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Feb 6, 2020

You Can Now Book Space on a SpaceX Rocket for $1 Million Online

Posted by in category: satellites

SpaceX has officially launched an online booking tool that lets you reserve space on a Falcon 9 rocket.

You won’t be getting a seat to travel to space yet, though — the tool is meant to offer smaller companies a way to send payloads into space, including small satellites, as TechCrunch reports.

Feb 6, 2020

Rocks, Rockets and Robots: The Plan to Bring Mars Down to Earth

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

Coordinated by NASA and ESA, an ambitious effort to retrieve samples from the Red Planet faces major obstacles.

Feb 6, 2020

Is a Mini Ice Age Coming? ‘Maunder Minimum’ Spurs Controversy

Posted by in category: climatology

A scientist who claims waning solar activity in the next 15 years will trigger what some are calling a mini ice age has revived talk about the effects of man-made versus natural disruptors to Earth’s climate.

Valentina Zharkova, a professor of mathematics at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, used a new model of the sun’s solar cycle, which is the periodic change in solar radiation, sunspots and other solar activity over a span of 11 years, to predict that “solar activity will fall by 60 percent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the ‘mini ice age’ that began in 1645,” according to a statement.

Feb 6, 2020

Can Volcanic Magma Power The Future?

Posted by in categories: energy, futurism

Scientists in Iceland have figured out how to create geothermal energy from super-hot molten rock.

Feb 6, 2020

Air Force test-launches intercontinental ballistic missile

Posted by in category: military

The U.S. military test-launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) early Wednesday, Air Force Global Strike Command said in a news release.

The Minuteman III, which the Air Force said was fitted with a test re-entry vehicle, was launched at 12:33 a.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The re-entry vehicle traveled about 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the release said.

Feb 6, 2020

Classic 1896 short film gets upscaled to 4K using neural networks

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

A classic short film has been upscaled to 4K and 60fps using neural networks. The results are very impressive. The upscaling makes the movie look like something that could have been filmed today.

Feb 6, 2020

Genomics: data sharing needs an international code of conduct

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Genomics researchers worldwide are increasingly dealing with vast data sets gathered by consortia spanning many countries. Most are unclear on what to do to protect people’s privacy and to comply with international and national data-protection laws, especially given recent and ongoing changes in legislation.

An international code of conduct for genomic data is now crucial. Built by the genomics community, it could be updated as technologies and knowledge evolve more easily than is possible for national and international legislation.


Efforts to protect people’s privacy in a massive international cancer project offer lessons for data sharing.

Feb 5, 2020

Next Gen Farming Without Soil and 90% Less Water | GRATEFUL

Posted by in category: food

Aeroponics grows fruits and vegetables faster, cheaper and better. RELATED: Making superfood chocolate from raw cacao: https://youtu.be/SrQlCI3Tq58

Vertical farming with Tower Gardens is on the ‘rise’ and rightfully so. You can grow a variety of plants without ANY soil and 90% LESS water. It also requires 10x less space so you can do a lot more in a smaller area. That means easily growing fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers both indoors and out. And because everything is grown and picked fresh, the flavor is unbelievable!

Continue reading “Next Gen Farming Without Soil and 90% Less Water | GRATEFUL” »

Feb 5, 2020

Virgin Orbit nearing first launch

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Virgin Orbit says it is weeks away from the first orbital launch of its LauncherOne rocket as the company makes plans to move quickly into operations if that flight is successful.

The company said in a series of tweets Jan. 31 that is in final preparations for its test launch, with the LauncherOne rocket attached to its Boeing 747 aircraft for a final series of tests and dress rehearsals at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. That includes a captive carry flight, where the plane will take off with the rocket attached for the entire flight.

The company didn’t disclose when that launch would take place beyond that it was “really close” to being ready for the flight. Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said that launch would take place in the “coming weeks” during a panel discussion at the SmallSat Symposium here Feb. 4.

Feb 5, 2020

A New Experiment Hopes to Solve Quantum Mechanics’ Biggest Mystery

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Physicists will try to observe quantum properties of superposition—existing in two states at once—on a larger object than ever before.