This is the most detailed view of Pluto’s terrain you’ll see for a very long time. This mosaic strip – extending across the hemisphere that faced the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015 – now includes all of the highest-resolution images taken by the NASA probe. (Be sure to …
Pressurization of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) began at 4:34 p.m. EDT, and the eight tanks filled with air completed full pressurization of the module 10 minutes later at 4:44 p.m. BEAM’s pressure will be equalized with that of the International Space Station, where it will remain attached for a two-year test period. The …
The US Navy now believes it has a railgun design that soon will be able to fire 10 times a minute through a barrel capable of lasting 1,000 rounds. Besides speed, the railgun also has a capacity advantage. A typical U.S. Navy destroyer can carry as many as 96 missiles—either offensive cruise missiles or defensive …
The Navy has been procuring Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class Aegis destroyers since FY1985. The two DDG-51s requested for procurement in FY2017 are to be the 75th and 76th ships in the class. The 10 DDG-51s programmed for procurement in FY2013-FY2017 (in annual quantities of 3-1-2-2-2) are being procured under a multiyear-procurement (MYP) contract. One of …
Dr. Mike McCulloch, Lecturer in Geomatics, had created a model for inertia called: Modified inertia by a Hubble-scale Casimir effect (MiHsC) or quantized inertia. Nextbigfuture covered it a few months ago. Mike uses it to explain the controversial emDrive. The idea of inertia is that in a vacuum, where there is no friction, objects move …
SpaceX on Friday landed its third consecutive rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, during a mission that successfully launched a commercial communications satellite to orbit. “Falcon 9 has landed,” a member of SpaceX’s launch team confirmed about 10 minutes after a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket’s 5:39 p.m. blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force …
The summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro should be postponed or moved “in the name of public health” due to the widening Zika outbreak in Brazil, more than 100 prominent doctors and professors said Friday in an open letter to the World Health Organization. “We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the …
By 2026, about two-thirds of the world’s gross domestic product will be generated by cities, up from about half now. Most of that growth will come from the emerging world, especially China and India, meaning the stakes to get growth and development right are increasing rapidly. The challenges range from ensuring clean streets to confronting …
The Russian T-14 main battle tank is the most prominent member of the Armata family, the vehicle series incorporates a host of new fighting machines. A tank support fighting vehicle based on the Armata ground vehicle system is called the Terminator-3. “Russia also plans to develop its tank support fighting vehicle dubbed the Terminator-3 on …
The government is spending about three-fourths of its technology budget maintaining aging computer systems, including platforms more than 50 years old in vital areas from nuclear weapons to Social Security. One still uses floppy disks. In a report to be released Wednesday, nonpartisan congressional investigators say the increasing cost of maintaining museum-ready equipment devours money …
Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, announced today that it has secured US$21.1 million in Series A funding. The capital will be used to deploy and operate Ceres, an advanced Earth observation business that features the first commercial infrared and hyperspectral sensor platform to better understand and manage humanity’s natural resources. The funding was …