GoKawiil
Tech News
NASA and IBM have jointly published an open-source AI system, along with a compiled dataset drawing on over 30 aligned data layers from nine instruments across four lunar missions. The model merges multiple imaging types, angles, and resolutions to let researchers study the Moon's surface more comprehensively than existing tools allow.
IBM has developed a Lunar Foundation Model designed to process decades of accumulated Moon observation data. The AI system aims to help researchers identify surface hazards, locate resources, and track changes on the lunar terrain as NASA targets returning astronauts to the Moon by 2028.
NASA and IBM have jointly released the Lunar Foundation Model, an AI system trained on decades of lunar observation data, now freely available on Hugging Face. Built alongside what the two say is the first open-source dataset combining imagery from nine instruments across four moon missions, the model is designed to support NASA's Artemis program.
NASA and IBM launched the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, a free AI system on Hugging Face designed to help scientists study the Moon. Trained on lunar imagery and environmental data, the model can spot likely ice deposits and identify craters more accurately than existing tools like Microsoft's SwinV2-B. It was recently put to a real test when it correctly flagged the impact site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that crashed into the Moon in August, even though the new crater overlapped an existing one.
At IFA in Berlin, Lenovo unveiled Project AeroBlade, a 14-inch concept laptop that replaces traditional fans with four of Frore Systems' AirJet Mini solid-state cooling modules, together capable of dissipating 30 watts of heat silently. Paired with Intel Lunar Lake chips, a compact motherboard, and a magnesium-aluminum chassis, the device weighs under 1.83 pounds and measures just 0.39 inches thick, featuring an OLED display, Wi-Fi 7, and three USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. Lenovo also showed a separate 14-inch rollable-screen notebook that expands to 17 inches.
A partial lunar eclipse will coincide with tonight's full moon, visible across most of the Americas. NASA indicates that a significant portion of the moon's surface will be shadowed during the event.
A partial lunar eclipse will unfold Thursday night into early Friday, with Earth's shadow covering roughly 93 percent of the moon's disk and giving it a reddish or orange tint. The partial phase lasts about three hours and 18 minutes, with the Americas offering the best viewing conditions since the peak occurs after dark there, while European observers will only catch a limited glimpse near dawn.
Researchers from Texas A&M, Purdue University and NASA's Johnson Space Center have developed a traffic management system for spacecraft sharing the near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon. The system is meant to coordinate multiple vehicles—including Orion capsules, cargo ships and lunar landers—that will operate simultaneously as NASA builds out its planned moon base.
Seattle-based Interlune is developing technology to extract helium-3, a rare isotope embedded in lunar soil by billions of years of solar wind bombardment, with the goal of eventually mining it from the Moon and returning it to Earth. The company has been working on methods to simulate and accelerate the natural process that deposits helium-3 into lunar regolith, testing extraction techniques ahead of any full-scale mining mission.
A team from Texas A&M, NASA's Johnson Space Center, and Purdue University developed a system for managing multiple spacecraft around Gateway, the lunar-orbiting station NASA plans to launch no earlier than 2027. Using thousands of simulations, they created a 'string of pearls' approach that spaces waiting vehicles at set intervals ahead of or behind the station along its near-rectilinear halo orbit, accounting for navigation and thruster errors.
Singer Dolly Parton has died at age 80, remembered for her philanthropic contributions to science alongside her music career. She provided early funding for Moderna's vaccine research and publicly received her own COVID-19 vaccination to counter public hesitancy, while her Imagination Library program continues distributing over three million books monthly to children worldwide.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, working with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, built the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), which used infrared laser light instead of radio waves to send data from the spacecraft. During the mission the system downlinked nearly half a terabyte of data at speeds up to 260 megabits per second, delivering sharp footage of the moon's far side, a solar eclipse, and meteoroid impacts.