Month: April 2025

Future moon bases could run on solar collectors that were made of melted moon dust and transform the surface of the moon into an energy source. Many thanks to a new research breakthrough.

Scientists from the University of Potsdam have developed so -called “Moonglass” solar cells, which were produced by melting artificial moon dust or “regolith”, and then combine with a layer of perovsky crystal to create a functioning solar panel.

The device could be easier, cheaper and radiation -finished than the panels already used in space, according to the researchers. Their results were published in the journal Device this week.

Today, solar modules compete, room stations as well as Mars and MondroVo. All of these arrays are currently built on earth and started in space. But when mankind urges a permanent moon presence, the need for a solar power will drive up – as well as the costs to get plates there.

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Felix Lang, the main author of the paper, said that the silicon-based solar cells used in space are “surprising”-and the efficiency of 30% to 40% are expensive. They are also difficult because they use glass or a thick film as a cover. “It is difficult to justify to raise all of these cells into space,” he said.

The use of the moon's own regolith could be a player. By producing moon glass directly on the moon surface and combining it with a thin layer of perovskit crystals that were brought out of the earth, the researchers found that they could reduce the start mass by 99%.

Building solar collectors on the moon

The impression of an artist of future solar cell production on the moon. Credit: Sercan Özen

As soon as the materials are collected, according to the researchers, it would have to be transformed into solar collectors on the moon, as they can be produced with a raw regolith that does not have to be processed. The team says that they have already achieved promising results by using a large curved mirror and sunlight to focus a beam that is hot enough to melt regolith in moon glass.

Since moon glass is made from raw regolith, it is milky-white instead of transparent, which limits its light-harvesting potential. The best prototypes of the Potsdam team achieved an efficiency of around 12% – about half of the conventional perov science cells. However, simulations indicate that they could finally agree with the efficiency of conventional perov cheating.

Nicholas Bennett from the University of Technology Sydney told New scientist that this is the first successful use of moon glass in a functioning solar cell. The real challenge, he says, is to produce large amounts of things outside the laboratory.

Moonglass panels are the latest in a number of high-tech bids to put the basics of a permanent human presence on the moon. Other planned projects are used to use moon dust 3D printing a moon baseBuilding Oxygen extraction systems From Regolith and even buildings Room mirror This melts the ice of the moon in drinking water.

During the TNW conference, which will take place in Amsterdam on June 19 to 20, Space Age Technologies will appear on Earth. Tickets for the event are now for sale. Use the Code TnwxMedia2025 on the check-out to get a 30% discount on the price.

Table of contents table Hello, buy for me! Some finer details

The future of online shopping at Amazon will be strongly dependent on AI. At the beginning of 2025, the company prompted its Rufus Ai agent to spill product information and help users find the right elements. A few weeks later, another AI tool called interests found their way to the shopping location.

The new Alexa+ Ai assistant can also give up half-autonomous orders and edit everything from food to the booking of appointments. Now the company has started to test another AI agent who buys products from other websites if they are not available at Amazon – without ever leaving the app.

Hello, buy for me!

Amazon

The function in question is called “Buy for Me” and is now available for a small amount of users in the USA in the Android and iPhone apps. “We want to make it even easier for customers to find a product they want and need,” says the company.

Amazon notes that the entire system has been seamlessly integrated into the core shopping experience. For this purpose, users also see product lists from other websites under the new banner “Shop Brand Direct”.

Amazon

All you have to do is to type the product and type the “Buy for me” option. As soon as the intention to buy is clear, Amazon links to the target website and bring customers directly to the cash register where they can pay and confirm the order.

“With the help of Agentic AI functions, Amazon is created by safely offering the encrypted name, the address and payment details of the customer in order to complete the checkout process on the brand's website,” explains the company.

Amazon

The brand of third-party providers offers an order confirmation for the registered email address, while a new “shop” tab “for me” in the Amazon app enables the logistics status to keep an eye on. For me there are no additional costs, and it does not require a first-class subscription.

Some finer details

With regard to the purchase for me, however, there is a minor cost reservation. “If you instruct Amazon to make the purchase in your name, Amazon offers an estimated total number of the total number, and you will agree to pay an amount of up to 10 US dollars more than the estimated total number.

Amazon

In particular, promo codes are not applicable to products that were bought by other websites. In addition, you can only buy one article with the experimental function. Amazon also warns that his return and reimbursement guidelines do not apply to these orders.

These new Agentic Ai shopping opportunities are built on Amazon Nova and the Claude AI models from Anthropic. Amazon is already testing a tool called Nova Act, with which the tasks of web browsing take on and performs tasks on behalf of users, e.g. B. the order of food.

“Hello, I will be your driver for today,” says Bartek Szurgot, software engineer at German Startup Vay and my chauffeur for this trip. He triggers the handbrake and gently squeezes the accelerator and the new Kia Niro EV, in which I am slowly sitting out of the parking lot.

As we approach the first intersection, Bartek turns, the steering wheel turns, makes its observations and drives onto a busy road near the center of Berlin. So far pretty standard – except a big difference.

Bartek is not in the car. He is a few blocks away in an office and controls the vehicle like a high-tech puppeteer.

Remote controls like Bartek Vay's car command From a video game style Station with a driver's seat, steering wheel, pedals and three monitors who are visible in front of the car and the side.

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Road traffic noises such as emergency vehicle sirens and other warning signals are transferred to the headphones of the teledride via microphones. The operators could sit on the other side of the world.

Vay has developed a proprietary hardware and software system called “Drive-by-Wire” that communicates with the most important controls of the car, including steering wheel, brakes and gear slid. Electrical signals that are transmitted by the remote control indicate what to do, so that the car can reflect the long -distance drivers' actions in real time.

Redundant mobile networks Transfer the data. In the event of a network failure or an emergency, the vehicle automatically comes to a safe stop.

The remote Vay drivers spend most of the time to deliver customers who welcome the cars in an app. After the car arrives, users take the wheel and ride themselves.

Teledribers check the cars from remote locations. Credit: Siôn speed

Customers can use the car for a short trip, hours, days or even longer. As soon as you are finished, keep the car safely on the street, apply the handbrake, get out and continue your day. Then a remote commissioner takes over again and drives to the next customer.

As everyone who is familiar with autonomous vehicles, it takes some getting used to that driving itself get used to watching a car driving. Knowing that my “driver” was blocked, steered screens and sensors and felt surreal. But as soon as you have got used to it, the journey is almost disappointingly normal – I assume that is the point.

Vay's technology is undoubtedly impressive, but in Europe the supervisory authorities can strangle its potential before it is ever scaled. Meanwhile, Vay accelerates over the Atlantic.

Vay already has A 40-person fleet of remote-controlled cars in Las Vegas. In Berlin and all over Europe, however, progress was slower, without any commercial service.

Due to the regulatory bureaucracy, Vay is only limited to test drives and is necessary to keep a safety driver on board. However, it received an exception beforehand. In 2023 it used such a supervisory authority pass to be the first company to operate a car on a European public road without one person inside.

However, the German government hands over economical. So I couldn't take the wheel on our test drive. That was Graemes job, our security driver for the trip. Nevertheless, it gave me a fixed idea of ​​what to expect.

Cameras are attached to Vay's cars. Credit: Siôn speed

The future of the car sharing?

When I heard from Vay's remote driving concept for the first time a few years ago, I was skeptical. The company has advertised the advantages: less trouble, cheaper tariffs, better working conditions for employees. But it seemed to be a business model that had the risk of fitting in irrelevation as soon as self -driving cars went the mainstream.

But if I was fixed on the other hand and full autonomy on the other side, I may have overlooked that Vay did something else.

“We create a completely new category of mobility,” Thomas von der Ohe, CEO of Vay And co -founder tells me about the headquarters of the company in Berlin. After years He returned to Europe in the self -driving cars of the Bay Area Building and founded Vay in 2018 alongside Fabrizio Scelsi and Bogdan Djukic.

Vay's trips in Las Vegas cost about half as much as Uber. From the OHE says that they keep prices low by reducing the cost of driver working costs. With travel services it is a driver, a car. However, a single Vay driver can monitor up to 10 vehicles on a certain day. If you drop a car with a customer, the drivers can “teleport” and get control of another vehicle.

Vay could offer a taxi-style service in which passengers drive in the back, but that would reduce profits and increase prices. That is why it makes the business sense to do the customer, says von der Ohe.

Vay aims not at hailing the greatest influence on the caressing and renting cars. According to the OHE, the company can help the average car rental prices in Germany at the same time with the rental companies to reduce costs by reducing the need for large parking, especially at busy airports.

Vay also hopes to offer a better version of the car healing. Customers do not have to pick up their cars or park – big problems in dense European cities. Fleet owners can keep the vehicles in use for longer, and the OHE believes that the model could even reduce ownership in urban areas in urban areas.

All of this ensures a convincing promise of value. So far, Vay has collected $ 150 million in funds, including € 34 million ($ 37 million) from The European investment bank.

But there are still many potholes on the street. Outside of Las Vegas, Vay is still unproven – and the regulatory bureaucracy doesn't make it easier.

In Europe, the governments have slowly adopted rules for cars driven from afar. At the moment, the vehicles are subject to the same guidelines as autonomous vehicles – which are at best stained.

“We have the technology, it works, it could be anywhere in Berlin and Europe,” says von der Ohe. “But politics stands in the way, there is no consensus. It's just so strange.”

Vay has over 10,000 trips in Vegas and completed Plans to scale his fleet of remote -controlled Kia Niros to 100 this year. The Company A new production facility in Sin City recently secured, in which the cars will retrofit with its drive-by-wire system and a relatively inexpensive set of cameras. In order to finance the expansion, the company also hits another round of financing, says von der Ohe.

After my test drive, I called an Uber to take myself to Berlin Brandenburg Airport. When it rolled up, I couldn't help but wish that it was empty – just waiting for me to get in and take the bike. Maybe one day. But if I want this future, I have to book a ticket to Vegas.