Space News reports, “Space organizations are continuing to identify promising applications of artificial intelligence, according to speakers at the AIAA ASCEND conference.” At NASA, for example, AI helps aggregate complex datasets from various Earth-observation sensors and illustrate the data through modeling “in ways that are ‘intuitively clear,’” said David Salvagnini, NASA’s chief artificial intelligence officer and chief data officer.
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Tag: Challenges
Profile: Embraer’s E-Jet Challenges Boeing, Airport Narrowbody Supremacy
Autoevolution profiles Embraer’s E-Jet family as a perpetual underdog in what would otherwise be a two-horse race in the global narrowbody jet competition between Boeing and Airbus. Without the benefit of the E-Jet family, Embraer “may have never arrived hot on the global scene in the way it did.”
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NASA Faces Challenges as it Looks to Establish a Lunar Base
The Los Angeles Times reports, “If NASA ever establishes a lunar base – a long-term project advanced Wednesday with the launch of Artemis I – it will have to confront…challenges to human habitation. It’ll also have to figure out the dust.” Lunar dust is jagged and grainy, and is an issue for anything man-made on the moon that would land or launch from the surface. “One of the foremost institutions studying lunar dust and its potential effect on human missions is the Swamp Works, a NASA research lab co-founded in 2013 by [University of Central Florida planetary scientist Philip] Metzger, who is now retired from the agency but still collaborates on some projects.” This lab looks to test technology that would allow humans to live and work on the moon or other planetary surfaces in the future.
Full Story (Los Angeles Times)
Aviation Week Network Checks in with AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher
Aviation Week Network checked in with AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher for a status report on existential threats to the planet and the strategies — both underway and in development — required to mitigate climate change and, yes — save the planet.
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Business Jet Manufacturers Face a Number of Challenges
Aviation Week reports, “Business aircraft manufacturers face a number of challenges and threats, including flight shaming, workforce shortages, along with supply chain and FAA issues leading to production and regulatory delays.” These issues are particularly untimely with the increased passenger demand for air travel, and it makes for a difficult business environment. It is more challenging for businesses to expand with such issues affecting growth infrastructure.
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit Face Challenges
SPACE reports, “Shareholders in Virgin Galactic launched a class action lawsuit with numerous allegations about the space tourism company, which grounded its VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle and its carrier plane, VMS Eve, for maintenance and upgrade work after a high-profile flight in July 2021 starring Branson himself. The two vehicles are likely to start flying again in early 2023, company officials said recently.” US District Judge Allyne Ross ruled that shareholders could attempt to prove fraud in overpaying for Virgin Galactic’s shares, but the class action’s other claims were dismissed. Virgin Orbit’s regulatory approval is still pending for a Cornwall-based launch originally planned for November. “On Monday, Virgin Orbit lowered its 2022 launch forecast to three excursions (down from a previously estimated range of four to six launches). Its cash on hand has fallen to just $71.2 million, and more than a third of the money remaining ($25 million) came from a Friday (Nov. 4) investment by major shareholder Virgin Group, which is the portfolio of Branson’s businesses.”
Full Story (SPACE)