Lifeboat Foundation

The land is 1.6 times bigger than the United Kingdom and could have supported between 50,000 and 500,000 people.

WASHINGTON — Space launch provider and satellite manufacturer Rocket Lab has secured a deal worth over half a billion dollars to build 18 satellites for a U.S. government agency.

As disclosed in an SEC regulatory filing Dec. 21, Rocket Lab National Security will “design, manufacture, deliver and operate 18 space vehicles” as part of a U.S. government contract valued at $515 million. A spokesperson said the company could not provide further details.

Sources indicate that the customer is likely the Space Development Agency.

By bringing together disparate approaches, machines can reach a new level of creative problem-solving.

For decades, achieving controlled fusion was a physics challenge. But now, as the ITER megaproject gears up to demonstrate fusion’s potential as an energy source—and startup companies race to beat it—the practical roadblocks to fusion power plants are coming into focus. One is a looming shortage of tritium fuel. Others could prevent reactors from ever running reliably—a necessity if fusion is to provide a constant “baseload” to complement intermittent solar and wind power.

Some of fusion’s fitfulness is innate to the design of doughnut-shaped tokamak reactors. The magnetic field that confines the ultrahot, energy-producing plasma is generated in part by the charged particles themselves, as they flow around the vessel. That plasma current in turn is induced by pulses of electrical current in a coil of wire in the doughnut’s hole, each lasting a few minutes at most. In between pulses the magnetic field ebbs, interrupting tokamak operations—and power delivery. The repetitive starts and stops of the reactor’s powerful magnetic fields also generate mechanical stresses that could eventually tear the machine apart.

In theory, the beams of particles and microwaves used to heat the plasma can also drive the plasma current. So can a quirk of plasma physics called the bootstrap effect. Near the edge of the plasma, a sharp pressure gradient causes the particles to spiral in such a way that they interfere with each other and push themselves—by their own bootstraps—around the ring.

To construct a Dyson Shell (or Cap), an exceptionally light and very absorptive material would be necessary, because a 20-mile-radius (32 km), 0.4-inch-thick (1 cm) titanium Dyson Shell would have a mass of more than 1,200 Empire State buildings! Alternatively, a Dyson Cap that absorbs radiation that would be fed into a heat engine would have a lower mass, but would also deliver an inferior acceleration.

Furthermore, a gamma-ray laser is currently the only conceivable technology that could be used to make a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz. However, such a laser’s output frequency would need to exceed current technology by more than a billion times. Its pulse duration would have to be a hundred billion times shorter than that of lasers today. The total energy of a single laser pulse would need to be equivalent to the energy the sun puts out in 1/10 of a second.

While it’s true that the technical challenges render it unlikely that a SK will be fueling an interstellar starship anytime soon, it’s imperative that we embrace a wide range of theoretical research. SKs can produce many petawatts of useable radiation; therefore, they hold the potential to be an ideal source of power for interstellar starships. Thus, in time, Schwarzschild Kugelblitzes may merit a position of distinction on the vast technology arc that could one day take us to the stars.

Liftoff occurred at 12:33 a.m. EST on Saturday (Dec. 23).

CAPE TOWN, Dec 22 (Reuters) — Shipping companies sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi attacks on the Red Sea face tough choices over where to refuel and restock, as African ports struggle with red tape, congestion and poor facilities, companies and analysts say.

Hundreds of large vessels are rerouting around the southern tip of Africa, a longer route adding 10–14 days of travel, to escape drone and missile attacks by Yemeni Houthis that have pushed up oil prices and freight rates.

The attacks by Iranian-backed militants have disrupted international trade through the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, which accounts for about a sixth of global traffic.

The ban on selling Apple Watches with blood-oxygen sensors also impacts the repairs of any Apple Watch with the same feature.

Apple is in talks with some of the biggest names in the media industry to license their news archives for training its artificial intelligence systems, the New York Times reported.

A multiyear deal worth over $50 million

The Cupertino-based company is seeking multiyear deals worth over $50 million with publishers like Condé Nast, NBC News, and IAC, which own popular magazines and websites such as Vogue, The New Yorker, People, and The Daily Beast.