The Deep End #30
Fusion in space, Microsoft goes nuclear, and DARPA's wireless energy
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Helicity Space raises $5M to unlock fusion propulsion—and fast travel in deep space
From TechCrunch:
Helicity Space has closed a $5 million seed funding to accelerate development of a technology that could finally unlock fast, efficient travel in deep space. That technology is fusion propulsion, which has long been the domain of science fiction. The startup says that they have discovered a way to use plasma jets for fusion reaction.
Read more here.
Microsoft Targets Nuclear to Power AI Operations
From the Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft is betting nuclear power can help sate its massive electricity needs as it ventures further into artificial intelligence and supercomputing.
The technology industry’s thirst for power is enormous. A single new data center can use as much electricity as hundreds of thousands of homes. Artificial intelligence requires even more computing power.
Read more here.
Raytheon to create DARPA's airborne "wireless internet for energy"
From New Atlas:
DARPA has tapped Raytheon to design and develop a wireless, airborne relay system to "deliver energy into contested environments," as part of its Energy Web Dominance program, in which DARPA wants to be able to power anything from nearly anywhere.
Read more here.
More deep tech stories
Aviation
Airbus flies a fully automated helicopter with a tablet (sUAS News)
Rotor Unveils R550X Uncrewed Helicopter and Begins Production (sUAS News)
Space
Aalyria won a European Space Agency contract to develop an orchestration system for space-based, airborne, maritime, and ground-based 5G/6G nodes (SpaceNews)
SpaceX’s Starlink completed military tests in the Arctic (Bloomberg)
Northrop Grumman fired a new solid rocket motor that was developed in under a year (BreakingDefense)
Drones
Stratolaunch completed the first captive carry flight test of its Talon-A hypersonic drone (Space)
Babcock International demoed tech to control fleets of drones in a defense environment (DefensePost)
Phenix Solutions was awarded an Air Force contract for agile manufacturing of its coaxial rotor VTOL cargo drone - 1500 lbs payload, 300-mile range (IUS)
KEF Robotics was tapped by the Army to develop AI-enabled obstacle detectors for drones tethered to moving vehicles (DefensePost)
Cybersecurity
Australia developing ‘top secret’ intelligence cloud to work with US, UK spy agencies (Breaking Defense)
Defense
BMNT launched the AUKUS Defense Investor Network (DIN) and is loaded with a $265B fund (GovConExec)
DARPA Taps Raytheon to Build Military Procurement Simulator (DefensePost)
The U.S. and Sweden signed a bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement (Air&Space Forces)
US Army to Launch High-Altitude Spy Balloon Program in 2025 (DefensePost)
Thanks for the share, Robert! Awesome!