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Our Apollo article series is getting closer to humanity’s first steps on the moon, taken during Apollo 11. Before that, though, we’re going to take a look at Apollo 9 and Apollo 10. These crewed missions tested the spacecraft’s lunar module, making sure that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would be able to land safely on the moon’s surface a few months later. Apollo 9 Apollo 9 launched on 3 March 1969. The crew were commander Jim McDivitt, lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart and command module pilot Dave Scott. Scott would return to space two years later as the commander of Apollo 15, so we’ll be talking more about him in a later article. Although Apollo 8 had travelled all the way to the moon, the Apollo 9 mission was conducted closer to home. Apollo 9 flew in low Earth orbit, its altitude varying between about 200 and 500 km. For comparison, the International Space Station, which had its first launch about three decades later, orbits at an altitude of about 400 km. This was the first mission to test the performance of the Apollo spacesuit outside a spacecraft. Schweickart went out into space in the suit and spent a little under an hour spacewalking, ensuring that the suit’s life support systems functioned correctly. This suit would later be used by astronauts walking on the moon. It was absolutely essential for the spacesuits to work correctly. In order for the Apollo astronauts to survive on the moon’s surface, their suits needed to address many different issues. You can learn about some of the Apollo spacesuit’s functions in our first Apollo article. Apollo 9 was also the first flight to take the Apollo lunar module into space. The lunar module was the part of the spacecraft that was designed to take the astronauts down to the moon’s surface and return them to the main spacecraft afterwards. It wouldn’t be anywhere near the moon on this occasion, but the mission was an opportunity to ensure it could be flown as expected. During the mission, the crew detached the lunar module from the command and service module, which formed the main body of the Apollo spacecraft. McDivitt and Schweickart flew the lunar module for several hours before docking with the main spacecraft and joining Scott in the command module. Before detaching the lunar module, the crew also tested the lunar module’s engine while docked to the main spacecraft, to see whether the lunar module could provide backup propulsion for the spacecraft as a whole if the main engine in the service module failed. During the later Apollo 13 mission, that possibility of engine trouble became a reality. After an explosion in the service module compromised the spacecraft’s fuel cells, the Apollo 13 crew had to rely on the lunar module’s engine to get them safely home. In a later article, we’ll talk in more depth about Apollo 13. Apollo 10 Apollo 10 took off on 18 May 1969, crewed by commander Tom Stafford, lunar module pilot Gene Cernan and command module pilot John Young. Young and Cernan would later command their own missions to the moon; Young walked on the lunar surface during Apollo 16, and Cernan during Apollo 17. Each Apollo mission had its own name for the spacecraft. In the case of Apollo 10, the command module was named Charlie Brown and the lunar module was named Snoopy, after the characters from the Peanuts comic strip. It’s not the only time Snoopy has been to space; he was also aboard Artemis I in the form of a soft toy. Apollo 10 was essentially a full rehearsal for the planned moon landing during Apollo 11. The spacecraft reached the moon and went into lunar orbit. Stafford and Cernan took the lunar module close to the moon’s surface and returned in it to the main spacecraft, as if they were performing a moon landing, although they didn’t actually land; at their closest point, they were about 14 km from the moon. NASA wanted to be certain that everything would work as expected for the actual landing. There was an alarming moment when Stafford and Cernan fired the lunar module’s engines and, due to an incorrectly positioned switch, the module started spinning wildly. This was a case of human error, which is something that also affects Earth-based vehicles and which self-driving vehicles may help to reduce. Fortunately, they were able to get the situation under control and returned safely to the main spacecraft. The Apollo 10 crew returned to Earth at 39,938 km/h: the fastest speed at which humans have ever travelled. The rehearsal had been a success, and, with the knowledge gathered from this mission and the ones preceding it, humanity was finally ready to land on the moon. Two months later, during Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong would become the first person to step onto the lunar surface. We’ll talk more about that mission in the next article of our Apollo series. Cover image: NASA Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

We kicked off our series of Apollo articles with a general introduction to the Apollo moon missions and a look at the Apollo spacecraft. Before we get to the moon landings, we’re going to take a look at the earlier crewed missions that made the landings possible. In this article, we’re reflecting on Apollo 7 and Apollo 8, the first crewed Apollo missions to make it into space. Apollo 7 The first planned crewed mission of the Apollo programme, Apollo 1, never flew. It was intended to launch in February 1967, but the crew – Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee – were killed in a fire during a launch rehearsal. In response to this tragedy, NASA delayed the programme in order to ensure that the spacecraft was made safe. Apollo 7, the programme’s first successful crewed launch, eventually took off on 11 October 1968. On board were commander Wally Schirra, lunar module pilot Walt Cunningham and command module pilot Donn Eisele. Although there was no lunar module aboard Apollo 7 or Apollo 8, a member of the crew would still be assigned the role of ‘lunar module pilot’. Apollo 7’s purpose was to test the crewed Apollo spacecraft and simulate manoeuvres in low Earth orbit, so it didn’t travel to the moon. Whereas the later moon-bound missions were launched by a Saturn V rocket, Apollo 7, which didn’t have as far to travel, was launched by the less powerful Saturn IB. The mission went well, but the crew didn’t have a great time. All three of the astronauts developed a cold shortly into the flight. As NASA writes, having a cold can be particularly unpleasant when you’re in orbit: A cold is uncomfortable enough on the ground, but in weightlessness it presents a different problem. Mucus accumulates, fills the nasal passages and does not drain from the head. The only relief is to blow hard, which is painful to the ear drums. The crew had no choice but to endure their symptoms with the help of aspirin and decongestants. The astronauts landed safely after eleven days in space, and NASA used what they’d learnt from the mission to refine the Apollo spacecraft for future launches. Schirra and Eisele, meanwhile, after their unpleasant experience with illness in space, went on to advertise decongestants on television. Apollo 8 Apollo 8 was the first spacecraft to reach and orbit the moon, although it didn’t land. Its crew, the first people ever to travel to the moon, consisted of commander Frank Borman, lunar module pilot Bill Anders and command module pilot Jim Lovell. Lovell actually flew on two different Apollo missions, so we’ll talk more about him when we get to Apollo 13. The moon rotates slowly as it orbits the Earth, keeping the same side facing the Earth at all times. This is why the pattern on the moon’s surface always looks the same from Earth. Because of this, Borman, Lovell and Anders were also the first people to see the far side of the moon. As with Apollo 7, there were some struggles with illness aboard Apollo 8. Borman suffered from what’s now known as space sickness: nausea and disorientation caused by the change of gravity in orbit. Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968 and landed on 27 December, meaning that Borman, Lovell and Anders spent Christmas in space. From lunar orbit, they sent a message to Earth: a short reading from the Bible, a ‘Merry Christmas’, and good wishes for everyone on the planet. Using satellite communications, the message was broadcast on television and radio around the world. On Christmas Day, the astronauts enjoyed a full Christmas meal in the command module, although they opted not to drink the brandy shots on offer in case anything went wrong. During the mission, Anders took the famous photograph ‘Earthrise’, showing a half-Earth rising above the lunar surface. It was the first time people had seen the Earth from another celestial body. In our next Apollo article, we’ll talk about Apollo 9 and 10, which marked the first time the Apollo lunar module was flown in space. Later, during Apollo 11, this lunar module would take humans down to the surface of the moon. Images: NASA Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In April 2024, Darwin’s co-founder Daniela Petrovic had the opportunity to speak to MBA students at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. It was the second time Daniela had spoken at the business school, having previously been invited as a guest lecturer in February 2023. Founded in 1996, Saïd Business School is a highly regarded centre for business and management studies. Its alumni include Dame Emily Lawson, who received a damehood in the 2022 New Year Honours for leading the NHS’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. Daniela delivered a lecture on the innovation ecosystem approach to digital transformation, took questions and encouraged discussion. The conversation examined the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and the ways that industry and government can best make use of this emergent technology. ‘It was a pleasure to go back to my old school and provide insights to this year’s cohort of MBA students,’ Daniela said. ‘We’re honoured to see Darwin used as an emergent tech company example for the future leaders at one of the world’s most prestigious business schools.’ If you’d like to know more about the digital transformation insights that Darwin has to offer, you can learn about the Darwin Business Innovation Lab, which offers advice and support to interested organisations, on our R&D page. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

On Monday 15 April, in preparation for Canada hosting the G7 summit in 2025, the High Commission of Canada in the UK held a roundtable discussion on AI adoption. This was an opportunity to examine how artificial intelligence is currently used, how its use is expected to evolve, and what gaps exist in present-day AI regulation. The roundtable took place at Canada House in London. The facilitator of the discussion was OpenText, a Canadian company specialising in information management and digital transformation. The attendees included company and government representatives from both the UK and Canada. Darwin took part alongside participants from institutions such as Shell, Nestlé, the Digital Catapult, the Canada Pension Plan and the NHS. Daniela Petrovic, Darwin’s co-founder, spoke at the roundtable about Darwin’s involvement in using AI for insurance modelling. She said it was a pleasure to represent Darwin in the discussion. ‘It was a great honour for Darwin to be invited as a participant, and to help inform global policies in the AI arena.’ Points that arose at the roundtable and will later be used to inform G7 discussion included: Data concerns Data privacy and uncontrolled data sharing were among the largest concerns to come up in the discussion. Because generative AI needs to be trained on huge quantities of data in order to work effectively, it may not be feasible to inspect all the training data before it’s introduced to the AI model. What if personal or sensitive data finds its way into the dataset? And, if an AI model is mistakenly trained on sensitive data, what if someone then requests that information from the model, whether it’s a trade secret or someone’s home address? In its publication ‘How to use AI and personal data appropriately and lawfully’, the Information Commissioner’s Office recommends using AI only when necessary, on account of privacy concerns: ‘You should assess whether you need to use AI for the context you will deploy it in. AI is generally considered a high-risk technology and there may be a more privacy-preserving and effective alternative.’ Checking and correcting AI output Human input will still be required to make effective use of AI. It’s important to recognise that generative AI isn’t truly intelligent. In other words, current AI models don’t truly understand the content they’re producing. This means that AI output can include ‘hallucinations’: incorrect or invented details that sound plausible based on the material that was used for training. Because of this, AI models can’t be used to create material without supervision. If text written using AI is published online without editing, it may contain factual errors and, moreover, may then be used to train other AI models, further spreading false information. To avoid issues like this, a human will need to check AI output for accuracy and rewrite it where necessary. AI is here to stay AI is already in use in many corporate settings, and, now that it’s been made widely available, its introduction can’t be undone. Because of this, it makes sense for discussions about AI to focus on how AI can be used responsibly and effectively, rather on whether AI should be used at all. One way or another, institutions will need to work out how to operate in a world with AI. Even if an organisation opts not to use AI itself, it will need to understand how other people might be using it. This is a subject that also arose at the ABI conference earlier this year: whether an insurer uses AI or not, it will need to be aware of the possibility that people will use AI to make fraudulent claims, for example by generating false images of damaged items. If governments strike the right balance in AI regulation, and if people are trained effectively in what AI is capable of and how to mitigate the risks involved, we can help to ensure that artificial intelligence is used as a beneficial tool across countless industries. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

On 27 March, the Satellite Applications Catapult launched the UK Autonomous and Connected Earth (UK-ACE) Connected Capability Network (CCN). Darwin was delighted to attend the kick-off, which took place at the Catapult’s headquarters at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Founded in 2013, the Satellite Applications Catapult works to support and advance the UK space sector. It aims to encourage new ideas and help guide satellite applications from research to reality. This is the Satellite Applications Catapult’s second CCN, following the UK Earth Observation Network for Sustainability, which was launched in 2023. The purpose of these networks is to bring together organisations from across the space sector, enabling them to achieve new heights together. The UK-ACE CCN will host events and activities to encourage collaboration, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results. We’re enthusiastic about the potential of collaborative projects like these CCNs, as Darwin was originally founded five years ago with a strong belief in the power of working together. In our work with satellite communications, we’ve already made strides by working with other space sector players such as ESA, UKSA, Hispasat and the Satellite Applications Catapult itself. Darwin’s remote control centre, where we research the remote operation of connected vehicles, is located in the Catapult building. The two self-driving shuttles of the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle service were present at the event, and attendees were welcome to board. This shuttle service, established with the help of Darwin’s partners, demonstrates what can be achieved through collaboration. With the UK-ACE CCN aiming to support the integration of space technology into daily life in many areas, including transportation, we may be seeing new advances in the world of connected vehicles soon. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.