Lifeboat Foundation

HAB’s, HAB’s, HAB’s!

The idea of inflatable space habitats has been around for as long as the idea of space travel. Now, one is finally on its way to the ISS.

Luv it.

IKEA has announced the launch of the IKEA VR Experience, a new app for the HTC Vive that will act as a pilot test to explore new ways to transform the retail experience in home furnishings.

I will be surprised if no one isn’t already adopting this technology in the commercial & residential real estate industry as well as for REITs especially for enabling investors & insurers to assess property remotely. We’re already seeing the technology leveraged in the hospitality & travel industry currently.

The realization of Virtual Reality (VR) is set to have a big impact on real estate, offering buyers a revolutionary new way to view properties they’re interested in.

Continue reading “Virtual Reality is going to revolutionize real estate” »

Next week, astronauts on the International Space Station are getting a brand new room. Called the BEAM, short for Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, the room is launching on top of one of SpaceX’s rockets on Friday; it will then be attached to the ISS sometime within the next four months. The BEAM, which is created by private company Bigelow Aerospace, will remain deflated during launch, but once in orbit, it will inflate up to four times its size, providing more overall volume for the interior of the ISS.

The BEAM isn’t a permanent addition to the space station, though. It will only stay attached to the ISS for two years, and the astronauts will go inside the habitat very rarely. That’s because the main goal of the BEAM is to test out if this expandable habitat technology actually works. A successful mission could be the first step to something bigger: an era when expandable space habitats orbit the Earth, allowing for scientists and tourists to visit these “space hotels.”

The concept of expandable spacecraft isn’t new. In the 1960s, NASA launched a series of expandable communication probes called the Echo satellites, which looked like big metallic balloons. The satellites inflated in space and turned into mirror-like reflectors that bounced signals from one spot on Earth to another. Since then, NASA and other private companies have toyed with the idea of scaling up expandable spacecraft so that they could house humans in space.

Continue reading “How expandable astronaut habitats could pave the way for private space hotels” »

Very nice goal to have “all things connected” in Toyota’s and Microsoft’s case is “Singularity” lite meaning physical structures are connected; however, bio connection does not exist (only consumer profile information is available and integrated). This could be considered an interim state for Singularity.

The company called Toyota Connected has a goal of simplifying technology so it’s easier to use, perhaps even getting rid of distracting and complicated touch screens that now are in most cars and replacing them with heads-up or voice-activated technology, said Zack Hicks, the company’s CEO who also is Toyota Motor America’s chief information officer. Like other automakers, Toyota Connected will research connecting cars to each other and to homes, as well as telematics features that learn and anticipate a driver’s habits. The company, like other automakers, will explore transmitting a driver’s health data to a doctor or driving patterns to an insurance company so people are insured based on where they travel, Toyota said.

WinSun Global, the Chinese company that just last year made headlines for building the world’s first 3D printed villa and the tallest 3D printed apartment block, has now partnered with the city of Dubai to construct what is being hailed as the world’s first 3D printed office.

If you dig deep enough into the Earth’s climate change archives, you hear about the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. And then you get scared.

That was a time period, about 56 million years ago, when something mysterious happened — there are many ideas as to what — that suddenly caused concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to spike, far higher than they are right now.

The planet proceeded to warm rapidly, at least in geologic terms, and major die-offs of some marine organisms followed due to strong acidification of the oceans.

Continue reading “Study suggests Earth is heading toward a second catastrophic hot-house event” »

Outer space is about to get its first pop-up retail shop.

Lowe’s, the home-improvement store, has teamed up with Made In Space, the company behind the world’s first zero-G 3D printer, to launch the first commercial manufacturing facility on the International Space Station.

The Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), as it is called, is an advanced, permanent 3D printer that will be available for use not only by NASA and its station partners, but also by researchers, educational organizations and commercial customers.

Continue reading “First Retailer in Orbit: Lowe’s and Made In Space Send 3D Printer to Station” »