By Bryan Cronan, Staff Writer
It's been two weeks since the fatal crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. As authorities continue to investigate what caused the crash, Virgin Galactic says the accident will not hinder the company's plans to send tourists to space.
It has been two weeks since a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave Desert. The crash was a big strike against the company that is trying to create a commercial private space industry.Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides told a crowd Thursday that the company will continue pursuing its mission to take tourists to space. He made the comments while speaking in Culver City, Calif., to a panel organized by the Rand Corporation.“We have a new spaceship that’s going to be ready in a few months,” Mr. Whitesides said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “So we’re going to make sure we get that one as safe as we can and keep going.”
On Oct. 31, a SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight, killing one pilot and injuring another. The debris from the flight was strewn across 35 miles of the Mojave Desert. Whitesides said that was "a tragic day."
Virgin Galactic is the brainchild of British billionaire Richard Branson. He is planning to take tourists to space for $250,000 a piece. After the crash, there have been growing concerns about the companies safety practices. Twenty of the 700 people who have already paid for the trip have asked for a refund after the crash.
On Nov. 7, Peter Siebold, the pilot who survived the crash, told the National Transportation Safety Board what happened shortly before the crash. He said the ship began to break apart 50,000 feet in the air, according to Engadget. He unbuckled from his seat and a parachute automatically deployed. An investigation by the NTSB found that the SpaceShipTwo's feather re-entry system was a possible cause of the crash. The other pilot, Michael Alsbury, unlocked the system earlier than intended. The NTSB said it could be another year before the final conclusion about what caused the crash is known.
The SpaceShipTwo had only conducted a few dozen test flights. And the fatal flight was only the fourth time that the rocket engines fired. The ship was also using new fuel, which engineers thought would give the engines more thrust.
“There’s so many exciting things happening now in the world of space," he said. "There’s risk but there’s great reward. ... So I think being unafraid to try new things is important as we move forward.”
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Elon Musk fears our progress in artificial intelligence is ‘seriously dangerous’
Excerpt from
sciencerecorder.com
Visionary technology figure Elon Musk has been warning the public for months about possible threats posed by artificial intelligence. But now he has a timeline.
Musk, the South African-born CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, wrote that “the risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year time frame. 10 years at most.”
Musk penned this comment at the bottom of an essay written by virtual pioneer Jaron Lanier called “The Myth of A.I.” The essay appeared in the publication Edge.org last week and was followed by comments from such technology notables as George Dyson, Peter Diamandis, and Kevin Kelly.
While Musk’s comment was deleted, it was picked up by sites such as Mashable and Reddit, which preserved it for a larger audience. According to these sites, Musk zeroed in on companies such as DeepMind, a British artificial intelligence company that Musk once invested in before it was purchased by Google.
“The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast,” Musk’s piece read. “Unless you have direct exposure to groups like DeepMind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential.”
Musk mentioned that AI companies “recognize the danger” and were working to ameliorate any negative intelligences “from escaping into the Internet.”
While Musk had sent his comment privately to Edge.org by email, it was published by a site editor before it was taken down. A Musk spokesperson has said that Musk will write a longer piece outlining his thoughts on the dangers of artificial intelligence, presumably to be published on the same website.
Previously, Musk has compared AI to “summoning the demon,” nuclear war, and the “Terminator” series. View Article Here Read More