A Private Space Mission Just Successfully Landed on the Moon for the First Time
“With its Blue Ghost lunar module, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has just achieved what no other private company, anywhere in the world, has ever accomplished: successfully landing on the surface of the moon. Having launched in January, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at Mare Crisium, in the vicinity of a mountain called Mons Latreille, at 3:34 am Eastern Time on Sunday March 2. NASA reports that the Blue Ghost lander is in a stable, vertical position.
‘This incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and US companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all,’ Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in a statement on March 2. ‘We have already learned many lessons, and the technology and science demonstrations aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 Mission will enhance our ability to not only discover more science but also to ensure the safety of the instruments on our spacecraft for future human exploration, both near and long term.’”
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- US Air Force leads Defense Dept. into a geothermal energy future
- Intel delays $28B Ohio chip fabs to 2030
- Melbourne startup launches ‘biological computer’ made of human brain cells
- Trump announces new White House shipbuilding office
- US exploring 3D-printed dark ceramics for hypersonic missiles, aircraft
- AI for war plans: Pentagon innovation shop taps Scale AI to build ‘Thunderforge’ prototype
- Secret Space Force payloads monitor China’s satellite surveillance network, official says
- Varda Space capsule lands in Australia with critical data for hypersonic vehicles
- Space Force general: ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield requires Manhattan Project-scale effort
- German defence ministry asks startup to build hypersonic spaceplane
- The modern era of low-flying satellites may begin this week
- Should we be moving data centers to space?
- Pentagon denies report of halt in cyber operations versus Russia
- Trump calls for end to $52B Chips Act subsidy program
- A quantum computing startup says it is already making millions of light-powered chips
- Polish space agency says it’s investigating a cyberattack
- Flights halted after SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes
- This fusion-powered rocket could half the time it takes to get to Mars
- General Atomics demos autonomous drone flight
Colossal Biosciences has successfully engineered the “Colossal Woolly Mouse,” a genetically modified mouse with traits from the extinct woolly mammoth, including a warm coat adapted for cold climates. The company edited seven genes to replicate mammoth-like coat color, texture, and thickness, using advanced genome editing techniques. This breakthrough demonstrates the feasibility of de-extinction and brings Colossal closer to its goal of resurrecting extinct species like the woolly mammoth. The achievement also provides a valuable model for studying cold-climate adaptations and has potential applications in genetic engineering and conservation. (via VentureBeat)
- Detecting nuclear radiation at greater distances
- Fast new 3D printing technique shines holograms into resin
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- Superconducting quantum processor prototype operates 10¹⁵ times faster than fastest supercomputer
- Superconducting quantum processor prototype operates 10¹⁵ times faster than fastest supercomputer
- Nanodiamonds in water droplets boost quantum sensing precision
- Nanoparticle immune therapy shows potential to halt pancreatic cancer spread
- Researchers explore how to build shapeshifting, T-1000-style robots
- Precision cancer treatment using magnet-guided, heat-activated nanoparticles
- Laser light made into a supersolid for the first time
- Sofinnova raises €1.2B to invest in med tech, biotech, digital health
- Skylo raises $30M to fuel direct-to-smartphone expansion
- Esper Satellites raises $3.1M seed round
- Material science startup Forge Nano seeks funding at valuation of up to $900M
- Moonwatt secures $8.3M to dial up solar’s staying power with sodium-ion storage
- Osivax raises $10M in first close of Series B funding for vaccines against highly mutating respiratory virsuses
- SpaceTech startup TakeMe2Space raises Rs 5.5 Crore in pre-seed funding
- Humanoid robotics firm ‘Figure’ attracts $39B valuation—and questions
- Lifestyle robotics company Aescape raises $83M in strategic funding
- Hematopoietic stem cell therapies company Garuda Therapeutics closes $50M Series A-1 financing
- Foundation Capital, an early backer of Solana and Cerebras, raises $600M fund
- Epoch Biodesign raises $18.3M in Series A to use enzymes to make recycled plastics cheaper and higher performing than virgin materials
- Steady Energy raises €22M in funding to develop a heat-only small modular reactor (SMR)
- Defense startup Epirus secures $250M for anti-drone tech
- Cercare Medical raises €7.4M in funding for advanced, on-premise perfusion technology
- Epigenetic reprogramming platform provider Decibel Bio raises $12M in financing
- Not all cancer patients need chemo. Ataraxis AI raised $20M to fix that.
- SymbyAI raises $2.1M seed to make science research easier
- Pulnovo Medical, a medtech company developing devices for pulmonary hypertension and heart failure, closes $100M Series C
- Biotechnology company Callio Therapeutics closes $187M in Series A funding
- Agtech research services company Solis Agrosciences receives Series A funding from Cultivation Capital
- QuEra Computing, a startup building a neutral atom quantum computer, raised $230M in funding
- Tandem PV, a perovskite solar tech company, raised a $50M Series A
- Nuclear fusion reactor company Renaissance Fusion raises €32M in first closing of Series A
- Shield AI raises $240M at a $5.3B valuation to commercialize its AI drone tech
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Canada Bitcoin Miner Acquiring Two Pennsylvania Coal Plants / Why it’s so hard to build a jet engine / DARPA project reveals one person can control dozens of robots / Formation of organic glass from a human brain / DARPA exploring growing bio structures of “unprecedented size” in microgravity / An small microbial ecosystem has formed on the International Space Station / A 3D-printed submarine? Not likely, but maybe something close / Silicon Valley players aim to follow SpaceX’s disruptive path in defense sector / The US Solar Power Industry Is Trying to Rebrand as MAGA-Friendly / The Surprisingly Difficult Mathematical Proof That Anime Fans Helped Solve / Inside the Wild West of AI companionship / AI models are dreaming up the materials of the future / Satellites are polluting the stratosphere / Japan puts world’s most accurate clock on sale for $3.3 mn / AI.com Is for Sale. Asking Price? $100 Million / US said to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia / People are using Super Mario to benchmark AI now / Hackers launder most of Bybit’s stolen crypto worth $1.4 billion / New open-source math model Light-R1-32B surpasses equivalent DeepSeek performance with only $1000 in training costs / Could Artificial General Intelligence Adoption Start a Civil War in America? / The Great Tech-Family Alliance / World’s first “Synthetic Biological Intelligence” runs on living human cells / Can a Geothermal Startup Vaporize Rock to Drill the Deepest Holes Ever? / A Quarter of Startups in YC’s Current Cohort Have Codebases That Are Almost Entirely AI-Generated / The US Army Is Using ‘CamoGPT’ to Purge DEI From Training Materials