Lifeboat Foundation

WASHINGTON — A startup led by a founder of a financial services company is taking a new approach to space-based solar power intended to be more scalable and affordable than previous concepts.

Aetherflux announced Oct. 9 plans to develop and ultimately deploy a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that will collect solar power and beam it to Earth using infrared lasers. The company is planning to demonstrate this technology with a small satellite launching by early 2026.

The concept is a departure from many previous concepts for space-based solar power (SBSP), which have involved large arrays in geostationary orbit. Those systems would transmit their power using microwaves to large rectennas on the ground. Such concepts have been studied for more than half a century but have not advanced beyond the drawing board.

There are several organizations and start-ups across the world that are working on developing hypersonic jets capable of flying at speeds above Mach 5 (3,836 mph). However, a propulsion system capable of providing sustained thrust at those speeds continues to be the biggest hurdle. Texas-based start-up Venus Aerospace has revealed a groundbreaking engine that has the potential to completely revolutionize high-speed air travel. Called the Venus Detonation Ramjet 2000 lb Thrust Engine (VDR2), the advanced propulsion system was unveiled at the recent Up. Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The VDR2 is engineered to power drones and aircraft to hypersonic speeds, allowing them to travel vast distances at high altitudes with unmatched efficiency. The hypersonic propulsion system combines the high thrust and efficiency of the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) with the high-efficiency cruise of a Ramjet. Developed by Venus in partnership with high-speed air combustion specialist Velontra, the VDR2 will operate as a single engine offering propulsion from take-off to attaining speeds up to Mach 6.

Also read — Boom Supersonic’s superfactory, which will be building the ‘son of Concorde,’ will be completed by spring this year. The first assembly line at the North Carolina facility will roll out 33 supersonic aircraft each year, capable of flying passengers from New York to London in 3.5 hours.

If you don’t tidy up before dinner there’ll be no ice-cream for afters. And don’t even think about a bedtime story.

Researchers have made significant advancements in quantum computing, focusing on photonic-measurement-based quantum computation.

Their study introduces a scalable and resource-efficient method that uses high-dimensional spatial encoding to generate large cluster states. This breakthrough could accelerate the development of faster, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Overcoming Quantum Computing Challenges

The G4 geomagnetic storm that brought auroras across the U.S. also generated electrical currents in rocks under the ground.

A recently discovered comet, known as C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, will make its closest approach of Earth on Saturday. Sky-gazers won’t want to miss the event since it may be the last time the comet will be seen in the night sky for another 80,000 years.

The comet successfully reached perihelion, its closest point to the sun in its orbital path around the parent star, on September 27, and was visible for those in the Southern Hemisphere in September and early October. Now, the icy body is on its way out of the inner solar system and will be visible to those in the Northern Hemisphere in mid-October through early November, according to NASA.

Summary: A new study has identified a brain protein, vesicular nucleotide transporter (Vnut), as essential for regulating mood and motivation in mice. When Vnut was removed from brain cells called astrocytes, the mice displayed higher anxiety, depression-like behavior, and decreased motivation, especially in females.

This effect was linked to reduced dopamine, a key molecule for motivation and positive mood. These findings suggest Vnut plays a vital role in dopamine regulation, with potential implications for understanding mood disorders.

But you might notice that something is missing: this radiation doesn’t seem to encode, in any way, knowledge of the information that went into the creation of the black hole in the first place. Somewhere along the way, information was destroyed. That’s the key puzzle behind the black hole information paradox. No one seriously disputes the initial setup of the puzzle: that information exists, and that the information (and entropy) does in fact go into the black hole both when it’s first created and also as it grows. What is up for debate, and what in fact is the big question behind the information paradox, is whether that information comes back out again or not.

The way we calculate what comes out of a black hole via Hawking radiation, despite the fact that Hawking radiation has been around for a full half century as of 2024, hasn’t changed all that much over the past 50 years. What we do is assume the curvature of space from general relativity: the fabric of space is curved by the presence of matter and energy, and general relativity tells us exactly by how much.

We then perform our quantum field theory calculations in that curved space, detailing the radiation that comes out as a result. That’s where we learn that the radiation has the temperature, spectrum, entropy, and other properties we know that it possesses, including the fact that it doesn’t appear to encode that initial information when the radiation comes out.

The ability to remain installed and undetected makes Perfctl hard to fight.