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  • Moscow Aviation Institute

    A Russian drone hunts other drones with a shotgun

    by 
    Steve Dent
    Steve Dent
    04.01.2019

    No, this isn't an April Fool's joke: A Russian defense contractor has patented a drone that uses a shotgun to blast other drones out of the sky. It comes from Almaz Antey, a Russian defense contractor that manufactures the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile that caused a rift between Turkey and the US. The tail-sitting drone takes off on the spot but flies like an airplane for greater efficiency, giving it a 40-minute range while packing a fully-automatic Vepr-12 shotgun with a 10-round magazine.

  • ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images

    China wants to put a solar farm in space by 2025

    by 
    Rachel England
    Rachel England
    02.18.2019

    Humanity uses a lot of energy, and while solar power here on Earth is doing a reasonable job of contributing to the electricity mix, scientists have long hypothesized that gathering the sun's energy from space would be a lot more effective. And now China says it's going to be the first to do exactly that, announcing plans to build an interstellar power station that will orbit the Earth at 36,000 kilometers.