IEEE Spectrum December 2021

Most recent stories in IEEE Spectrum December 2021

• 5G and its predecessors have been successful because they've been universally implemented. 6G still has time to congeal—or not.

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  6G Is Years Away, but the Power Struggles Have Already Begun

  ieee.org - Michael Koziol

  When wireless researchers or telecom companies talk about future sixth-generation (6G) networks, they're talking mostly about their best guesses and …

• Very cool: Electrically conductive synthetic fur could catch microscopic plumese from cosmic dust.

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  What the Well-Dressed Spacecraft Will Be Wearing

  ieee.org - Juliana Cherston

  This coming February, the Cygnus NG-17 spacecraft will launch from NASA Wallops, in Virginia, on a routine resupply mission to the International …

• “Our budget is about one-tenth what NASA spends on coffee.”

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  Can This DIY Rocket Program Send an Astronaut to Space?

  ieee.org - Mads Stenfatt

  It was one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen: our homemade rocket floating down from the sky, slowed by a white-and-orange parachute that I …

• The Hyperloop is an old dream that produced a working model in 1910 that was never commercialized—and for good reason.

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  The Hyperloop Is Hyper Old

  ieee.org - Vaclav Smil

  "Lord how this world improves as we grow older," reads the caption for a panel in the " March of Intellect," part of a series of colored etchings …

• Jupiter’s auroras are, predictably, big. They also behave a little like an electric blanket.

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  Revealed: Jupiter’s Secret Power Source

  ieee.org - Ned Potter

  For all its other problems, Earth is lucky. Warmed mostly by the sun, 150 million km away, shielded by a thin but protective atmosphere, the …

• Everyone’s blaming the chip shortage for the short supply of goods that require such chips, but that’s only a problem for the automotive industry.

  

  IEEE Spectrum

  

  The Chip Shortage Hurts Auto Sales a Lot, Consumer Electronics Only a Little

  ieee.org - Matthew S. Smith

  Hot consumer tech is hard to snag this holiday season. Get used to it.New-car shoppers in the United States, China, and everywhere else face slim …