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_-iNT13- writes:

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/04/europe/france-crypto-kidnappings-detained-intl

Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, a 24-year-old French-Moroccan, suspected of being behind a string of violent kidnappings in France of people linked to cryptocurrency was detained Tuesday in Morocco. He was wanted by France for armed extortion and kidnapping as part of a criminal gang, according to the "red notice" for him published by Interpol.

French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin thanked Morocco on X for detaining the man, citing the "excellent judicial cooperation" between the two countries.

Bajjou had "multiple bladed weapons of different sizes" in his possession when he was taken into custody, as well as "dozens of mobile phones and communication devices" and a sum of money allegedly related to criminal activities, Moroccan state media reported.

The man was apprehended, weeks after the latest kidnapping attempt in Paris, near Tangier in northern Morocco, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. He is allegedly linked to a string of violent crimes related to crypto funds dating back to at least January 21 of this year.

According to the media he had "multiple bladed weapons of different sizes", "dozens of mobile phones and communication devices", and money alleged to be from criminal activities.

Reported widely, including:

• https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250604-suspected-mastermind-of-french-crypto-kidnappings-held-in-morocco
• https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/04/suspect-in-french-crypto-kidnappings-arrested-in-morocco

See also: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/05/07/2330241

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The system can take a passenger's profile into account to better protect them during crashes:

Volvo has introduced a new seatbelt technology that can customize the protection it provides in real time. The "multi-adaptive safety belt" system, as the automaker is calling it, uses data input from both interior and exterior sensors to change protection settings based on various factors. It can take a person's height, weight, body shape and seating position into account, as well as the direction and speed of the vehicle. The system can communicate all those information to the seatbelt "in the blink of an eye" so that it can optimize protection for the passenger.

If the passenger is on the larger side, for instance, they will receive a higher belt load setting to reduce the risk of a head injury in the event of a serious crash. For milder crashes, someone with a smaller frame will receive a lower belt load setting to prevent rib injuries. Volvo didn't specifically say if the system also takes the position of a seatbelt on women into account, since it doesn't always fit right over a woman's chest. However, the automaker explained that the system expands the number of load-limiting profiles to 11. Load limiters control how much force a seatbelt applies on the body during a crash. Typically, seatbelts only have three load-limiting profiles, but Volvo expanding them to 11 means the system can better optimize the protection a passenger gets.

Volvo used information from five decades of safety research and from a database of over 80,000 people involved in real-life accidents to design the new safety belt. The system was also created to incorporate improvements rolled out via over the-air software updates, which the company expects to release as it gets more data and insights.

"The world first multi-adaptive safety belt is another milestone for automotive safety and a great example of how we leverage real-time data with the ambition to help save millions of more lives," said Åsa Haglund, head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre. "This marks a major upgrade to the modern three-point safety belt, a Volvo invention introduced in 1959, estimated to have saved over a million lives."

Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin designed the modern three-point seatbelt and made its patent available for use by other automakers. The company didn't say whether it'll be as generous with the multi-adaptive safety belt, but the new system will debut in the all-electric Volvo EX60 midsize SUV sometime next year.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Mac fan paid $900 to color-match iconic Apple beige-gray "Platinum" plastic for everyone:

On Tuesday [03 JUN 2025], classic computer collector Joe Strosnider announced the availability of a new 3D-printer filament that replicates the iconic "Platinum" color scheme used in classic Macintosh computers from the late 1980s through the 1990s. The PLA filament (PLA is short for polylactic acid) allows hobbyists to 3D-print nostalgic novelties, replacement parts, and accessories that match the original color of vintage Apple computers.

[...] The Platinum color, which Apple used in its desktop and portable computer lines starting with the Apple IIgs in 1986, has become synonymous with a distinctive era of classic Macintosh aesthetic. Over time, original Macintosh plastics have become brittle and discolored with age, so matching the "original" color can be a somewhat challenging and subjective experience.

Strosnider, who runs a website about his extensive vintage computer collection in Ohio, worked for years to color-match the distinctive beige-gray hue of the Macintosh Platinum scheme, resulting in a spool of hobby-ready plastic by Polar Filament and priced at $21.99 per kilogram.

According to a forum post, Strosnider paid approximately $900 to develop the color and purchase an initial 25-kilogram supply of the filament. Rather than keeping the formulation proprietary, he arranged for Polar Filament to make the color publicly available.

"I paid them a fee to color match the speaker box from inside my Mac Color Classic," Strosnider wrote in a Tinkerdifferent forum post on Tuesday. "In exchange, I asked them to release the color to the public so anyone can use it."

[...] The timing of the filament's release coincides with growing interest in 3D-printed cases and accessories for vintage computer hardware. One example is the SE Mini desktop case, a project by "GutBomb" that transforms Macintosh SE and SE/30 logic boards into compact desktop computers that can connect to modern displays. The case, designed to be 3D-printed in multiple pieces and assembled, represents the type of project that benefits from color-accurate filament.

The SE Mini case requires approximately half a spool of filament and takes a couple of days to print on consumer 3D printers. Users can outfit the case with modern components, such as Pico PSUs and BlueSCSI storage devices, while maintaining the classic Macintosh appearance.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The United Kingdom's Government Digital Service (GDS) has found that giving civil service employees access to Microsoft 365 Copilot saved them an average 26 minutes per day on office tasks.

Microsoft 365 Copilot provides generative AI assistance with various Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It allows workers to accomplish some tasks through a natural language chat interface instead of mouse movements and menu clicks.

UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle discussed the results of the study in a presentation at SWSX London.

"Whether it’s helping draft documents, preparing lesson plans, or cutting down on routine admin, AI tools are saving civil servants time every day. That means we can focus more on delivering faster, more personalised support where it really counts," said Kyle in a statement

The GDS ran a trial of Microsoft M365 Copilot with 20,000 government employees from September 30, 2024, through December 31, 2024.

Based on self-reported data, the resulting study [PDF] showed fairly consistent time savings across professions and organizational ranks, though precise tool use and benefits varied.

"Over 70 percent of users agreed that M365 Copilot reduced time spent searching for information, performing mundane tasks, and increased time spent on more strategic activities," the report says.

"Perceived concerns with security and the handling of sensitive data led to reduced benefits in a minority of cases. Limitations were observed when dealing with complex, nuanced, or data-heavy aspects of work."

The report claims if the reported time savings were replicated across a full working year, "users could save 13 days."

[...] The study didn't investigate whether the workers used this extra time to do more work, take extra time for lunch, or head off to the pub early. "Due to experimental constraints it was not possible to identify how time saved was spent," the report says.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Researchers have developed a self-healing artificial muscle for use in soft robotics and wearable systems. It mimics the ability of animals and plants to detect and self-heal injuries. This transformative development by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineering team is claimed to address a longstanding problem with synthetic systems.

Injury sensing and self-repair are obviously important features of organic life forms, but present a complex challenge for robotics makers. Thus, the researchers have gone down the tried and trusted path of biomimicry here.

It is explained that the key development presented is a system that can identify damage from a puncture or extreme pressure, pinpoint its location, and autonomously initiate self-repair. For this purpose, a multi-layer architecture was presented at the recent IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta, Georgia.

The muscle, or actuator, has three layers. At the bottom is a damage detection layer, which is a soft electronic skin composed of liquid metal microdroplets embedded in a silicone elastomer in this case. Next, a stiff thermoplastic elastomer is used as the middle layer, and this material acts as the self-healing component. On top, there us the actuation layer, the layer which contracts and expands with the variation in water pressure.

To create a self-repair mechanism that functions without external intervention also requires a variety of monitoring currents which flow in a network across the ‘skin’ of this design. Damage can thus be sensed as disruptions to the electrical network. Ingeniously, this triggers the same network to deliver heat to areas of damage, melting the thermoplastic layer to seal ruptures. This is “effectively self-healing the wound,” says the researchers.

canopic jug writes:

The KDE community has an outreach campaign encouraging the use of the Plasma desktop by people with older, but usable, laptops. Vista10 support will come to an end and Vista11 has been designed not to run on many still viable models of computer due to several factors including Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) requirements centered around TPM-2.0. GNU/Linux can not only keep the old system working, it can improve its performance, ease of use, and general security. KDE Plasma can be part of that.

Even if you agree to this tech extortion now, in a few years time, they will do it again as they have done many times in the past.

But things don't have to be this way...

Upgrade the smart way! Keep the machine you've got and switch to Linux and Plasma.

Linux can give new life to your laptop. Combined with KDE's Plasma desktop, you get all the advantages of the safety, stability and hi tech of Linux, with all the features of a beautiful, modern and powerful graphic environment.

Their campaign page covers where and how beginners can get help, what the differences are, the benefits gained, and more.

[Editor's Comment: This is obviously a KDE/Plasma centric promotion - which doesn't mean that it is bad but there are lots of other options too. Which Linux OS and desktop would you recommend for someone wanting to make the move from Windows to Linux? Which are the best for a beginner, and which desktops provide the most intuitive interface for someone who has never sat down in front of a Linux computer before?--JR]

Previously:
(2025) Microsoft is Digging its Own Grave With Windows 11, and It Has to Stop
(2023) The Wintel Duopoly Plans to Send 240 Million PCs to the Landfill
(2023) Two Security Flaws in the TPM 2.0 Specs Put Cryptographic Keys at Risk
(2022) Report Claims Almost Half of Systems are Ineligible for Windows 11 Upgrades
(2021) Windows 11 Will Leave Millions of PCs Behind, and Microsoft is Struggling to Explain Why
(2019) Microsoft's Ongoing Tactics Against Competitors Explained, Based on its Own Documents
(2016) Windows 10 Anniversary Update to Require TPM 2.0 Module

Original Submission

slon writes:

The gender gap in education doesn't always disadvantage women. In countries like Estonia, Iceland, or Sweden, women outperform men in key indicators such as tertiary education and lifelong learning. But that, too, is a gender gap.

That's the starting point for researchers at the [Spain's] Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), who have developed a mathematical model to support European education authorities in improving performance and reducing gender disparities, regardless of which group is underperforming.

"In many European countries, women outperform men at every educational level. If we're serious about equality, we must also address these differences," explains Inmaculada Sirvent, professor of Statistics and Operations Research at UMH and co-author of the study.

Published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, the study analyzes four key indicators used by the European Commission to track access to knowledge: tertiary attainment, adult participation in learning, early leavers from education and training, and the share of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs).

One of the study's most striking findings is that, on average, women outperform men in three of the four indicators. The most significant gap concerns tertiary attainment: 38.5% of women in Europe have completed tertiary education, compared to 32% of men. "This imbalance, even if favorable to women, is still a gender gap—and one the education system can and should help close," says Sirvent.

upstart writes:

Reality check: Microsoft Azure CTO pushes back on AI vibe coding hype, sees 'upper limit':

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich cautioned that "vibe coding" and AI-driven software development tools aren't capable of replacing human programmers for complex software projects, contrary to the industry's most optimistic aspirations for artificial intelligence.

Russinovich, giving the keynote Tuesday at a Technology Alliance startup and investor event, acknowledged the effectiveness of AI coding tools for simple web applications, basic database projects, and rapid prototyping, even when used by people with little or no programming experience.

However, he said these tools often break down when handling the most complex software projects that span multiple files and folders, and where different parts of the code rely on each other in complicated ways — the kinds of real-world development work that many professional developers tackle daily.

"These things are right now still beyond the capabilities of our AI systems," he said. "You're going to see progress made. They're going to get better. But I think that there's an upper limit with the way that autoregressive transformers work that we just won't get past."

Even five years from now, he predicted, AI systems won't be independently building complex software on the highest level, or working with the most sophisticated code bases.

Instead, he said, the future lies in AI-assisted coding, where AI helps developers write code but humans maintain oversight of architecture and complex decision-making. This is more in line with Microsoft's original vision of AI as a "Copilot," a term that originated with the company's GitHub Copilot AI-powered coding assistant.

[...] He discussed his own AI safety research, including a technique that he and other Microsoft researchers developed called "crescendo" that can trick AI models into providing information they'd otherwise refuse to give.

upstart writes:

Klarna CEO says company will use humans to offer VIP customer service:

"My wife taught me something," Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the crowd at London SXSW. He was addressing the headlines about the company looking to hire human workers after previously saying Klarna used artificial intelligence to do work that would equate to 700 workers. "Two things can be true at the same time," he said.

Siemiatkowski said it's true that the company looked to stop hiring human workers a few years ago and rolled out AI agents that have helped reduce the cost of customer support and increase the company's revenue per employee. The company had 5,500 workers two years ago, and that number now stands at around 3,000, he said, adding that as the company's salary costs have gone down, Klarna now seeks to reinvest a majority of that money into employee cash and equity compensation.

But, he insisted, this doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity for humans to work at his company. "We think offering human customer service is always going to be a VIP thing," he said, comparing it to how people pay more for clothing stitched by hand rather than machines. "So we think that two things can be done at the same time. We can use AI to automatically take away boring jobs, things that are manual work, but we are also going to promise our customers to have a human connection."

He spoke about how the company plans to balance employees and AI workers. Siemiatkowski said that right now, engineering positions at the company haven't shrunk as much as those in other departments, but he notes that this could shift.

"What I'm seeing internally is a new rise of businesspeople who are coding themselves," he said, adding that the challenge many engineers have these days is that they are not business savvy. "I think that category of people will become even more valuable going forward," Siemiatkowski continued, especially as they can use AI and put their business understanding to good use.

He himself is using ChatGPT to help him learn to code and help him understand more of the data side of Klarna. He said doing this has helped Klarna become a better company. Before, he thought he would never catch up in learning what was needed to take a more present role in database conversations at the company.

"I'll take a Slack thread, I'll throw it in ChatGPT and say, 'This makes sense, right?'" he said, adding that he uses ChatGPT like a private tutor.

[Editor's Comment: Klarna Group plc, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company. The company provides payment processing services for the e-commerce industry, managing store claims and customer payments. --JR]

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

In 1983, researchers discovered that the planet’s surface was speckled with strange, circular landforms. These rounded mountain belts, known as coronae, have no known Earthly counterparts, and they’ve remained enigmatic for decades. But hot plumes of rock upwelling from Venus’ mantle are shaping the mysterious landforms, a new analysis suggests. If true, that mean that Venus’ surface is tectonically active, and not merely a stagnant layer, researchers report May 14 in Science Advances.

Some “people have said, well, it’s geologically dead,” says earth and planetary scientist Anna Gülcher of the University of Bern in Switzerland. But over the past few years, there’s been a growing mound of evidence supporting tectonic activity on the Morning Star. The new work shows that “hot material resides beneath [coronae] and is likely driving tectonic processes that are not so different than what occurs on the Earth,” she says.

Gülcher and colleagues simulated how Venus’ crust deformed in response to material rising from the underlying mantle, a thick layer between the planet’s crust and core. This allowed the team to make predictions about what the underground plumes — buoyant blobs of hot material — and resulting coronae would look like to spacecraft instruments.

Then the team analyzed data on the planet’s topography and gravity collected in the early 1990s by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, on the agency’s last mission to Venus. The gravity data were crucial. They revealed underground density differences linked to plumes rising from below.

By comparing the simulation predictions to the Magellan observations, the team was able to identify plumes beneath 52 of the observed coronae. What’s more, the simulation results suggested that the plumes had been sculpting the coronae in various ways.

[...] The research supports the argument that Venus’ tectonics are active today, he says. What’s more, the demonstrated ability of computer simulations to predict what spacecraft may observe will be a boon to future Venus missions like the VERITAS mission, which will gather much higher resolution data than Magellan, Byrne says.

If Venus is tectonically active today, perhaps it could have been Earthlike in the past, Gülcher says. “Was there a period in Venus’ history that was … potentially less hot, and more habitable?”

Journal Reference: G. Cascioli et al. A spectrum of tectonic processes at coronae on Venus revealed by gravity and topography. Science Advances. Vol. 11, May 14, 2025. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adt5932.

Original Submission

The following article was submitted via upstart:

X changes its terms to bar training of AI models using its content

Social network X, formerly known as Twitter, has updated its developer agreement to officially prohibit the use of its platform's public content for training artificial intelligence models. This move solidifies the platform's control over its vast dataset, particularly in light of its relationship with Elon Musk's own AI company, xAI.

The updated terms of service now include a specific restriction against this practice:

In an update on Wednesday, the company added a line under "Reverse Engineering and other Restrictions," a subsection of restrictions on use: "You shall not and you shall not attempt to (or allow others to) [...] use the X API or X Content to fine-tune or train a foundation or frontier model," it reads.

This policy change follows a series of adjustments and is seen as a strategic move to benefit its sister AI company:

This change comes after Elon Musk's AI company xAI acquired X in March — understandably, xAI wouldn't want to give its competitors free access to the social platform's data without a sale agreement. In 2023, X changed its privacy policy to use public data on its site to train AI models. Last October, it made further changes to allow third parties to train their models.

X is not alone in putting up walls around its data as the AI race heats up. Other technology companies have recently made similar changes to their policies to prevent unauthorized AI training:

Reddit has also put in place safeguards against AI crawlers, and last month, The Browser Company added a similar clause to its AI-focused browser Dia's terms of use.

As major platforms that host vast amounts of human-generated text and conversations increasingly restrict access for broad AI training, what might the long-term consequences be for AI development? Does this trend toward creating proprietary "data moats" risk stifling innovation and competition, potentially concentrating the future of advanced AI in the hands of a few powerful companies with exclusive data access?

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The European Commission (EC) has kicked off a scheme to make Europe a better place to nurture global technology businesses, providing support throughout their lifecycle, from startup through to maturity.

Launched this week, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy [PDF], dubbed "Choose Europe to Start and Scale," is another attempt to cultivate a flourishing tech sector in the region to rival that of the US, or "make Europe a startup powerhouse," as the EC puts it.

At the moment, many European tech startups struggle to take their ideas from lab to market, or grow into major players in their market, the EC says, which proposes action across five main areas.

These include creating a more innovation-friendly environment with fewer administrative burdens across the EU Single Market; a Scaleup Europe Fund to help bridge the financing gap; a Lab to Unicorn initiative to help connect universities across the EU; attracting/retaining top talent through to advice on employee stock options and cross-border employment; as well as facilitating access to infrastructure for startups.

The EC reportedly plans to create a public-private fund of at least €10 billion ($11.3 billion) to help with financing. We asked the Commission for confirmation of this, but did not receive an answer prior to publishing.

[...] This latest initiative sets out a clear vision, the EC says: to make Europe the top choice to launch and grow global technology-driven companies. It initiates a myriad of actions to improve conditions for startups and scaleups, encouraging them to capitalize on new geopolitical opportunities, and - importantly - aims to reduce the reasons for fledgling businesses to relocate outside the EU.

[...] According to some estimates, Europeans pay on average a $100 monthly "tax" to use US-created technology, and Steve Brazier, former CEO at Canalys told us last year he suspects this will be exacerbated when AI is widely used.

Europe has relatively few major tech organizations compared to the US, and there is more and more interest from some European businesses in the Trump 2.0 era to reduce their reliance on American hyperscalers in favor of local cloud operators.

According to some seasoned market watchers, the boat has likely sailed with respect to loosening the dominance of Microsoft, AWS and Google in the cloud, yet for the emerging tech startup scene there may be everything to play for.

Original Submission

janrinok writes:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2483366-japans-resilience-moon-lander-has-crashed-into-the-lunar-surface/

A Japanese space mission hoping to make history as the third ever private lunar landing has ended in failure, after ispace's Resilience lander smashed into the moon at some point after 7.13pm UTC on 5 June.

The lander had successfully descended to about 20 km above the moon's surface, but ispace's mission control lost contact shortly afterwards, when the probe fired its main engine for the final descent, and received no further communication.

The company said in a statement that a laser tool the craft used to measure its distance to the surface appeared to have malfunctioned, which would have caused the lander to slow down insufficiently, making the most likely outcome a crash landing.

"Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyse the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada in the statement.

If it had been successful, Resilience would have been the second private lunar landing of this year and the third ever. It would also have marked the first non-US company to land on lunar soil, after iSpace's first attempt, the Hakuto-R mission, ended in failure in 2023.

The Resilience lander started its moon-bound journey on 15 January, when it launched aboard a SpaceX rocket together with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander. While Blue Ghost touched down on 2 March, Resilience took a more circuitous route, travelling into deep space before doubling back and entering lunar orbit on 6 May. This winding path was necessary to land in the hard-to-reach northern plain called Mare Frigoris, where no previous moon mission had explored.

There were six experiments on board Resilience, including a device for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, a module for producing food from algae and a deep-space radiation monitor. The lander also contained a 5-kilogram rover, called Tenacious, that would have explored and photographed the lunar surface during the two weeks that Resilience was scheduled to run for.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Commercial Times reports that TSMC's upcoming N2 2nm semiconductors will cost $30,000 per wafer, a roughly 66% increase over the company's 3nm chips. Future nodes are expected to be even more expensive and likely reserved for the largest manufacturers.

TSMC has justified these price increases by citing the massive cost of building 2nm fabrication plants, which can reach up to $725 million. According to United Daily News, major players such as Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Nvidia are expected to place orders before the end of the year despite the higher prices, potentially bringing TSMC's 2nm Arizona fab to full capacity.

Unsurprisingly, Apple is getting first dibs. The A20 processor in next year's iPhone 18 Pro is expected to be the first chip based on TSMC's N2 process. Intel's Nova Lake processors, targeting desktops and possibly high-end laptops, are also slated to use N2 and are expected to launch next year.

Earlier reports indicated that yield rates for TSMC's 2nm process reached 60% last year and have since improved. New data suggests that 256Mb SRAM yield rates now exceed 90%. Trial production is likely already underway, with mass production scheduled to begin later this year.

With tape-outs for 2nm-based designs surpassing previous nodes at the same development stage, TSMC aims to produce tens of thousands of wafers by the end of 2025.

TSMC also plans to follow N2 with N2P and N2X in the second half of next year. N2P is expected to offer an 18% performance boost over N3E at the same power level and 36% greater energy efficiency at the same speed, along with significantly higher logic density. N2X, slated for mass production in 2027, will increase maximum clock frequencies by 10%.

As semiconductor geometries continue to shrink, power leakage becomes a major concern. TSMC's 2nm nodes will address this issue with gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architectures, enabling more precise control of electrical currents.

Beyond 2nm lies the Angstrom era, where TSMC will implement backside power delivery to further enhance performance. Future process nodes like A16 (1.6nm) and A14 (1.4nm) could cost up to $45,000 per wafer.

Meanwhile, Intel is aiming to outpace TSMC's roadmap. The company recently began risk production of its A18 node, which also features gate-all-around and backside power delivery. These chips are expected to debut later this year in Intel's upcoming laptop CPUs, codenamed Panther Lake.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA is advancing plans to construct a radio telescope on the Moon's far side – a location uniquely shielded from the ever-increasing interference caused by Earth's expanding satellite networks. This ambitious endeavor, known as the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, envisions deploying a massive wire mesh reflector within a lunar crater.

The project's innovative design relies on advanced robotics to suspend the reflector using cables, and if development proceeds as planned, the observatory could be operational sometime in the 2030s. Current projections estimate the cost at over $2 billion.

The far side of the Moon offers an unparalleled environment for radio astronomy, being naturally protected from the relentless radio noise and light pollution that plague observatories on Earth. The recent surge in satellite launches, especially from private ventures like Starlink, has led to a dramatic increase in orbiting satellites.

This proliferation raises concerns among astronomers about space debris, light pollution, and, most critically, the leakage of radio-frequency radiation.

Such interference poses a significant threat to sensitive scientific instruments designed to detect faint signals from the universe's earliest epochs. Federico Di Vruno, an astronomer affiliated with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, told LiveScience, "it would mean that we are artificially closing 'windows' to observe our universe" if radio astronomy on Earth becomes impossible due to interference.

The LCRT is being developed by a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, part of the California Institute of Technology. Since its initial proposal in 2020, the concept has progressed through several phases of funding from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. The team is currently building a prototype for testing at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California.

Gaurangi Gupta, a research scientist working on the project, explained that preparations are underway to apply for the next round of funding. If successful, she told LiveScience, the LCRT could transition into a "fully-fledged mission" within the next decade.

The proposed telescope features a mesh reflector spanning approximately 1,150 feet – making it larger than the now-defunct Arecibo telescope, though not as large as China's FAST observatory. The team has already selected a preferred crater in the Moon's Northern Hemisphere for the installation, but the precise site remains confidential.