Author: The Conversation

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has recently commissioned three private companies, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, to develop nuclear fission thermal rockets for use in lunar orbit. Such a development, if flown, could usher in a new era of spaceflight. That said, it is only one of several exciting avenues in rocket propulsion. Here are some others. Chemical rockets The standard means of propulsion for spacecraft uses chemical rockets. There are two main types: solid fuelled (such as the solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle), and liquid fuelled (such as the Saturn V). In both cases, a chemical reaction…

Chinese technology provider Huawei was recently accused of being able to monitor all calls made using Dutch mobile operator KPN. The revelations are from a secret 2010 report made by consultancy firm Capgemini, which KPN commissioned to evaluate the risks of working with Huawei infrastructure. While the full report on the issue has not been made public, journalists reporting on the story have outlined specific concerns that Huawei personnel in the Netherlands and China had access to security-essential parts of KPN’s network – including the call data of millions of Dutch citizens – and that a lack of records meant KPN couldn’t establish how often this…

Life outside our living rooms has been in short supply since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s no surprise that people have increasingly turned to producing and consuming social media posts that focus on food. With limited access to our favourite restaurants, cafés or fast-food joints, social media has become a safe way for people to get their culinary fix. But what is it about videos of food that engages users and generates the most likes, comments and shares? Our recent investigation, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, focused on the nutritional makeup of dishes depicted on social…

China’s space program is making impressive progress. The country only launched its first crewed flight in 2003, more than 40 years after the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. China’s first Mars mission was in 2020, half a century after the US Mariner 9 probe flew past the red planet. But the rising Asian superpower is catching up fast: flying missions to the Moon and Mars; launching heavy-lift rockets; building a new space telescope set to fly in 2024; and, most recently, putting the first piece of the Tiangong space station (the name means Heavenly Palace) into orbit. What is the Tiangong space station? Tiangong is the successor to China’s…

Want to be a space tourist? Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest bidder. Blue Origin and its two greatest competitors in the “space tourism” field, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, claim to be advancing humanity through the “democratisation” of space. But these joyrides aren’t opening up access to space for all. A changing landscape At face value, the prospect of a space tourism industry is exciting. It promises an easier path to space than the one followed by astronauts, who must go through higher education, intense training and extremely competitive selection processes.…

When it comes to dancing, pulling a sled, climbing stairs or doing tricks, “Spot” is definitely a good dog. It can navigate the built environment and perform a range of tasks, clearly demonstrating its flexibility as a software and hardware platform for commercial use. Viral videos of Boston Dynamics’ robotic quadruped showcasing those abilities have been a key pillar of its marketing strategy. But earlier this year, when a New York art collective harnessed Spot to make a different point, the company was quick to deny its potential for harm. The project, “Spot’s Rampage”, involved fitting a sample of the…

For more than 15 years, there have been various predictions from tech leaders about the death of passwords. Bill Gates predicted it back in 2004 and Microsoft has predicted it for 2021. There have been numerous similar proclamations in between, alongside ongoing criticism of passwords as an inadequate means of protection. Yet passwords remain a common aspect of cybersecurity, something people use every day. What’s more, passwords show little sign of disappearing yet. But many people still use them badly and seem unaware of recommended good practice. World Password Day on May 6 is a good time to reflect on our use of passwords and…

Ancient humans stored information in cave paintings, the oldest we know of are over 40,000 years old. As humans evolved, the emergence of languages and the invention of writing led to detailed information being stored in various written forms, culminating with the invention of paper in China around the first century AD. The oldest printed books appeared in China between AD600 and AD900. For over a millennium, books remained the main source of information storage. Humans achieved more technological development in the past 150 years than during the previous 2,000 years. Arguably one of the most important developments in human history was the…

The ABC’s latest Four Corners report is an investigation into how video games are “deliberately designed to get people hooked”. It describes the use of gambling-like “loot boxes” in games, the hotly debated notion of video game addiction and, to a lesser extent, the “predatory techniques” of using user data and AI to increase spending in freemium games (free to play games which are monetised through in-app transactions and advertising). The process of monetising and collecting data through video games does require scrutiny, as it can be problematic for some users. But in working out what the harms are, we shouldn’t lose sight of…

Have you ever wondered what flirting with artificial intelligence would look like? Research scientist and engineer Janelle Shane has given us an idea by training a neural network – an algorithm loosely inspired by biological brain structures – to produce chat-up lines. Some of the results are hilarious and completely nonsensical, such as the inelegant: “2017 Rugboat 2-tone Neck Tie Shirt”. But some of them turned out pretty well. At least, if you’re a robot: I can tell by your red power light that you’re into me. You look like a thing and I love you. Can I see your parts list? But…