In a world of countless mobility devices, MIMO Motors has set itself apart from the pack by creating a unique e-scooter that tackles mobility and cargo hauling. The MIMO C1 can transition from scooter to hand cart in just 3 seconds. The adaptable “cargo e-scooter” is designed for delivery, shopping and leisure uses. C1’s front rack can carry up to 154 lbs of cargo while carrying a rider with a max weight of 265 lbs. MIMO C1 features a Samsung 35E battery that’s swappable so you don’t run out of juice. The 2-in-1 e-scooter has a range of 15.5 miles when fully charged with a top speed of 15.5 mph. It features front and rear lights with 2 casters in hand cart mode. Do you think the MIMO C1 e-scooter reinvents how we move around congested cities?  

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Last year, Tesla issued an update that made its vehicles easier to start after being unlocked with their NFC key cards. Now, a researcher has shown how the feature can be exploited to steal cars.

For years, drivers who used their Tesla NFC key card to unlock their cars had to place the card on the center console to begin driving. Following the update, which was reported here last August, drivers could operate their cars immediately after unlocking them with the card. The NFC card is one of three means for unlocking a Tesla; a key fob and a phone app are the other two.

Enrolling Your Own Key

Martin Herfurt, a security researcher in Austria, quickly noticed something odd about the new feature: Not only did it allow the car to automatically start within 130 seconds of being unlocked with the NFC card, but it also put the car in a state to accept entirely new keys—with no authentication required and zero indication given by the in-car display.

“The authorization given in the 130-second interval is too general … it’s not only for drive,” Herfurt said in an online interview. “This timer has been introduced by Tesla … in order to make the use of the NFC card as a primary means of using the car more convenient. What should happen is that the car can be started and driven without the user having to use the key card a second time. The problem: Within the 130-second period, not only the driving of the car is authorized, but also the enrolling of a new key.”

The official Tesla phone app doesn’t permit keys to be enrolled unless it’s connected to the owner’s account, but despite this, Herfurt found that the vehicle gladly exchanges messages with any Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, device that’s nearby. So the researcher built his own app, named Teslakee, that speaks VCSec, the same language that the official Tesla app uses to communicate with Tesla cars.

A malicious version of Teslakee that Herfurt designed for proof-of-concept purposes shows how easy it is for thieves to surreptitiously enroll their own key during the 130-second interval. (The researcher plans to release a benign version of Teslakee eventually that will make such attacks harder to carry out.) The attacker then uses the Teslakee app to exchange VCSec messages that enroll the new key.

All that’s required is to be within range of the car during the crucial 130-second window of it being unlocked with an NFC card. If a vehicle owner normally uses the phone app to unlock the car—by far the most common unlocking method for Teslas—the attacker can force the use of the NFC card by using a signal jammer to block the BLE frequency used by Tesla’s phone-as-a-key app.

This video demonstrates the attack in action:

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Earlier this week, Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based aeronautics startup, released renderings for Stargazer—an incredibly fast high-altitude vehicle it’s hoping to develop.

Venus Aerospace has been working on the hypersonic aircraft since 2020, according to a company press release, and it has raised $33 million to build the plane, of which $1 million came from government funding. Hypersonic refers to vehicles or missiles capable of traveling Mach 5 or faster, and Stargazer has the potential to reach Mach 9, or nine times the speed of sound. The vehicle is being designed to hold 12 passengers while it travels at an altitude of 170,000 feet (51.8 kilometers), the company said in an email.

Even though Venus Aerospace calls Stargazer a “spaceplane,” the vehicle won’t actually venture to space. The technical boundary of space is still about 30 miles (50 kilometers) higher than Stargazer’s maximum altitude, so the plane won’t travel to beyond the Kármán line—sort of like how space balloons don’t really enter space either. That said, passengers will still have quite the view, with the curvature of Earth being clearly visible.

The Stargazer is expected to get passengers from Tokyo to Los Angeles in an hour. Imagine that—you’d be able to gallivant around Shibuya Crossing and climb the Skytree for a few hours, only to be back home on the west coast before dinnertime. That’s definitely an improvement over the the 11-hour flight on a commercial aircraft.

Stargazer would take off using engines just like a conventional airplane, but then “transition to rockets once at altitude and away from [the] city,” Venus Aerospace CTO Andrew Duggleby said to me in an email. Stargazer’s first ground test isn’t expected to happen until 2025 at the earliest, and there would be “no less than five years of flight testing to ensure safety, reliability, and performance,” he added.

Ideally, tickets for Stargazer would be roughly the same price as a first-class ticket on a commercial aircraft, but Duggleby said a number of variables still need to be worked out to pin down that price.

If and when Stargazer does get off the ground, the promise of jet-setting across the globe at ludicrous speeds will be incredibly alluring for a certain group who can afford it, even if it isn’t crossing the threshold into the inky black void. That said, ever since the crash of a Concorde plane in July 2000, the public has been understandably jittery about supersonic vehicles. So in addition to engineering challenges, Venus Aerospace will likely have to overcome some psychological barriers as well.

More: Russian Space Agency Plans to Space-Jack a German X-Ray Telescope

Olga Ozhogina is a Ukrainian space reporter, journalist and photojournalist. She contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights via the press center at Promin Aerospace, a Ukrainian rocket startup. 

Ukrainian rocket company Promin Aerospace, which is currently developing an ultralight, autophagic launch vehicle, has conducted a new series of studies on its unique engine. The startup’s initial tests, which were described here, showed the feasibility of the technical concept. With each new experiment, engineers are improving the design by testing different variations of the engine assembly.

The concept of the rocket is based on autophagic, or “self-devouring,” technology, which was initially proposed by Promin Aerospace’s chief technical officer Vitaliy Yemets.

Related: Ukrainian startup Promin Aerospace tests engine for new ‘self-devouring’ rocket
Live updates: Russia’s Ukraine invasion and space impacts

In an autophagic rocket, the hull would be used as solid rocket fuel, in addition to other propellants carried on board. For this purpose, the hull material must be both strong enough and have sufficient combustibility. During the rocket’s flight, the body is consumed, allowing for a reduction in mass as it travels and leaving no debris once the flight is completed. This advance would enable more efficient and environmentally friendly launches.

Over two months, three experiments were conducted with different variations of the engine and nozzle design, which allowed Promin Aerospace to identify and investigate challenges, as well as to improve the overall performance of the assembly. As the engine technology is unique, all tests had to be designed by the engineering team from scratch, while detecting and eliminating defects.

Thanks to these initial three tests, it was possible to improve the fuel supply system and test new fuel components, which proved their safety and efficiency. All necessary parameters were measured and recorded.

The fourth experiment: a fuel feeding system

For the fourth experiment, the engineering team used the same oxidizing agent that was used in the third experiment, as well as a bell-shaped nozzle, to keep the variables consistent in the new test. Additionally, engineers used a polymer fuel rod and a gas-oxygen mix for a starter. They utilized multiple temperature probes to monitor the temperature in numerous engine areas and pressure gauges in both the combustion chamber and the pneumatic cylinder.

Following previous experiments, the propellant rod was fed into the gasifier while recording the firing parameters with multiple sensors. The starting fuel and fuel assembly feeding systems were shown to work reliably; no issues with achieving combustion were recorded, and the experiment’s starting component provided a higher pressure in comparison to previous experiments.

As the starting fuel was supplied, a pressure of 4 atmospheres (atm) was recorded in the combustion chamber. The fuel supply pressure remained stable between 9 and 9.5 atm, and the starting fuel was turned off at 203 seconds (3 minutes and 23 seconds).

The measured feed rate was 10 millimeters per second (mm/s), demonstrating adequate performance, and the pressure reached a maximum of 12 atm. This experiment remained stable for 252.95 seconds (4 minutes and 12.95 seconds) at a rate of 10 mm/s and 12 atm.

The experiment ran for approximately 280 seconds (4 minutes and 40 seconds). At 252.95 seconds, a flare exited the feed path, followed by a popping sound and termination of the assembly’s movement. No damage was caused to the engine or the mount truss, and the experiment results show that everything performed well, although some minor changes must occur. For the next test, the assembly inlet seal was improved

Overall, the system worked reliably and provided sufficient pressure in the combustion chamber. Combustion of components in the operating mode provided a higher pressure than starting fuel. So far, all experiments have allowed the further development of an efficient and safe concept. 

Related: The history of rockets

The fifth experiment

For our fifth experiment, the engineering team utilized another type of fuel and oxidizer but retained the use of the bell-shaped nozzle. The test was conducted similarly to the previous ones, with the starting mix being supplied under a pressure of 4 atm and turned off at 204 seconds (3 minutes and 24 seconds), with the new primary fuel supplied under a pressure of 9 atm.

The pressure within the combustion chamber dropped after the starter fuel was turned off but increased gradually to 10 atm, and by 248 seconds (4 minutes and 8 seconds), the engine’s temperature had reached operational level. At 252 seconds (4 min and 12 seconds), the pressure went off the scale, and the fuel assembly stopped. After investigation, the engineers determined that the increase in pressure was caused by a block in the nozzle, as the gasifier’s casing was torn off.

Despite this, the engineers found that the chosen starting fuel assembly worked reliably. The pressure in the combustion chamber was correlated with the feed rate of the working components with a delay in the reaction time.

The sixth experiment: the new fuel rod component

The sixth experiment was conducted with the starting mix being supplied under a pressure of 4 atm and was turned off at 188 seconds (3 minutes and 8 seconds). It used a new primary fuel, which was supplied under a pressure of 25 atm. The pressure within the combustion chamber remained at 8.5 atm until approximately 300 seconds (5 minutes) when a flare ignited at the fuel assembly supply unit at the bottom of the combustion chamber.

At this moment, the combustion chamber began to overheat, and the steel turned white. According to both the sensors and heat color charts, it reached a temperature of about 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit (around 1,000 degrees Celsius). The feed rate of this fuel assembly was uneven, with a maximum value of 14 mm/s. The experiment lasted 350 seconds (5 minutes and 50 seconds).

Overall, the experiment passed with pressure within limits and without uncontrolled explosions, proving the reliability of this variant of the construction.

“The use of the new polymer as the main fuel component was efficient and safe, as there was no critical increase in pressure. So we will consider this variant. After that test, the assembly inlet seal will be tightened more to prevent an overheating of the combustion chamber,” Yemets said.

The next experiment will be dedicated to testing the new oxidizer. It is expected to increase the efficiency of combustion.

After making final tests, Promin Aerospace plans to conduct the first test launch of its suborbital rocket, followed by its first commercial mission in early 2023. In the future, the company also plans to conduct orbital launches.

Promin Aerospace (opens in new tab) was established by Vitaliy Yemets (opens in new tab) and Misha Rudominski (opens in new tab) in 2021. That same year, the company closed its first investment round and proved the capabilities of autophagic technology, which could reduce launch costs and space debris.

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Japanese Spacecraft Recovered Amino Acids From Asteroid

By Shane McGlaun

2 minutes ago

One of the critical building blocks of life, as we know it, is amino acids. Scientists in Japan have announced its spacecraft. Hayabusa2 recovered 20 different amino acids from the asteroid called Ryugu between 2018 and 2019.

Scientists are excited about the discovery because it is the first evidence that amino acids exist on asteroids in space. Scientists believe the finding could indicate how amino acids originally arrived on earth.

The Japanese spacecraft collected 5.4 grams of asteroid sample from the surface and subsurface of the asteroid in 2019. The spacecraft traveled about 200 million miles from Earth to reach the asteroid.

Scientists say that Ryugu is a carbon-rich fragment of a larger asteroid that formed from the same type of gas and dust that created our solar system. The samples are believed to indicate what would have been around in the early solar system 4 billion years ago.

Three Republican Senators have proposed a bill to try and ban the use of apps that support China’s digital currency, also known as e-CNY or digital yuan, over concerns that the Chinese government could use the currency to spy on U.S. citizens.

The draft law was labeled as the “Defending Americans from Authoritarian Digital Currencies Act,” and calls for prohibiting app stores including Apple and Google from carrying any apps that accept purchases in the digital currency. That would include the popular messaging app WeChat, which announced that it would support e-CNY earlier this year.

The senators behind the bill warned of the alleged financial and surveillance risks associated with the digital yuan. “The Chinese Communist Party’s digital yuan allows direct control and access to the financial lives of individuals,” Indiana Senator Mike Braun, said in a statement. “We cannot allow this authoritarian regime to use their state-controlled digital currency as an instrument to infiltrate our economy and the private information of American citizens.” Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton reiterated Braun’s concern that the digital currency would be used to “control and spy on anyone who uses it.”

“We can’t give China that chance—the United States should reject China’s attempt to undermine our economy at its most basic level,” Cotton added in the same statement.

China’s digital currency has raised concerns over safety and privacy issues. During the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, a group of republican lawmakers warned American athletes not to use digital yuan while in China, claiming that it could be tracked by the central bank.

Meanwhile, China has promised “controllable anonymity” that would allow users to keep their transactions anonymous to a “reasonable extent,” according to Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the People’s Bank of China.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden announced that he supports the development of a U.S. digital currency. Biden ordered several agencies to begin researching and submitting their reports in anticipation of an alleged global move towards digital currencies.

In anticipation of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites posing as a threat, military researchers in China want their nation to be ready to disable, or perhaps completely destroy, the gigantic internet constellation. It’s an ominous possibility, but one easier said than done.

In a research paper published in China’s peer-reviewed journal Modern Defence Technology and reported on by the state-run South China Morning Post this past Wednesday, lead author Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, argues that the Chinese military should develop ways to counteract any threat posed by Starlink. The paper was freely available as early as yesterday, but as of today it appears to be taken down. However, a translated version of the article can be accessed here.

“A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation’s operating system,” the paper reads, citing “hidden dangers and challenges” to China. The researchers behind the recent paper also warn of Starlink going on the “offensive” and using the satellites’ ion thrusters to knock China’s spacecraft or satellites out of their orbits.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is building out the Starlink satellite constellation in low Earth orbit, and it’s designed to provide high-speed internet to virtually any part of the world. The plan is to launch upwards of 42,000 satellites to orbit using the company’s Falcon 9 rockets, and so far about 2,300 functioning Starlink satellites have been placed in orbit.

“If you’re a part of any country’s military whose job it is to think about war in space, you see Starlink as a different problem,” astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told Gizmodo.

The main issues with the Starlink satellites is that there’s just too many of them, and so you would have to dispatch a tremendous number of anti-satellite missiles to destroy the entire constellation. Knocking out one or two, or even several dozen, won’t disable the entire system. What’s more, SpaceX would have very little difficulty replacing a few lost units. And as McDowell said, “replacing a Starlink satellite is cheaper than replacing an anti-satellite missile.”

China became extra wary of the constellation after two Starlink satellites nearly crashed into China’s Tianhe space station on two separate occasions in 2021. On both occasions, the space station had to move out of the way with Chinese astronauts on board.

The authors of the recent paper are concerned that SpaceX will soon overwhelm low Earth orbit and that the private company might assist the U.S. military in dominating this valuable swath of space. China’s military has also expressed its concern following Musk’s use of Starlink to support Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. In March, Starlink began to provide internet connections for people in Ukraine after cell towers were damaged by Russian forces.

Earlier this month, the website affiliated with China’s Central Military Commission published an opinion piece that warned of Starlink’s reach. “In addition to supporting communication, Starlink, as experts estimated, could also interact with UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] and, using big data and facial recognition technology, might have already played a part in Ukraine’s military operations against Russia,” according to the article, published in China Military Online.

During war, one strategy is to interrupt the enemy’s lines of communication, but that’s becoming a tall order in this era of megaconstellations. Moreover, and as McDowell explained, Starlink provides an inherent advantage for those who choose to use it. “I don’t think it’s seen as a threat, it’s seen more as an asset,” he told me.

Following his support of Ukraine, Musk was vocal about the potential for Starlink to be targeted. “If you attempt to take out Starlink, this is not easy because there are 2,000 satellites. That means a lot of anti-satellite missiles,” Musk said in an interview with Business Insider in March. “I hope we do not have to put this to a test, but I think we can launch satellites faster than they can launch anti-satellites missiles.”

The real threat, though, is turning low Earth orbit into some sort of space war zone or overcrowding our planet’s surroundings with satellites. The U.S. military has its own plans to build out a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit. Known as the Blackjack project, it would include somewhere between 300 and 500 satellites meant to support military operations. Meanwhile, China is also developing its own plans for a satellite internet megaconstellation.

“I think this Chinese military news is a distraction from the real conversation that needs to be happening which is, how are we going to coordinate all of this?” McDowell said.