Upcoming Tech

Upcoming Tech

Trom EVs to VR, learn about new, cool technology.

Quiz about “Which Upcoming Tesla Vehicle are You?” on pg. 26

“Timeline of VR” on pg. 40

Article about “Commertalization of Space Travel” on pg. 18

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Table of Contents 6 Letter from the Editors 10 The Space Industry is not a Question of if, it’s when

by Miles Kjorness

14 The Future of the Space Industry

by Miles Kjorness

16 Space, the Final Economic Frontier

by Winston D’Andrea

20 Pros and Cons of Space Travel

by Winson D’Andrea

22 Evolving the Infrastructure

by Sonia Randle Upcoming Technology, | 4 Upcoming Technology | 4

26 “Which Upcoming Tesla Vehicle are you?” Quiz

by Sonia Randle

28 Electric Vehicles are on their Way, Ready or Not

by Corry Grodek

32 Pros and Cons of Electric Vehicles

by Corry Grodek

34 Putting on the Headset

by Alise Tran

40 The History of Virtual Reality

by Alise Tran

About the Authors

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Alise Tran is a 14-year-old freshman at LASA who plans to write about VR. She was excited to learn more about VR and about the adobe programs when discussing the rest of the course. Her hobbies are playing volleyball, which she got into because her mother forced her to do a sport and Alise picked the one with minimal running, and face painting at parties on the weekend. Alise hopes to go to college and medical school to be a pediatrician after graduating highschool. She also at one point had 6 fluffy animals: 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 rats.

Corry Grodek is 14 and a freshman at LASA in Austin, Texas. He prefers to be called Corry. During his time in Ezine, he plans to create graphics and articles about nothing in particular. Outside of school Corry likes to do 3D modeling, specifically cars and devices. He is also in robotics.

After Corry graduates at LASA, he plans on going to college but is not sure what he will study. Corry chose his topic because he did not know a lot about his topic and wanted to learn more about something that he thought was cool

Sonia Randle is one of the writers for Freshman Ezine. This semester they are excited to write about Tesla and the future and effects of electric vehicles. Sonia hopes to be an animator or graphic designer when she grows up and looks forward to going to college after graduating high school. She spends most of her free time playing video games like Animal Crossing, Sims, and Minecraft because they enjoy the creativity of creating a story in an alternate world. Sonia is also the proud owner of their puppy, Pluto.

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Miles Kjorness is 14 and a freshman at Lasa who likes coding and science. He does swimming and has recently gotten into creating Ai while coding. He plans on working for a space or vehicle country in the future by doing coding. He is looking forward to interview people during his time at Ezine. He also loves playing video games. Miles chose his topic becuase, production in space, because he though it was an interesting topic that he knew a lot about. He also belived that it could greatly effect the futer of humanity.

Winston D’andrea is a 14 year old freshman who goes to LASA high school. He plays third base in baseball and plays with his dogs. After high school Winston plans to go to college and later law school. In Ezine, he plans to make graphics and articles about space travel. He plans to go to law school to be a lawyer after college. He went to Gorzycki middle school. Winston also has four pets, two cats and two dogs. He chose his topic because he is interested in space travel and how it will advance in the future.

g n i r e t n E e r a r s e e i i t r n t s g o n r i u t t F d e g l n s a i I y n r . i t e w s u F u r o t d r n g i i space comin H e Th ts say ser to r o e l c p Ex r and e s o l c

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An image taken by spaceX showing a ship flying in space below the Iss. Published on April 9, 2016.

g

Over the past few years we have witnessed many problems that take place in the global trade market. At first it may seem that there is no way around these bottlenecks, least of all in one of the most expensive environments, space, But what If I told you that there is.

With renewed interest in the space sector, private companies have started to think of the possible profit that could come from space production. Is it possible to build and maintain factories in space that make high quality products for people?

It is important to know that we most likely cannot have anywhere near a cost effective factory or production facility in space for decades. As Erik Kulu from Factories in Space puts it “Like the costs of still putting a factory to space, even if it’s a commercial space station, and then bringing the materials up and down. It’s still really expensive. I don’t think research is there yet.”

Erik Kulu lives in Estonia and for his whole life has been interested in space travel. That is why when Estonia started to work on its first cube satellite,Kulu jumped to the opportunity working on Estonia’s first satellite. Since then Kulu has been looking into the commercial space sector, and even created a website detailing the pluses and minuses of pursuing industry in space, and a ranking chart based on development of different space companies working to achieve an industry in space.

But we are still far from ready.

By Miles Fredrick Kjorness

This does not mean that we will not get to see a booming space industry in our lifetime But we are getting closer and closer .Recent advances in rocket technology

have made it possible for us to send up more payload than ever with an absurdly low cost per launch(about 2 million dollars). This is achieved with many advancements, but one particularly important factor is reusability.

Reusability is how a company such as SpaceX manages to get such an edge on cost and speed of launches. The newest rocket in this field is Starship. “Starship

“putting a factory to space, even if it’s a commercial space station, and then bringing the materials up and down. It’s still really expensive. I don’t think research is there yet.” is a new rocket that SpaceX is building. It will be fully reusable, both the first stage and upper stage will return to Earth and none of the parts will be thrown away so it means they’re able to land back a few times and then launch again multiple times per day which is like a very revolutionary idea ” This greatly improves the situation of the space industry. It may be possible with this technology to start to procure working factories in space.

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This image was take by spacex showing the exhaust of a landing spacex craft, Published on April 9, 2016

Building in space will be very expensive for a long time, so the question of “what even is the point of building in space, arises. Kulu’s answer was “here have been like many news articles saying that the Siebler, an optical fiber, might be much better when we make it in microgravity,” and “or it might be say growing human organs in space.”” This shows that there is hope for this industry despite the high cost, since we simply cannot produce some things on earth. This means that some sort of luxury or highly coveted products could be made in space at a higher quality.

But if scientists can manage to find profit in space, there will be a whole new frontier for humans, and with competition in the market, companies will thrive and make better and better technologies in space. As Kulu puts it, “I believe that will kick off like a new wave of technology development. Like all the companies coming in governments coming in developing new technologies, pushing further and further in the solar system, going to moon build-

ing more things there. I think it will kick off like, like a rolling stone that that can’t be stopped anymore” These developments could also help the planet itself. Recently one of the biggest geopolitical challenges humans are facing is climate change, and by moving industry to space we may be able to stop it, or at least slow it down.

Not only that,it may make people reconsider many ideas we have fought over for years As Kulu said “I’m hopeful that will actually help to solve most problems on Earth, including climate change, both because it will change us seeing Earth from space, like, we are here together, like let’s

stop fighting and take up this new adventure.”

In the end we don’t know what the future will hold; Let’s just hope that we can get moving in the right direction. And you never know, we may be closer to another space race and closer to the stars than we ever could imagine.

An Image taken by spaceX showing a launch of their falcon heavy rocket published on February 6, 2018

Exaust: When in space, most exaust would go into space, and not the atmosphere

Pros to moving industry to space: There are a couple pros gained by moving to space, inculding cheap and ready, low cost production.

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Keeping it on the Ground: Not all industry some should still take place on our grea industry here more and more expenses in s would become less accessi

manufacturing on other planets:

Industry in Space: Have you ever thought about the space industry and wondered how it worked?

y should be in space; at planet. Without space, most products ible.

ISM in Space Manufactruring: When doing ISM, we give ourselves the ability to quickly build things that were previously immpossible in very low gravity, giving unpresidented bennifit to production everywhere.

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The Commercilization of Space With new development in technology, the opportunity for business in space is high

Virgin Galactic Mothership and SpaceShip Two. Captured by tom Wigley. Taken on January 16, 2008

A

s children, most people wanted to be an astronaut and to go to the moon. When people realize the years of hard work and schooling it takes to even get a chance to accomplish this goal, it seems less than desirable to become an astronaut. But what if there was a way to go to the moon without devoting years of your life. What if you could pay to go to the moon?

For decades, space has been called the “final frontier” for humanity, and up until re-

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cently the market in space was relatively unclaimed but, with new technology allowing easier and cheaper space travel, companies are starting to use space for economic purposes. Some companies are selling tickets to go to space, while other companies will send a satellite in space for your company. All of this is known as the commercialization of space travel.

“Pacific Ocean From Space” by blueforce4116 , Taken on October 17, 2003

Because space is a new and developing teorite was found to have 60 tons of raw industry, there are many opportunities for iron. Both Neil deGrasse Tyson and Peter new companies. One of these companies is Diamandis have stated that they believe SpaceLabs, a new up and coming compa“Earth’s first trillionaire will be an asterny, which offers to oid-miner.” The send a satellite into amount of iron space for anyone possibly available is “The technological challenges who can pay. Beworth 100 quadrilare enormous. But there is also cause this market is lion dollars but the the challenge of generating deunclaimed they are costs of mining and the only company mand among the public but, Over bringing the metal that provides this back to earth cost time, the price will come down, service, allowing just as with air travel, to where it on average 100-50 them to make vast will be affordable by the average million dollars per sums of money. journey, and one person in a high-income country.”

But there are other journey cannot Matthew Winzler unclaimed maralways bring back kets with the space enough resources industry too. to pay for the journey and make a profit.

One example of this is asteroid mining because asteroids hold very valuable resources. An asteroid called the Hoba meUpcomingTechnology Technology||1818 Upcoming

In discussing economics with a professor at Harvard, Mathew Weinzler, about his opinion on asteroid mining, “I would

expect mining to be a reality by the end of the century, though whether it will be profitable at scale is very hard to predict,” he says. Between Neil deGrasse Tyson, Peter Diamandis and Mathew Wienzleir it seems the future of asteroid mining is uncertain, but has the possibility to blossom into being another profitable industry in space The most publicly desired space industry is companies that offer trips to space, like Blue Origin. When most people hear about flying to space they believe the price is in the millions and in the past, traveling to space cost 55 million dollars for 1 ticket, but with advancements in technology that allow cheaper and easier travel to space, you can get a ticket to go to space for $250,000 with the company Blue Origin.With a price of $250,000 space travel is no longer limited to the 0.001% of wealth and everyday eager citizens could save up enough money to travel to space.

To avoid this issue, companies like Privateer have been created.

Privateer is a company that is tracking the amount of space junk and locations of it.

Privateer is also working on possible methods to clean up the space junk. One of the ideas privateers have for cleaning up space junk is satellites that can move the space junk out of orbit with technology as simple as nets.

Although space junk is being created, it is still clear that the commercialization of space travel is advancing between companies like Blue Origin and Rocket Labs, who are making space more accessible, or asteroid mining companies that can bring in valuable raw material back to earth the and they are valuable for the future of the economics of space.

Unfortunately the commercialization of space travel also comes with downsides.

For example, space junk is created every time a rocket is launched into space, or if something happens to a satellite and parts of it break off. Space junk is very dangerous since it can block future rocket ships and other space crafts from leaving earth if pieces are orbiting in the path other rockets need to take.

There are currently 20,000 pieces of space junk orbiting at 15,000 mph that cause risk for current and future space travel, and the amount of space junk is only increasing. In the next ten years, more than 27,000 satellites will be launched into space. Although this is a huge step for the commercialization of space travel, it could cause dangerous amounts of space junk. To avoid this

First Space Shuttle Mission, STS-1, Launches -- April 12, 1981 by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

With the additional amounts of satellites and rocket ships in space there is an increased amount of space junk. Space junk makes it harder and even impossible for rocket ships to leave the earth traping humans on

This infographic will explore the pros and cons of the commercialization of space travel.

Pros vs Cons

With the commercialization of space travel it opens up new travel opportunities.

For example companies such as blue origin will allow you to pay to go to the moon. You would expect the price of these flights to be in the millions but for 500,000$ you can get a round trip to outer space.

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The commercialization of space travel is not only limited to travel. For example there has been an asteroid found containing nearly double the earth’s iron contents. Asteroid mining stations could be set up on this asteroid to bring

There are a huge amount of current problems on earth such as global warming. If people focus their efforts on outer space and trying the find a “new earth” problems on earth aren’t paid any attention to

Evolving the Infrastructure

By Sonia Randle

Changing transportation to save the world while adapting to electric vehicles along the way

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White EV charging at Tesla Superchargers in empty parking lot

You are driving your quiet, shiny electric car to work when you notice the charge is low. You didn’t even bother to plug it in last night because you knew you could charge it all day. You pull into the work parking garage and plug into the charger. You don’t even stop to think about what type of charger it is because all EVs use the same charging port. On your way home, you pull into a grocery store parking lot and charge your car while you shop. You then drive home and opt not to plug in because you don’t need to. You charged your vehicle every time you parked today. This is what the US Upcoming Technology | 22

Photo by Mathew Hunter

might look like once the infrastructure has evolved to support electric vehicles.

Transportation is one of the biggest percentages of admissions to the environment, and this is especially true in the United States. It is absolutely essential that we electrify everything if we want to beat climate change, and due to the high emission, transportation is especially important.

Carolyn Fortuna, a writer for CleanTechnica which is an online environmental blog that is concerned primarily with the transition to renewable energy, said that in the US, “we have about 7 or 8 years to create an infrastructure

that will allow people to be able to charge those [electric] vehicles, whether it’s personally at home or in community areas, such as provided by public governments or through private industry, like malls.”

To evolve the infrastructure to support that level of charging, it needs to be profitable. For charging to be profitable, a significant chunk of the population needs to use EVs. Right now, only around 2% of vehicles on the road are electric.

Overall, electric vehicles cause less pollution and also cost less (if you look past the upfront cost), which is why they are so important to stopping climate change. “Right now there are electric vehicles that have a comparable cost with gas-powered cars if you look at the life cycle perspective,” said Wei Wei, a postdoctoral associate working at the Trancik Lab at MIT. Her research is about using data to inform technological

Photo by John Chivers

innovation and infrastructure planning, specifically looking at the decarbonization of transportation systems.

“Transportation is one of the biggest percentages, especially in the united states, of emissions to the environment … It’s absolutely essential as well, to electrify everything, transportation being one of the primary areas” Every country will have different needs for electrification. In countries where most people don’t rely on private transportation, public electric transportation will be crucial. “For example, for Indonesia, they’re looking at motorcycles because there are a lot of motorcycles [already in use] which

Electric motorcycle parked in the middle of a parking lot with a bench and cars in the background

is very different from the US,” said Wei Wei. Andrew Lambrecht, a writer for Hot Cars, Business Insider, and Inside EVs

“It’s not so much that we are lacking any of the particular elements of charging right now,”. Fortuna says, “There has to be a way for companies to make it “It’s not so much that profitable.”. If it becomes profitable for we are lacking any of the private companies to provide electric particular elements of charging, then your vehicle could charge almost every time you park, practically charging right now, it’s eliminating the need for long-range on a that there has to be a way regular basis. for companies to make it Fortuna also discussed that “There’s also mentioned very small, cheap electric also a proprietary issue, which means vehicles being used in China as well as right now only people who own Teslas electric mopeds being used in some parts can charge at the Tesla SuperChargers of Africa. which are the most common, I think that’s A large reason drivers are worried going to change over the next few years as about switching to an electric vehicle is Tesla becomes such the number one EV the limited range of EVS. This is a common in the marketplace; they may just expand electric car myth, not that EVs have to others.” Lambrecht mentioned that limited range, but that having limited Photo by E-CarsTrading Open Tesla charging port range will affect drivers. Most people only drive short distances, enough that an EV range would be just fine. This fear of not having enough range is known as range anxiety, and more available charging could help the problem significantly. Fortuna discussed how “work will become a site in the future where people will park and plug in and so that will alleviate difficulties in charging or range.” If you could charge every place you went, the range would only affect drivers when they were driving for hours without stopping.

Lambrecht also highlighted people being worried about electric vehicles saying “Right now, electric cars are definitely being adopted at a much higher rate than gas cars. … but I think it’s gonna be hard to get a lot of people on board right now because around 50% of people are still very hesitant about electric cars.”

Fortuna discussed some issues that are making charging difficult currently.

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Photo by Next Eco Car

Open CCS charging port

Woman is unplugging the charger from the stand to plug it into her white Electric car

Tesla has already opened up its charging network in Europe. If every electric vehicle could charge at Tesla charges, this would also help alleviate charging issues and allow people who need non-Tesla vehicles, like trucks or SUVs, to not need longer range.

Some other common electric vehicle myths are that EVs are more polluting to the environment than gas-powered cars “because of what it takes along the circular economy to create them,” Fortuna says. They explain, “All manufacturing is very emission-intensive right now although lithium-ion batteries certainly are produced right now in a way that’s energy-intensive, … when you factor in the long life of an EV, they are WAY more zeroemissions intensive.”

People also worry about the roads

Photo by Paul Barnfather

being underfunded if people stop paying the gas tax, but “the US has a very high subsidy for fossil fuel companies.” The average American consumer does not know that, but if they did, we could just ask the fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax to offset all these years of polluting. This also would cover the cost of roads that are covered by the current gas tax.

“It’s just crazy to see the evolution of technology with electric cars; how just 10 years ago if you wanted an affordable electric car, you really only had the Nissan LEAF, which was pretty slow, not that impressive overall. And now you have tons of options… If we keep up this technological curve, what we’ll see in five years from now will be outrageous.”

Lambrecht said.

What Upcoming Tesla Vehicle are You? Tesla is an electric vehicle and clean energy company, and the CEO Elon Musk has some big plans. They currently offer four electric vehicle options, as well as solar power and panels. Elon Musk has many other vehicles in the works and ideas of vehicles that will hopefully someday be released. This is a quiz to figure out which one you are!

By Sonia Randle

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The CyberQuad is an all electric quad bike.

Tesla released a version for kids, but the full size one isn’t for sale yet. You want the adventure and don’t care about being practical. You do what you want and what you think is awesome.

You are the CyberTruck, which is a futuristic looking pickup truck. It is currently in production, but Covid-19 has pushed the release date back quite a bit. You are cool, unique, and also practical. You are one of those people who is cool and you are a really amazing person.

No

No

Sources: Tesla.com, BusinessInsider.com, electrek.co, and TopElectricSUV.com

START:

No Would your friends describe you as practical?

Do you belive in “Go big or go home?”

Yes

IDK

Yes Sor t of

Are you “like other girls?”

Yes No

Yes You are a Roadster, which is the Tesla sports car. It is a sports car that has four seats and also is a convertible. It was announced in 2017 and currently is expected to release in 2023. You are textbook cool, and you are proud of who you are. You don’t let other people’s opinions cange you.

Do you have good self control?

You are a $25,000 dollar car, often referred to by the media as Model 2, but it has been confirmed the Model 2 will not be the name. You are quite practical, as you will make it eaiser for people to have electric cars. You aren’t big or fancy, but you have big goals. You are a good friend and very helpful.

No Do you like other people?

You are a Telsa Semi.

The Tesla semi was announced in 2017 with a 2020 release date, but it has been pushed back due to covid. You are strong and helpful, and you take on a lot of work. You would rather help people than spend time with them.

Yes You are a Tesla shipping van. The only thing holding Tesla back from producing shipping vans is electric battery capability. You are a people person. You don’t care if you don’t seem normal, you know you have supportive friends and that’s all you need.

A rendering of BYE Aerospace’s eFlyer 2. November 1, 2021. (Alexis Lincoln)

Electric vehicles are on their way, Professionals say electric vehicles may be mainstream in the next decade

By Corry Grodek

Y ou look across the port. The sky is clear

and the only noises you can hear are the seagulls and the soft crashing of the water on your hull as you speed across the water. You see a large cargo ship docking to offload cargo and load a new battery pack. This is what an electric future could look and sound like, and experts say this could be only a decade away.

Global warming is a prevalent and growing threat to our lives and the planet While a lot of the damage already done to our planet may be very hard to undo, limiting our CO2 emissions is our best chance at saving our planet. One of the main focuses of decarbonization has been electrifying consumer vehicles like cars, but transportation is only responsible for 29% of global CO2 emissions. .

While most people are aware of popular electric car manufacturers like Tesla and

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other traditional car companies such as Ford and Chevrolet and their attempts at consumer electric vehicles, they are often not aware of the startup companies also working to decarbonize transportation in different industries.

About 6% of world CO2 emissions came from planes and boats in 2018. Although this may seem like a small percentage, it was equal to about 1.98 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. Not only do traditional internal combustion engines release carbon dioxide, but they also can release other greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals, like lead, carbon monoxide, and methane. Cruise ships are notorious in the industry for having heavily polluting ships. A single cruise ship can emit the same amount of CO2 as one million cars in one day.

Cruise ships also produce toxic gasses

like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

While many large companies have invested in new electric vehicles, even more start-up companies have started specifically to design and sell electric vehicles.

Fleetzero is a relatively new company based in New Orleans, Louisiana, that is working to make battery-powered cargo ships that can be operated without the extra high costs that often come with electric vehicles. Engineers at Fleetzero are developing systems that could be integrated with the infrastructure we already have in place. The flagship of this effort is their “Marine Battery System”, which are batteries with all the control and safety systems all contained in an industry-standard intermodal container, the big metal boxes ports are already designed to transport and handle.

Fleetzero is also developing other features for their cargo ships to make them more efficient,

like air lubrication and more efficient inverters.

Air lubrication is the process of pumping air to the bottom of the ship to make bubbles, which decreases friction. These ships will also be faster and able to make longer trips without stopping, making them a preferable option to typical long-distance diesel cargo ships.

Pure Watercraft is similar to Fleetzero in its goal to decarbonize boating but they are working on a more consumer level. Pure Watercraft is designing outboard motors for consumer motorboats and a modular battery system. These electric engines are, of course, better for the environment, but also quieter which makes them more pleasant for the user and helps fishers not disturb fish. At the mo-

The adoption of electrification in the marine industry is well underway with smaller boats.

-Gabe Johnson

ment Pure Watercraft only makes these outboard motors, but a representative from the company, Gabe Johnson, points out that there are many other applications for their battery packs. “Snow Mobiles, personal watercraft, ATVs, Side-by-Sides.

The same battery pack could be used to power all these applications which would give a customer lots of options to go electric and enjoy personal mobility.”

Electric vehicles have much fewer moving parts than internal combustion engines, and often last longer. October 31, 2020.

(Joshua Deher)

Another company working to decarbonize transportation is BYE Aerospace from Englewood, Colorado. BYE Aerospace is working on making electric planes, starting with trainers. They just finished their initial testing with a proof of concept, and are working on making the first model now. According to BYE they are much cheaper to maintain and build at about ⅕ of the price of the current gas-powered trainers that are used.

A Maersk ship, Maersk is the largest company in overseas shipping. November 18, 2020. (Ian Taylor)

Steven Henderson, the CEO, and co-founder of Fleetzero said “we’re about five years away from, a real inflection point, I think in 10 years, you’ll see more electric ships.”

Gabe Johson from Pure Watercraft said, “The decreased impact on the environment coupled with the decrease in maintenance (less moving parts) make the adoption almost inevitable but the replacement of large dieselpowered vessels may be at least a decade away.“ A representative from BYE Aerospace thinks that electric planes will be common in the next 5 years. While many international organizations like the IMO (International Maritime Organization, a part of the UN) are trying to reduce emissions by 70% by 2030 and cut all emissions by 2050, Henderson thinks that we will achieve this goal sooner due to electric boating having many benefits for both the company and consumer.

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I think the thing that’s important to remember is that for things to go quickly, and to be lasting, you need to improve the experience for the users and the customers.

-Steven Henderson

Some large companies like IKEA and Maersk are already working on decarbonizing on their own.

IKEA has committed to switching to zero-emission “green fuels” by 2040. Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, has recently secured a facility in Denmark to start making “E-Methanol,” another green fuel, and has already made efforts to make their ships more efficient.

As with any large-scale change, there is always discord and opposition. Electric vehicles are a particularly controversial topic. In 2020 the US made over 110 billion dollars in fossil sales, and globally the fossil fuel industry is worth over 2.1 trillion dollars. With that large of an industry, you would expect many people would be strongly committed to keeping it intact and prosperous.

Electric vehicles have been prone to misconceptions and sometimes outright misinformation.

A common argument is that the electricity used to power electric vehicles is still created by fossil fuels, and so switching to electric vehicles A view of a typical cargo port. November 24, 2017. (CHUTTERSNAP)

wouldn’t help climate change, this isn’t entirely true. While currently 61% of electricity generation is powered by fossil fuels, it is much easier to switch the power grids to renewable energy sources than to retrofit individual vehicles to use renewable energy sources. Additionally, the power stations that make electricity from fossil fuels often use a cleaner and more efficient fossil fuel like natural gas, as opposed to vehicles burning dirtier fuels like gasoline or diesel in less efficient engines.

Johnson said “The good news is that it has become abundantly clear that the industries of the world are committing to electrification and if companies want to compete in the 21st century and beyond, they will need to follow suit. ”

Electric Vehi-

PROS of By: Corry Grodek

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

- Reduced CO emmisions - Lower maintenence on vehicles - Faster and more torque - Quieter for the passeh- Energy effiecient

Why does it matter Buying or investing in a new vehicle is a big expense, and it’s important to be well informed. Both electric and fossil fuels have pros and cons, and while electric vehicles are far better for the planet, they are not always the best option.

- More expensive starting price - Batteries limit range - Charging takes longer - Battery replacement is expensive and wasteful

CONS of ELECTRIC VEHICLES

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ver

sus

Gas Vehicles

PROS of GAS VEHICLES - Quick to refuel - Cheap to buy and manufacture - Gas stations are common - Long Range

Electriciy is usually generated with cleaner burning natural gas, or a green energy source Fossil fuels come from old plant and animal material.

- Produce CO2 which contributes to global warming - Internal combustion engines have lots of moving parts and require lots of maintenece - Gasoline price and availability is volitile

CONS of

GAS VEHICLES

Putting on the Headset A look into modern virtual reality

By Alise Tran, May 21, 2022

I

Developer at Survios tests the graphics and controls of a project. Courtesy of Survios

magine possessing the key to unlocking numerous fantasies beyond anything you’ve dreamt of; a lens in which one can perceive worlds full of magical creatures, deranged cyborgs, and endless adventures waiting to be embarked upon.

All of this and more is now readily available with a quick trip to your local Best Buy. With a purchase of one of the many VR headsets available, anyone can access shooter games filled with adrenaline rushes, social networks where you can talk to people face to face (or avatar to avatar), or art platforms that let you create in a 3D space. But what lies behind these experiences? What does it take to make an alterUpcoming Technology Technology || 34 32 Upcoming

nate reality, and how is this new technology being used?

The VR field is a competitive and ever shifting industry to be a part of. New technologies are being introduced every day, from discoveries in headset engineering to breakthroughs in realistic graphics.

Consumer interest is also an inconsistent factor when creating VR exclusive experiences.

“Crafting a new [VR] project requires a balance between understanding what current player motivations are…while anticipating how emerging technologies can shape future expectations,” said product marketing manager, Amy Pantea.

Am engineer at Survios can be seen testing the controls for one of Survios’s original games, Sprint Vector. Coutesy of Survios.

Pantea works for one of the largest VR companies, Survios. Survios has created chart-topping games such as Sprint Vector, Creed: Rise to Glory, and The Walking Dead: Onslaught. Survios is also an early pioneer in VR. Founded in 2013, the company has had a huge impact on VR and VR involvement in gaming. Pantea, herself, works to “drive revenue to [Survios’s] IP-focused titles, and bring new, original franchises and Virtual Reality concepts to market.”

When constructing games, “merging play and innovation have always been core pillars for Survios” (Pantea). This constant push for innovation has put Survios on top of the VR gaming charts, winning several awards, including 2018 “Developer of the Year.” Their game Creed: Rise to Glory won “Best VR Game of the Year” and set a new precedent for what a VR game could look like.

However, as the VR industry expands, the uses for virtual reality become more diverse. One com-

pany, Magnopus, has utilized VR to bring a new, virtual lens to real-life events like the Expo 2020 Dubai. Developers at Magnopus created the Expo Dubai Xplorer, a digital platform for remote viewers to experience the Expo in real time alongside in-person attendants with the addition of a few virtually exclusive adventures. The “cross-reality experience” exhibited a scale replica of the actual Expo, with numerous characters and magical creatures to interact with and treasure hunts to em-

bark on.

“The gamified platform is breaking new ground for digital scale and production,” technical director Sam Birley boasts.

According to Birley, Magnopus focuses on creating “connected spaces.”“Connected spaces can be ‘digital twins’ of real-world locations (like the Expo) or unique places that have yet to be imagined” (Birley).

Along with the Expo Xplorer, Magnopus has worked on giving a virtual light to movies like Disney’s The Lion King and

The Massive virtual peacock stands as one of the many sites to see within Magnopus’s Dubai Xplorer. Real-life attendants (bottom right) can be seen entering the Expo. Courtesy of Magnopus.

that come with making 3D spaces for movies that are conventionally experienced in a 2D format.

“In traditional gaming and movies, the language of cinema is used. For example, the camera is used to frame things in order to create emotion; scored music is used to create tension and drama. All of these things have to be re-thought in VR, when the player becomes the camera, where music can’t just appear out of the ether,” Birley says, “When you want to frame action in VR, you have to do so with architectural design and lighting - in some ways, it is

The picture depicts the view of a user seeing through Miguel in Pixar’s Coco VR. In this scene, the player gets to stand in the spotlight alongside Hector while a crowd of undead spectators watch. Courtesy of Magnopus.

rigs them similarly to classic video games and movies. However, in a virtually realistic world, characters must also be interactive.

“Character behaviors need to respond to player action.

Walk away from a character who is talking to you, they should get annoyed, stare at someone too long, they might get uncomfortable,” Birley explains.

In order to create the full illusion that a virtual world is in fact a tangible reality, everything a user wishes to communicate with must be intractable.

Birley says, “In VR, a user will generally expect everything to be interactive.As developers, we are trying to allow the user A developer at Magnopus works on the visuals for Disney’s The Lion King Virtual Production System. The Lion King VR experience was designed to teleport users to Africa to witness the to completely suspend their classic tale of The Lion King. Courtesy of Magnopus. disbelief that they aren’t actually somewhere else. Every like building a theater set. If you want one time they encounter an object that doesn’t react to them, that suspension is broken.” character to be lower than another in a But such carefully crafted worlds shot to reflect their relative power, you are hard to feel truly immersed in when have to build something that raises one most players are constrained to a small above the other.”

For characters, Magnopus builds and space. The majority of users will have to Upcoming Technology | 34 36

buy a headset to use at home. While many of these headsets are relatively affordable and easy to buy since they are commonly available at a near-by Target or Walmart, these home-used devices offer a limited VR experience.

The areas in which you can play at home are typically cramped with many potential obstacles (an aesthetic coffee table or a practical bookshelf). The headsets and hand held controllers also offer a lower quality experience. However, there are many companies that offer locations where a user can rid themselves of such barriers and experience virtual reality to its fullest potential.

One such company is Zero Latency.

“Zero Latency is a virtual reality gaming arena,” the owner of Houston’s Zero Latency location, Chalayne Ainley, explains. Zero Latency’s “gimmick” is free roam VR. Each location has a tennis court sized space for customers to wander as they explore an enchanted forest in Mission Maybee or solve puzzles in the bright colorful world of Engineerium or defend themselves against zombies in the several zombie fighter games Zero Latency offers.

“While most of the games were cre-

ated by Zero Latency, two of the games were outsourced…

[A] partnership was made with Ubisoft, for example, to create and provide us with Far Cry 3 the VR version,” Ainely says.

The equipment Zero Latency offers includes more than Zero Latency’s game masters testing the Arena and equipment. Courtesy of Zero just a big space.

They also provide Latency in Houston. users with gunlike controllers and large backpacks which contain the computers for the program, which users must carry on their back.

“It’s a very simple business model.

We don’t do food at all, it’s just gaming. So I have equipment and employees essentially, and if you can keep those two very important, crucial sets in good order then customers are happy” (Ainley).

The store usually takes a day off to let a service technician check over the equipment, since “sometimes things do go wrong” (Ainley). “People do bump into each other. [The equipment is] on and off, on and off all day long, so things do happen. They get nicked,” Ainley says.

To avoid this from happening, Zero Latency is creating a “generation three” store model and plans to completely eliminate the backpacks, ridding all customers of an extra 15 pounds of equipment. Zero Latency also plans to become more “Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift style” and incorporate more Oculus-esque games and equipment.

As technology improves and our society becomes more reliant on the digital

Gameplay from Zero Latency’s Undead Arena. Courtesy of Zero Latency in Houston.

The two owner’s of Zero Latency in Houston, Chalayne (second from the left, standing) and Louis Ainley (middle, standing) can be seen posing with the Game Masters at their Zero Latency location. Courtesy of Zero Latency in Houston

world, it is becoming increasingly more clear that a simple 2D layout for digital media is not going to cut it.

“Science has proven that we’re spatial creatures. We can’t be disconnected from our environment—it impacts our cognitive and social development. A lack of spatial interaction is harmful to our well-being and productivity. But the current internet is flat, it’s full of 2D things like websites and videos,” Birley comments, “The global pandemic has affirmed that events can no longer be purely physical, or with only a perfunctory video streaming presence.”

One solution to this ineffective 2D cyberspace is the up-andcoming Metaverse, Facebook’s attempt at redefining our current internet. Meta plans to create a digital space where users can interact with each other, very similar to the current internet; the only difference being it is hosted on a 3D platform.

UpcomingTechnology Technology||38 36 Upcoming

The introduction of the Metaverse is bound to fundamentally shape not only VR, but our relationship with technology and the role it plays in our everyday lives.

However, with Facebook’s ever declining reputation with the public, the future of the Metaverse is far from certain. As Birley puts it, “We don’t yet know exactly how people are going to use the Metaverse and how it’s going to impact their real-world experience. The next ten years or so are going to be very interesting.”

The next decade will be a defining time, not only for the Metaverse, but for VR in general. “VR is still finding its footing and has a long way to go until we witness true mass hardware adoption,” Pantea states. Birley adds, “We’ve seen the power of the internet and how it has changed the way we communicate, do business, and consume entertainment. But we’ve yet to create an online world that resembles real life.” Virtual reality has the potential to shape the way we perceive our world and interact with it. However, whether we will truly develop this new form of media to its full potential is unclear. Either way, as Pantea puts it, “The future of VR will exemplify the pinnacles of technology which have been created today, developed by futurists and early adopters such as ourselves, pushing boundaries and reaching further into the medium.”

Three-person gameplay from Zero Latency’s Undead Arena. Each player is sweeping for zombies. Courtesy of Zero Latency in Houston.

Photo cut-out courtesy of Survios

In the past decade Virtual Reality has skyrocketed, becoming more accessible and immersive than ever before. Despite this, VR has been around for almost a century, and has gone through countless technological advancements to get to the sleek modern headset and easy to use controllers and hand tracking systems that we see today.

1935

History o Rea

1975

The first interactive artificial reality platform, VIDEOPLACE, is released to the public. VIDEOPLACE features a screen in which a user’s silhouette is projected and can interact with various imaginary objects.

By: Al

The first VR “goggles” are introduced into fiction in Stanley Weinbaum’s “Pygmalion’s Spectacle”

1838 Sir Charles Wheatstone creates the first stereoscope, a device which presents two different images of the same object to the left and right eye, creating a 3D image

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1977

1956 Morton Heilig invents the “Sensorama,” a large box which uses a stereoscopic display, odor emitters, fans, and a movable chair to create the first 4D viewin experience for users

The Sayre glove, the first wired gloves, are created

by Electronic Visualization Laboratory.

of Virtual ality

2019 Forbes names 2019 the “Year Virtual Reality Gets Real” with the massive growth in Facebook’s Oculus Quest and games like Superhot VR and Beat Saber selling over a million copies in less than a year

lise Tran 1989

Crystal River Engineering pioneers 3D sound processing for VR

1995 Nintendo releases the Nintendo Virtual Boy, one of the first commercially available toy products that utilize virtual reality.

1991 VR company Virtuality pioneerv VR in entertainment as they release games likes Pacman VR and missile

2016 VR company, HTC Vive, releases the first commercial sensor-based, head and hand tracking headset which allows users to move freely in space

Sources: Time.com Wired.com Wikipedia.com Virtualspeech.com

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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. -Carl Sagan Upcoming Technology | 44