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April 3, 2026

Artemis-II-NASAs-Last-Moon-Mission-Without-Silicon-Valley

Artemis II: NASA’s Last Moon Mission Without Silicon Valley

Mark Matlock / April 3, 2026

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Artemis II: NASA’s Last Moon Mission Without Silicon Valley

Artemis II: NASA’s Last Moon Mission Without Silicon Valley

The day the United States dispatched astronauts to the moon for the first time in 54 years coincided with SpaceX's first public offering. And the timing is right: this is probably the final time NASA will attempt to transport humans into deep space without significant support from a business that came out of the venture-backed tech scene. The second Bush administration started building a massive rocket and a spaceship named Orion to return to the moon, which is where NASA's current lunar campaign got its starAfter going over budget by 2010, the project was scaled back and combined with a new initiative to support private firms developing new orbital rockets. This choice resulted in the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is currently transporting three Americans and one Canadian around the moon and back, as well as a contract that saved SpaceX's business and a surge of startup finance into extraterrestrial technology. The SLS is currently the world's most potent operational rocket.In preparation for this week's momentous trip, which will establish a record for the furthest humans have traveled into the solar system, it has only flown once before, when it launched an empty Orion spacecraft on a test flight around the moon. However, SpaceX or Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will be under pressure the next time.The two businesses are vying to be the first to set foot on the lunar regolith. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, NASA's heritage contractors, produced SLS and Orion with assistance from Airbus Defense and Space in Europe. While SpaceX was operating a fleet of inexpensive reusable rockets and initiating a large cycle of investment in private space, they were also expensive, delayed, and over budget. NASA believed it had to remain with the SLS and Orion when it made the decision to return to the moon in 2019. However, a means of carrying men from orbit to the lunar surface was still lacking. NASA determined that the new generation of venture-backed space companies would provide that.Additionally, the CIA hired a few private space firms, such as Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines, to deploy robotic landers for testing and reconnaissance. In 2021, SpaceX secured the contract to utilize its Starship rocket as a lander.It was a contentious choice.It will take a dozen or more launches to fuel the massive rocket with enough propellant for the trip to the moon.NASA decided to postpone an effort to land on the moon and restart its mission after years of waiting for the spaceship. Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told Congress last year, "This is an architecture that no NASA administrator that I am aware of would have chosen had they had the chance," pointing out that the choice had been taken without a Senate-confirmed head of the organization. In order to develop its own human landing system, Blue Origin joined the team in 2023. It appears that the agency is now preparing a bakeoff:In advance of two possible landings in 2028, NASA will test Orion's capacity to meet one or both landers in orbit in 2027.Blue Origin's intentions to test out its lander on the moon sometime this year and SpaceX's upcoming Starship test, which may take place this month, will be under more scrutiny as a result. Under the new NASA administrator, billionaire payments entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who financed SpaceX to fly on two space flights and was endorsed by Musk as the ideal candidate, there has been a significant revamp of the program this year.He was nominated for the position by President Donald Trump, had his candidacy revoked, and was then nominated again. When he took office in late 2025, he had to make a number of tough decisions regarding how to get back to the moon. In March, Isaacman abandoned plans to create a lunar space station dubbed Gateway and to invest in costly improvements for SLS, which had long been viewed by outside observers as wasteful or politically motivated. He is now fully committed to the next wave of commercial space firms. However, any delays or mistakes will be viewed in a geopolitical light because China is on its own methodical route to send one of its citizens to the moon by 2030.In the practical domains of robotics and electric vehicles, Silicon Valley has so far been unable to outperform Chinese firms.Silicon Valley will have an opportunity to demonstrate that it can still control the technological frontier by pursuing the moon, but SpaceX has become the company that businesspeople throughout the Pacific region aspire to imitate.

by Mark Matlock

FlipEars Arion vs 64 Audio Volume: Which One Is Actually Worth Your Money?

FlipEars Arion vs 64 Audio Volume: Which One Is Actually Worth Your Money?

You've saved up. You've done the research rabbit hole: Reddit threads at 2 AM, YouTube comparisons with headphones plugged into

Robotaxi Firms Withhold Remote Assistance Data

Robotaxi Firms Withhold Remote Assistance Data

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) submitted a list of inquiries in letters to seven American businesses developing autonomous vehicle technology in February. In particular, he wanted to know how frequently remote workers' input is used in the vehicles run by Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox. According to the findings of Markey's probe, which were made public on Tuesday, they all declined to comment. The data released by Markey's office is the most recent illustration of how reluctant autonomous car manufacturers are to disclose specifics about how they actually operate, even though they are all testing this technology on public roads. The AV businesses' employment of [remote assistance operators] to help steer their AVs has shown a startling lack of transparency, according to this investigation.In its report, Markey's office stated, "The inquiry revealed a patchwork of safety measures across the business, with significant diversity in operator credentials, reaction times, and offshore personnel, all without any federal regulations governing these operations. Markey stated on Tuesday that he is "working on legislation to place severe guardrails on AV companies’ use of remote operators" and that he is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to look into these businesses' use of remote help workers. Every company listed has been contacted by TechCrunch.Nuro and Waymo declined to comment.May Mobility and Aurora expressed gratitude for collaborating with Markey's office. Requests for comment from the others were not answered. Following a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the future of selfdriving cars in February, Markey began his research.Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, discussed during the hearing how the company's vehicles occasionally require assistance from "remote assistance" personnel when they become trapped in challenging or unexpected situations.Peña also disclosed that the Philippines is home to almost half of Waymo's remote support employees. Over the years, autonomous car manufacturers have occasionally discussed these kind of remote assistance services.However, because the technology was still in its early stages of development or testing, those discussions were frequently theoretical. The focus on these businesses' whole operations has increased since many of them have commercially deployed robotaxis or, in Aurora's case, self-driving semi-trucks. Markey wrote to those seven businesses after the hearing to request additional details on their remote activities.His agency asked each company 14 questions, such as how frequently remote workers provide instruction to autonomous vehicles, how large these teams are, where they are situated, how they are licensed, and what security measures are in place. The responses from the firms, which you can read in full here, differ greatly.Waymo and May Mobility specifically said that this is "private business information," therefore none of them addressed the question of how frequently their remote employees are required to provide assistance to the AVs. The question was left out of Tesla's reply letter. The business eliminated its North American communications team years ago, though it is unclear why. In its letter, Waymo stated that the amount of help requests per mile that its vehicles send to remote workers has "materially decreased" as a result of enhancements to its self-driving system, but company provided no details or evidence to support this assertion. According to the business, the self-driving technology handles the "vast majority of queries" that its robotaxis submit to remote assistance personnel "before an agent even offers an answer. Additionally, only Waymo acknowledged employing remote helpers from abroad.Markey's office stated on Tuesday that a "driver's license in a foreign area is not a replacement for passing a U.S. driver's license exam, as the regulations of the road will almost definitely vary by region," despite the company's claims that it ensures these employees have local driver's licenses. With the exception of Tesla, every company stated that they either do not permit remote help workers to operate these autonomous vehicles directly or do not have the capability to do so.In the meantime, Tesla stated that its remote assistance employees "are authorized to momentarily acquire direct vehicle control as the ultimate escalation move after all other potential intervention steps have been exhausted. According to Tesla, the remote operator cannot drive the car faster than 10 miles per hour, and this can only occur while a vehicle in its pilot fleet is traveling at two miles per hour or less.

by Mark Matlock

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