The Cross Heads

Lower-cost sodium-ion batteries are finally having their moment

In contrast, a sodium-ion battery relies on an element—sodium—that you can find in table salt and ocean water. Among the other benefits, sodium-ion batteries perform better than lithium-ion batteries in extreme cold. CATL has said its new battery works in temperatures as low as -40° Fahrenheit. Also, a sodium-ion battery has much lower risk of […]

December 6, 2024 | Cars, EVs, sodium batteries, sodium-ion batteries, syndication | No comments

Rocket Report: NASA delays Artemis again; SpinLaunch spins a little cash

China debuts a new medium-lift rocket. China’s new Long March 12 rocket made a successful inaugural flight Saturday, placing two experimental satellites into orbit and testing uprated, higher-thrust engines that will allow a larger Chinese launcher in development to send astronauts to the Moon. The Long March 12 is the newest member of China’s Long […]

December 6, 2024 | rocket report, Science, Space | No comments

Two European satellites launch on mission to blot out the Sun—for science

Two spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency launched on top of an Indian rocket Thursday, kicking off a mission to test novel formation flying technologies and observe a rarely-seen slice of the Sun’s ethereal corona. ESA’s Proba-3 mission is purely experimental. The satellites are loaded with sophisticated sensors and ranging instruments to allow the […]

December 6, 2024 | european space agency, india, isro, launch, proba-3, Science, solar eclipse, Space | No comments

NASA says Orion’s heat shield is good to go for Artemis II—but does it matter?

“We have since determined that while the capsule was dipping in and out of the atmosphere, as part of that planned skip entry, heat accumulated inside the heat shield outer layer, leading to gases forming and becoming trapped inside the heat shield,” said Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator. “This caused internal pressure to build up […]

December 6, 2024 | artemis, artemis II, bill nelson, human spaceflight, moon, NASA, orion, space launch system | No comments

New drone has legs for landing gear, enabling efficient launches

“What we meant by energy efficiency was calculating the energy input and energy output. The energy output was the kinetic energy and the potential energy at the moment of takeoff, defined as the moment when the feet of the robot stop touching the ground,” Shin explains. The energy input was calculated by measuring the power […]

December 5, 2024 | drones, Robotics, Science | No comments

Judge rejects Boeing plea deal that was opposed by families of crash victims

The compliance monitor is supposed to ensure that “Boeing implements a program designed to prevent and detect violations of US fraud laws,” O’Connor wrote. Failing to retain a monitor would violate Boeing’s probation, but O’Connor said that Boeing wouldn’t actually have to comply with the monitor’s recommendations. “[T]he plea agreement prohibits imposing as a condition […]

December 5, 2024 | 737 max, Boeing, boeing plea deal, Policy | No comments

Broadcom reverses controversial plan in effort to cull VMware migrations

Broadcom will no longer take VMware’s biggest 2,000 customers directly. Instead, it will work with VMware’s 500 biggest customers, giving channel partners the opportunity to participate in deals and provide additional value for VMware customers. The reversal is being viewed as an effort from Broadcom to discourage migrations from VMware, but there’s skepticism around how […]

December 5, 2024 | Biz & IT, Broadcom, vmware | No comments

Study: Warming has accelerated due to the Earth absorbing more sunlight

The concept of an atmospheric energy imbalance is pretty straightforward: We can measure both the amount of energy the Earth receives from the Sun and how much energy it radiates back into space. Any difference between the two results in a net energy imbalance that’s either absorbed by or extracted from the ocean/atmosphere system. And […]

December 5, 2024 | albedo, atmospheric science, climate change, Earth science, global warming, Science | No comments

AT&T says it won’t build fiber home Internet in half of its wireline footprint

AT&T planned to hit that milestone by 2025 but achieved it this year, she said. But as Johnson stressed, AT&T wants to get rid of copper in the remaining 500,000 square miles. “This is really good progress… however, without the full discontinuance of services across an entire wire center geography, we’re unable to stop the […]

December 5, 2024 | AT&T, at&t fiber, Policy | No comments

How did the CEO of an online payments firm become the nominee to lead NASA?

So how would NASA astronauts get to the Moon without the SLS rocket? Nothing is final, and the trade space is open. One possible scenario being discussed for future Artemis missions is to launch the Orion spacecraft on a New Glenn rocket into low-Earth orbit. There, it could dock with a Centaur upper stage that […]

December 5, 2024 | Features, jared isaacman, NASA, Science, Space | No comments

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