Kelly Beatty, senior editor of Sky & Telescope, talks SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, the possibility of a tax break for the company, and the upcoming lunar eclipse. The Falcon Heavy rocket is the most powerful this generation has ever seen.
Beatty says the company will have a six hour window to test Falcon Heavy's engines. If engineers can't test within that window, it will be pushed back yet again. The engines will have to prove they can accelerate to seven miles per second.
Beatty says a state tax exemption from California would help SpaceX. What the state would lose in tax revenue, it would make up for in new jobs.
The best place to view the January 31st lunar eclipse will be California, according to Beatty. In addition to the eclipse, we will also see January's second full moon (a blue moon), a blood moon, and a super moon.
Interest in the concept of the metaverse is heating up as more companies get on board, and Cathy Hackl, CEO of Futures Intelligence Group, a metaverse-focused consultancy, joined Cheddar to talk about trends to watch out for in 2022 and what it will take for it to be more than just a buzzword. Hackl noted that businesses likely will have to consider big technology upgrades in the upcoming year in order to keep up. "We're going to need new levels of computing power to be able to enable shared virtual experiences, both in VR but also in augmented reality," she said.
Ron Gutman, Co-CEO of Intrivo, joins Cheddar News to discuss how the company is creating a test and tech solution for Covid testing called 2Gather, and how it's using data-driven digital diagnostics to make these tests widely available and affordable.
The metaverse took the world by storm in 2021 and it is just the beginning of the virtual universe. Consumers are jumping on board and companies like Meta and Roblox are already taking advantage. Entrepreneur Andrew Duplessie joined Cheddar to discuss how the metaverse will impact the future of socialization and business. "If I'm doing anything right now, I'm building an app, I'm jumping into that ecosystem, and I'm testing it. I'm seeing what people think," he said.
