NASA and the Department of Energy have just tested a small fission nuclear reactor named KRUSTY (Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling Technology) in the Nevada desert — a possible power source for future space exploration or even a manned mission to Mars.
Reuters reports that initial testing of the system components in a vacuum environment, part of NASA’s Kilopower project, have led to plans for a full-power test in March. “The Kilopower test program will give us confidence that this technology is ready for space flight development,” explained Lee Mason of NASA.
In the past, NASA has used thermoelectric generators that use heat from naturally decaying radioactive elements to power projects like the Cassini spacecraft and Curiosity rover. This recent test is different in that it uses an active fission reaction — literally “splitting atoms” — to drive pistons for a more efficient conversion.
NASA hasn’t tested an active fission reactor since the ‘60s, according to Space.com. The prototype uses a uranium-235 reactor core about the size of a paper towel roll.
The Kilopower output ranges from about 1 kilowatt (KW), about enough for a household appliance, to 10 KW. A Mars mission would require about 40 KW, so NASA would probably send four or five on such an expedition. “Kilopower’s compact size and robustness allows us to deliver multiple units on a single lander to the surface that provides tens of kilowatts of power,” said Steve Jurczyk of NASA‘s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
“Mars is a very difficult environment for power systems, with less sunlight than Earth or the moon, very cold nighttime temperatures, very interesting dust storms that can last weeks and months that engulf the entire planet,” Jurczyk added.
The reactor could last up to ten years and provide power for life-support systems in Martian habitats, charge up rovers and other equipment, and even convert ice into usable fuel. Without having to rely on solar power, Kilopower eliminates the worry of lengthy dust storms or rationing power during nighttime hours.
“This new technology could provide kilowatts and can eventually be evolved to provide hundreds of kilowatts, or even megawatts of power,” said Mason. “We call it the Kilopower project because it gives us a near-term option to provide kilowatts for missions that previously were constrained to use less. But first things first, and our test program is the way to get started.”
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.