The International Space Station (ISS) has been a key part of humanity’s presence in space for years, but its useful life is coming to an end. NASA and other stakeholders currently plan to end ISS operations by 2031, but what comes next? NASA is funding the Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development Program (CLD) to encourage aerospace firms to build new stations, and a proposal from Blue Origin and Sierra Space just got the green light to move forward. The station, known as Orbital Reef, was submitted to NASA for System Definition Review (SDR) earlier this summer. This report allowed the agency to assess the feasibility of the design, and it’s good news for Blue Origin and Sierra Space — NASA believes the companies have the technology and expertise to successfully build the Orbital Reef.
Intel’s 14th generation Meteor Lake CPU slash System on a Chip (SoC) has been in the news a lot lately. Even though its predecessor Raptor Lake has yet to launch, all eyes are on Intel’s future plans. That’s because Meteor Lake marks the company’s first node shrink in several years, and it’s also the company’s first tile-based design. There’s a lot riding on this one, in other words. It’s been previously reported the company was delaying it due to issues with its CPU tile or possible problems with TSMC’s tiles. At the HotChips 34 conference this week, Intel cleared the air about the rumored delays (there are none), and the company provided more info on its tile-based design.
(Photo: Azure)A startup in California is using environmentally-friendly materials to construct tiny homes using a massive 3D printer. Los Angeles-based Azure specializes in accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, which typically sit next to or behind a main residence on the same lot. Its designs are highly modern: glass walls, recessed lighting, and pocket doors give each unit a penthouse vibe despite sitting in another home’s backyard. But the company’s aesthetic choices aren’t what command attention. It’s the way in which its units are built. Azure uses a large 3D printer to produce each unit’s structural skeleton, exterior sheathing, water control barrier, exterior finish, utility passageways, and the grounding for interior finishes.
(Credit: Aleutie/Getty Images)You probably don’t think about Oracle very much, as the Fortune 500 company focuses on enterprise services and cloud technology. But that doesn’t mean Oracle never thinks about you. According to a new class action lawsuit, Oracle built a machine learning tool to collect, organize, and sell your most personal data. And odds are it is your data because Oracle has profiles on five billion people, or more than half of the world’s population. Oracle has its fingers in a lot of pies, from database management to the Java development kit, but it also runs a “Data Marketplace” where it trades in “open and transparent audience data.
(Photo: Andrew McCarthy and Connor Matherne)It has been more than 50 years since humans set foot on the moon, but you don’t need to hop in a rocket to get an up-close look at our nearest neighbor. A pair of astrophotography enthusiasts have just released an incredibly detailed mosaic image of the moon. It took hundreds of thousands of exposures to get this level of detail, and you can now enjoy the fruits of their labors — all 174 megapixels of it. Astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Connor Matherne several years ago, and last November they began a project they call “The Hunt for Artemis.
Today, everything is online. Music, movies, games, and software are just a download away, but physical media was king in decades past. Some powerful and complex software tools came with so much packaging and physical media that they could weigh more than the computer used to run them. Such was the case with Microsoft’s C/C++ compiler, which Archivist Amy Stevenson has called out as the company’s heaviest software product ever. Microsoft released the C/C++ compiler in 1992, making it Microsoft’s first-ever native C++ development tool for MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2 applications. Previously, Microsoft relied on C++ “preprocessor” compilers that took C++ code and converted it to C before a compiler created the executable program.
(Photo: Michael Förtsch/Unsplash)Did anyone else grow up with a parent who joked that one day, we’d forgo everything from keys to credit cards in favor of a chip in our hand? No? Just me? Well, Dad, you were right. Although not everyone is on board with this form of biomodification (yet), some people have begun implanting tiny chips into their skin, allowing them to access their vehicle and important documents with a wave of the hand. The most recent of these bold biomodifiers is Tesla driver Brandon Dalaly. According to auto news site Teslarati, Dalaly just had his second chip into his wrist.
(Photo: Steven HWG/Unsplash)Memory lapse remains a major concern for those approaching their golden years. As many as of US adults over the age of 65 have some type of age-associated memory impairment, with approximately 160,000 of them receiving dementia diagnoses each year. While long-term it would be ideal to find ways to prevent the initial onset of such memory impairments, scientists are working to help seniors mediate their memory obstacles in the meantime. A new study suggests electrical currents to the brain might be a way to do just that. Scientists at Boston University recently used a double-blind study to test the effects of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation on older adults’ memories.
If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for scientists to finally point the James Webb space telescope (JWST) at targets within our own solar system, you’re in good company—and in luck. New images from Webb show Jupiter in jaw-dropping detail. You can see some of the gas giant’s tiny moons, and there are galaxies “photobombing” the bottom of the frame. In fact, the detail is so fine that you can make out the evanescent rings of Jupiter. Jupiter is a place of incredible extremes. The entire planet is a howling maelstrom of caustic chemicals. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a storm within the storm, a gigantic cyclone of Day After Tomorrow proportion.
