Why are we throwing an apple at each other . Because this weeks first story is about launching satellites into orbit. Oh, youre not gonna try to launch this apple into orbit, are you . No, but if i did, which direction would i have to launch it . Not upwards. Not up because if i did, it will come straight back down again. Thats gravity. Thats gravity no, if you wanted this to go into orbit, you would have to make it go really fast sideways, about 17,000 miles an hour, so as it fell, it missed the surface of the earth and just went around it. Thats why rockets need so much fuel. Exactly which has been a problem since forever. But there is another way to get this apple to go that fast. Any ideas . Go on, amaze me. So, you could attach it to a long arm and then start spinning it round and round and round, and round and round, getting faster and faster, and once youre at the right speed. You let it go thats bananas no, its an apple. All right, here we go. Oh, my gosh robotic voice 200 miles an hour. Hey youre not going to believe what i can see through this window. In fact, youre going to have a hard time believing this story at all. I certainly did to start with. In this chamber is a new way to launch satellites into orbit. Oh, my gosh its becoming a blur. 400 miles an hour. And its just that far away from us yes. And can you just, one more time, go over what it is youre planning to do, because its like. I cant believe it. So, spinlaunch is capable of literally throwing satellites into space. Laughs. We will cut the laughing. Yep, you heard it right. David and i are currently looking at a live video feed of a Prototype Spinlauncher in new mexico. When the full size one is built, it will take a small satellite, stick it inside a giant dart, load it on to a 100m long arm, gradually spin it round and round, faster and faster and then, let it go at 5000 miles an hour. Dont believe me . I dont blame you this idea sounds completely nuts. Well, you know whats nuts is rockets. Rockets are Combustion Chambers that burn cryogenic propellants at temperatures that are greater than, like, the surface of the sun. They have thousands of components that are made out of the most exotic materials known to man and are on the verge of blowing apart at any possible minute. I think spinlaunch is quite a bit less nuts than a rocket. And, look, as the days gone on, ive started to believe it. By getting the projectile above the atmosphere, youve done away with the need for most of your fuel and most of your weight. Without air resistance, a much smaller rocket can then get the satellite up to 17,000 miles an hour and into orbit. Spinlaunch gets you most of the way there and then, there is a small rocket that get you all the way there. Right, 0k. The vehicle is passively stable, so you can see it has a heavy tip in the front, fins in the back. That provides passive stability that stabilises it like a dart. So if it comes out a little bit sideways, it automatically stabilises. How many gs is this pulling as it goes around . So, the system pulls 10,0006s at peak speed. You cant put people in this, can you . You cannot put people. I mean, you could put people in but you wont get people out. To prove it works, these guys put an iphone 4 into the accelerator and got it up to 12,500 g. It still works. 0op hmm. The company says its eventually planning for up to five launches a day and it will cost about 500,000 per launch, compared to 7 million for a rocket launch. Before then, testing is ongoing using the 33m arm in new mexico and a 12m arm here in long beach, california. And ive been invited to witness a test launch first hand. Now, the 12m accelerator wont be launching into the air this much smaller projectile be fired down a tube and straight into a steel plate. What happens to this after its launched from that . So this mostly turns to dust as it hits the end of the tunnel. Oh, my gosh. Dramatic music. Now, where were we . Oh, yeah 500 miles an hour. So now youre going about as fast as a jet. The actual projectiles and the spinning arm are made of carbon fibre pretty much the only substance that can withstand the forces involved. 700 miles an hour. And in order to spin up to nearly 1000 miles an hour today, this entire Chamber Needs to be a near vacuum, and thats why we can hardly hear anything. System is supersonic. If this were full of air, we would get a sonic boom on every single revolution. You can hear a little bit. Can you hear it . Just a little bit . A little bit of vibration, too. Arming system. Here we go. So hes doing the Launch Sequence now. Ten. Nine, here we go. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Launching. Whoa that was it. Applause. Yeah decelerating system. In my mind, this has gone from nonsense to plausible in the space of a few hours. And in october last year, the first test launch in new mexico proved that the Carbon Fibre Dart could not only launch, but also survive a landing in which it buried itself in the desert. I have been blown away by a launch technology that doesnt blow things away. In fact, by throwing things away, theres less to throw away. I mean, wejust watched something launch. There was no great big fireball or smoke. Its clean its clean, its very clean. I mean, at some point, that was going supersonic straight towards us. Yeah and then it went round. And then it came towards us again. Multiple times per second. Oh, wow. Yeah, multiple times per second. Thank you for letting go at the right point yeah, its all in the timing. You have to. Laughs. Yeah. Lara nice which made more mess though the dart or the apple . 0h, ultimately, it has to be the dart, i think lara laughs. Well, whilst you are having fun in la, i was still living la vida las vegas. Oh, you werent out all night again, were you . No, i was actually up at the crack of dawn, looking at smart city tech. Spencer chuckles. Beneath the Bright Lights of this city that never sleeps seems to be a sensible side. Its now gambling on becoming a world leading smart city a safe, efficient and sustainable still kind of noisy oasis. Las vegas is not the obvious place to be trying to be a sustainable city. Its full of big Bright Lights, you have got a huge casino, loads of air con . Why not . Why not las vegas . Everything else here is big, over the top. We are the capital of entertainment around the world. Why not be the worlds smartest city, the city that is leading edge . Right above you are these palm trees that are made out of steel, but they are actually solar panels. So, sustainability is kind of in our dna. All the electricity the city of las vegas uses or consumes is actually we produce. So, we are actually, in that regard, net neutral on the ability to consume and generate electricity. There are several solar initiatives in las vegas and around the Nevada Valley which provide that sustainability effort. It turns out that because of the issues to do with climate, Water Management and so on, vegas really has to be at the tip of the sphere in sustainability initiatives. 0k, and it seems to mean business, starting with this pilot that has taken to the streets. All around las vegas, so many cameras and sensors have been installed and theyre collecting enormous amounts of data. Right here is a lidar sensor, and thats keeping track of pedestrians and vehicles, to check that they are moving around efficiently and safely. Theres even a sensorjust above this street sign, which is triggered by emergency vehicles, so the lights can turn green for them as soon as it is safe to do so. Carbon monoxide monitors have also been built in to monitor the flow of carbon heavy traffic. And we know this is not a city polluted only by day. At night time, this is one of the busiest spots in vegas. There are delivery vehicles dropping off, minicabs picking up, so that Curbside Activity is being tracked by cameras and sensors and as soon as a vehicle stops, it will feature here on this screen. It has 2. 5 minutes to do whatever it needs to do and once that counts down to zero, an alert will be sent to a local Traffic Warden to come and give them a ticket. Siren wails. Which can also help keep law and order. In this spot, Video Analytics are being used to see if anybody is climbing up on this sign or doing any other sort of vandalism. There will be an alert triggered and then, a speaker will tell them that they need to get down. Its also looking at how much rubbish there is around, so if there is a fair bit to clear up, somebody will be told to come and do so. And this is just the start. Next is the tracking of the huge, sprawling buildings here and how they use their energy. But at the heart of all of this is data, and that data is being shared through whats called a digital twin. What we are building is essentially a Digital Brain for a city. This enables all of the sensors placed around the city which are monitoring everything from air quality to traffic, pedestrian movements, security to all be brought into a single system and then processed using Artificial Intelligence. You will be able to go anywhere in the city virtually and see things like how many spaces are available in the car park or how many, you know, watts of electricity are being used by Vehicle Chargers and that sort of thing. The technologies employed in this project are 56, Artificial Intelligence or ai, another one is blockchain, another one is digital twins, and we are going to use the internet of things, and that means everything around us is becoming smart and connected and we are able to tap into that in a very safe and secure way. So whilst las vegas benefits from a bit of smarting up now, the hope is that this could easily be replicated in other cities. Hello, welcome to this week in tech. It was the week that google was sued in the us over accusations it deceived people about how to control location tracking. Nvidia and meta announced plans to build the fastest Ai Supercomputer in the world by 2022. And youtube said it was exploring nfts for is creators, following the likes of twitter and instagram. Next and you have to see pictures of this a flying car has completed a 35 minute trial in slovakia. It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car to aircraft and once its wings are extended, the air car can hit speeds of over 100 mph and fly at an altitude of over 8000 feet. The worlds most powerful Space Telescope has reached its final stop. 1 million miles from earth, the james Webb Telescope has entered orbit around the sun, where a giant shield will allow it to take pictures. And finally, drones to shoo away pesky pigeons. Researchers in switzerland have been using an Autonomous System that spots the roof invading birds and then sends them a drone to harmlessly chase them away. While flocks can gather for hours, the a system cut loitering down to just a couple of minutes. It seems that al is eagle eyed theres all kinds of tech being woven into football to improve both the players and the beautiful game itself, such as Video Assistant Referee and goal line technology. But what about us . The fans of the sport . The sunday leaguers, the ones who hope to go pro one day or the ones who play every week until we cant run any more . Well. Now theres tech for us too. A few companies who provide State Of The Art kit to the pros have now created Consumer Versions of their products. First up, weve got statsports, whose vests are worn by players underneath their shirts. They house black pods which are trackers that collect different data points on the wearer. And now theyre letting the public give it a go, too. Theyve gone into partnership with the biggest club in football, arsenal, whove used their wearable tech for years, and now consumers will be wearing a slightly different vest, but the black pods that theyll be wearing are exactly the same ones that the gunners use. But here is where it gets a little bit more interesting. Ive got the kit on and im out on the pitch and im ready. But then. Im in a lot of pain, so i have had to sit out for now. But then weve got producer oz over there doing it for us so we will be looking at his data. Oh, and am i glad he did. Wheres 0mar . I hope thats real injury. It did not, watch the replay watch the replay. Hes knackered. 0nce hes done, well check out that data thats total distance run, max speeds, intensity and fatigue. Iam dead. Im dead, mate. And whilst youre at it, you can compare yourself to players at the club to see how far off you are from reaching their level and what you would need to improve on. And if you register outstanding results, you could be referred to arsenal, maybe with a chance to make it big. 94. 2, 64. 5. Very happy with that. Hes a whole 11 kilometres an hourfaster than me. Hes also a whole 16 years younger than me. When i came to arsenal i was probably never be that quickest, however it gives you perspective on how much you actually run, because you get accused of not running at all as a centre half, but it gives you a Great Foundation to build the player up to their physical top abilities because that is what you need. That is the foundation to reach the highest level. To reach the top. There we are. So 0mar, talk me through. Speed is one of the metrics we would get in the gps unit itself and when we add on speedtest tests there would be players kind of competing against each other and having a look at the ipad to see who is quicker but it does increase that competitiveness. Well done. Next item. This is another system for the pros, rezzil. It is a Virtual Reality app with Foot Trackers so users can kick around a digital ball. Now, they are offering a bit of a scaled down version for the consumers on less powerful headsets like the quest. They are still really testing the user. Its called player 22 and though you can only use your hands are not your feet, it still has a number of drills to test the user, be it their reactions, fitness and accuracy, but theres also a very football specific drill, heading. Something that can hurt in real life. So to make it less painful, theyve made a drill for it in vr. Ok, thats enough. What . 0h. 0h, hey top that was weird. The heading itself was really accurate, but not having the pressure of the ball on your head is kind of strange. I could get used to it but im curious, even though you are not actually hitting the ball you are still moving your head around quite a bit and your brain inside might bouncing around. During a game, we can see players heading maybe up to 20 balls depending on their position, but thats going to be multiplied significantly during training. Heading the ball is i think four times more impactful than not so obviously that level of safety is increased by using vr and removing actual impact with the ball itself. And to be fair, even the kids were enjoying it. That was amazing, that was really good. Whoa, this is cool which is a good thing, as heading is something that is banned in games for children under 12 in the uk. The fa have also made new measures to reduce the amount of headers in professional training sessions to lower the risk of long term damage. So maybe theyjust need to switch to heading virtual balls instead. Last up we have playermaker, Wearable Trackers that go inside of these moulds which fit around your boots. These are used by pro clubs such as fulham and club brugge, but now the company has come up with their consumer version, uno. You put the trackers inside the moulds and then slip them onto your boots. Connect them to the app via bluetooth and then play away. As youre playing they are supposed to pick up physical metrics similar to statsports but also things like kick velocity, time on the ball, number of touches and more. And you can also compare yourself to the pro players on this platform, too. I used it a lot coming back from an injury, so i could get back to the numbers that was getting, and from the feedback from the playermakers gave me that, and i knew what i had to work on so it really accelerated me getting back to where i was pre injury. So even in injury these trackers are useful. However, there is a problem with all of the products that we have looked at. They are just so expensive playermaker uno, 200 quid. Statsports, 250 quid and rezzil, its only £11 in the store but to get a quest in the first place, at least £300. Its hard to justify paying that much for extra data when kicking a ball around the park is free. But also, i remember something per said to me. Quick thinking, especially when making the right decision on the pitch, will make you into a world class player. If you looked at me just based on physical data when i was younger, i probably wouldnt have made it, so everyone is on a different path so we need to respect that. So maybe these are nice to have rather than essentials, as reaching that next level of footballing greatness takes more than just extra data. So maybe tech isnt the answer. That was 0mar. Left his ball behind. Oh my goodness, what are you doing in the middle of this park . Im just relaxing, doing a spot of yoga. Are you really . In my coat, in the freezing cold. I tell you what, on the subject of relaxation, do you use Meditation Apps . Do i look like i use Meditation Apps . I think you should. Nick kwek is up next and he is looking at the latest Music Therapy apps that not only play you soothing music, but also listen back to you to understand you more. That sounds relaxing, why didnt you tell me earlier . You are playing the strings, you are bringing them towards yourself, the sound pulls at your heart and it feels like you are healing yourself by each pluck. Nailah hunter is an la based composer and harpist, with a special interest in spell work, other worlds and healing. That was beautiful. Thank you. She is crafting new songs for a local start up that aims to prescribe music as medicine. There is a lot going on in the sort of new Age Community right now and i think even the term itself has a negative connotation, it can be a little bit hokey, a little bit la if you will, but i really think that neals approach was interesting to me because it was really about science. Sona founder neal is convinced that Good Mental Health is all about brainwave frequencies and that his tailored tracks can lower them from an anxious beta state to a calmer alpha state. We have been conditioned as a society to view music as a means of entertainment and we listen to bob marley, john mayer, or different types of pop music all the time and we think that its having this Relaxing Restorative Effect on us but its actually further engaging our brains, its making our brains work harder whereas our music has a Restorative Effect on the brain. A 23 drop in Stress Levels, apparently. But sona isnt the only player in this space. Dutch Outfit Alphabeats monitors your Stress Levels as you use it and it rewards users for chilling out and punishes them of they dont. By utilising your phones accelerometer and gps centres it measures your breathing, subtly changing the sound of your favourite tracks along the way. The brain is always searching for the most optimal sound, so in order to get there it will just try to find solutions to get to a better music experience, and we reward the search for the best music. Alphabeats can also take live data from your smartwatch and using ai eventually produce personalised playlists. Meanwhile sona is now seeking approvalfrom the us food and drug administration, joining the gruelling music prescription sector, promising Better Health and a potential replacement to costly pills. Weve just gone through one of the most traumatic experiences in human history, being able to bring goodness and calm through sound to anyone as important, its definitely important. Are you feeling relaxed there . No, everything is under tension right now. Just pretend you are a tree or something. Yeah, alright, ill do that, shall i . Can we finish now . Yes, thats fine. Alright, that was nick and thats it from us. As ever you can find us on social media, on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter, at bbcclick doing this sort of thing. I think ive pulled me chi. Thanks for watching, well see you soon. Bye bye. Hello there. It was another windy day for many on tuesday, but the winds will be a notch down for the day ahead, as will the amounts of sunshine actually, its been the sunniest january on record for england. And we did have a fair deal of sunshine during tuesday. But through the overnight period, weve introduced a Weather Front and that Weather Front will mean a cloudier day for many and, in fact, its giving us some patchy rain and drizzle as well. Now, its this Weather Front that im talking about the rain most significant in the north, but i think its just because its introduced that milder air, well notice that difference. Still a cold start in the far north east of scotland and the northern isles. But, as i say, its the change in Wind Direction weve lost the north westerly, were picking up this south westerly air, coming in off the atlantic. It will be with us for a couple of days now and so therefore, there will be more cloud around and some patchy rain and drizzle. The cloud sitting on the hills and the coasts in northern and western areas, giving some hill fog. But inland, theres a good chance of some Brightness Developing for parts of wales, the midlands, southern england, perhaps east of the pennines. It wont be as windy, but therell still be a fair breeze blowing through the day. As you can see, a steady brisk breeze but its milder temperatures of 11 12 celsius above where they should be for this time of year except in the north of scotland, where we stay in the chilly air. And we continue to feed in that rain and that drizzle, and then, as we go through the night, something perhaps a little bit more significant across scotland, as you can see. And temperatures also held up because of all that cloud, and still that breeze at 7s and 8s. Now, as we go through thursday, we do have that more significant Weather Front moving in. So, again, ahead of it, still quite unsettled, showery outbreaks of rain, some brightness, but this is looking more significant, isnt it . And behind it, it could turn to snow, some cold air digging back in. But for many, the day bringing stronger winds in the north, but a lot of drier weather, cloudier weather, milder weather further south. Theres that mild air. But its transient because, as i say, its with us through today and tomorrow, and then, behind it on friday, we sweep in with that north westerly wind once again coming up from the arctic. So, perhaps some snow on the Trailing Edge of this Weather Front, particularly over the hills, and then, plenty of wintry showers, rain, hail, sleet, yes, snow mostly over the hills following, but a much colder feeling day by the time we get to friday. As ever, theres more on the website. Welcome to bbc news, im david eades. Our top stories as Russian Forces show no sign of pulling back from ukraines border, President Putin accuses the us of trying to � drag russia into war�. The most important goal is to contain russia. In this sense ukraine is the tool to achieve this goal. Bomb threats are made to several historically black us colleges and universities as america begins to mark black history month. 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