future Archive

Stable flight of a laser sail is an essential requirement of beam-driven propulsion. Centauri Dreams talked to James Benford about work towards stable beam flight. It places considerable demand upon the shape of the sail and beam. James Benford takes …

A high energy laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter acquired and hit an unmanned target. The test was conducted by Raytheon and the U.S. Army Apache Program Management Office in collaboration with U.S. Special Operations Command at White …

China’s economy is not falling into a black hole. Wheels are in motion for economic reforms. China’s mainland equities — known as the A-shares — will be included in the massive MSCI Emerging Markets Index starting in June 2018. Some …

Researchers at the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a novel design approach for exoskeletons and prosthetic limbs that incorporates direct feedback from the human body. The findings were published this week in Science. This technique, called …

Thyssenkrupp has built the first rope (cable) free elevator. This will enable system like the Star Trek Turbolift which can move up down and side to side. This is elevator industry’s holy grail. It ends the 160-year reign of the …

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully made its second trip to space June 23. It launched to Bularia’s first communications satellite. The BulgariaSat-1 launch marks the Falcon 9’s second flight this year, and may kick off a double-header with a …

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has selected the University of Southern California to lead a consortium of universities and private companies to build quantum computers that are at least 10,000 times faster than the best state-of-the-art classical computers. USC …