Information column from Chiefs Wire: In the heart of Florida’s ecologically sensitive Indian River Lagoon, a contentious issue has emerged. Blue Origin, the space exploration company, is seeking a state permit to operate an industrial wastewater treatment facility that would discharge into the lagoon. The proposed facility, located at Rocket Park, the company’s sprawling manufacturing […]

This Week in Space Podcast Episode 188: A New NASA Leader Rises In a recent development, a Russian cosmonaut was removed from a SpaceX flight due to allegations of attempting to steal spacecraft secrets. Meanwhile, China’s first reusable rocket, Zhuque-3, successfully reached orbit but unfortunately crashed and burned during landing. Adding to the mix, Russia […]

The discoveries from the Bennu samples are a significant breakthrough in understanding the composition and origins of asteroids. The presence of sugars essential for biology, stardust from a supernova explosion, and the mysterious “space gum” suggests that Bennu may have formed in a region of the solar system where these materials were abundant. According to […]

Scientists have devised a novel method to detect and map spots on distant stars, leveraging observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets. This breakthrough, according to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, enables researchers to gain insight into the characteristics of stars beyond our solar system. The technique utilizes the transit of exoplanets, or planets outside […]

First seen in ScienceDaily: Astronomers have unveiled a breathtaking collection of images captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, showcasing debris disks in a diverse range of exoplanetary systems. These dusty structures offer a rare glimpse into the early stages of planetary development, revealing where small bodies orbit their stars. The images, […]

error code: 500 ← → Thoughts: The United States’ Lunar Fission Surface Power Project aims to deploy a small nuclear reactor on the moon by the early 2030s, marking a significant step towards establishing a permanent nuclear power source beyond Earth’s orbit. This development is crucial for sustaining human presence on the moon and Mars, […]

Author comments from Scientific American: In 1965, statistician Irving John Good introduced the concept of an “ultraintelligent machine,” which posits that a sufficiently sophisticated computer would rapidly improve itself, triggering an “intelligence explosion.” This idea was revisited recently with the development of AI systems like AlphaGo Zero, which, using no human game data, played itself […]

Autolane, a Palo Alto-based startup, is pioneering a novel approach to facilitate the integration of autonomous vehicles into daily —. By developing an “air traffic control” system for self-driving cars, the company aims to streamline the handoff moments that are crucial to the success of robotaxi deployments. This innovative infrastructure layer will enable the coordination […]

Author comments from heise online: The High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) is set to upgrade its supercomputing capabilities with the introduction of Herder, a new system that will feature a combination of CPUs and GPUs from AMD. Specifically, Herder will comprise 1488 Instinct MI430X accelerators and 372 Epyc processors of the upcoming Venice type, which […]