by Michael Belfiore | Feb 26, 2013 | Blog
I’m at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit just outside Washington, DC. Elon Musk–head of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, two companies attempting to upend their respective industries–and Stephen Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, spoke to a crowded ballroom...
by Michael Belfiore | Feb 19, 2013 | Blog
I was talking with a customer support person on the phone yesterday, and somehow the conversation got around to asteroids (don’t ask) and what we can do about an incoming. She was quick to assume there’s nothing we can do about meteorite impacts. Actually...
by Michael Belfiore | Feb 15, 2013 | Articles, Blog
I’ve posted a new, free paper on my website, called “Rapid Innovation on the Cheap: Lessons from DARPA and the Commercial Space Age.” This distills lessons learned from my reporting (ten years this year!) on some of the most extraordinary technology...
by Michael Belfiore | Feb 8, 2013 | Articles, Blog
On Friday, February 15, 2013, an asteroid the size of half a football field—50 meters or so in diameter—will come within a hair of hitting Earth. At closest approach, it will pass a mere 17,000 miles away, well within the orbit of our geosynchronous communications...
by Michael Belfiore | Feb 1, 2013 | Articles, Blog
Like a lot of revolutionary ideas, it seems crazy at first glance: a space habitat that rides to orbit in a compressed state, and then inflates to full size when it gets there. But NASA worked seriously on the idea, pegging it for a future Mars mission...
