Peregrine Mission 1 heralds the beginning of the moon’s commercialization

Hours before sunrise on Monday morning, United Launch Alliance’s brand spankin’ new Vulcan Centaur rocket is scheduled to make its maiden flight carrying a historic passenger: Peregrine, the first American lunar lander to be sent to the moon in over 50 years. And its mission could mark a turning point in humankind’s exploration of the cosmos. Peregrine is not a NASA spacecraft, but one developed by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, a private company. If it survives touchdown, Peregrine will be the first commercial craft to successfully land on the moon — or any planetary body outside of Earth, for that matter. Astrobotic is among a small group of companies that have been selected to carry out lunar deliveries for the space agency over the next few years as part of NASA’s new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine Mission 1, expected to launch January 8 at 2:18AM ET, is the first of these operations under a $79.5 million contract with the space agency. But it’s a wholly commercial endeavor, and alongside the five payloads it’ll deliver for NASA to support the upcoming Artemis missions, Peregrine will have cargo for other clients on board too, at a cost of $1.2 million per kilogram (roughly 2.2 pounds). That includes mini rovers and science instruments, collections of art and archival material, a physical “bitcoin” and, controversially, human remains. Peregrine is headed for the moon’s nearside, the hemisphere that is always facing Earth. The 6-foot-tall,... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2024-01-07 14:00:38 UTC ]

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With enough time, the technological challenges of sending humans to Mars and beyond are solvable. But psychologically, we’re not ready to leave our home. In 1945 British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke—now best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey—correctly predicted the invention of... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-10-22 00:00:30 UTC ]
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Read these spine-tingling works of science fiction and fantasy at your own risk. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-10-18 19:00:09 UTC ]
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Battelle's drone-dropping technology acquired by San Francisco startup

Battelle technology that can drop drones from the sky has been acquired by a San Francisco startup specializing in defense against unmanned aerial devices. Dedrone has acquired the assets to DroneDefender for undisclosed terms. Looking like a science fiction blaster, the device disrupts... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-10-08 16:38:06 UTC ]
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[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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9 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories about Music

Translating one medium into another is tricky. Music is music and art is art and dance is dance; to try to convey the power of another art in fiction is its own sleight-of-hand. My own first novel takes on that challenge. In A Song For A New Day, musician Luce Cannon was on the cusp […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-07 11:00:15 UTC ]
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These new science fiction and fantasy titles will be your perfect fall companions. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-10-04 10:36:35 UTC ]
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Continental Divide: Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019–2020

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Who is ‘The Clockwork Man’? He may be literature’s first cyborg.

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-25 20:52:59 UTC ]
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Science fiction offers a useful way to explore China-Africa relations

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Blood Quantum injects zombie horror genre with an Indigenous perspective

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Facebook is getting very, very good at faking your face

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[ Fast Company | 2019-09-04 09:00:55 UTC ]
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Maxine Peake brings warmth and likeability to raw, bitter pain in a candid tale of IVF failure

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[ The Conversation | 2019-09-03 02:31:44 UTC ]
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John W. Campbell Award Is Renamed After Winner Criticizes Him

Jeannette Ng, who won the prize this year, said the man it was named after “set the tone of science fiction that still haunts the genre.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-08-28 22:27:26 UTC ]
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Baen Books, RBmedia Partner On Audiobooks

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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