Lifeboat Foundation

Kepler asserts that its general-purpose Forerunner series showcases advanced capabilities in body movements, precise hand control, and sophisticated visual perception. This positions it as a formidable competitor to Tesla’s Optimus in the realm of humanoid robotics.

The firm claims that its humanoid robot aims to enhance “productivity with cutting-edge technology, hastening the arrival of a ‘three-day work week.’ The shift will enable humans to dedicate more time to meaningful endeavors, such as space exploration,” said Debo Hu, co-founder of the firm, in a statement.

Reminds me of how the space shuttle moved in orbit. Great idea though hopefully they’ll pass it on to us civilians too. That could be very useful. Though the military sometimes passes their tech to us like the CIA is responsible for some medical science amazingly. Yes I was surprised.

DARPA has selected Aurora Flight Sciences to build a full-scale X-plane to demonstrate the viability of using active flow control (AFC) actuators for primary flight control. The award is Phase 3 of the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program.

The X-65 flight is controlled by using jets of air from a pressurized source to shape the flow of air over the aircraft surface, with AFC effectors on several surfaces to control the plane’s roll, pitch, and yaw. Eliminating external moving parts is expected to reduce weight and complexity and to improve performance.

Continue reading “DARPA and Aurora Flight Sciences Building Full Scale X-65 Plane With No Moving Control” »

Plus: SpaceX has been accused of illegally firing workers.

Rocket Lab’s ($RKLB) space systems business got a major boost just before the year drew to a close.

This was the shortest time between orbital launches at Cape Canaveral since 1966.

A long-awaited space mission in the coming year could herald the start of a new era where so many science fiction dreams finally begin to cement themselves as science fact. But first we must pass a critical test of our own making that pits our technological expansion into orbit against the sun itself.

It’s not that difficult to predict what science stories we’ll be talking about over the next year: artificial intelligence, climate change and advances in biotechnology will remain front of mind. But there’s a pair of happenings just beyond our planet that I’ll be watching closely, because they amount to tests of a sort that could determine the trajectory of our species.

Continue reading “Two Space Stories In 2024 Will Determine The Future Of Humanity” »

Limitless Space Institute compares the travel time of spacecraft propelled by nuclear power to that of imaginative fusion propulsion. Credit: Limitless Space Institute.

ESA’s Euclid mission is on a quest to unveil the nature of two elusive ‘dark’ entities. As the renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking remarked in 2013, “The missing link in cosmology is the nature of dark matter and dark energy”

During the last 70 years, scientists have made enormous progress in understanding the very initial phases of the Universe and its evolution to the present day. Thanks to advances in observations and theoretical modelling, a clear picture has emerged of how stars form, and how galaxies grow and interact with each other, coming together to form groups and clusters.

Continue reading “Euclid: Gate to the dark” »

NASA has pushed forward a revolutionary new rocket technology at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Engineers at the facility fired the 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) for a record 251 seconds with 5,800 lb (2,631 kg) of thrust.

For over six decades, NASA has relied on chemical rockets to launch its vehicles into space. It works, but chemical rockets suffer from the fact that they’ve been operating in the neighborhood of their theoretical limit since 1942. This isn’t helped by the fact that most liquid rockets are essentially unchanged in their basic design since the days of the German V2s.

Continue reading “NASA completes record sustained burn of revolutionary rocket engine” »