Submission Statement

A recent research paper suggests that large-scale in-orbit robotic construction is going to need cooperative swarm robots and that this technology does not exist yet. What Redwire Space is doing looks like a step in the right direction.

This reminds me of another currently NASA-supported effort, SpinLaunch, and their kinetic launcher. One of its challenges is the massive G forces at launch and the damage it might do to electronics. That wouldn't be a problem if it was launching the base material 3D printers extrude for construction. SpinLaunch & Redwire Space might be perfect partners for each other.

>>because “reasons”

Africa's population will go from 1.3 billion today to 4.3 billion in 2100, while the US's will only increase by 100 million.

>>But the old world economies generate an excess of trillions over Africa,

Actually it seems the opposite is true, at least according to this Australian research.

It says Africa's economy will be several multiples of what America's and Europe's are in 2100.

>>I would think that planets around white dwarfs would have had a bad time when those stars became white dwarfs.

True, but they remain stable (albeit much cooler/smaller) for billions of years afterwards. I assume they are looking for life that might have evolved after the star's red giant phase.

Submission Statement

It seems in the next few years we may get to scan dozens of exoplanet atmosphere's for signs of extraterrestrial life. Apart from using the JWST, the other big effort is the SPECULOOS Project using telescopes in Chile and the Canary Islands to scan 1,000 of the nearest ultra-cool stars and brown dwarf stars. Should simple single cell life be common throughout the universe, it seems plausible we will discover evidence of it soon.

Submission Statement

I find this interview odd, as it seems to fly in the face of other things we can see happening. We seem to be at an inflection point with autonomous cars. At least two companies, one in China, one in San Francisco, are live testing Level 4 robo-taxis without safety drivers. If this testing is successful, then it's hard not to see this as the start of robo-taxis beginning to eat into the business of human-driven taxis.

I wonder if this interview is a CEO trying to reassure shareholders over a decision he's made? He mentions he sold off Lyft's autonomous tech. Perhaps he's attempting to make the best case for that decision by downplaying that his competitors are making such strides with it?

Submission Statement

These capsules are designed to be partially reusable, and NASA hopes to get 3 missions out of each. They are for the Artemis VI-VIII missions. Artemis V will be the 3rd crew lunar landing of the Artemis program, and is at the lunar south pole, presumably to assess locations for a base. Its proposed Artemis VI-VIII will land components of that lunar base.

Many people wonder how SpaceX will affect these plans. Presumably, its Starship will be in operation in the second half of this decade, and will ultimately render the SLS obsolete.

China is detailing its plans for a base at the lunar south pole on a similar time frame and options to land commercial payloads with lunar landers are starting up too. It seems likely by the time we get to 2030 today's plans might need updating.

>>calls 5G a computing platform.

I didn't say it was a computing platform, I said it was very likely it will use new OS's.

The follow on from that, is that these may be developed in China first, if it is the first place to have 10's or 100's of millions of people using 5G.

> How is it a replacement for an OS?

I'm sure Windows, Android, and iOS will still be around in the 2030's, and I'm sure they will have plenty of 5G apps.

However, it's likely the OS that dominates 5G hasn't been built yet.

None of the three main OS's have any meaningful VR/AR features now. If China gets to widespread 5G adoption first (likely), then the first software companies to be building apps for 10's and 100's of millions of 5G consumers will be Chinese.

I can't see them doing this on legacy western OS's that aren't fit for 5G purposes in the first place.

There's a popular video that looks at what the experience of a VR/AR OS might be like called Hyper-Reality

>>Am I missing something? I thought 5G was just a faster cellular data spec

No, its much more than that.

That's because it will allow massive data speeds ( 1-4 Gbit/s) with almost no latency (the best 5G is in single digits milliseconds).

5G will be the platform for virtual reality, augmented reality, remote human control of robots/drones, and for an Internet of Things will trillions of sensors.

It's hard to imagine it not being the main computing planform in the 2030's. Who on earth would want Windows or Android when you could have 5G delivering what its capable of. Today's computing planforms will look geriatric in comparison.

>>I'm not sure I understand.

A few different people comment in the OP article.

The TLDR version is that the companies that have switched from Huawei for 5G have chosen even less secure and easy to hack software.

Submission Statement

Eliminating Huawei from 5G, as many countries have done, was supposed to make them less vulnerable to Chinese hacking. Instead, it's done the opposite. It also seems to have had another weakening effect. China is racing ahead with 5G adoption, which makes you wonder if banning Huawei is slowing down those countries that have done it?

5G will be the major computing platform of the late 2020s and 2030s. It looks like it could be China dominating it.

>>international agreements not to mine the moon

There is no real economic reason to mine the moon.

The fusion reactors that would use it's Helium-3 haven't been invented yet, and even when they are, many people doubt mining the moon's Helium-3 could ever economically compete with obtaining it from Earth.

Submission Statement

Astrobiotic and Intuitive Machines are the two others aiming to launch in 2023.

If all these companies succeed it will mean landing payloads on the moon will be as cheap as 10's of millions of $/€, perhaps as time goes on at the lower end of that estimate. I can see lots of takers for these missions. Academic institutions across the globe must be a market worth hundreds of millions a year at these prices. Not to mention the world's different space agencies sub-contracting out missions.

I wonder how a commercial lunar economy can take off on its own? It strikes me that governments will have to seed the first billions. But how many - 10's or 100's of billions?

Submission Statements

Rooftop wind power is a sector that has seen many false starts and dodgy claims over the years. Is Aeromine any different? It looks like there may be reason to be cautiously optimistic.

I can see this solution often failing on NIMBY planning permission grounds. It seems a thing most neighbors would love to object to. It could still find lots of use cases however. Particularly in remote, rural, or particularly windy locations.