Beyond science!

[cheapchips]

I'm enjoying Saturday Startup Stories, who've been going for nearly a year now. They do a 15 minute-ish video on a startup each week, followed by some great long form interviews. As someone who's been a corporate monkey my working life, fun to see what it takes to get a company off the ground, especially in new and novel domains.

This week's was on Reflect Orbital, who have an interesting approach to space based solar power. Most space solar power projects proposed are vary large solar arrays + microwaving beaming electricity down to Earth. There's cost and technical challenges to that and it's arguable whether it'll ever be viable.

Reflect are proposing constellation of really cheap small mylar mirrors that direct sunlight down to existing solar farms. They're expecting existing farms to pay them a sunlight fee to increase usage of their existing investment/infrastructure.

There wouldn't be a big spotlight beam or anything like that. You'd only notice you're sunlight zone if you were stood in it.

Great idea. We'll see how they're doing when they start to launch stuff next year.

 

[eloic]

SCIENTISTS CREATE ROBOT CONTROLLED BY BLOB OF HUMAN BRAIN CELLS​

ALARMING.​

A team of Chinese researchers has stuck a tiny organoid made from human stem cells into the body of a tiny robot, resulting in a Frankensteinian creation that can learn how to complete certain tasks.
As the South China Morning Post reports, the researchers from Tianjin University and the Southern University of Science and Technology hooked the brain tissue to a neural interface, allowing it to pass on instructions to the humanoid robot body.
The goal is to study brain-computer interfaces that can act as a mediator between electrical signals in the brain and computing power.
According to a statement by the researchers, the brainy robot is the "world’s first open-source brain-on-chip intelligent complex information interaction system."

https://futurism.com/neoscope/robot-human-brain-cells

This and wetware in general is awesome (and scary).

 

[Davros]

Here's another robot that is controlled by human brain cells

It's just that the human braincells are inside a human

 

[digitalwanderer]

In other news they've confirmed the existence of large lunar caves!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/science/moon-lava-tube-cave-discovery/index.html

 

[Mariner]

In other news they've confirmed the existence of large lunar caves!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/science/moon-lava-tube-cave-discovery/index.html

Can't wait to see what comes out of those.

Admittedly, I may have watched too many B movies.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Can't wait to see what comes out of those.

Admittedly, I may have watched too many B movies.

It'd be a huge game changer for colonization!

Near the moon’s equator, temperatures reach a blistering average of 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in daylight and plummet to minus 208 F (-133 C) at nightfall, according to NASA. The harsh temperatures have even dipped below minus 410 F (-246 C), as recorded by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Researchers of a July 2022 study that looked at a number of pits on the moon — some that were hypothesized to lead into caves by NASA upon discovery — found that the shaded shelters are much more thermally stable and steadily remain at around 63 F (17 C).

A steady 63f vs burn/freeze to death plus the possibility that there's some water hiding down there would make building a base a whole lot easier/safer if they find a practical way to enter/exit it.

 

[Mariner]

Also, protection against the radiation which hits the lunar surface. I know they can use other materials, but if you can just go down a hole, it's a bit easier. Providing the underground structures are stable enough.

 

[nutball]

If you've ever watched the original Star Wars movies you will know exactly what is hiding down these holes.