A dozen intriguing tech projects to look for in the coming year
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Moonward Ho!
In
December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to orbit the
moon. A half-century on, SpaceX, Elon Musk’s spaceflight company, is
vying to do the same thing, offering to send two private customers on a lunar flyby aboard its Dragon 2 capsule. Meanwhile, German startup Part-Time Scientists aims to land the first 4G LTE base station on the moon this
year. The base station will relay signals between the company’s
yet-to-be-launched rovers and mission control back on Earth, but it
could also be used by future lunar explorers. Further-out moon ventures
include an inflatable orbiting habitat
being developed by Bigelow Aerospace. If all goes according to
plan—admittedly, a big “if”—2018 could mark the beginning of the return
of humans to the moon. And this time it’ll be for a good long stay. [For
more on lunar plans in 2018, see “China Promises the Moon.”]
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EU Doubles Down on Data Privacy
On 25 May, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) will take effect, with tough rules aimed at protecting the
privacy of people living in the EU. Europeans already have many more
privacy protections than, say, U.S. citizens, including the “right to be
forgotten.” But the GDPR goes much further: It protects virtually every
kind of data pertaining to individuals, including medical records,
online transactions, and social media posts. It also gives EU residents
the right to opt out of automated decision making—via a machine-learning
algorithm, for example—and to demand an explanation
when an automated decision involves them in some significant way. The
GDPR applies to companies doing business in Europe as well as companies
that handle the data of Europeans. Unsurprisingly, firms far and wide
are scrambling to comply.
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Blimp Cell Towers Head Skyward
This year, Altaeros Energies plans to launch the first of its tethered-blimp cell SuperTowers.
Each aerostat, floating up to 600 meters above the ground, will provide
coverage equal to 30 traditional cell towers. The blimps are intended
for remote locations where broadband service is too difficult or costly
to supply by conventional means. Several other companies aim to do
similar things, including Google, with its Project Loon balloons, and Facebook, with its solar-powered Internet drone, Aquila. Altaeros’s other big push is in high-altitude wind turbines. Who knew you could build a diversified business around lofting tech-laden tethered balloons?
Related: Yesterday's "IEEE Spectrum Top Tech 2018"
