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Oct 2, 2018

Said ITER would cost $45+ billion more and DOE agrees

Posted by in categories: energy, futurism

In 2017, Nextbigfuture said that the ITER tokamak fusion project would cost $45–60 billion more than the claimed $22 billion construction budget and US Department of Energy (DOE) agrees with a far higher cost estimate. On April 11, 2018, Paul Dabbar, DOE undersecretary for science, provided a $65 billion estimate to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development. The $65 billion covers construction alone and annual operating costs once experimental operations begin in 2025 aren’t included.

The day after Dabbar’s testimony, the European Union Council of Ministers endorsed ITER’s nearly two-year-old baseline estimate, which covers construction from 2007 to full completion in 2035. Including a 10% contingency to account for overruns, ITER’s cost to EU members is €11.7 billion ($14.5 billion). As host, the EU is paying 46% of ITER’s cost, five times the share of each of the other six partners: China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the US.

The budget they talk about is 20 billion euros. This does not include the cost of the hardware only the bureaucratic management costs and the costs of assembly. The donated hardware is not included. The budget is only to get ITER to 2035.

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Oct 2, 2018

Figuring out How Fast the Universe Is Expanding Might Require a New Type of Physics

Posted by in categories: physics, space

Two new studies contradict each other. Under our current model, they can’t both be right.

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Oct 2, 2018

Safe, efficient self-driving cars could block walkable, livable communities

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

Almost exactly a decade ago, I was cycling in a bike lane when a car hit me from behind. Luckily, I suffered only a couple bruised ribs and some road rash. But ever since, I have felt my pulse rise when I hear a car coming up behind my bike.

As self-driving cars roll out, they’re already being billed as making me – and millions of American cyclists, pedestrians and vehicle passengers – safer.

As a driver and a cyclist, I initially welcomed the idea of self-driving cars that could detect nearby people and be programmed not to hit them, making the streets safer for everyone. Autonomous vehicles also seemed to provide attractive ways to use roads more efficiently and reduce the need for parking in our communities. People are certainly talking about how self-driving cars could help build more sustainable, livable, walkable and bikable communities.

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Oct 2, 2018

The Reversibility of Human Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Today, we would like to share with you a talk by Dr. Michael West from AgeX Therapeutics, a company developing therapies to combat age-related diseases by encouraging the body to regenerate cells and tissues.

On July 12th, we hosted our first conference, Ending Age-Related Diseases: Investment Prospects & Advances in Research, at the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, which is part of the Cooper Union campus in New York City. The packed event saw a range of people from research, investment, and the wider community coming together for a day of science and biotech business presentations and panels.

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Oct 2, 2018

Earth could shrink to 330ft across if particle accelerator experiments go wrong

Posted by in category: particle physics

Absolutely terrifying.


The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

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Oct 2, 2018

Exclusive: Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web

Posted by in categories: government, internet

Berners-Lee believes Solid will resonate with the global community of developers, hackers, and internet activists who bristle over corporate and government control of the web. “Developers have always had a certain amount of revolutionary spirit,” he observes. Circumventing government spies or corporate overlords may be the initial lure of Solid, but the bigger draw will be something even more appealing to hackers: freedom. In the centralized web, data is kept in silos–controlled by the companies that build them, like Facebook and Google. In the decentralized web, there are no silos.


With an ambitious decentralized platform, the father of the web hopes it’s game on for corporate tech giants like Facebook and Google.

[Photo: Flickr user gdsteam].

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Oct 1, 2018

Blue Origin and Airbus back ‘The Moon Race,’ a space contest yet to be defined

Posted by in categories: space travel, sustainability

A new nonprofit organization is partnering with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, Airbus and other heavy-hitters to create a moon-centric prize program known as “The Moon Race.”

The contest’s goal is to boost technologies that could contribute to sustainable lunar exploration. A lot of the details, however, are still up in the air — including exactly what those technologies will be, and how much the prizes will amount to.

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Oct 1, 2018

Fully driverless Waymo taxis are due out this year, alarming critics

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Waymo poised to launch driverless service with minimal federal oversight.

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Oct 1, 2018

SpaceX paints “X” on Western Falcon 9 landing pad for rocket recovery debut

Posted by in category: satellites

According to NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX has finished painting a fresh “X” on their newest Falcon 9 landing zone, located just a quarter of a mile from the company’s SLC-4 Vandenberg Air Force Base launch facilities.

In work in one shape or another since late 2014, mainly due to a lack of a pressing need for the pad, it’s looking increasingly likely that the West Coast landing zone (LZ) will be used for the first time on October 6th, shortly after a flight-proven Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket launches the Argentinian Earth-sensing satellite SAOCOM-1A.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch with SAOCOM 1A coming up at Vandenberg next weekend. Static Fire test is NET October 2.

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Oct 1, 2018

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin beats key rival to rocket engine deal

Posted by in category: space travel

Blue Origin is best known for its own rocket programs, but it just scored a deal that could make it an important name in the spaceflight industry. United Launch Alliance has chosen Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine (two of them, to be exact) to power the booster stage its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is due to launch in mid-2020. Jeff Bezos’ outfit won’t be the only rocket vendor involved, but it crucially beat out Aerojet Rocketdyne — a behemoth in the industry that had tried to pressure ULA into avoiding Blue Origin tech altogether.

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