AP Top Science News at 6:08 p.m. EDT
NASA is seeking a faster, cheaper way to bring Mars samples to Earth
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Yahoo NewsA rare 'devil comet' will reach peak brightness this weekend. Here's how you can see it.
On Sunday, the rare devil comet will reach its closest point to the sun, creating an illuminating sky show. Here is how skygazers can watch it.
- Yahoo Finance
NASA administrator: China’s space ambitions pose threat of land grab on the moon
NASA administrator Bill Nelson raised concerns about the risk of the US falling behind in the global space race as Beijing pushes ahead with its ambitions to land astronauts on the moon.
- Yahoo Finance
Firefly CEO sees 'enough demand' for fully commercial lunar missions independent of NASA
Firefly CEO Bill Weber thinks the private space company will soon be able to conduct round-trip commercial moon missions without funding from NASA.
- TechCrunch
Gravitics to develop 'tactically responsive' orbital platforms for the Space Force
Space station module developer Gravitics scored a $1.7 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to develop orbital platforms to enable responsive space missions. The initiative is called tactically responsive space, or TacRS, and it's already resulted in record-breaking missions: Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket left the pad just 27 hours after it received its launch notice from the Space Force under its TacRS contract last year. While Gravitics was unable to provide more details as to the exact concept of operations, startup co-founder and CMO Mike DeRosa did clarify in an email that the company is not putting a module on a rocket for a tactically responsive launch.
- TechCrunch
Microsoft and Quantinuum say they've ushered in the next era of quantum computing
Using Quantinuum's ion-trap hardware and Microsoft's new qubit-virtualization system, the team was able to run more than 14,000 experiments without a single error. This new system also allowed the team to check the logical qubits and correct any errors it encountered without destroying the logical qubits. This, the two companies say, has now moved the state-of-the-art of quantum computing out of what has typically been dubbed the era of noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) computers.
- TechCrunch
Space startups are licking their lips after NASA converts $11B Mars mission into a free-for-all
NASA administrator Bill Nelson has pronounced the agency's $11 billion, 15-year mission to collect and return samples from Mars insufficient. "The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away," Nelson said at a press conference. In other words, clear the decks and start over — with commercial providers on board from the get-go.
- TechCrunch
Snowflake releases a flagship generative AI model of its own
All-around, highly generalizable generative AI models were the name of the game once, and they arguably still are. Case in point: Snowflake, the cloud computing company, today unveiled Arctic LLM, a generative AI model that's described as "enterprise-grade." Available under an Apache 2.0 license, Arctic LLM is optimized for "enterprise workloads," including generating database code, Snowflake says, and is free for research and commercial use.
- Yahoo News
Total solar eclipse: Watch the moment of totality across the U.S.
Watch livestream video of the solar eclipse.
- Engadget
Physicist Peter Higgs, who predicted 'the God particle', has died at 94
Peter Higgs, the famous physicist who predicted the Higgs boson particle, has passed away at the age of 94. He won the Nobel Prize in 2013 for his research.
- TechCrunch
Internal pre-Starlink SpaceX financials show big spending on moonshot bets
Confidential financial statements from SpaceX for 2018 and 2019 capture an early glimpse at the degree to which the company is likely dependent on its Starlink business unit, and bringing the Starship rocket online, to become cash flow positive. While the comprehensive balance sheets are five years old, they provide an intimate look inside the operations of arguably one of the most important, and secretive, private companies in the U.S. And they help shed light on what the company spent money on, and how much, as SpaceX grew itself from an unprofitable $2 billion in revenue to, reportedly, $9 billion for 2023 with a projected $15 billion in 2024 and $3 billion in earnings, sources familiar told Bloomberg in November. 2018 and 2019 were pivotal years for the company: In February 2018, SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time; the following March, the company nailed a pivotal flight test of its crew Dragon capsule, but exploded that same capsule a month later during ground testing.
- TechCrunch
Sundar Pichai on the challenge of innovating in a huge company and what he's excited about this year
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took the stage on Wednesday at a Stanford event held by the university's business school, offering some small insights into what he thinks about running one of the world's most valuable tech companies. It was a notable appearance because Pichai's been having a bit of a rough go lately. Google is widely perceived to have gotten a late start on generative AI, trailing behind Microsoft-funded OpenAI.
- TechCrunch
TechCrunch Space: Engineering the future
Don't worry -- we'll be diving into the Mars Sample Return news shortly. This week's SOTW segment is dedicated to Mars Sample Return, NASA's troubled and ambitious plan to bring Martian rock and dust back to Earth. NASA administrator Bill Nelson has pronounced the agency’s $11 billion, 15-year plan to collect and return samples from Mars insufficient.
- Engadget
The Morning After: NASA has to make a time zone for the Moon
The biggest news stories this morning: Our favorite cheap smartphone is on sale for $250 right now, OnePlus rolls out its own version of Google’s Magic Eraser, How to watch (and record) the solar eclipse on April 8.
- TechCrunch
Proxima Fusion raises $21M to build on its 'stellarator' approach to nuclear fusion
Venture capitalists' appetite for fusion startups has been up and down in the last few years. For instance, the Fusion Industry Association found that while nuclear fusion companies had attracted over $6 billion in investment in 2023, $1.4 billion more than in 2022, the 27% growth proved slower than in 2022, as investors battled external fears such as inflation. The field reached a significant milestone in 2022 when the Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility managed to bring about a fusion reaction that produced more power than was required to spark a fuel pellet.
- Yahoo Sports
Formula 1: Miami Grand Prix sends cease and desist letter to prevent Donald Trump fundraiser during race
Race organizers say they'll revoke a Trump fundraiser's suite license if he holds an event for the former president on Sunday at the race.
- Yahoo Sports
NFL Draft: Packers fan upset with team's 1st pick, and Lions fans hilariously rubbed it in
Not everyone was thrilled with their team's draft on Thursday night.
- Yahoo Sports
NFL Draft: Bears take Iowa punter, who immediately receives funny text from Caleb Williams
There haven't been many punters drafted in the fourth round or higher like Tory Taylor just was. Chicago's No. 1 overall pick welcomed him in unique fashion.
- Yahoo Sports
NFL to allow players to wear protective Guardian Caps in games beginning with 2024 season
The NFL will allow players to wear protective Guardian Caps during games beginning with the 2024 season. The caps were previously mandated for practices.
- Yahoo Sports
The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is here — and it already has problems
There is cause for excitement around the new playoff format. There's also lots of complaints and criticism to go around.
- Yahoo Sports
Korey Cunningham, former NFL lineman, found dead in New Jersey home at age 28
Cunningham played 31 games in the NFL with the Cardinals, Patriots and Giants.