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🛜 Secret Starlink Wi-Fi exposed on US warship, China’s lunar soil-made bricks to get space station test, China firm seeks funds for record-breaking nuclear fusion reactor
Plus: New muscle-powered robot-leg jumps higher, reacts faster than ever before
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A senior United States Naval officer and other officers on a United States warship have been punished for installing a Starlink network onboard an active warship.
Disguised by the name “STINKY” while in operation, the WiFi connection was used exclusively by a small cabal of officers while away from the port, something the general crew was not privy to.
Following the installation discovery, the senior officer and co-conspirators were duly court-martialed, and the ring leader, Senior Petty Officer Grisel Marrero, was demoted. Naval charge sheets released on May 29 show that Marrero was found guilty of dereliction of duty and falsifying records to hide her activities. Dive deeper into this Must-Read.
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According to the documents, she covered a private credit card’s initial installation cost (around $2,800). She was the network administrator and maintained sole authority over access to it.
Other officers who used the network then paid for access and were complicit in keeping it a secret from superior Navy officers. According to the Naval Times, which initially broke the story, the Starlink system was installed during the USS Manchester (a littoral combat ship) “blanket aloft” period.
During this time, responsibilities were not recorded in the deck logs or the officer of the deck logs, as per the investigation. However, the released documents were redacted and did not disclose who actually installed the system.
Like the United States, China aims to set up a long-term human base camp on the Moon. To this end, scientists are developing innovative techniques to build structures on the moon using materials found on the lunar surface.
Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology are creating bricks from simulated lunar soil. As per the South China Morning Post (SCMP), these bricks will soon be sent to the Tiangong space station for testing.
The bricks' performance will be evaluated in space to determine whether they can withstand extreme conditions and are suitable for building a lunar research outpost.
A Chinese energy startup is aiming to secure $500 million in funding to advance more affordable next-generation nuclear fusion technology.
Energy Singularity, established in 2021, is working on the development of the world’s first fully high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tokamak device, a crucial component for future fusion power plants.
In June, its nuclear fusion power plant, known as “HH70,” claimed to have set a new world record by obtaining its first plasma.
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