AI is beginning to do physical work, commercial payload delivery to the Lunar surface is now a reality, fusion gets closer and closer to producing electrical power, Starship is about to fly again, and we have just developed the power to image electrons!
Explore President Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system. Is this ambitious $175B initiative a revolutionary step towards peace and technological advancement, or does it face insurmountable challenges? Brian Lantz weighs in on the strategic implications and the 'Art of the Deal' approach.
Our Future: Revolutionary Progress Marks Beginning of Golden Age
AI is beginning to do physical work, commercial payload delivery to the Lunar surface is now a reality, fusion gets closer and closer to producing electrical power, Starship is about to fly again, and we have just developed the power to image electrons!
Figure's humanoid, AI-controlled robot loads parts on a cradle for further work by "dumb and dangerous robots" at the BMW factory in South Carolina. The humanoids are now working 10-hour shifts in this dangerous job. See the video below.
What a time to be alive! This really is President Trump's Golden Age—and it's just getting started. If you are a young person, find a way to participate in developing some of the fields discussed below. You won't regret it.
Posts in today's report:
Starship/Superheavy To Fly Again Tuesday?
Helion Making Steady Progress to Fusion Electricity Output
Interlune Aims To Return Thousands of Liters of Helium-3 From The Moon
U of Michigan Laser Reaches 2 Petawatt Output And NIF Doubles Fusion Power Release
U of Arizona Team Builds Microscope Which Can Image Electrons!
Microsoft Develops 5th State of Matter And New Materials Bring Quantum Computing to Product Stage
Robotic Advances
Two Private Landers Deliver NASA Payloads to The Moon
This Superheavy booster will fly again next week.
Starship/Superheavy To Fly Again Tuesday?
The SpaceX Starship/Superheavy Flight 9 may take place as early as the evening of May 27th. The flight will feature the first reflight of a Superheavy vehicle, Booster 14, which previously launched on Flight 7. Of the 33 Raptor engines on the booster, 29 have flown before. For this launch, neither the Superheavy nor the Starship will be caught by the tower. The FAA has approved as many as 25 flights from Starbase, Texas this year.
The Starship upper stage will attempt to perform the first reentry of a Block 2 Starship that features upgraded flaps and many other changes. The two previous Block 2 Starship upper-stage prototypes did not complete their engine burns, and this mission will attempt to fire the Starship engines for the full intended duration. The successful development of the Starship system is a prerequisite for all plans for humans colonization of the Moon and Mars.
Helion Making Steady Progress to Fusion Electricity Output
Helion reports that its Polaris fusion reactor is being brought up to full power, and has formed the largest field reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas (plasma doughnuts or smoke rings) ever created. The rings are scaling as predicted from the previous prototype, Trenta.
Polaris’ fuel processing lab has been built and has received and stored more than 2 grams of tritium. The lab supports a wide range of fuel cycle operations-–from material receipt and gas analysis (including chromatography and Raman spectrometry) to exhaust capture, processing, and scintillation counting. Helion expects to begin with Deuterium-Tritium reactions, from which it will collect Helium-3 output. The aim is to produce as much Helium-3 as necessary to begin and sustain the reactor's main reaction, which will be Helium-3-Deuterium. Read more about the Helium-3 fuel cycle at the link below.
We anxiously await news of electricity production from Polaris.
Interlune Aims To Return Thousands of Liters of Helium-3 From The Moon
Interlune and Vermeer unveiled a prototype machine designed to churn up 110 tons of lunar regolith per hour to harvest Helium-3, the best fuel for future fusion reactors because of its energy density, lack of neutron emissions during fusion reactions with Deuterium, and direct convertibility into electricity. China and Japan are also aiming to mine Helium-3 on the Moon. As you see in the item above, Helion expects to make its own Helium-3 as a byproduct of its fusion reactor.
U of Michigan Laser Reaches 2 Petawatt Output And NIF Doubles Fusion Power Release
The ZEUS laser facility at the University of Michigan has roughly doubled the peak power of the next most powerful American laser. The ZEUS laser output reached 2 petawatts (2 quadrillion watts) for 25 quintillionths of a second. For that short time, the laser emitted 100-times more power than total global electrical power generation during the same short period of time.
The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has, meanwhile, more than doubled power output of its laser confinement fusion experiment—from the 3.15 megajoules of its December 2022 first breakthrough to ignition (more output than input into the target) to 8.6 megajoules. All of the progress in design and usage of lasers will continue to transform every area of technology and life, from the Golden Dome Strategic Defense, to fusion power, to microscopes that can image electron parts (see below).
U of Arizona Team Builds Microscope Which Can Image Electrons!
A University of Arizona team has built a microscope powerful and fast enough to be able to image parts of the electron in motion! The microscope uses a powerful laser beam that is split into two parts—a very fast electron pulse and two ultrashort light pulses. The first light pulse feeds energy into a sample and causes electrons to move or undergo other rapid changes. The second light pulse creates a brief window of time in which the single attosecond electron pulse is generated. The speed of the second pulse dictates the resolution of the image. By carefully synchronizing the two pulses, researchers control when the electron pulses probe the sample to observe ultrafast processes at the atomic level. They call the process "attomicroscopy."
Microsoft Develops 5th State of Matter And New Materials Bring Quantum Computing to Product Stage
Microsoft has announced an important breakthrough. After 17 years of work, and with some DARPA assistance, they have "created an entirely new state of matter, unlocked by a new class of materials, topoconductors, that enable a fundamental leap in computing." They are now producing a chip containing a million qubits that can fit in the palm of your hand. It is called the Majorana 1. This is important because quantum computing will have powers to solve problems that conventional computers could never solve. Future computing will combine conventional and quantum elements.
Let's take note of several important advances in humanoid and AI-controlled robots. As you see below, Figure's humanoid robot has been pulling 10-hour shifts for the BMW plant in South Carolina, doing dangerous work among powerful machines. Tesla will begin offering robotaxi service in Austin, Texas in June. This will be a milestone, because the Tesla Self-Driving system uses only cameras and AI. If the trials succeed in Austin, the cars should be able to drive anywhere, not just in "fenced" areas as other systems do. The aim is to cut the 40,000 annual deaths per year on American roads by at least 90%.
On Friday, Figure completed a 20-hour run of back-to-back shifts on the BMW X3 production line!
We’ve been running 10-hour shifts for several weeks now and as far as we know, Figure and BMW are the first in the world to do this with humanoid robots pic.twitter.com/5HgpB5XdtX
Two Private Landers Deliver NASA Payloads to The Moon
Several private companies are working on developing low cost freight delivery to the lunar surface. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 performed the first fully successful commercial Moon landing on March 2. Blue Ghost 1 then completed more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight) and just over 5 hours of operations into the lunar night. That was the longest period of commercial operations on the Moon to date.
Intuitive Machines' Athena lander, landed on the Moon on March 6. It landed and tipped to the point that its solar collectors could not function, so its mission was declared over the following day. It is notable that it was the southernmost lunar landing ever achieved. This was the second landing on the Moon by Intuitive. The first one also tipped over, but managed to operate for a week.
Rebuild the USA: The Trump Presidency and Beyond
After all the years of campaigning, Americans have finally come to the agreement that we will Make America Great Again. But, how do we actually implement the intention, and with a minimum of mistakes along the way?
As we stand at the threshold of a new industrial golden age, fueled by President Trump's unbridled energy and determination, we're excited to share with you the most inspiring stories of innovation, progress, and transformation.
One week into President Trump's second term, America is witnessing a renaissance of innovation and progress. From groundbreaking advancements in missile defense technology to supersonic commercial flight breakthroughs, the nation is pushing boundaries across multiple fronts.
From rebuilding our industrial base to advancing cutting-edge technologies, the incoming administration's plans promise to propel our nation forward, creating jobs, fostering innovation, and reasserting American dominance on Earth and beyond.
In today's report we cover some industries which clearly show the distinction between American methods of political economy and the looting which accompanies the British Imperial methodology.
Julian Dossett
Kate McAlpine
Isaac Schultz
KPNX
Catherine Bolgar
