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Feb 17, 2020

Op-ed | A Space Force needs spaceships

Posted by in categories: government, military, satellites

It has taken until the second decade of the 21st century, but the U.S. government has finally designated space to be a legitimate domain of military operations and has stood up the U.S. Space Force — that’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that the U.S. Space Force has no routine, reliable access to space.

The Space Force will operate in the near-Earth and cislunar domains like our current military operates in the domains of land, sea, and air. The Army and Marines have their land and air vehicles, the Navy has its surface ships and submarines, and the Air Force has its airplanes. But the assets being transferred to the Space Force — satellites and expendable launch vehicles — are akin to lighthouses, buoys, dirigibles, and coastal artillery because we have so far only treated space as a support service.

The U.S. Space Force must acquire responsive, routine, and reliable access to space — starting with launch systems optimize for reaching low Earth orbit (LEO). The Space Force must be equipped with a fleet of responsive, spacefaring vehicles under the operational purview of the Space Force’s equivalent of an Air Force colonel or Navy captain. Currently, the resource requirements for space launch are so large that only a three-star general of above to approve a mission; for launch to be truly operationally responsive, the required resources — and decision-making authority — must be driven down to a level comparable to what’s been required to send a B-2 Stealth Bomber or the now-retired SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft aloft.

Feb 17, 2020

How to prevent hair loss?

Posted by in category: futurism

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Feb 17, 2020

Your DNA is a valuable asset, so why give it to ancestry websites for free?

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

DNA testing companies are starting to profit from selling our data on to big pharma. Perhaps they should be paying us, says science writer Laura Spinney.

Feb 17, 2020

Doctors aren’t enough to fight the coronavirus, we need all of science

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, robotics/AI, science

Fighting a species-level threat like Covid-19 requires the best brains from disciplines as varied as chemistry, AI, sociology and psychology.

Feb 17, 2020

How billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk went from getting bullied as a child to becoming one of the most successful and provocative men in tech

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI, space travel, sustainability

It seems like there’s nothing Elon Musk can’t do.

As CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, founder of The Boring Company, and cofounder of OpenAI and Neuralink, Musk seems to be everywhere all at once, pushing all kinds of futuristic technologies. He’s said he won’t be happy until we’ve escaped Earth and colonized Mars.

Between space rockets, electric cars, solar batteries, and the billions he’s made along the way, Musk is basically a real-life Tony Stark — which is why he served as an inspiration for Marvel’s 2008 “Iron Man” film.

Feb 17, 2020

What happens to our online lives after we die?

Posted by in category: futurism

But people’s “digital afterlives” extend far beyond Facebook. When a 21st century citizen dies, they often leave behind a trove of posts, private messages, and personal information on everything from Twitter to online bank records. Who owns this data, and whose responsibility is it to protect the privacy of the deceased? Faheem Hussain, a social scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe, has spent the past few years peering into the murky waters of how people, platforms, and governments manage the digital lives we leave behind.

Hussain gave a presentation on our digital legacies today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science. We caught up with Hussain to talk about why online platforms should encourage people to plan ahead for their imminent deaths, whether you have a right to privacy after you die, and the strange new culture of digital mourning.

Feb 17, 2020

A New Solution to the Space Junk Problem. Spacecraft with Plasma Beams to Force Space Junk to Burn Up

Posted by in category: satellites

Space junk is a growing problem. For decades we have been sending satellites into orbit around Earth. Some of them de-orbit and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, or crash into the surface. But most of the stuff we send into orbit is still up there.

This is becoming an acute problem as years go by and we launch more and more hardware into orbit. Since the very first satellite—Sputnik 1—was launched into orbit in 1957, over 8000 satellites have ben placed in orbit. As of 2018, an estimated 4900 are still in orbit. About 3000 of those are not operational. They’re space junk. The risk of collision is growing, and scientists are working on solutions. The problem will compound itself over time, as collisions between objects create more pieces of debris that have to be dealt with.

Feb 17, 2020

Rocket Lab will launch a NASA cubesat to the Moon

Posted by in category: satellites

Rocket Lab will play an important role in NASA’s Artemis program.

Feb 17, 2020

Drones For Deliveries From Medicine To Post, Packages And Pizza

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, drones

Drone package deliveries are flying mail, parcels, medicine and parts in many countries. Great information on the delivery drones and projects by Zipline, Wing, Amazon and Postal companies.

Feb 16, 2020

The Killer Robot Takeover is Inevitable

Posted by in categories: internet, military, robotics/AI, space

VICE gained exclusive access to a small fleet of US Army bomb disposal robots—the same platforms the military has weaponized—and to a pair of DARPA’s six-foot-tall bipedal humanoid robots. We also meet Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, renowned physicist Max Tegmark, and others who grapple with the specter of artificial intelligence, killer robots, and a technological precedent forged in the atomic age. It’s a story about the evolving relationship between humans and robots, and what AI in machines bodes for the future of war and the human race.

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