NextBigFuture.com

The new version of the BFS 100-person spaceship is longer than the old design. It is 55 meters instead of 48 meters. Mars Base Alpha pic.twitter.com/O1llQp8rFY — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September...

Ex-Australian PM Rudd says there will not be final resolution on the US-China Trade war until around Christmas. China will wait until after the election to see who it will be dealing with. The US...

Researchers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in the center of the billion-light year distant galaxy PG211+143. Black holes are so...

Engineers from The University of Texas at Austin have developed the first method for controlling motion in nanomotors – through the use of light. The capability of mechanical reconfiguration could...

For FY2018, the Air Force requested a top-line budget of $132.4 billion in Air Force-controlled funding that invests primarily in Airmen, readiness, nuclear deterrence operations, space and cyber...

Computer calculations and simulations found that materials inside neutrons stars are the strongest known material in the universe. The neutron star material is ten billion times stronger than steel....

Peter Zeihan lists problems around the world. I disagree with his conclusions and his claims of inevitability. The demographic problems identified in the age pyramids in different countries range...

Manufacturers are expanding to other regions in Asia because of rising mainland labor costs in recent years. This move is speeding up with the Trade War. Hong Kong and mainland companies are planning...

The National Space Society conducted an Internet survey of 1,075 subjects to shed light on their views regarding the desirability of living in a small space settlement in orbit close to the Earth....

China’s power consumption increased 8.8 percent in August. Total power usage is on track to about 6800 bilion kWh for all of 2018. China’s total installed power generation capacity...

China food delivery service Meituan Dianping had a $4.2 billion IPO. The company’s market cap reached about HK$400 billion (US$51 billion). Co-founder Wang Xing’s now has a net worth US$5.3 billion....

A Ping An Group spinoff has launched an online platform aimed at wealthy Singaporean clients. China’s largest companies are developing business in Southeast Asian and other international markets...

In May 2018, SpaceX’s propulsion engineering lead Tom Mueller said that flight-ready Raptor engines were already in work. The Raptor design would have to be completed and manufacturing work was...

The US Strategic Long Range Cannon (SLRC) will have a range of up to 1,150 miles. The Strategic Long Range Cannon could be a follow-up to supergun work that Gerard Bull started for Iraq from...

A unique class of engineered light-manipulating materials, known as metamaterials or structured materials, makes use of patterns of strongly interacting wavelength or sub-wavelength-sized elements....

Elon Musk indicated that his faith in humanity was greatly restored by Yusaku Maezawa. Yusaka has purchased a SpaceX BFR flight where he and artist guests will be the first civilians to fly around...

SpaceX changed the engines for the SpaceX BFS. They are all using non-vacuum engine nozzles. This reduces the amount of payload that will be taken to space in the first version. It seems to reduce it...

China plans to launch the heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-9 in 2028, said an official of China National Space Administration (CNSA) at the World Conference on Science Literacy 2018 on Tuesday....

Nextbigfuture was able to ask Rob Hoyt of Tethers Unlimited how he will be able to use 27 large high low-earth orbit satellites to provide high-speed internet directly to smartphones. The GlobalFi...

Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein says there is no credible competition for the Tesla Model 3 until 2020. In 2020, Volvo will release its all-electric Polestar 2 sedan. The Model S luxury sedan and the...

Kymeta is delivering the only commercially-available, flat-panel, electronically-steered satellite terminal. The technology is lighter weight and uses far less power than other technological...

DARPA is giving $1.3 million for a four-year study of quantized inertia (QI) for possible breakthrough space propulsion. The QI theory predicts that objects can be pushed by differences in the...

Venezuela is on the brink of ruin. The former mayor of Caracas dared to challenge President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime—and was made a public enemy. The x-mayor is living in exile in...

The Carnival of Space 579 is up at Cosmoquest. Universe Today – Cassini Data Has Revealed a Towering Hexagonal Storm at Saturn’s Northern Pole Universe Today – Europan Space Whales...

Asian-American population will reach 25.7 million by 2019. Asian-Americans will outnumber U.S. Hispanics by 2055 according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. There are about 22.3 million Asian...

North Korea offers to permanently abolish its key missile facilities in the presence of foreign experts, in a new gesture by leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering talks with Washington over his...

In 2017, Bitcoin enjoyed a historic and unprecedented price run, as its value increased from $900 to $20,000 in just 12 months. Towards the end of this run, the number of daily Bitcoin transactions...

The stablecoin market has been interesting to follow for the most cynical reasons. Due to the memory of the internet bubble from 1995-2000, many investors are aware of the dynamics of technology hype...

Heritage is a blockchain-enabled donation platform created by A^3, the Silicon Valley part of Airbus, the aerospace/flight company. Airbus is providing a decentralized application to accept and...

James Peyer has been a scientist, entrepreneur, and advisor to biotechs and pharma companies, always with a specialization for developing new classes of therapeutics. James founded Apollo to support...

SpaceX and other commercial companies have talked about launching thousands of satellites for massive global internet networks. The US military will not be left behind in the shift from a few big...

The Secretary of the US Air Force presented a plan to grow the Air Force from 312 squadrons today to 386 by 2030. This is 24% larger. The strategy is based on estimates of the expected threat by 2025...

The Philippines National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) sees 7-8% GDP growth making the Philippines an upper middle-income country by 2019 which would be 3 years ahead of a 2022 target. A...

IEA (International Energy Agency) and Saudi Arabia oil prices will go and stay above $80 per barrel as output from Venezuela and Iran drops. Saudi Arabia lifted output by 70,000 barrels a day to...

China uses electricity instead of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to boost the growth of vegetables and fruits. Electricity boosted vegetable output by 20 to 30 percent. Pesticide use has...

Singapore got independence from Britain in 1959 and was poor. Now it is among the top richest countries on per capita GDP basis. They also had a lot of poor slums. In 1960 they set up a Housing Board...

UBS analyst expects the tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese exports to take 0.5 to 0.7% off of China’s GDP growth. China will use easing and infrastructure projects to add back 0.3 to 0.5% of...

SpaceX is currently spending 5% of its resources on the BFR development. This will change and increase over time. Dragon 2 is scheduled for an uncrewed launch in December. The crewed flight is...

Elon has favored the design of the BFR to be like the spaceship from TinTin. The first SpaceX BFR to go to Mars will be named the Heart of Gold. This is named after the ship from Hitchhikers Guide to...

The top of the SpaceX BFR is the BFS (Big Falcon Spaceship) has three mini-wings with landing pads. It also has 7 Raptor engines. Two of wing-legs actuate. The major design decisions should now be...

Nextbigfuture wrote two days ago that its favorite pick of Japanese Billionaries was Yusaku Maezawa. SpaceX just announced he was the one who would be the SpaceX BFR tourist who will fly around the...

By 2030, two-thirds of the world’s population will be global middle class or wealthier (5.6 billion out of 8.5 billion). Asia will be over 75% global middle class or rich in 2030. By 2050, the...

PD Aerospace is a Japanese startup that is trying to build reusable spaceplanes. They want to reduce the cost of access to space by 100 times. They want to create sub-orbital space tourism. They want...

The USA produced 70% of the oil in the world in WW2. 20% of the oil was produced by the Soviet Union. The British did not surrender and used its navy to blockade Germany’s oil imports. Germany...

iMorpheus, the anonymous cryptographer and the founder of TAU Coin and their new Proof of Transaction (PoT) technology reveals his identity. PoT, the technology invented by iMorpheus, is a brand-new...

Elon Musk tweeted out new SpaceX BFR pictures with an updated design. There are three fins now on the upper half spaceship. Someone noted that the grid fins were missing. Elon Musk call that a good...

Venezeula is producing about 1.24 million barrels of oil per day in August. This is half of the oil production that Venezuela had in 2016. The US has two states and the Gulf of Mexico that is...

The United States passed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest crude oil producer earlier this year, based on preliminary estimates in EIA’s (Energy Information Administration). EIA...

Mike Dunn talked about the use of lava tubes for the Moon and Mars habitats. Mike has worked on The Mars Lava Tube Pressurization Project’s (MLTPP). The lunar soil is 40% oxygen. Lunar cement could...

A magnetic railgun that is only ten meters long can launch from the moon to Mars. It can have less than half the speed of the US Navy railgun. It only needs 3 kilometers per second versus 7...