NextBigFuture.com

The ribbon solar sail will be a solar sail design using a thin film strip embedded with diffractive gratings. It is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project. This configuration leverages diffraction to cancel out normal photonic pressure components, allowing thrust to align along the ribbon's length when oriented at a tilt to incoming sunlight. ... Read more

Starshade-based methods, both for in-space observatories like the Habitable Worlds Observer or ground-based observatories, have the potential to increase our observational capability without launching ever increasing telescope apertures. Construction of these starshades with the necessary low mass, stability, precision, launch volume, and size (>100m for some missions) remains a challenge, since loading can be significant ... Read more

Official SpaceX Starship ten launch was scrubbed for weather on Monday. UPDATE : 23 Minutes from the Tuesday launch attempt. Elon Musk says anyone can come and visit the rocket. There is a public highway that is very close. You cannot come close during a launch but at other times. SpaceX will be building the ... Read more

SpaceX Starship test launch 10 was delayed from yesterday to today. They had an liquid oxygen leak that could not be repaired in the 60 minute launch window. The new launch attempt is about 4 hours from now. This launch could be transformational for SpaceX. If they can deploy dummy Version 3 Starlink satellites, then ... Read more

NASA proposes to pioneer a radically new approach to mitigating radiation-induced cell damage in astronauts by transplanting new undamaged mitochondria (critical radiation-sensitive cell organelles) isolated from each individual pre-exposure. Replacing mitochondria could fix radiation damage and it can fix aging damage. This would help against cardiovascular disease and Alzheimers. There are early voluntary trials of ... Read more

Newark, United States, 25th August 2025, CyberNewsWire

Dover, DE, United States, 25th August 2025, CyberNewsWire

Musk announced that xAI's Colossus 2 will be the world's first gigawatt-plus AI training supercomputer and this will be used to start training XAI Grok 5 next month (September 2025). Elon says Colossus 2 has a non-trivial chance of achieving AGI. He says xAI is close to having all the pieces in place for AGI. ... Read more

Nick Bostrom discussing his new book *Deep Utopia* (2024), which builds on his earlier work *Superintelligence* (2014). He explores a post-singularity future where superintelligence solves humanity's major challenges like disease, scarcity, and mortality. Bostrom outlines optimistic scenarios, potential pitfalls, and broader philosophical implications. The discussion covers AI alignment, governance, moral considerations for digital minds, cosmic ... Read more

XAI Grok 1 launched in November 2023 using rented Oracle GPUs, but xAI shifted to in-house builds due to compute shortages. Colossus 1 in Memphis: Built in a former Electrolux factory, it reached 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs in 122 days (May 3 to September 2, 2024). It expanded to 230,000 GPUs (including H200s and GB200s) ... Read more

SpaceX Starship 10 was scrubbed on Sunday. UPDATE: The new launch is for Monday and should launch in about 4 hours. SpaceX is standing down from today's tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems. The launch window for Booster 16 and Ship 37 opens at 6:30PM CT local ... Read more

SpaceX Starship 10 should launch today and they will try again to deploy dummy versions of Starlink Version 3 satellites. This could open up 5 times better cost to orbit even if the booster and the upper stage get lost after each payload is deployed. UPDATE: Live launch coverage will start in about two hours ... Read more

NASA NIAC has funded studying the development of a constellation of spacecraft powered by the Helicity Drive, a compact and scalable fusion propulsion system. In April 2, 2024 - Helicity Space had an investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture capital arm of Lockheed Martin. This was after a $5 million seed round of Helicity ... Read more

NASA NIAC is developing X-ray imaging in crucial wavelengths that will be a million times better for observing key aspects of a super massive black hole. We still know very little about giant supermassive black holes (SMBH). After 30 years of study, we don't know precisely how these objects produce their power. This requires observations ... Read more

The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) projecst that increases in tariffs implemented during the period from January 6, 2025, to August 19 will decrease primary deficits (which exclude net outlays for interest) by $3.3 trillion if the higher tariffs persist for the 20252035 period. This will also reduce federal outlays for interest by an additional $0.7 ... Read more

As of August 2025, no truck maker or startup has deployed autonomous platooning of semi trucks where the following trucks operate without any human drivers at any location. Platooning will have no drivers in the trucks following a lead truck. Drivers in a convoy will share the driving of the lead truck. This can increase ... Read more

On August 22, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada will remove many of its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA, also known as USMCA), effective September 1. This affects over 85% of bilateral trade, exempting it from tariffs, and is intended to de-escalate tensions and intensify negotiations for ... Read more

The tenth test flight of SpaceX Starship is scheduled for Sunday, August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. CT. The booster on this flight test is attempting several flight experiments to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios. The Super Heavy booster will attempt these experiments while on ... Read more

There is an intermediate step before fully automated self-driving (FSD) trucking and that is automated truck platooning, where multiple Tesla Semi trucks follow a lead vehicle with only one driver for a whole fleet. This is enabled by advanced FSD software available in 2025. This would be significant scale starting in late 2026, leveraging Tesla's ... Read more

xAI added Grok 4 powered vending machine in its office, in partnership with Andon Labs. XAI Grok 4 beat OpenAI GPT-5 in real world vending machine operation This shows Grok 4's long-term coherence syccess. Managing a long running business scenario in this case would include balance inventories, place orders, set prices, and handle daily fees ... Read more

Brian and Cern Basher had a deep dives into why Tesla robo-trucking (autonomous electric semis) may be an even bigger profit driver than robo-taxis: Cern adapted his robotaxi financial models for trucking. Tesla's robo-trucks are overlooked but could be as big or bigger than robo-taxis in revenue, profit, and market value. Profitability Comparison: $40k Tesla ... Read more

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 20th August 2025, CyberNewsWire

Tesla has applied to get government support for a series of 9 megacharging stations from California to Texas. Tesla-Owned or Operated Megacharging Installations These are primarily at Tesla's Gigafactories for testing and production support: Giga Nevada (Sparks, NV): Early Megachargers installed as far back as 2021 for Semi prototyping and testing. Expanded for ongoing operations. ... Read more

There is a 119 page report of the Run on Less Electric depot 2023 event. Tesla Semi operated by Pepsi had 1600 miles driven over 2 days in 2023 in real world tests with Pepsi and several 1000+ mile days in 24 hours. In the 2 years after, Tesla and Pepsi have improved megacharging and ... Read more

Everyone is missing the potential profitability and stock impact of Tesla's Semi truck equipped with Full Self-Driving (FSD), transforming it into a robotruck. FSD is making solid progress in Austin and FSD 14 will be released in September with 10X the parameters. Test pilot production has started for Tesla Semi as the factory in Nevada ... Read more

Dylan Patel, founder of SemiAnalysis, talks about the AI hardware landscape, GPT-5, business models, and the future of AI infrastructure with A16z Venture partners. Dylan covers Nvidia's dominance, reactions to OpenAI's GPT-5, monetization strategies, and threats from custom silicon. Nvidia has unassailable advantages in AI hardware: superior networking, high-performance memory (HBM), process nodes, time-to-market, ramp-up ... Read more

Tesla will be achieving huge milestones over the next 60 days with autonomy and getting back on track with car production and deliveries. They will release FSD 14 with ten times the parameters which should increase the miles to intervention by about four times. The Tesla robotaxi service in Austin and ridesharing service in the ... Read more

Andrew Duggleby, co-founder and CTO of Venus Aerospace, discusses their groundbreaking propulsion technology. They have a ramjet integrated with a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) which they call the Venus Detonation Ramjet (VDR2). This will enable hypersonic flight (up to Mach 6-10) from conventional runways, with emphasis on efficiency, challenges, and innovations. It could also ... Read more

Professor Zhang Zhiqian revealed a plan for a Pregnancy Robot in 2026. He has developing pregnancy robots for over 2 years after establishing a corporation in Hong Kong. I don't believe this has been done. He cites work for premature babies and premature animals. The ethical path to an artificial womb and pregnancy robot would ... Read more

Grok 4 had lower lmarena scores than I had projected based upon the amount AI training compute used. I had projections for Grok 3.5 which was renamed Grok 4. We do not have elo lmarena score for Grok 4 heavy. My old projection had assumed what will now be called Grok 5 was called Grok ... Read more

There is technology being perfected to make particle accelerators 100-1000 times lower cost. This would enable production of nuclear material for space propulsion that could reach up to 0.5% of light speed or more. Scientists at DESY now report some of the first signs that PWA (Plasma Wakefield Accelerators) is ready to compete with traditional ... Read more

Jim Bickford is leading the Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) project to develop a system for propelling a craft through space faster and farther than ever before. This technology has the potential to enable speeds of 0.5% of light speed and near term capability for 0.1% of light speed. This would be ten ... Read more

NASA NIAC funded the Thin-Film Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER). By May 2025, it advanced to Phase II, focusing on maturing the technology, mission designs, small-scale thruster experiments, and isotope production pathways in collaboration with Northwestern University, Yale University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for hybrid architectures. A single stage ... Read more

John Mather, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is designing the first family of ISEE's (Inflatable Starshade for Earthlike Exoplanets) with sizes from 35 to 100 meters in diameter. A starshade would enable any telescope to observe exoplanets, a top priority for astronomy worldwide. Compared with other starshade concepts, they aim for a lower mass, cost ... Read more

The resurgence of nuclear energy is driven by the massive power demands of AI data centers. Needing 150 GW annually by 2030 with a 100 GW gap by 2028. This means adding all of the current power of the USA and Europe in the 2030s. Covering the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) initiative to fast-track ... Read more

As of August 16, 2025, there are 16 companies in the top 50 most valuable (by market capitalization) that are not headquartered or predominantly in the United States. This includes Saudi Aramco, TSMC, Tencent, Alibaba and Mitsubishi. China has 5 in the top 50. Europe has 7. SpaceX has a valuation of $400 billion. OpenAI ... Read more

As of mid-2025, the US economy remains the world's largest by nominal GDP, valued at approximately $30.5 trillion, compared to China's $19.2 trillion-making the US economy about 1.59 times larger. China's economy leads in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. China continues to have more GDP growth than the USA. China has stimulus measures, export strength, ... Read more

CATL has three groundbreaking EV batteries but the most important is Sodium ion batteries that could lower the cost of batteries. Chinese engineers at CATL have begun mass-producing sodium-ion cells at their new 30GWh facility in Fujian province. Chery and BYD will start using them in a few months. CATL's first-gen sodium batteries already power ... Read more

The SpaceX Falcon 9 could be used to launch Crew Dragon to LEO, followed by a crew transfer to HLS/Starship for the lunar leg instead of using SLS and Orion. However, for long-term sustainability and cost-efficiency, transitioning to a full-Starship system makes more sense, as it eliminates dependencies and maximizes reuse. Zubrin's Gray Dragon Plan ... Read more

There is robotics revolution in manufacturing, with a focus on Tesla, Foxconn and Nvidia as major players driving the shift toward AI-driven and robotic factories. Key points: The U.S. is entering a new era of manufacturing powered by automation, AI, and robotics, aiming to reshore production and increase efficiency. Foxconn and Amazon have experimented with ... Read more

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell assured NASA Administrator Sean Duffy that the Human Landing System (HLS) variant of Starship (Lunar Starship) remains on track for NASA's Artemis 3 mission, currently targeted for 2027, despite potential distractions or delays. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell gave a guarantee that Starship HLS will be ready on the current schedule for ... Read more

There is a new sorting algorithm a deterministic O(m log2/3 n)-time algorithm for single-source shortest paths (SSSP) on directed graphs with real non-negative edge weights in the comparison-addition model. This is the first result to break the O(m + n log n) time bound of Dijkstra's algorithm on sparse graphs, showing that Dijkstra's algorithm is ... Read more

OpenAI GPT5 had better performance for some users like Theo at launch and before. However, it has gotten substantially worse as OpenAI has tried to address issues. Also, OpenAI was too aggressive with the removal of old models which they had to reverse. The coding and other actual experiences have shown far less improvement and ... Read more

SpaceX has the first grid fin for the next generation Super Heavy booster. The redesigned grid fins are 50% larger and higher strength, moving from four fins to three for vehicle control while enabling the booster to descend at higher angles of attack. They'll also be used for vehicle lift and catch, made possible by ... Read more

United Launch Alliance launch of a Vulcan rocket with a military payload has successfully taken off. We will see if the actual satellite deployment is successful.

ROBOTERA Unveils L7: Next-Generation Full-Size Bipedal Humanoid Robot has powerful mobility and dexterous manipulation. They are a Chinese humanoid robotics startup founded in August 2023 and spun out of Tsinghua University, China's top university. They raised around CNY 500 million (approximately USD 70 million) in a Series A funding round led by CDH Investments and ... Read more

Tesla is passing Waymo in the next two or four months. The expansion of Tesla robotaxi services in the SF Bay Area and Austin to allow open usage to whoever wants to book will require 2 to 5 cars per square mile. This means 2000-5000 ridesharing vehicles for the 1000+ square miles of the SF ... Read more

DARPA and the Navy had envisioned hyper-efficient cargo planes able to move thousands of tons by leveraging extra lift by flying close to the ground. Regent craft has a working 12 passenger version and has sales for a 100 passenger seaplane that would be about three times more fuel efficient than other planes. They do ... Read more

Figure AI videos of the Helix Humanoid Robot loading washing machines in a residential setting and sorting objects from a conveyor belt for industrial settings.

London, United Kingdom, 11th August 2025, CyberNewsWire