New Satellite Engine Could Use Earth’s Atmosphere as Fuel to Stay in Orbit Indefinitely
September 26th, 2026Via: SciTechDaily:
A satellite engine that uses atmospheric gases as fuel shows promise in laboratory tests and modeling, but its performance on a mission remains unproven.
Choosing an orbit for a satellite involves balancing benefits and drawbacks. Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), which spans roughly 100 to 450 km (62 to 280 miles) above Earth, offers several advantages. Remote sensing cameras can capture sharper images, communications and radar systems need less power, and atmospheric drag helps remove inactive satellites from orbit naturally.
That same atmosphere also creates a major challenge. Even at these altitudes, air resistance slows spacecraft down, so satellites must produce thrust almost continuously to remain in orbit. Conventional propulsion systems require onboard fuel, often costly gases such as xenon.
As part of his PhD research at the University of Stuttgart, published on arXiv, Francesco Romano explored a different approach. His concept uses the atmospheric molecules responsible for drag as fuel for a plasma engine, potentially allowing satellites to remain in VLEO indefinitely without carrying a conventional supply of propellant.
The technology belongs to a class known as atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP). These systems collect the extremely thin air in front of a spacecraft (or, in some cases, a missile) and direct it into an electric engine. The engine converts the incoming molecules into plasma and expels it from the rear to generate thrust.
Related: Starlink Satellites Deorbit Daily
Meta Muse: “It’s Really Just Fun and Cute.”
September 26th, 2026Before looking at Muse, let’s take a brief walk down memory lane with Mark Zuckerberg.
First of all, there’s Facebook’s proximity to DARPA LifeLog:
LifeLog was a project of the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). According to its bid solicitation pamphlet in 2003, it was to be “an ontology-based (sub)system that captures, stores, and makes accessible the flow of one person’s experience in and interactions with the world in order to support a broad spectrum of associates/assistants and other system capabilities”. The objective of the LifeLog concept was “to be able to trace the ‘threads’ of an individual’s life in terms of events, states, and relationships”, and it has the ability to “take in all of a subject’s experience, from phone numbers dialed and e-mail messages viewed to every breath taken, step made and place gone”.
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The LifeLog program was canceled on February 4th 2004, the same day Facebook was launched, after criticism concerning the privacy implications of the system.
Then there’s Zuckerberg referring to Facebook users as, “Dumb fucks,” for trusting him with their data.
Next we could spend the next few several months going over endless privacy disasters with Facebook and other Meta products.
Now let’s turn to what Mark Zuckerberg has in mind for us going forward. Because he assumes that you suffer from total ignorance and/or amnesia, he wants you to let his, “Fun and cute” AI crawl through all your email, photos and data to act as as your personal assistant. Give it your credit card information and let it buy things for you.
Yes, really!
You might be thinking, “Who cares if the average idiot sees Zuckerberg’s Tamagotchi on steroids and wants it? I don’t want it. I won’t use it.”
Well, here’s the problem: That thing is meant to take input from phones, Meta glasses that contain cameras and microphones and a literal Tamagotchi-type device that will also contain cameras and microphones.
Remember Facebook’s shadow profiles?
Early in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a congressional hearing that Facebook collects information on people who are not Facebook users. To be clear, Facebook does not use the term “shadow profile,” but that’s become the common term for information collected on people who are not Facebook users. (It can also refer to data collected about people who are users, but the information in question was not provided by them.) Instead, it comes from third-party sources. In other words, whether you’re a Facebook user or not, the company knows things about you that you did not explicitly tell it.
Forget about the people who will use these technologies on purpose. They’re already gone. You’re wasting your time trying to explain anything to them. If they believe Meta’s privacy claims about Muse, they probably thought that getting injected with an experimental gene therapy in a parking lot in exchange for a jelly donut was a good idea.
The point here is that Zuckerberg’s AI sensor platforms are going to be wandering around on the general public and maybe even on your friends and family members. Information you have shared with users of Muse is going to end up back at Meta.
My guess is that a core undocumented feature of this involves gathering up as much information as possible on those of us who are trying to stay off this Zuckerberg’s plantation:
Meta is accelerating investments in frontier AI and personal superintelligence, a theoretical milestone where machines outthink humans. Zuckerberg is going all in to build data centers for those projects, as well as the energy capacity to support them.
“Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time,” he said in a post on Threads.
Under the new effort, the enormous amount of computing power target will consume as much electricity as small cities or even small countries at a time when concerns around exploitation of resources like water have risen.
“It’s really just fun and cute.”
Via: Tech Radar:
The more I engaged with Muse, the more the tandem senses of convenience and discomfort grew. Muse feels more frictionless than similar services with virtual browsers. And the combination of data Meta already has and the data it required permission to access made it feel more personal, too. Every improvement in its ability to help me came with another small moment where I had to decide how much access I was willing to grant.
Meta says conversations and VM data are not shared with its advertising systems, although browsing activity performed on your behalf can still influence advertising indirectly because websites may treat Muse’s visits as your activity. Meta says sanitized agent interactions and tool activity can be used to train future models, but users can opt out with a switch in Muse’s settings. Meta is also developing a Confidential VM mode intended to cryptographically prevent even Meta from accessing information inside the VM.
I was more impressed with Muse than I expected. But that only made me warier about it. Digital chores that consume more time than any one of them deserves are all too common at the moment, and Muse proved remarkably good at stepping into that gap. The catch is that the closer it gets to behaving like a genuinely useful personal assistant, the more personal information it needs to do the job.
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Russia’s New Geran-4 Drone: Mostly Chinese Parts
September 26th, 2026Note: Radio Free Europe is U.S. state sponsored media/propaganda. I’m surprised they mentioned the Texas Instruments chip.
Via: Radio Free Europe:
SR-71 Removed from Display at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center
September 25th, 2026Via: The War Zone:
Last week, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman cryptically teased plans for a new high- and fast-flying X-plane with a silhouette of an aircraft that immediately drew comparisons to the famed SR-71 Blackbird as a backdrop. In our report, we looked at what it could mean, including the possibility of reviving the SR-71, or at least using it to inform or even cobble together a new airframe. Now it turns out that an SR-71 that had been on display at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center for years is suspiciously missing.
Steve Trimble, Aviation Week‘s defense editor and friend of TWZ, was first to report the disappearance of the former NASA SR-71, also known by the tail number 844, at Armstrong. That facility is collocated with Edwards Air Force Base in California. Trimble’s piece says that satellite imagery shows the jet has not been seen since at least May 17. The aircraft in question, which originally carried the U.S. Air Force serial number 61-7980, was the last Blackbird produced and the last one to fly, taking to the skies for the final time in 1999.
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Update: 11:00 PM ET –
NASA has now provided TWZ with the following statement in response to our queries for more information about SR-71 tail number 844:
“NASA has a long history of pushing the boundaries of experimental aviation, and we continue to explore opportunities to build on that legacy. As Administrator Isaacman has said, we want to see NASA flying higher, farther, and faster than we have in decades. We recognize the interest in the SR-71 and its remarkable history at NASA but have no additional information to share regarding the aircraft at this time.”
New York: Venezuelans Arrested After Entering Sewer Near Hotel, Claimed to be Looking for “Valuables”
September 25th, 2026Mmm hmm.
Via: New York Post:
Two nitwit nightcrawlers — including a particularly portly “mole person” — were busted Thursday for diving into a Manhattan manhole in a subterranean quest for precious metals, police and law-enforcement sources said.
Cops nabbed Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25 – both Venezuelan citizens – near their Queens homes in connection to a surreal pre-dawn Wednesday sewer escapade just steps from the Loews Regency New York on the Upper East Side.
The strange shenanigans could end up shedding light on the motivations of mysterious “mole people” spotted popping out of sewers — as Reveron admitted to fishing for gold in the city’s steamy depths, prosecutors said.
“We go into the sewers to look for valuables that go into the sewer drains,” he allegedly told a police officer, according to prosecutors.
Inside the U.S. ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School
September 23rd, 2026We’re expected to believe that the atrocity resulted from a cascade of preventable failures.
Outdated intelligence, a military database that still classified the site as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard facility, insufficient human review, compressed targeting timelines, and excessive confidence in AI-assisted systems…
A perfect storm of screwups.
Either that, or: The purpose of a system is what it does.
Via: Bloomberg:
Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.
Samsung Accidentally Freezes Its Smart Fridges with a Software Update
September 23rd, 2026Via: Android Authority:
There are plenty of smart home appliances on the market, featuring internet connectivity, cross-device integration, and a host of other features. However, there’s no shortage of horror stories about these connected appliances failing. Now, we can add another Samsung smart refrigerator issue to the list.
Samsung has stopped rolling out a SmartThings update to its smart refrigerators in Korea after some owners reported major issues, ZDNET Korea reports. More specifically, many users on Samsung’s Korea Community forum report that their fridges completely stopped working, resulting in spoiled food. Other issues include the automatic door-opening function not working and the fridge’s internal lights not turning on.
ENIGMA: How Do You Crack a Code With 100 Sextillion Combinations?
September 23rd, 2026Via: Veritasium:
U.S. CONSIDERING DIESEL EXPORT BAN
September 23rd, 2026Via: CNBC:
The Trump administration is looking into whether implementing a diesel export ban would ease record high prices for the critical fuel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.
“We’re examining whether it’s feasible in terms of the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work,” Bessent said at a bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations.
Trump said Tuesday he’s advocated for a diesel export ban during internal administration deliberations. The president said a decision would quickly be made “one way or another” on whether to implement a ban.
Ukraine Pounds Major Moscow Refinery
September 20th, 2026Remember the one about Trump claiming that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to halt all attacks on energy targets?
Here’s how that’s going…
Via: ZeroHedge:
Military conflicts, economic wars, and resource wars are converging ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Export restrictions on critical materials and energy products are adding economic pressure worldwide, raising the risk that supply disruptions and retaliatory measures widen existing conflicts. With no clear path to de-escalation, the potential for spillover from active war zones remains top of mind.
The most pressing news so far this morning is that Ukraine launched a major overnight drone strike on Russia, hitting a Moscow refinery despite President Trump’s request for Ukraine to stop striking Russian energy infrastructure as a global refining crisis deepens.
Bloomberg reports that the Gazprom Neft-owned Moscow Oil Refinery, about 16 miles from the Kremlin, was struck by drones. The facility has a processing capacity of around 245,000 barrels a day and supplies fuel to the surrounding metro area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, “One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine. The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen, and Pelican.”
