How SpaceX made history twice with a single rocket launch
Science
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Welcome to What the Future.
This week, SpaceX makes history not once, but twice.
Your dream of becoming a Jedi Master becomes a step closer to virtual reality.
And a hotel room that picks you up at home.
On Monday, Space X became the first company to launch a single orbital class rocket booster three times.
The Falcon nine rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Space in California.
Once its reached orbit, the rocket delivered sixty four small satellites for various companies and organizations.
Now, that's a record number for a US space rocket.
The first stage landed safely on SpaceX's drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
Now, being able to reuse a rocket is key to Elon Musk's vision for space travel.
He's trying to do it more frequently on less money.
The final version of the Falcon 9 called the Block 5 is designed to be used 100 times.
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This is the VR experience you're looking for.
Engineers at Virginia Tech call this Force Push.
It gives those of us who haven't spent years training in a Jedi temple the ability to manipulate far away virtual objects.
Now it's true, we've seen this before in video games.
But do you notice anything different here?
These guys aren't holding controllers or wearing special gloves.
They're using their bare hands, and it's not thanks to an unusually high midichlorian count.
The technology This is leap motion to track hand movements.
Then the objects respond to the speed and magnitude of hand gestures in a way that's intuitive to the user.
Engineers built the environment and the force push interface in the Unity game engine.
They used an occulus CV1 for the display.
No word if they're working on Jedi like powers of persuasion next.
You don't need to see his identification.
We don't need to see his identification.
Okay, you know how people say they don't wanna spend a lot of money on a hotel room because they're never actually in the room?
Well, this one you'd never actually have to leave.
It's a concept for a self-driving hotel room, because why walk across the golden gate bridge when you can see it from the comfort of your bed?
The idea comes from a Canadian design studio and it's pretty simple.
Say you live in Seattle and you want to visit Las Angeles.
Call the hotel room like you would an Uber and the room comes to your door and takes you to your destination.
It includes everything you'd expect.
A shower, a desk, a minibar.
You can even get your Amazon Prime deliveries through the roof.
If that service ever takes off.
Now, once you reach your destination, the room would connect to a larger suite that's part of the company's hotel network.
The company says their hope is to improve intercity travel.
Now, again this is just a concept right now, but let's face it.
Anything that cuts down on check-ins, lost luggage and flight delays is probably a win
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Thats going to do it for this week, I'm Andy Altman thanks for watching.
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