We’re building thermonuclear spaceships again—this time for real
“Phoebus 2A, the most powerful space nuclear reactor ever made, was fired up at Nevada Test Site on June 26, 1968. The test lasted 750 seconds and confirmed it could carry first humans to Mars. But Phoebus 2A did not take anyone to Mars. It was too large, it cost too much, and it didn’t mesh with Nixon’s idea that we had no business going anywhere further than low-Earth orbit.
But it wasn’t NASA that first called for rockets with nuclear engines. It was the military that wanted to use them for intercontinental ballistic missiles. And now, the military wants them again.” (Ars Technica)
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- The Nuclear Co. exits stealth, plans to deploy standardized 6-GW nuclear fleet
- Laser weapon ‘neutralises’ targets from British Army vehicle for first time
- Firefly is building fast and breaking things on path to a reusable rocket
- Rosotics wants to manufacture massive orbital shipyards using 3D printing
- Terradepth wants to map the rest of the ocean floor
- AI-powered optical detection to thwart counterfeit chips
- New dawn for space store alerts could help shield Earth’s tech
- Biocompatible mic could lead to better cochlear implants
- Researchers develop first voxel building blocks for 3D-printed organs
- UK back ‘space mirror’ to melt ice on the Moon into drinking water
- Novel biosensor could enable fast, precise disease diagnosis and prevention
- U.S. DOE Announces $33M to deploy solar technologies to decarbonize America’s industrial sector
- GRO Biosciences, a biotechnology company leveraging synthetic biology to develop novel protein therapeutics, closes $60.3M Series B financing
- E.P.A. announces $4.3B in funding for 25 climate projects
- Cowboy Clean Fuels, a climate tech and energy transition company, raises approx $13M in Series B funding
- Draupnir Bio, a Danish biotech developing oral small molecule drugs targeting extracellular proteins via lysosomes, raises €12M in seed funding
- Space startup Astranis aims for the stars with new $200M round
- TMRW Life Sciences, developer of FDA-cleared automated storage for fertility specimens, raises $28M in Series D financing
- Kestra Medical Technologies, a wearable medical device and digital healthcare company, raised $196M in funding
- Third Arc Bio, a biotech company developing multifunctional antibodies, raised $165M in Series A funding
- Amkor Technology secures $600M in US government support for advanced chip packaging project in Arizona
- GM-backed Addionics aims to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper with wavy foil
- Star Catcher, a company that specializes in space-based energy generation, raised $12.25M in seed funding
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