Elon Musk’s SpaceX capsule lands successfully in crucial step toward human spaceflight
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of Elon Musk’s ambitions is to allow people to live off world, but first you have to get them there and this is the first step in a long journey. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which Elon Musk first showed off a few months ago,...
Facebook 3D photos sources depth information straight from your camera
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cameras in our gadgets can do alot more than take photos, and with just a minor tweak we can use them to create living 3D photos. Leveraging the extra “depth” data found in some iPhone photographs, Facebook today announced the rollout of 3D Photos – images...
Luxury space hotel preps for launch in 2021
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the cost of getting to space falls, and access to space becomes more democratised, it will eventually become a tourist destination. Well heeled space tourists will have a new orbital holiday destination four years from now, that is if one company’s plans come to fruition,...
Boeing unveil their stunning hypersonic space plane concept
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of transportation is fast, very fast, and companies are once again getting serious about building commercial hypersonic aircraft. It’s a vision of the future that could someday jet people from the Los Angeles to Tokyo in just three hours or cut the...
After four year wait Cape Canaveral gets its license to launch commercial space planes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the past you would need a rocket to get into space, but today there are more planes taking on that role, and Cape Canaveral wants to dominate the future of commercial space flight. As the race for space heats up, Cape Canaveral is...
Lockheed Martin goes full throttle to develop NASA’s quiet supersonic jet
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Regulators don’t like noisy supersonic aircraft flying over land, so Lockheed and NASA have teamed up to create a quiet supersonic aircraft. One of the reasons why the iconic Concorde was mothballed was because it was too noisy when travelling at supersonic speeds, so...
Futurist Keynote, London: The Future of Superyacht Design, SuperyachtNews
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the superyacht industry hots up and competition intensifies superyacht companies have to work harder to stay at the leading edge of design trends. Firstly, I’d like to thank the team at RWD, a superyacht design company in the UK, and Feyi and Rory from...
World’s first space elevator hitches a ride to the ISS to begin first trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cost of getting astronauts and cargo into space is still astronomical, a space elevator could eliminate the need for costly rocket launches and democratise access to space. Let’s be honest, launching things into space with rockets is a pretty inefficient way to do...
Book tickets into space for $200,000, Blue Origin preps for take off
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cost of space travel is collapsing thanks to new technology and new blood in the industry, and soon you too could explore the vastness of our universe. If Jeff Bezos has his way, and he probably will, then soon it’s likely you’ll be...
World’s first commercial solar aircraft aims for the Stratosphere
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tomorrow’s aircraft will be battery powered, but future generations of aircraft could do away with the batteries entirely. While Elon Musk is invested in getting humans to different places, whether it’s from one side of the planet to the other in rocketships, or to...
Las Vegas goes high tech with cocktail mixing robots
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The resent resurgence in interest in the field of robotics means we are now seeing more robots appearing in more places taking on more tasks. Las Vegas who recently met its goal to be 100 percent powered by renewable energy is full of dazzling...
Futurist in the press: Exclusive interview with Richard Branson, Metro newspaper
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Richard Branson is one of the most iconic entrepreneurs of all time but sometimes you’ve got to give the critics fuel in order to create the future. I have to admit I do sometimes have to sit back and pinch myself, after all, it...
Futurist keynote, Dubai: The Future of Minds &Machines, Dubai IAICC International Innovation Conference
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dubai is a city that was gifted nothing, and had to build and earn everything, and it was a great honour to speak there, in a place that is rapidly becoming the very embodiment of the future. Dubai Dubai so good they named it...
Branson announces Virgin Galactic will send tourists into space in 2018
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s been a long time coming but Richard Branson believes Virgin Galactic’s first space tourists will take off in 2018, opening the final frontier up to tourism for the first time. Wannabe space tourism company Virgin Galactic hasn’t exactly had the easiest time of...
Thomas Cook lets you experience your holiday in virtual reality before you buy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Virtual reality holidays come to the high street. Virtual reality content is being trialled for the first time by Thomas Cook at a new concept store at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. Customers will be able to ‘enter’ a virtual world where they...
Get a drones-eye view with this new headset
Birds eye view takes on a new meaning Last week DJI announced an all too cool new product for their Mavic Pro line of drones and while the new product looks like a virtual reality headset it’s actually not, although the similarities both in terms of look, and experience are...
Dubai announces plans to put the entire Emirate onto the blockchain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dubai wants to become less dependent on oil and the emirate is rapidly becoming one of the most progressive nations in the world. Earlier this week, at an event hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation and the Smart Dubai Office, the Crown Prince of Dubai announced...
The future of jobs in a Machine World
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We are all aware that technology is capable of replacing particular categories of jobs, but often those jobs “belong to someone else” and the impact on our own jobs is minimal. Today though new classes of emerging technologies, from artificial intelligence to machine vision are...
Californian sculpture desalinates 1.5 billion gallons of drinking water
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The Pipe is a finalist in the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative, a competition to combine clean energy production with public art. Is it public art, or is it a power station? This shimmering design for “The Pipe”, a finalist in the 2016 Land Art Generator...
The first private moon landing gets the green light
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF More and more private organisations are taking on the final frontier, now Moon Express have a license to land on the Moon. Less than half a century after Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon the FAA has granted approval...
