NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrives at asteroid Bennu
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft executed a maneuver that transitioned it from flying toward Bennu to operating around the asteroid.
NASA | via Science Daily
A startup is about to test a ‘gas station in space’ that could one day refuel satellites
Fuel is heavy. And when you launch a satellite into space, the amount of fuel you give it determines how long it can stay operational. That is, unless you can refuel at a space gas station.
via The Download | MIT Technology Review
NASA takes a tangible step back toward the Moon with commercial program
NASA announced Thursday that it has partnered with nine companies to enable the delivery of small scientific payloads to the lunar surface.
Eric Berger | Ars Technica
'A Robot Killed a Man': A New Doc Looks at the Terrifying Future of Automation
HBO's 'The Truth About Killer Robots' examines the legal, economic, psychological, and moral implications of our inevitable, AI-run dystopia.
An interview with filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin.
Seth Ferranti | Vice
US Army soldiers will soon wear Microsoft’s HoloLens AR goggles in combat
Microsoft has won a $480 million deal to supply more than 100,000 augmented-reality HoloLens headsets to the US Army, Bloomberg reports.
via The Download | MIT Technology Review
Climate change: CO2 emissions rising for first time in four years
Global efforts to tackle climate change are way off track says the UN, as it details the first rise in CO2 emissions in four years.
Matt McGrath | BBC News
Burning Fossil Fuels Almost Ended All Life on Earth
A road trip through the geological ruins of our planet's worst mass extinction.
"…we have an analog in Earth’s history. And it’s fucking scary."
Peter Brannan | The Atlantic
The Time Capsules That Will Outlast the Apocalypse
There are myriad of ways that the world as we know it could come crashing down, from nuclear war to rampant climate change. But somehow, if we’re to be remembered, our information must outlast these cataclysms.
Robin George Andrews | Earther
InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars
NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface.
JPL | InSight Mission News
FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT
Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States
The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century.
Russia Has Started to Train Its Entire Military to Fight Drones
After Syrian insurgent groups attacked Russian forces in Syria, the Defense Ministry began laying plans for wide-scale response.
Patrick Tucker | Defense One
EXCLUSIVE: Chinese scientists are creating CRISPR babies
A daring effort is under way to create the first children whose DNA has been tailored using gene editing.
Antonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review
Beijing plans an AI Atlantis for the South China Sea – without a human in sight
China is planning to build a deep sea base for unmanned submarine science and defence operations in the South China Sea, a centre that might become the first artificial intelligence colony on Earth.
Stephen Chen | South China Morning Post
Yesenia Thibault-Picazo crafts objects from precious materials of the future
London-based designer Yesenia Thibault-Picazo has created three household objects for the anthropocene era, using materials she believes will be used by craftsmen hundreds of years in the future.
Gunseli Yalcinkaya | De Zeen
An electric plane with no moving parts has made its first flight
The turbineless design uses electroaerodynamic propulsion to fly and could herald the arrival of quieter, lower-emission aircraft.
Erin Winick | MIT Technology Review
Documenting Hate: New American Nazis
In the wake of the deadly anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, FRONTLINE and ProPublica present a new investigation into white supremacist groups in America – in particular, a neo-Nazi group, Atomwaffen Division, that has actively recruited inside the U.S. military.
With disease in shelters and hotels at capacity, wildfire evacuees desperately seek refuge
The most devastating fire in California history began in the Sierra foothills in the morning hours of Nov. 8, prompting a hectic evacuation that has left at least 52,000 people in hotels, relatives’ homes, parking lots and makeshift shelters…
Frances Stead Sellers, Scott Wilson and Tim Craig | The Washington Post
THE END OF TRUST (MCSWEENEY’S ISSUE 54)
In our first-ever entirely nonfiction issue of McSweeney’s, The End of Trust (McSweeney’s Issue 54) features more than thirty writers and artists investigating surveillance in the digital age.
Available from The McSweeney’s Store