It was a swing and a miss for the first private attempt at an asteroid mission, but the company is still chalking it up as a win. California startup AstroForge launched a spacecraft dubbed Odin on February 26, but the team lost communication with it shortly after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"The chance of talking with Odin is minimal, as at this point, the accuracy of its position is becoming an issue," the company said in its extensive debrief of the mission. Technical issues occurred at its primary ground station in Australia, but AstroForge said that other problems also could have occurred on Odin to further prevent establishing contact.
Although the launch was a bust, AstroForge maintained optimism about the project as a valuable learning experience for its eventual goal of creating and operating an asteroid mining vehicle. The company is targeting the asteroid 2022 OB5, with the aim of eventually landing on its surface and extracting potentially valuable resources. Odin was built in 10 months for $3.5 million, a sliver of the money and time federal space projects have taken to complete.
AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich had several quotes in the debrief, all peppered with expletives, and he summed up the company ethos as, "At the end of the day, like, you got to fucking show up and take a shot, right? You have to try."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-first-private-asteroid-mission-probe-is-probably-lost-in-deep-space-224803775.html?src=rss
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to vote on an inquiry to explore alternatives to GPS, FCC chair Brendan Carr says in a blog post.
Carr says that while GPS has been “indispensable,” the technology “isn’t infallible” and that “disruptions to GPS have the potential to undermine the nation’s economic and national security.” Carr says that “we need to develop redundant technologies,” which is why the FCC will “vote on an inquiry to explore other Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems” that can serve as “complements or alternatives” to GPS.
In addition to GPS, Carr also says the commission will vote on two proposals regarding 911 technology. One is “a proposal to update our existing rules to ensure the resiliency, reliability, interoperability, and accessibility” of “Next Generation 911,” or NG911, which is internet-connected emergency tech that will eventually replace legacy 911 systems.
Another is a proposal to “strengthen our 911 location accuracy rules” to potentially improve the information first responders receive about a person’s location, including the ability to more accurately find callers on specific floors in buildings.
The issues are tentatively on the agenda for the FCC’s open meeting on March 27th.
Google co-founder Larry Page is building a new company called Dynatomics that’s focused on applying AI to product manufacturing, according to The Information. Page is reportedly working with a small group of engineers on AI that can create “highly optimized” designs for objects and then have a factory build them, per The Information. Chris Anderson, […]
Intuitive Machines has landed a second spacecraft on the moon, just one year after accomplishing the feat for the first time ever. Unfortunately, much like that first attempt, it seems the company’s spacecraft may have tipped on its side. The lunar lander, called Athena, touched down on the moon’s surface at around 12:30 p.m. ET […]
We’re still over a year away from Apple’s first foldable iPhone launching. But per one analyst’s new report, prior rumors have apparently had a key detail of the foldable wrong. Thanks to the latest reveal, the new iPhone ‘Fold’ makes a lot more sense than before.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has long held anti-surveillance views. Now she oversees a key surveillance program she once tried to dismantle.
Since the first NIL-driven March Madness in 2022, brands occasionally pull a whole bunch of college athletes onto their sports marketing team. In C4 Energy's case, the company has drafted 128 basketball players from every team in the men's and women's tournament to fill its March Madness name, image, and likeness (NIL) sponsorship roster and...
Google will "explore bringing ads into" its new AI Mode, the company told ADWEEK. AI Mode, rolled out in beta Wednesday, can conduct multiple searches at once to serve up in-depth, multi-step responses to complex user queries. While ads aren't yet available in AI Mode, Google said it will "leverage learnings" from ads products built...
If you’re a Nest Aware subscriber, your Google displays and speakers can be used to detect smoke alarms and glass breaking. The Google Home Max is now set to loose sound detection from May 8.
Fresh off of its “Alpha Plan” unveiling at MWC 2025, new rumors suggest Honor is working on a new “Mini” phone release and an ultra-slim device as well, following industry trends.
