Elon Musk: Why I'm Building the Starship Out of Stainless Steel

Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Elon Musk: Why I'm Building the Starship Out of Stainless Steel

Musk tweeted in January that the rocket formerly known as BFR would be built of stainless rather than carbon fiber. In this exclusive interview, he tells PM Editor in Chief Ryan D'Agostino why. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

For Transoceanic Flights, Are Two Engines Enough?

New, more efficient twin-engine jets like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are taking over more and more transoceanic routes. But what happens when one engine fails thousands of miles from civilization? | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

A Russian Startup Wants to Project Giant Billboards in Space

Hope you love looking at giant Big Macs in the sky. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

RV Was Designed by a Former DeLorean Engineer

The BMW-powered Vixen 21 must have been amazing at the 1986 Detroit Auto Show, because it still is today. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Car Company That's Resurrecting the DeLorean

DMC’s headquarters doubles as a restoration garage and storage for thousands of original three-decade-old DeLorean parts. Soon, it will become an assembly hall for the revamped DeLorean. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

AI Predicts Humans Have an Ancestor We Don't Even Know About Yet

Neanderthals and their Denisovan cousins likely formed a new species, an A.I. says. That muddies human evolution even further. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

More Than Half of Coffee Species Are in Danger of Extinction

A new study finds that 60 percent of species of coffee could go away—with potential collateral to your morning cup of joe. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

What Are Airports Going to Do About Drones?

There are plenty of counter-drone weapons to choose from, but all of them have shortcomings. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Scientists Find a New Way to Create the 238Pu That Powers Deep Space Missions

A long-simmering crisis for deep space missions ends before it could become a problem. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

U.S. submarines will soon very tactical nuclear weapons

Critics argue it’s not the best idea anyone ever came up with. Here’s why. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Civilian Satellite Data Inadvertently Pinpoints Military Radars

X literally marks the spot for U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Equipmake APM 200 Electric Motor: How It Works

The APM 200 by Equipmake, which will appear in the 2020 Ariel Hipercar, uses a clever trick of engineering to deal with the heat generated by an electric motor. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever

Technology was supposed to be the solution. Instead, it added to the problem. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

A Single Cell Hints at a Solution to the Biggest Problem in Computer Science

One small amoeba found a solution to the traveling salesman problem faster than our best algorithms. What does it know that we don't? | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

An Inside Look at Grave Digger, the Ultimate Monster Jam Truck

Grave Digger has been thrilling monster truck fans for more than 30 years. Here's what makes it such a beast. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The True Story of Brainstorm, Natalie Wood's Last Film

It had big stars, it foretold virtual reality, and the director was the special-effects wizard behind 2001: A Space Odyssey. So why have you never heard of this movie? | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

An Open-Source Doomsday Sim Murdered Me Repeatedly and Sucked Me into Its Code

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is stunning, sprawling, cruel, addictive, and free. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Scientists Are Launching a Sun-Blocking Geoengineering Experiment

A proposal to spray particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and lower temperatures is actually getting the green light. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Pentagon Is Declassifying Lots of Info About What's in Orbit

There’s a push underway to release more data about things the Pentagon is tracking in orbit. It’s a sign of things to come as Uncle Sam tries to make space a more friendly place for business. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

We Might Not Have Enough Materials for the Solar and Wind We Need

We'll need to be mining a dozen times as many metals to meet demand for wind turbines and solar panels by 2050. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Dancing Robot at Russian Event Turns Out to Be a Man in a Costume

He attempted to do 'The Robot' but is not an actual robot, sadly. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Kilauea's 2018 Eruption Was “Unprecedented,” Scientists Say

Kīlauea's eruption was the worst the United States has seen since Mount St. Helens. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Mapping Service Blurs Out Military Bases, but Accidentally Locates Secret Ones

Israeli and Turkish military bases are now helpfully identified by big blurry blocks. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Toyota's Remote-Control Humanoid Robot Is Uncanny

T-HR3 is designed for healthcare, not for fighting (yet). | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

North Texas has become an unexpected haven for hackers

The newest hacker community in the United States is nowhere near Silicon Valley. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Lockheed Martin and NASA to Develop Supersonic X-59 Jet

The X-59 is about as loud as a car door slamming when it breaks the sound barrier. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Tank That's Tougher Than Wildfire

Is "The Sentry" a glimpse into the future of apocalyptic firefighting? | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Teardown of a rented Tesla

Mercedes' parent company disassembled and stress-tested a rented Model X, leaving a German couple on the hook for damages. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

How China's New Missile Concept Could Cripple American Air Power

A New Chinese Missile Could Cripple American Air Power | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

CIA no poop diet for U2 pilots

The U-2 was no place for a Number Two. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Eternal Quest for Aether, the Cosmic Stuff That Never Was

Aristotle called it the fifth element. Alchemists thought it was the key to the philosopher’s stone. Scientists believed it was the stuff light moved through. But it never existed at all. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

How American Space Launch Left Europe in the Dust

The view of the resurgent U.S. spaceflight is raising alarms across the Atlantic. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Adaptive Optics Allows Ground Telescope to Take Sharper Images Than Hubble

Adaptive optics is the future of astronomy. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Winamp 2019 Comeback

The iconic music player is back and ready to inexplicably do cruel things to a llama. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

In Defense of Elon Musk

The Tesla and SpaceX maestro is under attack for bad tweets, production woes, and strange behavior. But we need people who take risks. We need people who try. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Here’s what a drone collision would do to an airplane wing

Drones can do significantly more damage than bird strikes. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Is This Finally the Beginning of the End for the Password?

Password alternatives are gaining momentum. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Watch a Guy Shoot Invasive Lionfish with a Glock 9mm

Well, that's one way to get rid of an invasive species. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

All About Those Weird “Numbers” Stations Used to Talk to Spies

Obscure radio stations reciting weird strings of words and numbers allow spy agencies to talk to their spies in broad daylight. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

F-35 Fighter Sees Combat for First Time

A Marine Corps Joint Strike Fighter engaged a Taliban target in Afghanistan. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

'Fake News' Is Sparking an AI Arms Race

Robots now churn manipulated information on social media and soon will learn how to create it. In the future, it will take an AI to detect an AI. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Air Force Will Treat Computer Coding Like a Foreign Language

A young Air Force intelligence officer is championing the development of human beings who will use artificial intelligence and big data to change warfare. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

Space Junk Net Successfully Completes Capture Test

In a first, a net was able to track down its target in space. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

Staff have been evacuated and the FBI has sent agents and a Blackhawk helicopter to the site, without telling anyone what's going on. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

RIP to the Perfectly-Sized iPhone

The form factor Apple once hailed as 'common sense' is dead. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

The Gulf of Mexico Is Full of Unexploded Bombs and Mustard Gas

Millions of pounds of unexploded bombs rest at the bottom of the gulf, and nobody knows where they are. | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago

7 Things That Happened When I Got Up at 4 A.m

Is the early hour a magical time for productivity—or just pure misery? | Continue reading


@popularmechanics.com | 5 years ago