cooperate with commercial partners and utilize the resource they have on orbit. NanoRacks External Payloads Account Manager Conor Brown said in a statement.

The repairs to the deployment system included a new commanding system as well as latches to ensure that the deployers remain attached to the space station in case of any malfunction so that they dont pose a danger to the station. The hardware was delivered in January on a SpaceX Dragon capsule and installed earlier in February.

NanoRacks has also developed a new satellite deployment system thats capable of sending larger microsatellites into orbit up to a mass of about 100 kg. That system will be delivered on a SpaceX Dragon launch currently slated for June 2015.

You can watch footage of the satellites being deployed below:

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Nanoracks Resumes Satellite Deployment From The International Space Station

The December 28, 1959 issue of Life magazine featured this illustration of life in 1975. It's over the top and cartoonish, of course, but it perfectly sums up all of the techno-optimism that was so prevalent in the late 1950s the Golden Age of Futurism.

The article that accompanied the illustration spelled out the wondrous things that people could expect by the year 1975. Americans were promised that they'd be working less, taking home more money, and enjoying longer vacations and more leisure activities than they could even imagine. And don't forget about the amazing technological advances. High-tech communications satellites? Check. Family helicopters? Check. Replaceable organs and robot-diagnosed medicine? Check and check.

The article in Life also assured readers that they weren't just making these predictions up as they went along. They were referencing the hard data from the Research Institute of America, a private research firm:

The Institute's basic over-all prediction is that in 15 years, given a peaceful world, America will be a consumer's utopia. By 1975 more Americans (230 million) will have more money (average national family income up from the present $5,000 to 7,500) and more time to spend it (15% fewer work hours, 50% more holidays). Technology and salesmanship and industry will conspire to make every American's life safer and easier. Rockets will whisk special delivery mail anywhere in the world and relay stations on orbiting space satellites will speed his radio messages on their way. Electronic devices will cook his food faster, purify his air supply, diagnose the weather and also his health. If something goes terribly wrong with his insides, tiny, complex self-powered spare human parts hearts, kidneys and livers will be available.

But we have to remind ourselves that the people of any given generation don't all think alike. For instance, the illustrator of this cartoon, Jim Flora, also drew some rather scary robots for an article in Parade that very same year.

In that piece we see a dystopian world filled with too much automation, too much leisure time, and even suicide as a result. Never forget that no matter the decade, one person's time-saving robot is another person's job-stealing tyrant.

Image via Super Retro

Contact the author at novak@gizmodo.com.

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This Cartoon Perfectly Sums Up the Optimism of 1950s Futurism

An artist rendering of SkyTran. (Credit: Skytran)

This article is a companion piece to Hyperloop Is Real: Meet The Startups Selling Supersonic Travel from the March 2, 2015 issue of FORBES

The Hyperloop isnt the only radical transportation project out there. Here are a few that may lay ahead for the future and one from the past.

SKYTRAN Inspired by the 40-year-old personal rapid transit system in Morgantown, W.V., Skytran is a high-speed (150 mph) network of two-person pods that whisk people on suspended maglev tracks. A test system is slated this year in Tel Aviv, with a bigger city network projected for completion by the end of 2016. Skytran says tickets will sell for less than a bus fare. We doubt that. Cost: $80 million.

TERRAFUGIA FLYING CAR Its 2015 and we still dont have flying cars? Terrafugia aims to change that with its Transition street legal airplane, enabling you to commute like the future Marty McFly. There have been successful test flights, and deliveries are anticipated for 2016. Still, flying cars have been promised for so long well believe it when we take one to work. Cost: $279,000

PROJECT HARP Jules Verne imagined a day when the astronauts would be fired from a gigantic gun to the Moon. In the 1960s, the U.S. and Canada tried to build guns that could shoot satellites into Earth orbit. Despite perpetual funding woes and political obstacles, the project was able to fire test payloads into space up to 112 miles before it was shut down in 1967.

SHWEEB Google invested $1 million into Shweeb, which is developing a system of monorails with individual pods that you pedal with your feet. The company built a 220-yard prototype at an amusement park in New Zealand. Cool for cities, but what rhymes with Shweeb?

ET3 Two weeks before announcing Hyperloop, Elon Musk met with the founder of ET3, who is talking up a network of vacuum tunnels through which car-sized capsule fly using magnetic levitation. The company claims its system could be built for a quarter of the cost of a freeway and support more traffic. Its currently seeking out sites to build a three-mile prototype that can travel at speeds over 370 mph.

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Radical Transportation Projects Of The Past And Future

Image Credit: Spaceport America

The New Mexico legislature is currently considering legislation that would result in the sale of its Spaceport America. The bill, SB 267, moved from the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee to the Senate Finance Committee in a vote yesterday. No hearing date on the legislation has been scheduled in the Finance Committee as of this writing.

The legislation is sponsored by Senator George K. Muoz, who didnt mince any words in a statement regarding the legislation.

Spaceport has one launch director. He probably plowed a lot of snow but hes never hit a launch button, he told the Committee.

The spaceport opened to a great deal of fanfare in 2011 with an eye to being a hub for space startups and tourism. SpaceX leases space there to conduct tests of its reusable rocket designs, and other small space startups like Armadillo Aerospace and UP Aerospace have conducted test flights at the facility.

The main draw for the spaceport, though, is its anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, which plans to use the site for its tourist operations. However, the past few years have seen continuous delays in Virgins plans to get its space tourism operations off the ground. Those operations have been delayed even further by the the crash of its SpaceShipTwo last Fall.

There was a lot of hoopla before that if We build it, they will come, but its been several years now and nobodys shown up yet, Muoz said in his statement. New Mexican taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for a $250 million empty facility that is providing the Legislature shaky operational information at best.

Senator Muoz also stated that he feels that Virgin Galactic is in violation of its lease.

Virgin Galactic emailed me the following statement on the matter:

Virgin Galactic remains fully committed to the efforts of NMSA and Spaceport America. We have made a lot of progress on the build of our second spaceship, and our plans for commercial operations remain the same: we will test in California and operate our spaceline from New Mexico. We signed a 20 year lease with the State and have been paying rent monthly since January 2013. We are committed to our New Mexico suppliers and New Mexico based staff and will continue to add both.

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New Mexico Considering Legislation To Sell Spaceport America

Dragon capsule after being recovered from the ocean. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceXs Dragon capsule successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday evening at 7:44pm. The spacecraft was recovered by ship and is on its way to Long Beach, California to deliver some cargo to NASA before arriving at its final destination in McGregor, Texas.

Among the cargo on board the ship are examples of items that were 3D printed on board NASAs first zero-G printer, which was developed by startup Made In Space. (Whose founders, incidentally, were among the FORBES 30 Under 30 in Manufacturing this year.)

The scientific cargo also included samples from plants that were grown on board the International Space Station in an effort to determine how microgravity impacts plant growth. Also coming back to Earth are samples of proteins that were crystallized in microgravity to learn more about them, a feat thats difficult to accomplish here on Earth.

SpaceXs next launch will deliver the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft to a point about 930,000 miles away from Earth. That launch is currently scheduled for 6:03pm ET on Wednesday, February 11.

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Science-Laden SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down In Pacific

Ed Sheeran - I #39;m In Love With The Coco (Hitimpulse Remix)
Ed Sheeran - Im In Love With The Coco (Hitimpulse Remix) Subscribe to Futurism: http://full.sc/1LghY97 SHOW MORE for the download link + more! Download track https://soundcloud.com/futuris...

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Ed Sheeran - I'm In Love With The Coco (Hitimpulse Remix) - Video

Monday, February 16, 2015, by Rachel B. Doyle

Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbra via Flickr

Far from the tourist center of Rome, near the southern end of the Metro B line, there lies a 420-acre complex of ten monumental concrete buildings known as the Esposizione Universale Roma (or EUR). Spearheaded by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1935, the campus was meant to showcase the glories of totalitarian architecture. The most famous of the buildings is the Palazzo della Civilt del Lavoro, dubbed the "Square Colosseum," a monolith with hundreds of identical arched loggias on its faade. Now, Italian papers are reporting that EUR's most imposing asset might be sold off to the fashion house Fendi, which already rents part of the fascist-era building.

The city of Rome is facing a cash crisis, and the state-owned firm that administers EUR was further weakened by revelations of a mafia-related corruption scandal in December. The public seems to be divided about the rumored sale of the Square Colosseum, which is an iconic piece of architecture in its own right but is hardly beloved in a city with so many impressive ancient sites. "The Italian state owns way too much heritage; with owning heritage comes vast responsibility," a former director of the British School in Rome told the Guardian. "It needs to concentrate on its priorities, like the real Colosseum."

Photo by Patrizio Boschi via Flickr

Rome may sell Square Colosseum to Fendi as city faces cash crisis [Guardian]

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Futurism Wire: Mussolini's 'Square Colosseum' Could Soon be a Fendi HQ

This two-day celebration of electronic music is more than just a musos fantasy made real.

Combining electronic music, art, literature, records, technology and digital futurism, it is a cornucopia beyond even the wildest dreams of the most sonically-literate out there.

Day one will be when most of the talky stuff goes on, so to broaden your musical knowledge get down to this. Day two is when the tunes really kick into gear, with performances from some of the biggest and most progressive names in the electronic arts. It starts during the day and carries on all night with LEAF event taking place across the citys plethora of nightclubs. Tune-wise, we highly recommend catching Modeselektor, 808 State performing their 1989 LP Ninety as part of the classic album series and Kate Simko with the London Electronic Orchestra.

The whole thing is curated by Bestival mainman Rob Da Bank, which ensures amongst many things, its wildly diverse line up of persuasions. Fantastic.

When: Mar 6 & 7 / times vary Where: Tobacco Dock, 50 Porters Walk, E1W 2SF. And various venues across London. Check the website for full listings. Cost: 10+ Tube: Shadwell Web: leaflondon.net

Marina and the Diamonds - Mar 11 The first show in almost two years from the synth-pop superstar songstress who will be debuting new material from her Froot album, which is out next month. Shes already got a load of global fest shows lined up so you bet she will over here too, but for now, to whet your appetite, this is a sneaky little low key show. When: Mar 11 / 7pm Where: Oslo, 1a Amhurst Road, E8 1LL Cost: 16.50 Tube: Hackney Central Web: oslohackney.com

Underworld Mar 6 Underworld, who hit commercial paydirt when Born Slippy a-la-Trainspotting saw them go super global, started their career officially with this genre-bending debut. Celebrating its 20thbirthday, it is as ground-breaking and hip-shakingly super today as it was then. And after theyve rattled through this, if their show last year at the Royal Festival Hall is anything to go by, they'll be dipping into some other classics from their stupendous career that has seen them break all the rules. A techno act with a mumbly singer you say? Ooooh yes please.

When: Mar 6 / 7pm Where: Hammersmith Apollo, 45 Queen Caroline Street ,W6 9QH Cost: 20+ Tube: Hammersmith Web: eventimappollo.com

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Gig: London Electronic Arts Festival LEAF 2015 Mar 6-7

Mr FijiWiji - Believe Her ft. Meron Ryan
Mr FijiWiji - Believe Her ft. Meron Ryan Subscribe to Futurism: http://full.sc/1LghY97 SHOW MORE for the download link + more! Download Believe Her https...

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Mr FijiWiji - Believe Her ft. Meron Ryan - Video

7UBO - Sentir (Original Mix)
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