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SpaceX wins a contract from Nasa to launch astronauts to the moon, edges past Blue Origin and Dynetics

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has won a $3 billion contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to build a lunar lander designed for missions to the Moon. These missions will be part of NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to restore American presence on the lunar surface. As part of its bid, SpaceX submitted its Starship next-generation spacecraft from the proposal, with the company currently testing early-stage prototypes in its facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. In 2020, NASA awarded contracts to three commercial teams — SpaceX, Dynetics and Blue Origin — for the agency’s Human Landing System (HLS)…

Hubble telescope solves the mystery of Red Hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris dimming, could turn out to be another Betelgeuse

In the southern hemisphere, in the constellation Canis Major, lies a very young, very massive red hypergiant star called VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa). VY Canis Majoris – in the direction to our constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog – is one of the largest stars known. It’s a red hypergiant, so huge that it makes the famous giant star Betelgeuse look small by comparison. If you replaced our sun with VY Canis Majoris, its outer layers would extend past the orbit of the 5th planet, Jupiter. A pulsating variable, its apparent magnitude (how bright it appears in the night…

Chinese memory manufacturer Netac is making DDR5 memory chips going beyond 10GHz

We’re slowly entering the age of DDR5 memory which is expected to start with the launch of AMD’s Zen 4 and Intel’s Alder Lake-S CPUs later this year. As per JEDEC specifications, the standard range for DDR5 memory will be 3200-4800 MT/s, with estimates stating that many high-end modules will be able to push 8400 MT/s. Similar to DDR4, the first couple of years, we’re bound to see slower implementations ranging between 4000-5000MT/s However, like 4000MT/s is the enthusiast territory for DRR4, DDR5 will see many vendors touching the 10000MT/s mark, with 8400MT/s being the norm. One memory maker, Netac…

TSMC warns that chip shortages could continue until 2022

TSMC, which makes processors for Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, and numerous other big consumer tech companies, has warned that chip shortages could last through 2022. “We see the demand continue to be high,” TSMC CEO C. C. Wei said in comments reported by Bloomberg, “In 2023, I hope we can offer more capacity to support our customers. At that time, we’ll start to see the supply chain tightness release a little bit.” Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said on Thursday as the world’s biggest contract semiconductor maker unveiled bumper quarterly profits. Wei’s comments mirror predictions made by Intel’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger…