Category: Tech

Malaysia has secured a big agreement with British chip designer Arm Holdings, gaining access to innovative semiconductor technology as the country attempts to strengthen its position in the international supply chain. The 10-year, $250 million agreement will grant Malaysia intellectual property rights to seven compute subsystems as well as access to the Arm Flexible Access program. The agreement is planned to expand Malaysia’s semiconductor industry beyond midstream and downstream activities, allowing it to create high-value chip designs.

PM Anwar Ibrahim stated that Arm will open its first Southeast Asian office in Malaysia’s capital. The company will also train 10,000 engineers and help the local semiconductor industry design innovative chips. Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli emphasised that Malaysia must shift its focus from low-value semiconductor operations to upstream activities like intellectual property creation.

Within the next five years, the government intends to create a semiconductor designed in Malaysia. Rafizi stated that each compute subsystem license might earn $30 billion in annual profits if effectively commercialised. According to some observers, the move is related to tensions between the US and China, although Rafizi denied this.

The Japanese lunar exploration corporation ispace has announced plans to undertake a second moon landing on June 6. During a press conference on Monday, Takeshi Hakamada, the CEO and founder of the company, provided a comprehensive overview of the mission’s progress, citing that all conditions are stable.

The mission, which began on January 15 with the launch of the SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2 RESILIENCE lander, has encountered no technical issues so far. According to a news statement from ispace, the lander has maintained a consistent connection and is operating within predicted parameters. If everything goes as planned, RESILIENCE will land at 4:24 a.m. local time on June 6.

Ispace is working on lunar rovers and landers to establish low-cost, regular transportation to the moon. Hakamada voiced confidence in the mission’s development, claiming that it has gone easier than their previous attempt, which failed on April 26, 2023.

RESILIENCE is slated to reach lunar orbit on May 6, following a successful flyby on February 15. If the landing is successful, the TENACIOUS rover will be launched to investigate the surrounding area. Looking ahead, ispace has already planned a third mission in 2026 and a fourth in 2027, both with freshly constructed landers. Hakamada attributed the mission’s success to thorough preparation and voiced confidence in its conclusion.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has safely landed in the Mare Crisium region of the Moon, following a carefully planned powered descent. The US-based corporation has achieved history as the first commercial company to complete a successful lunar landing.

The lander was launched on January 15, 2025, by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After nearly a month in Earth’s orbit, it spent 16 days in lunar orbit, fine-tuning its course before making its final descent. Blue Ghost landed precisely on Sunday, March 2nd, at 2:34 a.m. CST in a 100-meter target zone near Mons Latreille.

Shortly after landing, the spacecraft sent its first image from the lunar surface, showing its legs firmly on the moon. Firefly confirmed that Blue Ghost was still stable, with shock-absorbing legs ensuring a smooth touchdown. The Mission Operations Centre in Texas continues to monitor the lander.

The lander will perform surface activities such as lunar subsurface drilling, sample collecting, and X-ray imaging for the next 14 days. A total eclipse is predicted to be captured in high definition on March 14th. By March 16, it will have observed the lunar sunset and gathered data on dust levitation.

With the construction of its first hyperloop test track, India has made a major advancement in the transformation of transportation. The 422-meter-long test track, developed by IIT Madras with cooperation from the Ministry of Railways, allows for high-speed travel in a near-vacuum environment. Trains may now travel at speeds of over 1,000 km/h because of the technology, providing a glimpse of ultra-fast travel in the future.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the first commercial project will be deployed across a 4,050-kilometer site after the technology has been thoroughly tested and approved.

Initial tests indicate that a hyperloop system could travel 350 km in 30 minutes. It is anticipated that the 422-meter-long first pod will be essential to developing the required technology.

Vaishnaw revealed that IIT Madras would receive a third award of $1 million for additional development. He stated that Indian Railways will proceed with commercial rollout after the system has proven reliable. The Hyperloop, which uses electromagnetic levitation in vacuum tubes to reduce friction and air drag, has the potential to achieve speeds approaching Mach 1 (1,224 km/h).

For the first time, the United States Space Force has publicly released an image of its classified X-37B space plane in orbit, providing a rare insight into one of the most secretive spacecraft in use. The image, taken by an onboard camera, shows Earth in the background with the X-37B’s solar panel and open payload bay partially visible.

The Boeing-built X-37B has been in orbit for more than a year, having launched on its seventh mission on December 28, 2023, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Previously, the only known video of the spacecraft in orbit was a brief excerpt from a SpaceX launch stream. The new image is the first official proof of the vehicle’s presence in orbit.

While the photo does not provide any vital information, it reveals that the X-37B is operating at a greater altitude than prior missions. The vehicle’s mission remains unknown, but the Space Force says it is testing new space technology like as orbital manoeuvres and radiation exposure research.

One important test is aerobraking, a fuel-efficient technique for adjusting orbit using air drag. The project also shows gains in space manoeuvrability, which could be linked to future deep-space missions.

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has established a 5 billion rupee ($57.58 million) fund to assist early-stage space businesses in commercialising their innovations. The project intends to minimise India’s dependency on space-related imports while increasing the country’s footprint in the global space sector.

The Technology Adoption Fund project will encourage collaboration between government agencies and commercial businesses. IN-SPACe stated that by providing financial support, India intends to establish itself as a vital role in the rapidly growing space economy.

According to Pawan Goenka, chairman of IN-SPACe, the fund would cover up to 60% of project expenditures for startups, and small and medium-sized businesses, while larger sectors will receive up to 40% assistance. Each project can get a maximum investment of 250 million rupees. This aid is designed to help businesses enhance their technologies, increase output, and cater to both domestic and foreign markets.

The Indian government has actively encouraged private participation in the space sector. Furthermore, a second 10 billion rupee venture capital fund has been established to encourage space entrepreneurs and ISRO launch contracts have also been handed to private firms.

India plans to launch its first privately produced Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) this year. The vehicle, developed by a collaboration of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T), will transport the Technology Demonstration Satellite-1 (TDS-1). This mission will put 35 cutting-edge indigenous technologies to the test, a significant step forward for India’s space sector.

In an exclusive interview, Isro chairman V. Narayanan stated that the PSLV is nearing completion, with Isro providing technical support. The TDS-1 payload is currently being built, and it will incorporate innovations including electric propulsion, an indigenous atomic clock, and quantum payloads.

One of the primary advances on TDS-1 is a 300 milli-Newton (mN) electric propulsion thruster developed by Isro’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). This thruster, which is currently undergoing life cycle testing, provides a significant improvement over the 75mN thruster previously employed on GSAT-9.

Meanwhile, Isro is making progress with its Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). The 93m-tall rocket is designed to carry payloads of up to 1,000 tonnes and will have nine LOX-methane engines in its core stage. Critical subsystem development is now underway, as are conversations with industry partners about manufacture and testing.

A solvent recycling facility in Thailand is optimistic about the future, expecting a 10% income rise this year. The company also plans to participate in the carbon credit trading market.

Solvents play an important role in EV manufacturing because of their ability to dissolve impurities and evaporate fast. They are widely used for cleaning automotive and electrical components, as well as mixing resins and pigments for vehicle coatings. Solvents play an equally important role in lithium-ion battery manufacture.

Siamnat Panassorn, CEO of Sun-up Recycling, emphasised the difficulty of recovering solvents from spent batteries and recycling them for fresh production. Sun-up Recycling, founded in Japan in 1995 and expanded to Thailand in 2017, specialises in organic solvent recovery. The company’s innovative distillation method produces 99% purity and an 80%-95% recovery rate, recycling up to 9,000 tonnes per year.

Electric vehicles (EVs) provide significant carbon reduction benefits during operation. However, the manufacture of EV bodies and batteries continues to contribute significantly to carbon emissions. Solvents, which are used in manufacturing processes, are a significant source of these emissions. Solvents emit at least three times as much carbon when burnt as when recycled.

India plans to revolutionise emergency medical transportation with the deployment of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) air ambulances. This effort places India at the forefront of modern air ambulance technology.

The $1 billion agreement between the IIT-Madras-based ePlane Company and ICATT, a renowned air ambulance service provider, marks a significant milestone in achieving this goal. According to the agreement, 788 eVTOL flying ambulances will be deployed in all Indian districts.

These electric air ambulances will drastically shorten response times in medical crises, especially in congested urban areas where traditional ambulances face traffic delays. Unlike helicopters, eVTOLs provide a quieter, more environmentally friendly, and cost-effective alternative.

The aircraft will carry a pilot, a paramedic, and a patient with life-saving medical equipment. With a maximum speed of 200 km/h and a range of up to 200 km per charge, they are suited for short and medium-distance medical missions.

The government is loosening airspace laws to encourage eVTOL operations, which will boost innovation in urban air mobility. ePlane expects to begin operations in late 2026, producing 100 air ambulances per year. The business has secured $20 million and is seeking an additional $100 million for research and certification.

Indian researchers made a spectacular discovery: TOI-6038A b, a new exoplanet. This planet is roughly 78.5 times the mass of Earth and has a radius of 6.41 times that of our own. Scientists from Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) identified it.

The exoplanet orbits a bright, metal-rich F-type star, completing its revolution in roughly 5.83 days. It takes a nearly circular path through a large binary system. This planet is classified as a dense “Sub-Saturn,” falling somewhere between Neptune-like worlds and gas giants, making it an intriguing target for planetary evolution research.

This is the second exoplanet discovered using the advanced PARAS-2 spectrograph installed on PRL’s 2.5-meter telescope at Mount Abu Observatory. PARAS-1 and PARAS-2 have now discovered five exoplanets. High-resolution radial velocity data and speckle imaging were critical in determining the planet’s existence.

TOI-6038A b has a density of 1.62 g/cm³, indicating its development during high-eccentricity tidal migration or early disk-driven migration. Its host star is part of a double system, which raises concerns regarding gravitational interactions. Further investigation into its composition, atmosphere, and orbital properties may provide new insights into planetary formation processes.