Lifeboat Foundation

The first satellites capable of providing direct-to-cellular service via SpaceX’s Starlink network and T-Mobile’s cellular network have been sent into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Six of the cell-capable satellites were among a batch of 21 Starlink satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:44 p.m. PT Tuesday. The satellites were deployed successfully, and the rocket’s first-stage booster made a routine landing on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Continue reading “SpaceX launches the first set of Starlink satellites for T-Mobile’s direct-to-cell plan” »

2024 is expected to be the year when drone delivery finally takes flight.

What’s different about this year?

Well, most regulatory hurdles have been cleared, opening the door for retailers, medical centers, and logistics platforms to start offering drone delivery.

Continue reading “2024 is Expected to Be the Year of Drone Delivery” »

Witness the electric surge as Giga Shanghai floods the port with Teslas, ready to electrify roads across continents.

This is a great invention.

Professor Mike Wooldridge asks: what is artificial intelligence? He compares how AI works and learns with how the human brain functions. Exploring the roots of AI, Mike reveals how Alan Turing devised the Imitation Game – a test of whether a machine answering a series of questions could pass as a human. The audience in the lecture theatre play a real-life version of the game to find out if AI can pass this test today. In this lecture, Mike examines real-life neurons in action and explains how artificial neural networks are inspired by neural structures in the brain. To demonstrate how AI learns, we watch drones as they are trained to recognise and fly through structures in the lecture theatre autonomously. AI exploded into the public consciousness in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT and boasts around 100 million monthly users. Mike unravels the mystery of how large language models like ChatGPT work, and he finds out if one day this technology — along with a whole suite of different AI tools — will allow us to understand the animals we share this planet with. The Christmas Lectures are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1,825, when Michael Faraday founded the series. They are the world’s longest running science television series and always promise to inspire and amaze each year through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.\
\
Subscribe and 🔔 to the BBC 👉 https://bit.ly/BBCYouTubeSub\
Watch the BBC first on iPlayer 👉 https://bbc.in/iPlayer-Home\
\
All our TV channels and S4C are available to watch live through BBC iPlayer, although some programmes may not be available to stream online due to rights. If you would like to read more on what types of programmes are available to watch live, check the ‘Are all programmes that are broadcast available on BBC iPlayer?’ FAQ 👉 https://bbc.in/2m8ks6v.

Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently flew multiple drones beyond visual line of sight with no visual observer. The drones successfully flew around obstacles and each other during takeoff, along a planned route, and upon landing, all autonomously without a pilot controlling the flight. This test marks an important step towards advancing self-flying capabilities for air taxis.

“Flying the vehicles beyond visual line of sight, where neither the vehicle nor the airspace is monitored using direct human observation, demonstrates years of research into automation and safety systems, and required specific approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA to complete,” said Lou Glaab, branch head for the aeronautics systems engineering branch at NASA Langley.

It is safer and more cost-effective to test self-flying technology meant for larger, passenger carrying air taxis on smaller drones to observe how they avoid each other and other obstacles.

A Texas-based drone entertainment firm achieved two Guinness World Records recently during a festive display involving nearly 1,500 of the flying machines.

CAPE TOWN, Dec 22 (Reuters) — Shipping companies sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi attacks on the Red Sea face tough choices over where to refuel and restock, as African ports struggle with red tape, congestion and poor facilities, companies and analysts say.

Hundreds of large vessels are rerouting around the southern tip of Africa, a longer route adding 10–14 days of travel, to escape drone and missile attacks by Yemeni Houthis that have pushed up oil prices and freight rates.

The attacks by Iranian-backed militants have disrupted international trade through the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, which accounts for about a sixth of global traffic.

Japanese researchers have created and open-sourced a flying firefighting hose that levitates and steers itself to fight fires using its own water pressure as a two-part propulsion system, spraying water down onto fires and keeping operators safe.

The “flying dragon” system has two four-nozzle propulsion units built in – one at the end of the hose, one maybe 3 m (10 ft) back. Each of these can be thought of as something like a watery quadcopter – valves and swivels on each nozzle control flow and direction of thrust, allowing it to rise, balance and steer itself in the air the way a regular drone might … Well, two drones really, connected with a heavy rope and dragging a heavy tail.

Continue reading “‘Flying dragon’ robot harnesses the ‘crazy hose’ effect to fight fires” »

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 second-generation Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for tonight at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC). The first-stage booster, making its third flight, will land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ about eight and a half minutes into the flight.\

Our live coverage from Cape Canaveral, with commentary by Will Robinson-Smith, will begin about an hour before launch.\

Continue reading “Watch live: SpaceX launches Starlink satellite from Cape Canaveral on Falcon 9 rocket” »