NASA Orders First Crewed Mission From SpaceX to the International Space Station

As reported by The Verge: NASA has officially ordered its first commercial crew mission from private spaceflight company SpaceX. That means SpaceX has NASA's authority to proceed with the first crewed launch of the company's Crew Dragon capsule, which can carry up to seven people in lower Earth orbit. The mission is slated for sometime in late 2017, but the exact date has not yet been determined.

SpaceX and Boeing hold contracts with NASA through the space agency's Commercial Crew Program. The initiative tasks the two companies with creating and operating spacecraft that can ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Currently, NASA is without a primary space vehicle and must rely on the Russian Soyuz rocket, which costs $80 million to get just one US astronaut into lower Earth orbit. Commercial Crew will allow American astronauts to get to the ISS on American-made vehicles once again, and for much lower costs.

THE MISSION IS SLATED FOR SOMETIME IN LATE 2017

According to the contracts, NASA guarantees it will make at least four orders from SpaceX and Boeing for crewed missions to the ISS. Boeing received its first official order in May of this year, beating out SpaceX by six months. However, the race is still on to see who will launch their mission. NASA says it will figure out later when the launches will take place.

Mission orders are made two to three years prior to launch date, according to NASA, so that the companies have time to assemble their launch vehicles and their spacecraft. Neither SpaceX nor Boeing have actually built their respective crew vehicles yet. Boeing is getting started on manufacturing its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, and SpaceX is working on its Crew Dragon, which is an enhanced version of its Dragon cargo capsule.

The order also comes at an odd time for SpaceX. The company's fleet of rockets have been grounded since June, after a Falcon 9 carrying supplies to the ISS exploded post-launch. SpaceX figured that a faulty strut in the rocket's upper fuel tank was to blame, but its flights have been on hold as the company conducted a complete investigation into the incident. SpaceX is expected to return to launch sometime in December, but no official date has been set.

Additionally, it's possible that SpaceX's crewed mission for NASA won't happen in 2017 as planned. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has admonished Congress several times, claiming the Commercial Crew Program has been consistently underfunded. IfNASA doesn't get adequate funds in time, the first launch under the program — whether it be from SpaceX or Boeing — will likely be pushed back to 2018.

Tesla Disables Some Autopilot Features in Hong Kong

As reported by Fortune:Tesla reportedly said Tuesday it would be temporarily disabling automatic steering and lane-changing on all Model S vehicles in Hong Kong.

The company had enabled the feature for all Model S owners without first retrieving approval by the city’s Transport Department. The Wall Street Journal reports that the agency is now saying the new software might not meet regulations and has requested that Tesla stop releasing it to more vehicles and disable the function on ones that already have it.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously referred to the electric car’s autopilot as a “public beta.” The company continues to refine the function as drivers use it. Hong Kong’s Transport Department has issued a warning to Tesla Model S owners stating the following:

“Although vehicles may be equipped with advanced driver assistance systems, the roads in Hong Kong are extremely busy, and motorists should stay alert [and] maintain control of the vehicle.”

The South China Morning Post writes that the agency has approved Tesla’s autoparking function, but not automatic steering or lane-changing. Tesla is currently working with the department to get the necessary approval.

Here’s What Volvo Thinks You’ll Do When Your Car is Driving Itself

As reported by The Verge: According to Volvo’s research, the average American spends 26 minutes driving to work. One way. That’s more than nine days a year, and the Swedish carmaker is building a time machine to get some of that time back for you.

Well, it’s not actually a time machine (though that would be awesome too). This is Concept 26, Volvo’s vision for what a driver will do while the car is driving itself, unveiled today at the LA Auto Show. It’s very different than futuristic concepts like the Mercedes F 015 which shows a bunch of people facing each other while the car whisks them off to a cocktail party or wherever. The idea is to give you some of that time back from your commute, so you can get some work done, chat on the phone, or watch Game of Thrones— things that people sometimes do during their commute now, but we’ll all have the added benefit of not being in mortal peril while they do so.

Volvo research has shown that most people will use autonomous drive on their way to work, during the boring parts of the commute like stop-and-go traffic on the highway. It’s unlikely that you will have anyone else in the car, just like today, so there’s no need to spin the seat around to face your passengers — which is fine, because the company says most people really don’t want to ride backwards anyway.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN SPENDS 26 MINUTES, EACH WAY, DRIVING TO WORK

Concept 26, named after the 26-minute average commute, is pretty close to how the interior of Volvo’s Drive Me program will work, where the company will give 100 autonomous capable XC90 SUVs to real people in its hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden.

According to Volvo’s research, vast majorities of car customers believe an autonomous vehicle should still have a steering wheel, and that they should be able to drive the car if they wish. It suggests many Americans might not be totally comfortable with Google’s self-driving pod (current versions have steering wheels for emergencies, but Google has envisioned a future wheel-free model). The company does note that driver acceptance of autonomous cars could increase as they become more popular.

Regardless, Volvo is looking at the near future — the next five to ten years or so — where autonomous cars will probably still have a hard time dealing with things like construction, traffic jams, and snow. So, Volvo says, there needs to be a way for the driver to switch between manual and autonomous mode, and back again. And, maybe most importantly, Volvo says we’ll be really comfortable while we do it.

Volvo’s self-driving car will talk to Volvo’s server’s in the cloud to make sure that it’s safe to go autonomous. If there are concerns about weather or construction or some other reason why autonomous might not work, the system will keep the driver firmly in control. Volvo — which seems to talk about safety more than any other car brand — is emphasizing that it wants to be sure the car is capable of driving itself safely before letting the driver relinquish control. While it didn’t actually come out and say that Tesla was being wildly reckless with its new Autopilot "beta," that was definitely the vibe being given off at a press event last week to preview Concept 26.

Volvo envisions three different modes for the driver. There’s the normal "Drive" mode, with the car in full manual mode, just like we have now.

Then there’s "Create." This retracts the steering wheel, slides the seat back, and opens a 25-inch flat-screen monitor from the passenger-side dashboard. A "tablet" in the center console slides back with the driver, maintaining access to all car functions like navigation and seating position, as well as giving control of the large monitor. Volvo envisions it as an extension to other devices like laptops or iPads or iPhones. It can be used to display content from those devices, or to watch TV or movies while the car takes care of the driving.

Finally, there’s "Relax" — my personal favorite — that reclines the seat even further and lets the driver watch TV or simply sit back and do nothing. Volvo’s seats have been some of the best in the industry for years, and the Concept 26 includes its next-generation seat which is designed to be outrageously comfortable (and safe, naturally) while reclining. That’s something that hasn’t been particularly important in a car before, especially for the driver.

When in autonomous mode, the dashboard changes too, swapping out the tachometer (because you don’t really need to know what the engine is doing when you aren’t driving) and replacing it with a countdown timer that shows how much time you have left in autonomous mode. If it says you have 25 minutes left, that’s plenty of time to watch an episode of 30 Rock. When the autonomous-capable portion of your drive is nearly finished, the car will request your attention and give you a minute or two to prepare yourself and take back control. If you don’t respond, the car will pull over to the side of the road and safely bring the car to a halt.

Volvo will continue to tweak Concept 26 ahead of the launch of its Drive Me program in Gothenburg, but if its vision of automated driving as a time machine is accurate, we’re all going to have a lot more time on our hands.

Find Your House On This Map and Watch the Satellites Passing Above You

As reported by Gizmodo: There are more than 2,250 satellites orbiting the Earth right now. But that abstract number didn’t prepare me for the shock of watching a Soviet-era rocket body whipping over my house in real-time.

Then I watched an elderly Russian intelligence satellite glide over Seattle. A NOAA weather satellite slid by Newfoundland and the ISS passed over Sumatra, while China’s Tiangong manned station moved over the Mississippi River Delta. I was using Line of Sight, an extraordinary map created by Patricio Gonzalez, an artist and engineer at the open-source mapping startup Mapzen.

Satellites in orbit are moving at roughly 17,000 miles per hour, meaning they pass over your city in a matter of minutes, but that’s still enough time to spot them, if you know where to look—which has always been a challenge... until now. Using metadata about the thousands of orbiting satellites is available through sources like SatNOGS, Gonzalez’s map monitors satellites as they criss-cross the globe, allowing you to track specific spacecraft or learn when and where you should look to see those passing over your house.

When I first opened up the map, I navigated to Lake Michigan, and watched as a satellite passed over Chicago, where I live.

A quick search of the name revealed the SL-16 is actually a rocket body built by the Soviet space program in the 1980s—essentially, space junk. There are actually 17 of them in orbit. It was part of a failed plan “to take over manned spaceship launches from Soyuz, but these plans were abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union.”

If it had been nighttime, I would have known where to look for the rocket body, which is about as bright as stars in the big dipper, according to Space Weather.

The data Gonzalez used to create this map is readily available, and it’s not as though satellite-watching is a new idea. But for beginners, Line of Sight is a magical and visceral illustration of the spacecraft that make the modern world possible–turning them from an abstract idea into a blinking light, passing above your backyard. Go check it out here.

ULA Punts on GPS 3 Launch Contract Long Sought by SpaceX

As reported by SpaceNews: SpaceX is likely to win — by default — a U.S. Air Force contract to launch a next-generation GPS satellite after United Launch Alliance announced Nov. 16 that it declined to bid.

ULA, which for the past decade has launched nearly every U.S. national security satellite, said Nov. 16 it did not submit a bid to launch a GPS 3 satellite for the Air Force in 2018 in part because it does not expect to have an Atlas 5 rocket available for the mission. ULA has been pushing for relief from legislation Congress passed roughly a year ago requiring the Air Force to phase out its use of the Russian-made RD-180 engine that powers ULA’s workhorse Atlas 5 rocket.

While ULA warned in early October that RD-180 availability could prevent it from bidding on the GPS 3 launch, the company said Nov. 16 it does not have the right accounting system in place to submit what the Air Force would deem a compliant bid.

“ULA wants nothing more than to compete, but unfortunately we are unable to submit a compliant bid for GPS III-X launch services,” the company said in a statement sent to reporters. “The [request for proposals] requires ULA to certify that funds from other government contracts will not benefit the GPS III launch mission. ULA does not have the accounting systems in place to make that certification, and therefore cannot submit a compliant proposal.”

ULA — which emphasizes the reliability of its Atlas and Delta rockets as an advantage over SpaceX’s lower advertised prices  —  also said the Air Force’s GPS 3 launch solicitation “allows for no ability to differentiate between competitors on the basis of critical factors such as reliability, schedule certainty, technical capability and past performance.”

The Air Force called for proposals for the GPS 3 launch Sept. 30. Bids were due Nov. 16 with an award expected in March.

ULA’s decision not to bid is a setback for Defense Department efforts to reintroduce competition into a national security launch market that’s been a de facto monopoly since Boeing and Lockheed Martin merged their launch businesses in 2006 at the government’s request.

The GPS 3 mission is the first of nine medium-class launches the Air Force intends to put out for bid by the end of 2017. Of the nine, six are for GPS 3 satellites.

SpaceX, which is eager to break into the lucrative national security launch market, submitted an unsolicited bid in 2012 to launch the GPS 3 satellites for $79.9 million per launch. The Air Force rejected the offer, but initiated a process for certifying the Hawthorne, California-based company’s Falcon 9 rocket to carry military and intelligence payloads to orbit.

ULA, meanwhile, has been working to lower its launch costs. Last month, NASA awarded ULA a $132.4 million contract to launch the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M spacecraft aboard an Atlas 5 rocket in October 2017.  NASA paid ULA $187 million to launch the Mars Maven orbiter on an Atlas 5 in 2013.

Graphene Could Bring Night Vision to Phones and Cars

As reported by Engadget: Thermal imaging devices like night-vision goggles can help police, search-and-rescue teams and soldiers to pick out bad guys or victims through walls or in complete darkness. However, the best devices require cryogenic cooling, making them heavy, expensive and slow. Enter graphene, the semi-conducting material that's 100 times stronger than steel -- researchers from MIT have built a chip out of the material that may solve the problem. The resulting infrared sensors were small enough that they could be "integrated in every cellphone and every laptop," according to the study's co-author, Tomas Palacios.

Graphene is already one of the best infrared sensing materials, so the team first built a microscopic sensor chip out of the material. Further graphene was then used to carry the signals and suspend the chip over an air pocket, as shown below. That eliminated the need for external cooling, normally required by such devices to prevent internal heat from polluting the target's infrared signature.

The compact sensor was able to detect a human hand and heated-up MIT logo, a promising first result. The goal is to further improve the resolution, so the tech can be used in everyday devices. For example, Palacios told LiveScience that the sensors could one day be integrated into car windshields, giving you "night-vision systems in real time without blocking a driver's regular view of the road." That said, we're still waiting for a host of "promising" graphene-based technology to actually become usable products.

Autonomous Buses Will Hit Swiss Streets This Spring

As reported by Mashable: Autonomous cars are the hot topic in the transportation world right now, as evidenced by Volvo,Mercedes-Benz and Google rushing head-first into implementing the tech. However, self-driving cars aren't the be-all and end-all of piloted driving. Buses, too, will benefit from leaps forward in driverless technology.

Proving that point, CarPostal, the company leading public transportation in Switzerland, is launching a two-year autonomous bus pilot program in the tourist areas of Sion, Valais. The test-run will be operated by Swiss startup BestMile, which has developed software to "control fleets of autonomous vehicles in the same way a control tower does in an airport," according to a company press release.

Starting in spring 2016, the small fleet of nine electrified passenger buses will troll the streets of old-town Sion and autonomously transport residents and tourists through the city. The goal of the pilot program is to prove the viability of widespread autonomous public transportation, as it offers lower costs and "minimum risk." Ultimately, CarPostal would like to extend autonomous bus service into remote areas of the country.

IMAGE: BESTMILE

Rest assured, Swiss commuters, BestMile isn't rolling into this project blind. Before the announced Sion pilot program, BestMile spent two years creating a new generation of mathematical algorithms in order for autonomous vehicles to recognize and react to whatever scenarios they might encounter, as they interact with the existing public transportation system.

Until this point, America and Sweden had stood out as global early adopters of autonomous vehicle technology. Several American states — including Michigan, Nevada, Florida and California — have granted companies autonomous driving permits. And Gothenburg, Sweden has green-lit Volvo's "Drive Me" program that will put 100 self-driving XC90 SUVs on public roads in 2017.

It will be interesting to see how residents and visitors of Sion react to the autonomous buses. Likely, after the initial awkward stage, people will forget altogether that there's no one driving the bus. And it's that tacit trust that could lead to widespread acceptance of self-driving vehicles.