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Eric Fallas is a senior systems engineer who is testing out a prototype of a new spacesuit that NASA hopes to use on the International Space Station by 2026. The current suits used by NASA are from the 70s and are at the end of their useful life. Despite spending an estimated $420 million over a decade to create new suits, no operational suits have been produced. If the new suits are in use by the time of production, NASA will have spent over a billion dollars on the redesign and production. NASA has been dealing with two major issues: lack of funding and no destination. In order to address this, they have contracted with commercial companies, such as Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace Industry Team, to make and maintain new suits. The current suits have 18,000 components and a small refrigerator-sized interior volume. In addition, there have been safety concerns due to the aging suits, such as an Italian astronaut nearly drowning in space due to a helmet malfunction. There have also been inventory issues, such as not having the proper suit sizes for an all-female spacewalk. The Office of Inspector General noted that only eleven of the original 18 primary Life Support System units remain in NASA's inventory for the ISS program. NASA has awarded two contracts for the development of two new spacesuits, the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services Contract (XEVAS). Axiom Space won the first contract worth $228.5 million to design suits for the Artemis missions and Collins Aerospace won the second contract for $97.2 million to design suits for the International Space Station. The suits follow a similar structure and have modernized components, such as a pressure garment system, a liquid cooling and ventilation garment and a Portable Life Support System. The companies also have access to data from NASA's own suit development efforts. The suits are designed to fit the first to 99th percentile of astronauts using fewer parts and they weigh significantly less than the current emu. The helmet offers a better range of visibility and the upper torso is adjustable to help prevent shoulder injuries. The upper arm also provides a better range of motion. The contracts also incentivize the contractors to perform on cost and schedule and keep the expense to the government down. Collins Aerospace is working with NASA to create a new generation of spacesuits that are more advanced than ever before. These suits will require 30% less hardware to be launched into space, resulting in decreased cost and training time. They are designed for future missions such as trips to Mars and the Moon, offering greater mobility, reduced mass, better connectivity, and improved ability to see and communicate with each other. They will also be dustproof, as dust is a huge challenge for lunar missions. Finally, the suits are being designed to withstand long-term missions. For these reasons, Collins Aerospace is working hard to create suits that will help astronauts explore farther than ever before.
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As tech layoffs spread, Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre discusses which industries could be hit next.
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Digital activity uses a huge amount of electricity with semiconductors near the limit of their efficiency. Now scientists are racing to perfect new chips that use much less power and handle much more data.
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When officials found $1 billion worth of cocaine onboard the container ship Gayane in 2019, it kicked off a fight between the US and the world's largest shipping carrier over drug trafficking.
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In 2022, the Tennessee Titans of the NFL unveiled their plans for a new stadium in the heart of Nashville. At the price tag of $2.1 billion, the 1.7-million-square-foot stadium can house 60,000 screaming football fans.. The only caveat? Taxpayers will fund more than half of the stadium’s cost.: $500 million from the state and $760 million through revenue bonds issued by Nashville’s Metropolitan Sports Authority. Since 2000, public funds diverted to helping build professional sports stadiums and arenas have cost taxpayers $4.3 billion. While the NFL and team owners contend that building stadiums will provide economic growth for a city, economists and urban planners claim otherwise.
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Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed he will step down as the company’s CEO, but only when he identifies a successor, directly addressing for the first time a Twitter poll he created this week in which millions of users voted for his ouster. CNN’s Paul La Monica and Christine Romans report. #CNN #News
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed members of Congress after meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House during his first foreign trip since the war began. Watch his full speech here. #zelensky #zelenskyy #CNN
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From real estate to space, Seattle's tech scene is awash in A.I. Hello World's Ashlee Vance meets up with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman and Rendered.AI CEO Nathan Kundtz for the latest.
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Traffic is a growing problem in many U.S. cities. Instead of adding more streets to accommodate cars, a growing movement is pushing to ban them in dense areas like New York City. This would give more space for bike lanes, bus routes and pedestrian plazas while also reducing noise and air pollution.
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The kingdom of Saudi Arabia reigns over a giant desert, sitting on top of big pools of oil. So why, then, is it attempting a hostile takeover of one of the world’s oldest sports — a game played on lush, irrigated expanses of turf, strategically placed water hazards and water-hungry putting greens? Some of pro golf’s biggest names have been attracted by the deep pockets of the LIV Golf tour, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. This fight — between the PGA and LIV — is very much about money. Billions and billions of dollars. It’s also about the future of Saudi Arabia, a rapidly changing country trying to position itself for a world that doesn’t run on oil, and its leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to burnish an image tarred by the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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Five years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Since then, there’s been a lot of changes, including a new CEO starting Sept. 1. It added a palm-scanning payment option, hundreds of cameras and sensors to enable checkout-free shopping, and a “dark store” devoted entirely to online orders. We tried out the new high-tech shopping experience and take a look at how prices and product selection have changed since Amazon took over the specialty grocer in 2017. Amazon has opened 60 new locations, including one “dark store” entirely devoted to filling online orders. Yet Whole Foods still controls just over 1% of the grocery market, according to research firm Numerator, compared with Walmart’s 19% and Kroger’s 9%. Next week, Whole Foods gets a new CEO for the first time since its founding in 1980. Operating chief Jason Buechel steps into the lead role on Sept. 1, succeeding colorful, polarizing co-founder John Mackey, who was once described as a “right-wing hippie.” “When you have the kind of culture clash that I imagined John Mackey and Amazon had, it’s really impressive that John stayed around in a leadership position as long as he did,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at advertising firm Publicis. “It surprised me.”
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Amazon has 118+ private label brands, some that carry the Amazon name and others cleverly disguised without it. And it’s been accused of using its data prowess to make nearly identical versions of bestselling brand-name items, like Peak Design’s Everyday Sling Bag. Amazon says it’s continuing to invest in its popular brands, despite rumors its scaling back on private label to appease regulators. Amazon may be pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable in private labeling, there's nothing illegal about copying brand-name products. It's a business practice that, in some capacity, is widely used by most major retailers. Here’s how private labels work, and why experts say the high margin products like AmazonBasics batteries are going nowhere.
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Virtual reality and sports seem like polar opposites. But the largest companies in Silicon Valley - including Mark Zuckerberg's former Facebook now Meta - are trying to change that, using virtual sports platforms to drive adoption and profit in this new world of the metaverse.
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As supply chain chaos causes shipping delays this holiday season, experts say Amazon’s logistics empire and predictive analytics will allow it to avoid the worst of it. Amazon leased long-haul planes to get goods from China to the U.S. faster, and its been making its own containers and chartering private cargo vessels for years. Now retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, Target, IKEA and Costco are trying out the tactic, chartering smaller vessels to bring goods to less congested ports.
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The Vietnamese EV brand VinFast is an unknown name from a country with a tiny auto industry. But the company has already opened six stores in California and has plans for many more. It also is building a $2 billion factory in North Carolina and is planning an IPO, though timing is uncertain. It has partnerships with leading industry firms, such as LG Chem, Gotion, Pininfarina, ZF. And it has recruited alumni from some of the world’s top automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Hyundai, Porsche, Jaguar-Land Rover, Volkswagen, and others.
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In July 2011, the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso was drifting through the treacherous Gulf of Aden when a crew of pirates attacked and set her ablaze. When David Mockett, a maritime surveyor, inspected the vessel, he was left with more questions than answers. Soon after his inspection, Mockett was killed in a car bombing.
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Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that space mining was inevitable. Analysts, tech visionaries and even renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that space mining was going to be big business. Space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries backed by the likes of Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, cropped up to take advantage of the predicted payoff. After all, the holy grail of asteroids, known as 16 Psyche, had an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion. But fast forward to 2022, and humanity has yet to commercially mine even a single asteroid. CNBC spoke to two California startups, AstroForge and TransAstra, about how they are trying to make space mining a reality and the challenges they face.
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Humanity consumes a half-trillion cups of coffee every year, yet coffee production is one of the most antiquated industries within agriculture. Now the livelihoods of 125 million people working in coffee are at risk as the crop struggles to cope with global warming.
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At the turn of the century, cricket was struggling to attract audiences and its commercial future was in doubt. Now it boasts the second-most valuable sporting franchise globally, behind only the NFL. This is the story of how one country changed the fate of cricket.
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Africa’s tech startups raised a record $5 billion in 2021 as investors piled into firms trying to fix the continent's thorniest problems. But money isn't flowing evenly.
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