With the rapid advancement of global aerospace technology, human space exploration is progressively extending from near-Earth orbit to the lunar sphere. Large-scale deep-space exploration activities, such as the construction of lunar research stations and lunar bases, are gradually becoming a reality. Major spacefaring entities, including China, the United States, Europe, and Japan, have successively proposed their own lunar exploration and long-term residency programs. Current lunar exploration missions now encompass complex scenarios such as scientific investigation, in-situ resource utilization, lunar construction, and operational maintenance, which impose entirely new demands on lunar robotic technologies. However, existing lunar and Mars exploration missions still predominantly rely on pre-programmed commands and ground-based teleoperation, exhibiting limited intelligence levels. They face significant challenges in addressing five core issues: multi-task high-precision manipulation, autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance, self-learning interactive collaboration, adaptation to extreme environments, and high-reliability long-duration operation. Consequently, the systematic integration of emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence, deep learning, large-scale models, and embodied intelligence—into lunar robotic design, so as to achieve the transition from programmed robots to intelligent robots, has become a critical technological bottleneck for supporting future large-scale lunar exploration and development.

Team Kinetiz takes victory at Italy’s Imola Circuit against autonomous racing teams from Germany and Italy

Friedrich Schiller University Jena, non-university research institutes and the Free State of Thuringia are joining forces to test new ways of working across institutional boundaries. The jETZT project will explore how Jena’s research and innovation ecosystem can share expertise, infrastructure and talent more effectively – helping promising ideas move faster from research into practical and commercial applications.

An international team of scientists featuring faculty at Binghamton University has recreated a 1,000-year timeline documenting the ecological changes and human impact to the area surrounding Crawford Lake, the famed location of the proposed Anthropocene. 

An international team of scientists featuring faculty at Binghamton University has recreated a 1,000-year timeline documenting the ecological changes and human impact to the area surrounding Crawford Lake, the famed location of the proposed Anthropocene. 

Researchers at the University of Waterloo and University Health Network have developed MetaboSense, a new device that continuously monitors key indicators of donor lung health during ex vivo lung perfusion, a process used to assess lungs outside the body before transplantation. Unlike current methods that rely on hourly manual testing, MetaboSense provides real-time measurements of glucose and lactate levels, giving clinicians a more detailed picture of lung function and potentially helping them identify more viable donor lungs. The researchers believe the technology could reduce the number of donated lungs that are rejected, helping address organ shortages for patients with end-stage lung disease, while its modular design may also allow it to be adapted for monitoring other organs such as the liver, kidney, heart and pancreas.