🚀👨🚀 Back to the Moon?
Happy Sunday everyone!
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In other news this week:
U.S. orders Nvidia to stop selling AI chips to China
Nvidia disclosed in a regulatory filing this week it can no longer sell specific high-end chips in China without a license from the government. These AI chips go into large data centers to train AI models for tasks like autonomous driving, image recognition, and voice assistance.
Nvidia has nearly a 95% share of that market and the rest is accounted for by AMD, who’s also bound by the same export restrictions. Without access to these chips, Chinese tech giants that rely on big server farms to develop everything from electric and self-driving cars to social and cloud services will be at a disadvantage to international competition.
Trademark filings suggest Apple may secure names for its VR/AR headsets
Trademark applications were filed in the US, EU, UK, and others for the names “Reality One,” “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor.” Though Apple itself didn’t make the filings, they follow a pattern that Apple has used in the past including relying on law firms that the company has previously hired to lock down brand names. Earlier this year, trademark filings linked to Apple also emerged for the realityOS name.
Apple’s headset is expected to include VR-based versions of Apple apps like Maps and FaceTime in addition to collaboration features for multiple users wearing the headsets. It’s also slated to have a focus on consuming media content like sports and movies in VR and gaming. The latest trademarks also imply the device may have health-related functions.
NASA orders five astronaut transportation missions from SpaceX for $1.4 billion
NASA has finalized an agreement with SpaceX to purchase five more astronaut transportation missions to and from the International Space Station, further entrenching the space company’s position as the prime services vendor for the space agency.
The contract includes the use of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to transport up to four astronauts, the Falcon 9 rocket for launches, and all other return and recovery operations.
Toyota triples U.S. EV investment, starting with a battery factory in North Carolina
Toyota will boost its planned investment in a new U.S. battery plant, Liberty, from $1.29 billion to $3.8 billion, in response to rising consumer demand for electric vehicles and the recent passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which provides incentives for EV/battery manufacturers.
Toyota plans to add two production lines dedicated to making batteries for fully electric vehicles at the Liberty plant, in addition to four lines planned to make smaller batteries for hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius.
Revisiting the Moon?
America is back on the moon. Or is it?
On Saturday, NASA postponed the launch of Artemis I, an unmanned Orion spacecraft that would’ve been blasting towards a lunar orbit.
Yesterday’s postponed launch due to a hydrogen leak comes after a slew of issues during the first attempted launch last Monday. A mixture of offshore storms, engine overheating, communications delays, fuel leaks, and even cracks in the insulation foam resulted in NASA postponing the launch twice.
We don’t know when NASA will be going for a third launch attempt, but in the meantime, here’s what the Artemis mission is all about
The launch of Artemis I will serve as a practice run for a massive rocket called the Space Launch System, and the spacecraft that sits on top of it is named the Orion. The SLS rocket is designed to send Orion zipping toward an orbit around the moon and far beyond it.
After the SLS boosters and other hardware are dumped, Orion will travel toward the moon for around 8 to 14 days. Then, it’ll enter into a lunar orbit where it will spend between 6 and 19 days before returning to Earth.
But before it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, the part of the spacecraft designed to carry crew members will separate from the rest of Orion. The crew capsule then will encounter temperatures of close to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit and hit speeds of around 25,000 miles an hour.
This is all prep for future Artemis missions, where there’ll be humans aboard! Assuming NASA gets Artemis I successfully launched, a second mission is projected to launch in 2024 and would have astronauts travel to lunar orbit but not land on the moon. Following the second mission, a third and fourth mission would look to put astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.
So Artemis I is just the first step in a series of missions that’ll eventually get humans back on the moon, which is a little concerning given the numerous technical issues that have arisen over the past week.
And if you’re wondering, these missions are not cheap… According to estimates, it’ll cost around $4.1 billion to produce and operate the Artemis 1 mission. In total, NASA is expected to spend $93 billion on the four Artemis missions currently planned.
Overall, this will be a fun mission to follow, and hopefully, we’ll see people back on the moon in a couple of years.
Chart of the Week
Strategic Vision recently released the results of an annual consumer survey of over 200,000 new-vehicle owners. For the first time, the firm included Apple among the more than 45 brands it surveyed consumers about.
The findings: 26% said they would “definitely consider” buying a car from Apple, behind only Toyota and Honda. Pretty impressive stuff given that Apple has no car yet.