Этот Стартап занимается Созданием Сверхпроводящих Двигателей-Спутников

Сверхпроводящие спутники. Прогресс в области ядерного синтеза. Почему переоценивают эффективность искусственного интеллекта. Обо всем этом и многом другом в прототипе этой недели. Чтобы получить его в свой почтовый ящик, зарегистрируйтесь здесь.

На протяжении десятилетий доставлять предметы в космос и перемещать их, как только они там окажутся, можно было простым способом: поджигать химические вещества.

Но по мере того, как мир отказывается от использования топлива на Земле для транспортных средств, мы начинаем замечать это и в космосе. Всего несколько недель назад я писал о компании Auriga Space, которая разрабатывает электромагнитные пусковые установки для замены первой ступени ракет.

Как только спутники окажутся в космосе, ряд компаний начнут искать способы сократить количество необходимого топлива. Одним из таких проектов является Zenno Astronautics, которая разрабатывает сверхпроводящие магниты на солнечной энергии, которые могут использовать собственные магнитные поля Земли для переориентации космических аппаратов, гарантируя, что они будут направлены туда, куда им нужно.

"Чтобы мы могли процветать и быть устойчивыми в космосе за пределами Земли, мы должны научиться жить за счет ресурсов, уже имеющихся в космосе", - сказал мне генеральный директор и соучредитель Макс Аршавски.

С этой целью компания создала то, что она называет Supertorquer. Снаружи это выглядит как металлическая коробка, которую можно подключить к существующему спутнику. Используя сверхпроводники, Supertorquer создает магнитное поле, силу и направление которого можно регулировать относительно естественного магнитного поля Земли. Это, в свою очередь, изменяет ориентацию космического аппарата на орбите – топливо не требуется.

Хотя магнитная ориентация не нова, технология Zenno позволяет осуществлять ее на более высоких орбитах, где магнитное поле Земли слабее. А Supertorquer - это твердотельная технология, то есть в нем нет движущихся частей, которые со временем изнашиваются, что продлевает срок службы спутников.

Ранее в этом месяце компания объявила, что Supertorquer был установлен на Starburst-1 от Portal Space Systems, запуск которого в настоящее время запланирован на октябрь. Эта миссия даст Zenno возможность проверить еще одно потенциальное преимущество своего Supertorquer: использование магнитов для защиты чувствительных систем от радиации. Zenno представила счетчик заряженных частиц, который позволит компании проверить этот потенциал в режиме реального времени.

"We have essentially unlocked a new paradigm for space, and that paradigm is an electromagnetic platform," Arshavsky said.

On Monday, Pacific Fusion broke ground on its billion-dollar bet: an R&D campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico aimed at building a fusion reactor that can generate more energy than is put into it–on a commercial scale. Using an approach first developed at nearby Sandia National Laboratory, the company is aiming to hit that net positive milestone by 2030.

And Pacific Fusion isn’t the only company to announce a big milestone in the past few weeks. The race to be the first company to reach grid-scale fusion power is, ahem, heating up. (Get it? Because fusion reactors get really hot… Oh, never mind.)

First off, there’s Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout backed by the likes of Bill Gates, which at the tail end of July announced it had raised another billion dollars in investment, bringing its total funding to $4 billion. That capital will be used to accelerate the commercialization of its fusion technology. But it’s hardly alone in attracting the attention of investors: Japan-based Kyoto Fusioneering recently raised more than $160 million in new investment, and Wisconsin-based Shine Technologies is reportedly exploring an IPO.

While we’re still a few years away from commercial scale fusion power (or possibly decades–it’s hard to say right now!), we’re inching ever closer to the dream of nearly unlimited clean energy that the technology represents. Which just goes to show what can happen when you throw thousands of scientists and billions of dollars at a problem.

Each week, I ask investors for their take on tech trends within their industries. This week, I talked to Kristina Simmons, founder and managing partner of Overwater Ventures, which invests in early-stage startups focused on human health and sustainability.

AI is incredibly powerful, but AI for AI’s sake is overhyped. What matters is whether technology is solving a real problem. The most interesting companies start with a meaningful problem and use the best technologies available to solve it.

The intersection of AI with other breakthrough technologies. There are some amazing companies being built with AI, and we’re especially interested in problems where AI works alongside technologies like biotech, robotics, sensors, and advanced hardware. These businesses can be harder to build, but that complexity can create deeper technical differentiation and stronger long-term defensibility. We think the opportunity is then to commercialize these businesses — bringing them from R&D projects into iconic, scalable businesses that have the right application for people.

Health will be completely revolutionized in five years. A company like Adaptyx [an Overwater portfolio company - AK] is a good example: imagine knowing what is happening in your body in real time. If you can continuously monitor biomarkers and combine that data with AI, you could identify disease, inflammation, or illness far earlier than we can today. We think that creates an entirely new paradigm for healthcare, moving from a system that primarily reacts to illness toward one that continuously understands and supports our health. It will be enabled by a combination of technologies, including AI, biology, sensors, robotics, and others, and it could fundamentally change how we think about health and wellbeing.

AI dichotomy: It was interesting to read Bill Gates’ thoughts on the challenges AI will hold for the future, especially in the resulting unemployment, the very same week in which Reuters published a deeply-reported feature by Katie Paul on how Meta’s plans to drastically cut staff in favor of AI imploded. Here’s a company with thousands of technical experts, particularly in AI, whose plans failed not only because of internal employee pushback, but also because the "technology at the heart of the strategy was failing to deliver hoped-for productivity gains." Despite the market improvements in models over the past couple of years, translating those improvements into business advantages is still the major hurdle.

Anthropic vs The Pentagon, week 26: Yesterday, a federal court ruled that the Department of Defense illegally designated AI giant Anthropic a supply chain risk, calling the move "unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment." While that’s a major win for Anthropic, the Pentagon can appeal this ruling and there’s another suit pending against other aspects of the Defense Department’s decision, so it’s not over yet.

SpaceX stuff: SpaceX will launch NASA’s Roman Space Telescope this weekend, which astronomers hope will shed light on dark matter and dark energy. The company also announced it’s building "the biggest launch site on Earth" in Louisiana, with a price tag of $100 billion.

Other space tech news: Rocket manufacturer Ursa Major will be going public in a SPAC deal that values the company at $2.3 billion. And earlier I talked about Auriga Space, which has successfully tested its Hermes electromagnetic launch platform, completing over a dozen supersonic speed launches of drone interceptors.

Cool tech alerts: Researchers made cookies from plastic bottles. A team at Washington State University found a cheaper way to 3D-print space-grade alloys. MIT engineers invented reconfigurable smart devices.

Lately I’ve been giving Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love, quite a few repeat listens. I find it to be an interesting evolution for Rodrigo–the tracks are still rooted in her comfort zone of ’90s alt-rock but she’s definitely experimenting a lot more, and it works. My two favorite tracks are "stupid song" (an earworm that will not let go of my brain) and her amazing duet with the Cure’s Robert Smith, "What’s Wrong With Me."

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