Category Archives: Transhuman News

In the 64 years since its creation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has pioneered a wide range of vehicle technologies that pushed the boundaries of engineering. While its high-flying designs would forever change both manned and unmanned flight, some of NASA vehicles were destined to live out their lives on the ground in support roles. One of the more curious of NASA's ground-bound creations was an armored personnel carrier with a giant robotic arm on the front and a ton of other novel features, some of which were quite ahead of their time. It was dubbed the XHRV-1 and it was intended to be used in response to hazardous material emergencies, although that never really happened as planned.

NASA started using the M113 during the Apollo program as personnel carriers in which firefighters and rescue teams would stand by during manned launches. According to David Seymour, Battalion Chief with NASAs Kennedy Space Center Fire Department, the space agency chose the M113 because the carrier is virtually indestructible and could provide protection for rescue teams in and out of the launch area in the event of emergencies. "We want to give the astronauts, close-out crew, and ice inspection team the comfort to know that when called we are going to be there no matter what happens," Seymour said in a 2011 NASA feature.

NASA

NASA M113 during as Shuttle launch.

NASA used two M113s during Space Shuttle launches at Kennedy Space Center. Inside one, a specialized firefighting team would be fully suited up with protective suits and air supplies, ready to deploy within seconds in the event of a launchpad emergency. A second M113 sat waiting close to an emergency bunker by the launchpad. If astronauts aboard the shuttle had to abort their mission and use emergency slidewire baskets to escape the shuttle stack as it sat on the pad, the second M113 would be waiting for them on the ground with its ramp down.

NASA owned four M113s for emergency use at Kennedy Space Center, but retired them in 2013, thankfully without ever having to use them in an actual emergency situation. The M113s were replaced by four Caiman Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, which NASA modified by adding rear ramps to replace the original boarding ladders.

NASA

A NASA MRAP, left, and an older M113, right.

In addition to the four M113s used for rescue at Kennedy Space Center, NASA acquired a fifth M113 in 1994, more specifically an M113 variant known as the M577A3 Armored Command Post Vehicle. The M577A3 featured a longer body with a sixth roadwheel, a commanders hatch, and no weapons mounts. This variant was designed primarily to serve as a mobile tactical operations center and saw use from the Vietnam War to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Starting in 2020, the U.S. Army began the process of replacing the M577A3 with the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, or AMPV.

NASA acquired this fifth M113 with a special use in mind: hazardous materials response, or HAZMAT. To be able to more safely respond to incidents involving toxic, radioactive, or otherwise dangerous substances, NASA engineers at the Ames Research Center in California envisioned creating a specialized vehicle that could not only safely transport personnel in and out of HAZMAT areas, but also allow them to respond to these emergencies without ever leaving their vehicle. NASA called this program the eXperimental HAZMAT Response Vehicle, or XHRV-1.

NASA

The XHRV-1 prior to the addition of its robotic arm.

The space agency handles many volatile and extremely dangerous substances, including those related to rocket fuels and propellants, but concept art from the XHRV-1 program shows that the vehicle was also envisioned as being able to assist law enforcement or public safety agencies in other scenarios such as nuclear powerplant malfunctions or terrorist attacks. There were many of these vehicles that were becoming obsolete in the military, so turning them into highly-specialized HAZMAT response vehicles with totally unique capabilities made some sense.

Tanks-Encyclopedia.com

Concept art showing the XHRV-1 in action.

The XHRV-1 replaced the M577A3s commanders hatch with a clear polycarbonate dome, providing a near 360-degree view of the vehicles surroundings. The vehicles armor would provide protection from fires, explosions, or debris, while its continuous tank-style tracks would allow it to navigate very roughly terrain such as a collapsed building. An air-conditioning overpressure system would not only keep crews comfortable inside, but could also help prevent potentially contaminated outside air from entering the XHRV-1. This hardening against nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards (NBC) is a widely realized capability among armored combat systems.

NASA

The XHRV-1 in an early demonstration.

One of the vehicles most unique features was its suitports, special rear hatches onto which safety suits could be mounted. These ports were designed to allow HAZMAT crew members to enter their suits directly from a vehicle, or exit their suits by sliding out backwards into the cabin once their remote work is done.

Tanks-encyclopedia.com

An interior view of the XHRV-1's suitports, left, and an exterior view showing empty suits mounted on the ports on the vehicle's exterior.

NASA

NASA spacesuit engineer Jerry James exiting through the XHRV-1's suitport.

A 1996 patent for a suit docking mechanism assigned to NASA contains concept art of personnel entering and exiting their suits with the help of an overhead bar on which they could hold themselves up. In theory, the concept would allow crew to enter and exit the vehicle without ever being exposed to the air outside. Its unknown how many crewmen the vehicle was designed to carry, but concept images depict up to six crewmembers for a single XHRV-1.

NASA/USPTO

The second defining capability of the XHRV-1 was its front manipulator, a massive robotic arm with a 600-lb capacity and the ability to cut through obstacles. This was controlled from inside the vehicle's cabin at an elaborate workstation. Closed-circuit video from multiple angles, including from the tip of the arm itself, would help the operator manipulate objects in their surroundings.

Concept art also showed that NASA had plans for a bulldozer blade for the XHRV-1, but that feature does not appear in the few images of the XHRV-1 prototype. There were also plans for a robot helicopter, what we today would call a drone, although it seems this feature was never added in the one XHRV-1 built. Still, this was wildly ahead of its time. Equipping individual armored vehicles with their own drones is just now becoming a very hot trend.

NASA

NASA spacesuit engineer Jerry James beside the XHRV-1.

Ultimately, the XHRV-1 would never go on to operational use, and the prototype built by Ames was stripped of its manipulator arm and bubble dome before being sent off for disposal. A military history preservation non-profit, the Eagle Field Foundation, would eventually repaint the XHRV-1 olive drab green and display it as an example of a vintage military medical vehicle.

Tanks-Encyclopedia.com

The repainted, decommissioned XHRV-1.

Fast forward to today and unmanned robots fulfill some of the same types of tasks the XHRV-1 was designed to, further keeping emergency responders out of harm's way. Yet the XHRV-1 was truly a charismatic, sci-fi-like vehicle that seemed more like something a kid would draw than something real. In some ways, it was maybe ahead of its time. As such, the obscure armored vehicle deserves a special place in the annals of NASA history.

Author's note: Special thanks to Tanks-Encyclopedia.com who had great info on this obscure armored vehicle.

Contact the author: Brett@TheDrive.com

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NASA Once Built This Armored HAZMAT Response Vehicle That Was Loaded With Futuristic Features - The Drive

"It could fall apart quickly, in decades."Thwaites a Minute

A new interview with researcher David Holland, an atmospheric scientist at New York University, reveals just how quickly the Thwaites Glacier is melting. Nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, Axios reported this morning that the West Antarctica ice shelf could melt in as quickly as a few decades, unleashing the inland ice it holds back into the ocean and raising sea levels by several catastrophic feet.

It could fall apart quickly, in decades, or it could be centuries, Holland told the pub. And the only way to really know that is through this research.

Holland is currently aboard an icebreaker ship navigating thick sea ice where he hopes to study the Thwaites grounding line, which is where the ice meets the seafloor. Temperatures and salinity levels will tell scientists how quickly the iceberg is melting, and if its melting from underneath as well.

In 2014, NASA reported that Western Antarctic sea ice loss was inevitable. In 2021, researchers found the iceberg was even more unstable than previously thought. Now Hollands team is trying to find out just how long we have.

Just as the Thwaites may unleash inland ice into the ocean much like a cork pulled from a bottle others are dumping concerning amounts of fresh water near penguin populations. According to a new study published by researchers at Cambridge and the University of Leeds, iceberg A-68a was the worlds largest before it shattered into nearly a dozen mini-bergs.

The busted-up A-68a flushed about 162 billion tons of fresh water into the ocean near the penguin habitat, which could effect temperature, environment and marine life in unexpected and deadly ways.

Icebergs impact the physical and biological properties of the ocean where they drift, depending on the degree of melting, the studys authors wrote. Our results could also help to model the disintegration of other large tabular icebergs.

With two doomed-iceberg stories in a single day, its hard not to see how urgent climate reform is. Save the penguins, and save ourselves.

More on Earths fate: A Mass Extinction Event Has Already Started, Scientists Say

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The "Doomsday Glacier" Is Irreversibly Melting, Researchers Say - Futurism

Archaeologists Alice Gorman from Flinders University and Justin Walsh of Chapman University in California launched the first off-world archeological digstudying human culture aboard the International Space Station this week.

We just want to know if theyll find anything useful up there.

Most folks working on long-duration human spaceflight are trying to solve technical, engineering, or medical issues, the researchers tweeted about the projects goals last year. What they usually dont realize is every one of those problems has social and cultural dimensions and if they ignore those, their solutions will be sub-optimal.

Last week, theInternational Space Station Archaeological Project(ISSAP) posted a thread on Twitter showing the areas of the ISS theyll be studying over the next 60 days. Each day, different sections of the station will be photographed so Walsh and Gorman can study the kinds of objects that move in and out of the areas over time, which they say should give them clues about culture and life in space for astronauts using the station.

The grids, or areas of study, include Express Rack 5 on the front wall of the Japanese Experiment Module, the European Drawer Rack on the front wall of the European Columbus module and the starboard workstation in the US Node 2 module.

Its interesting to know which tools astronauts are using and how they move around the space station over time. But will that really provide a ton of insight into how the various cultures, hierarchies and teams interact on board the ISS? And since the astronauts will know theyre being observed, wont that change the outcome?

Were not the only skeptics.

I am incredibly confused why this is an archeological dig rather than an anthropological study, one reader questioned the researchers via Twitter this week.

Because were examining material culture, which is the traditional domain of archaeology, the ISSAP replied.

Most definitions of archeology list it as both a branch of anthropology and a study of material remains, so we can see where the team is coming from. But archeological digs typically happen in places where residents are long gone, whereas the ISS and many of its people, consistently crewing the ISS since 2000, are very much still alive.

Given Gormans long history of studying space junk and debris for culturally significant history, we have faith the team will still come up with interesting conclusions, butthe overarching goal seems a little expansive.

How does material culture reflect gender, race, class, and hierarchy on the ISS? the projects website asks.

Wed love to be proven wrong, though, and if photos of the ISS help us better understand elements of human culture and space exploration then well be all in.

More on space junk: A Huge Black Diamond From Space Is Officially Going on Sale

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Will Archeologists Learn Anything Useful In New Space Station "Dig"? - Futurism

Decades ago, air taxis were operated in many major cities around the world before ultimately failing to be profitable. Now, were seeing an influx of companies under the eVTOL banner that stands for electric vertical take-off and landing trying to reinvent the sector.

Chinas AutoFlight is one of those companies and theyve just named a new Managing Director and set a new goal to begin service with their first production craft, the Prosperity I by 2025.

If the image of a remote control drone just popped into your head, youre on the right track. The companys founder and CEO actually got his start in the industry as an R/C aircraft businessman. Today, hes an FAA fixed-wing and helicopter license owner and hes aiming to put people into full-size four-passenger flying taxis.

Just a little over a year ago, AutoFlight picked up a new investment of $100-million into the brand, and now were starting to see where that money is going. The company had little to share but aspirations at that time but this week, they named a new managing director for their European branch. That man is Mark Henning, a former manager at Airbus, and hes stoked about the chance to bring the Prosperity I to market.

Related:Volocopter Strongly Considering Singapore For Air Taxi Launch

We are bringing aircraft construction back to Augsburg, creating a high-tech location and jobs as we build drones and create a completely new market segment for airtaxis. What I really like about AutoFlight and Prosperity I is the underlying simple concept. Simplicity translates into safety and efficiency. he says. That commitment to safety seems to be a big focus for AutoFlight as they enter the next step in development which will be testing and certification across Europe.

The company says that theyve already completed more than 10,000 take-offs and landings in adverse weather conditions. Theyre hoping to have their first passenger craft, the Prosperity I in service by 2025. The vehicle will shuttle up to three passengers per trip plus a pilot and have a maximum range of 155 miles (250km). While well have to wait to see if they can actually bring the plan to birth, they do seem to have a better chance after todays announcement.

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AutoFlight Plans A Futuristic AirTaxi Service That Will Go Live In Europe By 2025 - CarScoops

"It was much cheaper than crashing a rocket to gain insight into our machine."Catastro-brie

A pizza making robot startup called Stellar Pizza experienced a bit of a cheesy mishapwhen a prototype of the machine sprayed cheese everywhere during testing right across the street from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

That was appropriate, because the company is run by former SpaceX engineer Benson Tsai, who worked at the Elon Musk-led company for five years. Now hes turned his attention in a more culinary enterprise, he told Insider in a new inerview, developing a robot designed to churn out pizzas every 45 seconds.

Testing didnt always go smoothly. Three years ago, an early version of the robot dumped melted cheese everywhere, the engineer told Insider, adding that its funny, but its all part of the design process.

Overall, not much was lost, as its not exactly rocket science.

It was much cheaper than crashing a rocket to gain insight into our machine, he told the outlet,in a seeming dig at SpaceXs periodic explosions.

The machine is designed to fit on the back of a truck and has been serving pies to a number of former coworkers at SpaceX, according to Tsai.

But Musk has yet to take a bite.

READ MORE: It was much cheaper than crashing a rocket to gain insight into our machine [Insider]

More on pizza: NASA Astronauts Can Now 3D-Print Pizzas in Space

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Guy Quits SpaceX, Creates Pizza Making Robot That "Dumped Melted Cheese Everywhere" - Futurism

Its 2022, so really, theres no reason you shouldnt be able to buy a black diamond from space and pay for it in crypto right?

The auction house Sothebys Dubai outpost is exhibiting and selling a 555.55 carat black diamond believed to be from interstellar space thats been dubbed The Enigma.

According to Sothebys which,to be frank, has a pretty solid incentive to aggrandize this gorgeous specimen the palm-sized black diamond is thought to have been created either from a meteoric impact or having actually emerged from a diamond-bearing asteroid that collided with Earth.Just for good measure, it was also listed as the largest cut diamond in the world in 2006, when it made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Another eyebrow-raising detail about the sale is that Sothebys is allowingthe diamond to be sold in cryptocurrency a move the company calls a nod to the fact that cryptocurrency has started to make its mark in the world of physical art and objects after the auction house sold another rare diamond for $12.3 million in crypto last summer.

In a Barrons statement, Nikita Binani, a jewelry specialist and head of sale at Sothebys London said that the diamond is one of the rarest, billion-year-old cosmic wonders known to humankind.

The statement noted that origin story of The Enigma is also shrouded in mystery, as details of its discovery and cutting have not been released to the public.

Sothebys isnt the only auction house that has taken to using digital currencies Christies also auctioned for crypto sale a Keith Haring painting with an estimated worth between $5 and $6 million.

Christies has also delved into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and specifically into that of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In December, the esteemed auction house sold four Bored Apes for a cumulative $2.84 million US dollars.

Between crypto officially entering the fine art world and space diamonds being sold on the blockchain, 2022 already feels way more futuristic than the trash fire that was 2021.

READ MORE:A 555.55-carat black diamond believed to come from space is going on sale [CNN]

More on space auctions:Startup Will Store Precious Artifacts in Vault Aboard the International Space Station

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A Huge Black Diamond From Space Is Officially Going on Sale - Futurism

It's been a remarkable two years for Bridget Hunter-Jones: Among other achievements, the MIT-educated engineer-turned-CEOlaunchedher first company, obtainedtwo provisional patents, and raised$6.5 million over two rounds of funding. She also gave birth toher first child.

Hunter-Jones's next big milestone comes in May when the first product made by hercompany, Impact Biosystems, is slated to begin shipping out to customers. It's a percussive muscle-massager, the Pact Pulse, which whenpaired with a handheld scanner called the Pact Sensedelivers massages catered to its users' muscles.

Hunter-Jones's father Ian Hunter--also anMIT-affiliated engineer, as well asthe Chief Inventor of Impact Biosystems--began developingthe technology behind the two devices in 2017, in the basement lab and on-site barn offices of his home. Meanwhile Bridget was climbing from mechanical engineer to product-creation leader at Sonos, the speakerand audio system maker.

"At Sonos I got a really full sense of bringing a product all the way from incubation to mass production, and was heavily involved on the operations side as well," Hunter-Jones says. She was with the company from its startup phase through its initial public offering, and managed up to 15 projects at a time.

So when Hunter-Jones got the chance to work with her father, andto builda new brandand manage a product's development and design, she jumped. She also wanted to take the opportunity to build a company that was both innovative and diverse. She joined in early 2020 aschief executive, and hired a majority-female engineering team. Most of the company's 18 employeesare based in Boston.

The pandemic had just set in, and the convenience of working with her dad became even more fortuitous. The startup's small Boston-based staff couldn't be entirely virtual, as they were building hardware.So severalemployees moved their operations to Ian Hunter's home and workshop. Bridget began working just above the inventors' paradise of a basement where she used to tinker as a kid.

Hunter-Jonesimplemented a strategy of raising investor funding to fuel the company's growth and first product launch, as well as a launch strategy using Indiegogo to sell pre-ordered products to customers.Impact Biosystemsrolled out the campaign for the Pact Sense and Pulsein November, exceeded its goal in January, and expects to begin shipping out the first of roughly 1,000 products in May. The Indiegogo pageboasts that Pact is lighter, quieter, and less expensive ($279) than competing products such as Theragun ($299 to $599).

The process wasn't without some missteps.Hunter-Jones saysshe originally envisioned being able to pitch investors by noting the company had, say, eight provisional patents, which may have been overaggressive."For a small startup where you're really conscious of how you spend your funds, it's actually a lot more important to have quality patents rather than a quantity of patents," she says. Armed with just two provisional patents for the muscle-scanner, the company was able to raise$2 million in seed funding in April of 2020, and another $4.5 million in 2021, just days before Hunter-Jones gave birth.

"It was a wild time. I kept thinking, 'Am I going to close this round before the little guy comes?' Luckily, the timing--like so much else--worked out," she says.

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How This CEO's Progressive Vision Turned Her Father's Invention Into a Viable (and Futuristic) Medical Product - Inc.