Space shuttle junk gives shape to Lockheed Martin’s new habitat prototype

By Dyllan Furness Published April 2, 2021

One of the first things astronauts will need when they head to Mars is a safe and comfortable place to live. Today’s spacecraft have tight quarters — sufficient for short trips but not so practical when the journey nears nine months one way.

But six companies are on the case, commissioned by NASA to develop living quarters for its astronauts in its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP). Lockheed Martin recently showed off a habitat concept it is developing for the agency. A prototype of the cislunar habitat, which the company calls Deep Space Gateway, will be made of repurposed space shuttle and will soon be developed as a prototype at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Recommended Videos

“It is easy to take things for granted when you are living at home, but the recently selected astronauts will face unique challenges,” Bill Pratt, Lockheed Martin NextSTEP program manager, said in a statement. “Something as simple as calling your family is completely different when you are outside of low Earth orbit. While building this habitat, we have to operate in a different mindset that’s more akin to long trips to Mars to ensure we keep them safe, healthy and productive.”

The Deep Space Gateway will combine old elements with new, extending Lockheed Martin’s Phase I concept to Phase II, which will use mixed reality and rapid prototyping to explore the concept further over the next 18 months. The company will focus on refurbishing the Donatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, which was used to bring cargo to the International Space Station.

“We are excited to work with NASA to repurpose a historic piece of flight hardware, originally designed for low Earth orbit exploration, to play a role in humanity’s push into deep space,” Pratt said. “Making use of existing capabilities will be a guiding philosophy for Lockheed Martin to minimize development time and meet NASA’s affordability goals.”

Despite being designed with a human crew in mind, the spacecraft will be equipped to function autonomously, as it will be left uninhabited for months on end as the crew explores the Red Planet.

“Because the Deep Space Gateway would be uninhabited for several months at a time, it has to be rugged, reliable and have the robotic capabilities to operate autonomously. Essentially it is a robotic spacecraft that is well-suited for humans when Orion is present,” Pratt said. “Lockheed Martin’s experience building autonomous planetary spacecraft plays a large role in making that possible.”

Former Contributor

Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Pangram, the gold standard for AI text checks, releases Image 1.0 tool to sniff fake pics and videos

It can identify AI-generated pictures with an astounding 99.96% accuracy on its own evaluation set.

AI image detector tool pangram

Pangram, one of the most widely used and trusted AI text detectors out there, is finally releasing its multimedia detection tools to the masses. Pangram Image 1.0, which was previously available as a research preview, is now widely available on the web, through the company’s API, and via its eponymous Chrome extension.

The company claims its image detector can identify AI-generated pictures with an astounding 99.96% accuracy on its own evaluation set. Pangram also notes that it has improved the model’s accuracy over the past few months, especially against edited images, low-resolution pictures, and pictures made by the most advanced AI models out there. As far as the competition goes, TruthScan achieves an accuracy of 96.33%, followed by AI or Not at 91.38% and Sightengine at 88.33%.

Emerging Tech

Scammers are using AI to fake missing pet photos, and what happens next is horrifying

Criminals are using AI-generated pet photos to convince desperate owners their missing animals have been found, before demanding money and making disturbing threats.

Brown and white cat meowing in Inzoi.

Losing a pet can be heartbreaking, and anyone who's experienced it knows how quickly you'd drop everything if someone called to say they'd found your missing dog or cat. Unfortunately, scammers have learned to exploit that desperation, and AI is making their tricks even more convincing.

A disturbing new scam is targeting pet owners across the UK, with criminals using AI-generated images to pretend they've found missing animals. They then demand money for their return, sometimes going as far as threatening to kill the pets if the owners refuse to pay. According to a BBC report, several pet owners have already experienced these attacks, with scammers using convincing photographs, emotional stories, and increasingly aggressive messages to pressure them into paying.

Emerging Tech

AI can turn your Instagram posts into scam that know a little too much about you

Your public social media posts could be helping scammers create emails that feel personal, and existing AI safeguards aren't doing enough to stop them.

Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

We've all received those suspicious emails claiming we've won something, missed a delivery, or need to urgently update our bank details. Most are easy enough to ignore, especially when they're full of strange wording or have absolutely nothing to do with us. But what happens when a scam email actually knows what you've been up to lately? That's where things get a little worrying.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have found that AI can use information people share publicly on social media to create phishing emails that feel personal. And we're not just talking about knowing your name or where you work. These emails can reference things you've recently done, places you've visited, or even something you've been looking forward to. The researchers showed how widely available AI models could gather these details and turn them into targeted messages, potentially letting scammers reach large numbers of people without spending hours researching each person individually.