🇺🇸 SpaceX is getting ready to attempt something absolutely INSANE: REFUELING TWO STARSHIPS IN ORBIT.

The company is targeting the first half of 2027, potentially as early as FEBRUARY, for its first orbital docking and refueling demonstration.

Two massive spacecraft will have to meet in space, dock, and transfer super-cold rocket propellant between them.

This is one of the BIGGEST technological hurdles standing between humanity and a return to the Moon, with enormous implications for future missions to Mars.

If SpaceX pulls this off, it could fundamentally change how humanity travels through space.

@futurism 🧬

🚀 Japan is going after rocks from a Martian moon

Japan’s H3 rocket is flying the MMX spacecraft from Tanegashima toward Phobos and Deimos. The JAXA-led mission, with NASA, ESA, CNES and DLR, aims to bring home at least 10 grams of Phobos soil — the first samples ever returned from the Martian system.

After arriving in Mars orbit, MMX will study both moons up close, then collect material from Phobos. A small return capsule is planned to land in Woomera, Australia.

The samples are meant to test whether Phobos is a captured asteroid or debris from Mars.

@futurism 🧬

🤖 The robot stops when a hand blocks the microwave

In Aether AI’s home demo, CRIS-0 pauses as a hand crosses a closing microwave door, waits, then finishes the task. It also pulls a metal can off a plate before heating. The company says the system predicts what each move will change and replans when reality does not match. Its speed and success figures come from Aether’s own internal tests.

@futurism 🧬

⚠️Humanoid robots are learning to carry packages like humans

Amazon researchers, working with UC San Diego and the University of Michigan, developed Whole-Body Dexterity (WBD), a system that teaches robots to use their arms and torso to carry bulky packages while keeping their hands free.

Tested on a Unitree G1 humanoid, the robot learned to tuck a box under one arm, carry it from a shelf to a table, and place it down.

Across 50 real-world trials, WBD achieved 90% success, compared with 18% for direct retargeting and just 4% for a generalist controller.

For robots working in warehouses and delivery, using the whole body could be just as important as having dexterous hands.

@futurism 🧬

“Engineering is the closest thing to magic that exists in the world.”

~ Elon Musk

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🇨🇳 This Chinese-made spherical robot hits 36 km/h, weighs 180 kg, delivers 1-ton impact for door breaking, and is used in airports, petroleum, and public security patrols with GPS, speaker, and radar.

@futurism 🧬

🇺🇸 U.S. researchers built a first of its kind superconducting, brain inspired chip that can process 1 million fusion plasma samples per second, detecting abnormal behavior and predicting instabilities fast enough to potentially enable real time control of future fusion reactors.

A 10x larger version is already being developed for testing in 2027.

Source.

@futurism 🧬

🚑Three humanoid robots join a surgical team.

Samsung Medical Center in South Korea demonstrated three humanoid robots working together during a simulated gallbladder operation using goat liver tissue.

One robot performed incisions and suturing under remote surgeon control, another handled surgical instruments, while the third managed the laparoscope and retracted tissue to keep the surgical field visible.

The project, ORchestra, aims to begin clinical trials in 2029. For now, the technology remains in development.

Meanwhile, Samsung is reportedly targeting a humanoid robot prototype unveiling at CES 2027, while Elon Musk predicts Tesla’s Optimus could outperform the best human surgeons within roughly three years.

@futurism 🧬

NASA is testing a solar sail spacecraft that uses sunlight for propulsion, without conventional fuel.

Launched aboard a Rocket Lab rocket, it demonstrates a new way to travel through space. Future solar sail technology could help spacecraft reach Mars in as little as 26 days.

@futurism 🧬

👅 Scientists built an artificial tongue that tastes and learns

Scientists have developed an artificial tongue that can recognize sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes while improving its ability to distinguish them through learning.

What makes this technology interesting is that it combines taste sensing and machine learning in a single compact system. In experiments, it has reportedly been able to distinguish complex drinks such as coffee and cola with accuracy comparable to human performance.

The system is inspired by how our own taste receptors detect chemical signals and how the brain interprets them. Rather than simply measuring a substance, it can learn to recognize increasingly complex taste patterns.

The potential applications go far beyond food. Artificial taste sensors could help robots analyze liquids, improve food safety testing and detect chemical compounds or potential disease markers in saliva.

Researchers may also eventually explore whether this technology could contribute to solutions for people who have lost their sense of taste.

@futurism 🧬

⚠️Quantum computing may be moving beyond the freezer

Quantum technology typically requires extremely cold temperatures to function. Now, researchers have developed a tiny gold-and-glass quantum chip that can operate at room temperature.

The breakthrough could pave the way for smaller, simpler quantum devices that are easier and cheaper to build, potentially removing one of the major engineering challenges facing the technology.

This is not a complete room-temperature quantum computer. It’s a promising step toward quantum devices that could operate without the bulky cooling systems used by many existing technologies.

Quantum computing may still have a long way to go, but breakthroughs like this could bring it closer to practical, everyday applications.

@futurism 🧬

Unitree casts the new H2-X as a robot superhero: confronting a knife-wielding intruder, lifting a car to free a dummy and pushing a child-sized doll out of traffic.

These are, of course, staged scenes, not proof of autonomous rescue skills. But quite an action-movie pitch for a humanoid.

@futurism 🧬

🙃 Elon Musk just gave a huge update on Starship:

SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship ship on Flight 15.

"If we succeed, this will be the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered. This is a massive technology milestone"

"The only way that we can extend consciousness beyond Earth on a sustained basis is with a fully reusable orbital launch vehicle"

@futurism 🧬

🇨🇳 The Chinese drone team smashed two Guinness World Records in the US. They've brought stunning drone shows for three nights in Texas.

71,207 drones: Most drones launched in a week; 10,183 drones: Largest aerial display of a mythical creature formed by drones.

@futurism 🧬

🇨🇳 Chinese AI robotic guide dog supports full voice interaction and autonomous navigation, guiding visually impaired users safely with smart route planning and real-time voice prompts.

Do you think this tech will help more blind people go out freely? 🤔

@futurism 🧬

👩‍🚀 Four NASA volunteers have now spent an entire year sealed inside a fake Mars base.

They've grown crops, done simulated Marswalks and have only talked to their families through delayed emails.

They get out October 31st

@futurism 🧬

Elon Musk says money will become irrelevant and future currency will be measured in power, mass and energy.

“I think currency will be measured in fundamental physics metrics like, you know, power, like wattage and tonnage, mass and energy.”

@futurism 🧬

Elon Musk shared this incredible footage of how SpaceX plans to catch the Starship.

@futurism 🧬