Author: Brett Venter

NASA has a fairly aggressive timeline for returning humans to the moon with its Artemis lunar missions. The original projection for arrival was set to be 2024, but the space agency has just revised that timeline. Humans, according to NASA head Bill Nelson, will return to our deserted and dusty satellite sometime in 2025. The reason why will surprise you. Artemis rises a little later than expected Actually, the reason won’t be surprising at all. Legal wrangling over the awarding of the Artemis lunar lander contract to SpaceX, which recently ended with Blue Origin’s case being tossed, is the main…

Sending people out into space is really tricky, but it is getting them back that’s the really important bit. SpaceX’s Crew-2 crew, astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur (NASA), Akihiko Hoshide (JAXA), and Thomas Pesquet (ESA) returned safely to Earth early this morning on board the company’s Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule. Crew-2 in capsule form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdl-wM7kGo The Crew-2 capsule carrying the astronauts winding up their six-month stay on the International Space Station splashed down in the ocean near Pensacola, Florida at 22:33 Eastern Standard Time last night — or at 05:33 this morning here in South Africa. The crew orbited…

In June this year, we heard about the Airspeeder M3 eVTOL, a craft made by Australian company Aluada Racing. At the time, it had completed a test-flight. Now, it’s experienced a taste of competition, in the form of an actual drag race. Which, if you’re going to race flying vehicles, is probably the way to start. You certainly don’t want to begin the experiment by sticking ten of them on a starting grid and seeing what happens on the first corner. These eVTOLs are dragging it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgBegdGyUis As part of getting ready for the EXA race series, which should…

If you needed any further signs that the ongoing chip shortage was causing issues for just about everybody, BMW’s waving the neon display you need. The company has confirmed that it is temporarily removing touchscreen functionality from certain models, due to the shortage. BMW joins the “party” The news that BMW was yanking touchscreens from some of its vehicles first turned up on the Bimmerfest forum, before being confirmed by the company to Autoblog. The German automaker joins the likes of Nintendo, Intel, and others who have taken steps to mitigate the fallout of the current semiconductor shortage. If you’re…

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is moving faster than it normally does. In addition to performing all sorts of new software functions intended to make us think it was all about virtual reality the whole time, the company is reported to be working on physical stores. The stores, which would be used to showcase Facebook’s Meta’s physical products, apparently aren’t a done deal, according to the New York Times. Discussions reportedly began in 2020, but have yet to be finalised so it’s not a certainty that we’ll see the company get physical with the world. Meta physical stores……

Blue Origin’s protests against rival space company SpaceX being awarded NASA’s Artemis lunar lander contract have come to an end. The lawsuit filed by the company was dismissed in a ruling by the sitting judge, effectively terminating the company’s opposition and paving the way for SpaceX to get on with building that lunar landing vehicle. Blue Origin feeling blue A very brief ruling granted NASA’s motion to dismiss,”…under Rule 12(b)(1) and Rule 12(b)(6) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims”. SpaceX’s motion for judgment was granted, Blue Origin’s motion for judgment was denied. The reasons for the dismissal…

Google is looking to take on some work for the American military, lobbying the Pentagon for the American Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract. This is despite possible opposition to the contract from the company’s own employees. This time around, though, it’s possible that the search giant won’t face quite as much opposition as it did with its previous Pentagon contract. Previously the company worked on Project Maven, which saw it using AI to assess images that could eventually lead to ‘improved’ drone strike capability. The company’s involvement ended in 2018, following employee protests, and saw Google…

2021 is, in many ways, a repeat of 2020. Last year our spirits were buoyed by the release of the PlayStation 5, but it was hard to get. Nintendo’s new OLED Switch console might have soothed some ruffled souls this holiday season but, like last year, the gaming hardware will prove hard to locate. Nintendo has trimmed its sales forecast for the handheld console by 6%, meaning the company’s ‘only’ expecting to sell 24 million units by the end of this year. This isn’t too alarming, but the company’s also expecting to battle to meet holiday season demand. Switch to…

Meta, the company that owns Facebook (nothing’s changed but the name, guys), has announced that it is ending its Facial Recognition program on the social network. The previously opt-in program will conclude, meaning those users who were participating will no longer automatically be recognised by Facebook. According to the company, more than a billion individual facial recognition templates are set to be deleted. Automatic Alt Text (AAT), a feature that automatically adds descriptions for the visually impaired, will also no longer identify opted-in users by name. Why now, Facebook?  It’s important to note that the social network isn’t abandoning facial…

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is famous for many things — the ‘arrow in the knee’ meme, giving players the ability to punch dragons to death (with the right build), Dragonshouts, and being re-released every time a new video game platform comes along. Well, guess what, Todd Howard fans? If you guessed that there’s a whole new version of Skyrim coming, then your parent’s investment in your education wasn’t wasted. The notable thing about this new edition? It’s not the sort of game that’s been released multiple times over the last decade. Standing on the Skyrim of the world No, this…