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NASA develops 3D Mars base simulator in collaboration with game studio

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) collaborated with independent game studio Blackbird Interactive (BBI) to create an incredibly realistic interactive 3D Mars base simulation called Project Eagle. Using current science and potential technology development inspired by it, users can venture through the simulation’s multi-level Eagle Base where “past” and “current” colony construction, energy, and habitation projects are on display with infographics explaining their design and overall functionality. The timeline is set 100 years in the future with a red planet population that starts with around 5500 colonists that are visibly carrying out a life among the regolith.

The imagined colony is located in the Gale Crater, an area slightly south of Mars’s equator on the Eastern hemisphere, which is also the same spot NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover landed on August 6, 2012. In fact, the simulation has a monument set just outside the colony which commemorates Curiosity. The topographical and geographic features are based on actual map data collected by Mars satellites and rovers that were provided to BBI, and through a series of time lapses, users can experience a virtual day, sunsets, nights, and sunrises. This region is also near the Elysium Planitia where NASA’s recently arrived InSight lander is located.

While exploring, users will come across a few unique features in the simulation. The primary region is the “Dome Complex” wherein a very large biodome made possible by Mars’s low gravity -the Eagle Dome – is located, providing an Earth-like ecosystem for the colonists. The dome is shielded from radiation, but enough light is allowed to filter through so that occupants don’t suffer from claustrophobia. The environment also enables spacesuit-free living. To support the dome and other areas where colonists are living and working, multiple algae-ponds have been constructed which generate oxygen and provide a supplemental food source.

A future human colony on Mars as imagined by Blackbird Interactive in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. | Credit: Blackbird Interactive

Outside of the dome are condo-blocks providing primary residencies to the planet’s human occupants. These have been constructed using Mars-native materials and connect to a system of underground tunnels, also areas protected from radiation where colonists can live without pressurized suits. To realistically show the progress made in the colonization effort, legacy “hab” pods and an old launch pad are present, complete with little blurbs about the colony’s development history.

Additionally, power is provided via nuclear fission reactors, the Uranium for which is provided from Earth every few years on resupply missions. Water treatment facilities connected to Martian water wells are also present along with several satellite dishes forming a communications array where Martian internet has been established. When visitors are ready to leave, a shuttle launch animation is available, sending off a flattened winged craft from a receded launch facility, thereby exiting the simulation.

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Project Eagle was first introduced in 2017 at the annual D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In the presentation hosted by Dr. Jeff Norris, Mission Operations Innovation Lead of NASA’s JPL, video game creators were encouraged to utilize their tools – games – to do more than just entertain and amuse their audience. He made a case for art as inspiration for a plausible vision for the future of space exploration. “Great art doesn’t just move us as individuals – it can move entire societies,” he stated on stage. He further cited the connection between the originator of “space art”, artist Chelsey Bonestell, and the public’s directly inspired support of the later Moon missions. The simulation was made available for use by attendees and is now available through Steam.

For more on Project Eagle and to see the 2017 DICE presentation by Dr. Norris and BBI, watch the video below:

Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Elon Musk

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

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This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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