NASA is aiming to put astronauts back on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2027. While the date could slip, the space agency will continue with training and other preparation for the highly anticipated mission, so that when the day for launch does finally come, the crew will be ready.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, has just dropped a video (top) showing how it’s utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology to prepare astronauts for spacewalks — also known as extravehicular activities (EVAs) — on the moon’s surface.
The specially designed lab uses sandboxes, multi-directional treadmills, and mockups of spacesuits to create a realistic spacewalk environment, while other gear is used to collect data on human health and performance, enabling mission planners to design an experience for the astronauts that’s efficient, comfortable, and above all, safe.
“We find virtual reality to be really helpful in our EVA testing and research,” Patrick Estep, a NASA human performance engineer, said in the video. “It’s really important that we can simulate as many great aspects of EVA as we can in a rapid, controllable, and repeatable test environment.”
Estep said that one of the beauties of virtual reality is that they’re able to recreate pretty much anything digitally with different tools, widgets, and heads-up displays, and then place someone virtually on the lunar surface to learn more about how astronauts might perform in such an environment.
“We’re going to test a whole bunch of different scenarios,” NASA astronaut Kate Rubins said. Understanding emergency situations is of course a priority, and when a crew is eventually assigned to the Artemis III mission, they’ll be trained to help them deal with a range of extreme situations.
The video shows some of the training sessions the team has been engaging in as they prepare for the Artemis III mission in a few years from now.
Jeff Somers of NASA’s Human Physiology, Performance, Protection, and Operations Lab described virtual reality as “a critical part” of enabling the crew members to get the big picture before embarking on their mission, “so that they can experience what it will be like to do an EVA on the [lunar] surface.”
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.