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Media Platforms Design TeamLife got tougher this week for the United Launch Alliance, the single provider of space launches for the United States Air Force and national security agencies. Elon Musk’s scrappy company, SpaceX, is , which won a 36-launch contract from the federal government in December 2013.filing a lawsuit against ULAThe Pentagon expects to spend $72 billion on that launch program by 2030, and that huge figure has attracted lots of attention....

The Great Barrier Reef has been in trouble for years, causing scientists to look at an unconventional technique called “cloud brightening” which would artificially increase the number of clouds above the Reef.Last year, Daniel Harrison of the University of Sydney, told the MIT Technology Review that “cloud brightening is the only thing we’ve identified that’s scalable, sensible, and relatively environmentally benign” for fixing what ails the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef’s problems are myriad....

The first three things you notice about Stacy Bare are the booming voice, thick beard, and they way he towers above the crowd. When he invited everyone in attendance at a work party to head next door for some dancing, I noticed one more thing that I had to ask him about: his “Ski Iraq” T-shirt. At first, I thought it was an odd joke. The truth was far from that: Bare went skiing in Iraq over two weeks in 2017—his first time returning there since serving in the war—and made a documentary about it....

In May, Stratolaunch Systems revealed the largest aircraft in the world by wingspan, 385 feet from tip to tip. The gargantuan twin-fuselage, six-engine aircraft built by Scaled Composites is designed to carry rockets up into the atmosphere and drop them so the rockets can launch payloads to space using less fuel. Ground and engine testing is currently underway, and the six Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines were all fired up for the first time in September....

Scientists have released a treasure trove of data regarding Arrokoth (formerly Ultima Thule), which is the most distant object to be visited by a spacecraft.The object revealed insight into the origins of our solar system, settling a decades-old debate about how the planets formed. The spacecraft also identified organic molecules similar to life’s ingredients that give the object a reddish hue. Last year, when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sped past Arrokoth—the most distant object ever investigated by Earthlings—it collected a dizzying amount of data....

On December 22nd, the Anak Krakatau volcano partially collapsed near Indonesia’s Sunda Strait region. This collapse, in which much of Anak Krakatau’s island fell into the ocean, triggered a deadly tsunami whose toll is staggering—over 400 dead, over 1,500 injured. The damage is widespread and according to animal experts in the area, another event like it could trigger an extinction event for endangered Javan rhinos.Only five species of rhino still exist, and among them the Rhinoceros sondaicus, or Javan rhino, is the most endangered....

Media Platforms Design TeamDream Chaser, the private space plane built to shuttle astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, is ready to leave the Earth.In a news conference this afternoon, the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced that Dream Chaser will blast into orbit in November 2016 atop an Atlas V rocket. Dream Chaser’s first orbital flight will be unmanned and will test the space plane’s autonomous landing system. SNC expects to launch its first manned orbital mission about one year later....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamDaniel H. Wilson’s first book, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, poked holes in our Hollywood-supplied anxiety over automaton-on-man violence, while quietly educating us on real-life robotics. Now the renowned author—and PM’s resident roboticist—is taking on the jetpack-commuting, Smell-O-Vision-scented future that never happened. His new book, Where’s My Jetpack? ($14.95, Bloomsbury), is funny—but it also turns out to be a tribute to the far-fetched ideas that often drive progress....

When you’re playing a video game, you want it to feel realistic, but perhaps not so realistic that it can actually kill you. That doesn’t seem to be the concern of the creators of “Blood Sport,” however, a new game that would draw real blood every time one of your players gets shot.According to the developers, the way that it works is that you would stick an IV into your arm and hook it up to the controller; this way, whenever the controller rumbles to signal that you’ve been hit, it will automatically set off a system that draws blood from your arm....

In 1969, biologists discovered three lizards from New Guinea whose innards were green: bones, muscles, blood and all. Even their eggs seemed green. Today, scientists are exploring the unlikely the cause of the green blood: a pigment that typically kills.Animal blood comes in a variety of colors based on their chemical makeup: humans use hemoglobin to carry oxygen, which makes our blood red. Octopuses, lobsters and horseshoe crabs use hemocyanin, which means blue blood....

Model: GE MAC 2000Number of Parts: 281Produced: Bangalore, IndiaTime to disassemble: 5 hours, 21 minutesNotes: Muscles are machines, powered by electricity. An electrocardiograph is a multimeter of the heart, with ten lead wires instead of two. As your heart beats, electrodes on the lead wires pick up the resulting electrical signals from strategic points on your body. These signals are interpreted in three dimensions by a cardiologist—who can literally see your heartbeat....

LOS ANGELES — Time sure flies when you’re attending auto shows. Today, Hyundai pulled the covers off its tenth consecutive concept vehicle, the HCD-10 Hellion (as in Hyundai Concept Design 10). The Hellion is the company’s take on what a free-spirited adventurer might drive if unbound by roads, inspired by a generation of dune buggies, desert racers and military personnel carriers. Visually, its most striking feature is its external roll cage, which offers both structural rigidity and passenger protection....

Japan, once a world leader in aircraft carriers, is preparing to wade back into the world of fixed wing aviation. The Pacific country, which swore off flat-tops in the aftermath of World War II, is preparing to reverse decades of government policy and add fighter planes to so-called “helicopter destroyers" to counter Chinese air power. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japan was an aircraft carrier superpower....

Media Platforms Design TeamTwo exciting blasts of news have scientific minds swimming—with the possibility of life in Europa’s ocean. Today scientists announced evidence pointing to the possibility of ice plumes firing upward at the poles of Europa, potentially connected to the subterranean ocean on this icy moon of Jupiter. This comes soon after recent research found that Europa’s ocean may move in Hadley cells, like Earth’s does, which transfers heat from the equatorial region to the poles....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Leatherman took the idea of a multitool to its logical conclusion, jamming screwdrivers, knives, saws, can openers, pliers, and just about any other extension you could think of into a fold-up kit. Now, it wants to do the same thing, but on your wrist.The new Tread bracelet contains all the tools of your trusty Leatherman but in a compact design you wear on your wrist—the individual links turn into miniature tools....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Libyan military has been escalating its violence against protesters, leading well-meaning diplomats and observers around the world to suggest that NATO enforce a no-fly zone in the country to prevent even greater civilian casualties. At first glance, it would seem that sophisticated NATO forces would have no problem enforcing that policy. But think again. Experiences in Bosnia and Iraq have proven that no-fly operations are a lot harder to maintain than most civilians assume....

Perhaps you’ve heard it many times already — there’s water on Mars. Or there was, long ago, and now it’s found in isolated pockets. The past 20+ years of Mars missions from NASA, ESA, and other space agencies have pointed to a world that was once warm and wet, and is now cold and dry. Now that we know Mars once had water, though, we’re unlocking deeper questions like “when” and “for how long....

Making solar panels is complicated work. There are a lot of steps to get from raw materials to a finished, fully functional solar panel. But did you know one of those steps can involve a particle accelerator? Minute Physics explains:View full post on YoutubeAt their core, solar panels are made of the same thing computer chips are made of: silicon. Pure silicon is made in long cylinders, called boules, that are sliced into hundreds or thousands of very thin wafers....

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been spewing lava ever since it started erupting on May 3. More than 1,700 local residents have been evacuated from the volcano’s East Rift Zone on the Big Island of Hawaii, where lava from 20 fissure vents has destroyed 26 homes.And even now, people can’t stop taking selfies with the dangerous volcano and posting them on social media.Getty Images“The fissures are deadly, very deadly. We’re currently in a condition red because of the increased ash in the area,” Alan Richmond, spokesman for the Hawaii Police Department, told People, explaining why people should not even be visiting the lava flows, let alone be taking selfies with them....

Nearly forty years after its debut, the Mi-26 heavy lift transport, known to NATO as the “Halo,” is still the largest helicopter in the world. Built by Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Russian industry giant Rostec, the Mi-26 carries more cargo or people than anything in the West, even the American Chinook and Sea Stallion. The massive helicopter is even being used as the basis for a new Russian-Chinese heavy lift helicopter, the AHL....