Lifeboat Foundation

WASHINGTON — A startup company planning to develop orbital propellant depots to assist satellite servicing ventures has raised an initial round of funding to support a first launch as soon as next year.

Orbit Fab, a Silicon Valley-based company with about a dozen employees, said Aug. 28 that a round of funding led by venture capital firm Bolt will enable it to demonstrate technology for fuel tanks that could be used by future satellite servicing systems.

“We differentiate ourselves from the satellite servicing operators in that we’re looking to put up just dumb tanks full of propellant, to provide that propellant where it’s needed, and we’re looking to partner with the satellite servicing operators to help improve their business models,” said Daniel Faber, chief executive of Orbit Fab, in an interview.

Continue reading “Startup plans ‘gas stations’ for satellite servicing” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=o9jTEP0u8mg

In a best-of-three match, two teams of pro gamers overcame a squad of AI bots that were created by the Elon Musk-founded research lab OpenAI.

AI bots made by the Elon Musk-founded research lab OpenAI were defeated by human pro gamers at Dota 2 at The International. The loss was not completely unexpected, but it’s still an unusual knock back for the seemingly unstoppable march of AI. Here, we explain what the matches really meant.

Continue reading “OpenAI’s Dota 2 defeat is still a win for artificial intelligence” »

At IFA 2018, Intel showed off the latest members of its 8th-Gen processor family: the Y-series Amber Lake chips and U-series Whiskey Lake models. Both lines are focused on improving internet speeds with integrated gigabit Wi-Fi.

It might be a little cramped.

Sean Carroll will be helping New Scientist Live attendees understand what quantum mechanics means for the many worlds hypothesis — and poor Schrödinger’s cat.

It’s common knowledge that, because of the speed at which light travels, we can see things in space that aren’t even there anymore. If we peer at a distant galaxy we’re really only seeing what the objects within it looked like when the light itself was beaming in our direction. If the galaxy is a thousand light-years away, we’re seeing what the galaxy looked like a thousand years ago.

Now, researchers believe that they may be able to use a similar technique to search for black holes that don’t exist anymore. The only difference is that the black holes aren’t just from long ago, they’re from an entirely different version of the universe. Woah.

A research team comprised of scientists from Oxford University, the University of Warsaw, and the New York Maritime College, believe they have evidence that points to the leftovers of a black hole that existed in a universe that preceded the one we’re currently living in. However, rather than visible light, the black holes leave behind what is known as cosmic microwave background radiation, or (CMB).

Credit: university of minnesota, mcalpine group.

SpaceX is preparing to make its first demo launches for NASA’s commercial crew mission program, which aims to bring back the capability for U.S. spacecraft to fly astronauts to space.

The rocket company plans to use Tesla Model X vehicles to bring the first astronauts flying in the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the launch pad.

It appears to be the latest example of some synergy between Elon Musk’s two main companies.

Continue reading “Tesla Model X will carry first astronauts flying in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to launch pad” »

In 2018, what is left to explore in the world? It seems unlikely, say, that humans might find an untouched forest to study, someplace that hasn’t been bulldozed and burnt and exploited within an inch of its life for precious minerals or virgin timber. But that’s exactly what happened this past spring, when a Welsh researcher, Dr. Julian Bayliss, led a 28-person team that included scientists specially selected for their different talents as well as logistics experts, rock climbers, and filmmakers to the top of a mountain in Mozambique.

The story of the Mount Lico expedition began six years ago when Bayliss, a conservation scientist and butterfly expert, happened to spy a small forest atop a mountain using Google Earth. It wasn’t the first time he’d found such a place; Bayliss had been using Google Earth to explore high-altitude rainforests in Africa for around 15 years. In February 2017, the time was finally right: Bayliss brought a drone to the base of the 410-foot sheer rock protuberance (technically known as an inselberg) to confirm that there was a forest on top. This was no small feat. The area surrounding Mount Lico is a patchwork of smallholder farms, tea and eucalyptus plantations, and woodlands. There are no paved roads, no hotels — just rivers to cross, plants to hack away with machetes, and miles of dirt track to navigate.

While locals were aware of Mount Lico and used the natural resources of surrounding forests, its tall, sheer walls meant that it was nearly impossible to access, which made it likely that the land on top was untouched by humans. However, scientists would later find out that someone had been up there at least once.

Continue reading “How Google Earth led a team of scientists to discover an untouched mountaintop rainforest” »