Scientists have developed a way to generate tiny amounts of solar energy at night. It’s true potential could be in space.
Category: satellites
Sam Altman Cornered by Discovery: Intent & Emails in Elon’s OpenAI Lawsuit
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and his own ambitious plans for AI and tech innovations, including new devices and massive growth for his companies, are positioning him for a major impact on the tech industry, but also come with significant challenges and risks ## Questions to inspire discussion.
Legal Risk Management.
🔍 Q: How does the discovery process threaten OpenAI regardless of lawsuit outcome?
A: Discovery forces exposure of sensitive internal information including Greg Brockman’s 2017 diary entries revealing intent to become for-profit and violating prior agreements with Elon Musk, creating reputational damage and investor uncertainty even if OpenAI wins the case.
⏱️ Q: Why is lawsuit timing particularly damaging to OpenAI’s competitive position?
A: The lawsuit hits during OpenAI’s massive capital raise preparation, forcing delays in fundraising and implementation that allow competitors like Google and Anthropic to advance while OpenAI falls behind, similar to how Meta became less relevant in the AI race.
Agenus Closes Strategic Immunotherapeutic Collaboration with Zydus Lifesciences
As part of the collaboration, Agenus has granted Zydus exclusive rights to develop and commercialize BOT and BAL in India and Sri Lanka, with Agenus eligible to receive royalties on net sales in those territories.
“Closing this collaboration with Zydus strengthens our balance sheet and, critically, secures dedicated U.S. manufacturing capacity at a pivotal moment for Agenus,” continued Armen. “With these foundations in place, our focus in 2026 is disciplined execution—advancing our Phase III program, broadening paid patient access through authorized pathways, and progressing toward regulatory submission supported by one of the most substantial clinical datasets generated in [microsatellite stable] MSS colorectal cancer.”
Following the closing, the Emeryville and Berkeley, CA, biologics manufacturing facilities will be transferred to Zydus and housed under a newly formed subsidiary named Zylidac Bio. Agenus has secured committed manufacturing capacity at these U.S. sites to support BOT+BAL supply needs for its clinical trials, global access programs, and future commercialization.
EXLUMINA Founder: SpaceX Already Controls the Future of Space AI
SpaceX is well-positioned to dominate the future of space AI due to its innovative technologies, scalable satellite production, and strategic partnerships, which will enable it to efficiently deploy and operate a massive network of satellites with advanced computing capabilities ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.
Launch Economics & Infrastructure.
🚀 Q: Why is Starship essential for space AI data centers? A: Starship enables 100-1000x more satellites than Falcon 9, making orbital AI economically viable through massive scaling and lower launch costs, while Falcon 9 remains too expensive for commercial viability at scale.
🛰️ Q: What is SpaceX’s deployment plan for AI satellites? A: SpaceX plans Starlink version 3 satellites with 100 Nvidia chips each, deploying 5,000 satellites via 100 Starship launches at 50 satellites per flight to create a gigawatt-scale AI constellation by early 2030s.
📈 Q: What launch cadence gives SpaceX its advantage? A: SpaceX plans 10,000 annual launches and produces satellites at 10-100x the level of competitors, creating a monopoly on launch and manufacturing that positions them as the gatekeeper to space AI success.
Energy & Power Systems.
Underwater robots inspired by nature are making progress, but hurdles remain
Underwater robots face many challenges before they can truly master the deep, such as stability in choppy currents. A new paper published in the journal npj Robotics provides a comprehensive update of where the technology stands today, including significant progress inspired by the movement of rays.
Underwater robots are not a gimmick. We need them to help us explore the roughly 74% of the ocean floor that still remains a mystery. While satellites, buoys and imaging technology can map the surface and the upper reaches of the ocean, we need underwater drones to explore and gather data from the hidden depths.
New tool lets anyone audit a country’s methane claims
For years, countries have told the United Nations how much methane they emit using a kind of bottom-up bookkeeping: Count the cows and oil barrels, estimate the volume of trash, and multiply by standard emission factors.
Those ledgers can miss the mark, suggest measurements from aircraft and satellites. But the tools to translate that data into national emissions estimates have largely remained the domain of specialists.
A team at Harvard is changing that. In a recent Nature Communications paper, the researchers describe Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI), an open-access system designed to let governments, researchers and civil society independently evaluate national methane claims against what satellites detect in the atmosphere, year after year.
Opposing functions of distinct regulatory T cell subsets in colorectal cancer
For this study, the researchers focused on a type of colorectal cancer that accounts for 80% to 85% of all colorectal cancers — microsatellite stable (MSS) with proficient mismatch repair (MMRp), meaning the tumors’ DNA is relatively stable. These cancers are largely resistant to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies.
Previous groundbreaking research found checkpoint inhibitors alone could successfully treat rectal cancer and several other cancers with the opposite tumor type — those with high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd). This allows doctors to spare many patients from surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
Here the team employed an mouse model that accurately recreates the common mutations, behaviors, and immune cell composition of human colorectal cancer. They found that the regulatory T cells associated with the cancer are split between two types: Cells that make a signaling molecule (cytokine) called interleukin‑10 (IL-10) and cells that don’t.
Through a series of sophisticated experiments that selectively eliminated each type of cell, the researchers discovered:
When IL-10-positive cells were removed, tumor growth accelerated.
In most solid tumors, high numbers of regulatory T (Treg) cells are associated with poorer outcomes because they dampen the immune system’s ability to fight against a tumor.
Why SpaceX Is Worth Trillions With Only $15B of Revenue
SpaceX’s valuation has the potential to reach $1.5 trillion due to its innovative technologies, including reusable rockets, Starship, and Starlink, which could revolutionize the space industry and unlock massive growth opportunities in areas such as satellite connectivity, data centers, and computing ## Questions to inspire discussion.
Starship Production & Economics.
🚀 Q: What is SpaceX’s Starship production target and cost reduction goal? A: SpaceX plans to manufacture 1,000 Starships per year by 2030 (with aspirational goals of 10,000 per year), reducing launch costs to $10/kg through fully reusable vehicles achieving 99% reliability and 30 flights per booster.
🎯 Q: When will Starship begin commercial payload launches? A: Starship is currently in testing phase with proven relighting, PEZ dispenser deployment, and large payload capacity, expected to achieve commercial readiness as reliability approaches 99% through iterative flight testing.
Starlink V3 Revenue Model.
💰 Q: What revenue will Starlink V3 generate for SpaceX? A: Starlink V3 constellation will generate $250B revenue with 50% profit margins, representing 90–95% of SpaceX’s revenue over the next 5 years according to Mach33 and ARK Invest modeling.
Sierra Space Completes First Nine Satellite Structures for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, Three Months Ahead of Schedule
Milestone accelerates progress toward delivering advanced missile tracking capabilities for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
LOUISVILLE, Colo. – January 6, 2026 – Sierra Space, a proven defense-tech company delivering solutions for the nation’s most critical missions and advancing the future of security in space, announced today the completion of the first nine satellite structures, Plane 1 of the 18 total satellites Sierra Space is contracted to deliver for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 2 Tracking Layer (T2TRK) program. Achieved three months ahead of schedule, this milestone underscores Sierra Space’s ability to meet key program milestones with efficiency and precision, helping to ensure that the T2TRK program remains on track for delivery and launch readiness.
“We stood up our high-rate manufacturing facility, Victory Works, to meet the demanding requirements of our customer,” said Erik Daehler, Senior Vice President of Sierra Space Defense. “To go from a successful Critical Design Review to completing the Plane 1 satellite structures—three months ahead of schedule—is a powerful validation of our investment in scalable infrastructure. Our team is energized as we move into the next phase of Plane 1 development, focusing on assembly, integration, and testing, while also beginning the satellite structure build for Plane 2, the remaining nine satellites of the 18-satellite constellation for SDA.”