Space technologies are picking up steam in the UK alongside other emerging technologies such as quantum computing. “I don’t think we can do full-scale space exploration and travel, if you will, without quantum technology,” explains Simon Phillips, chief technology officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC). “It’s just too much to calculate.”

“I think it’s going to be very soon that when we’re talking about space technology, we’re always going to involve quantum,” says Phillips. For space technology to incorporate quanta, he explains, it means “building ground-based systems capable of processing lots and lots of quantum information in ways we didn’t previously know was possible.”

In the short term, quantum technologies could support space research and development such as mission planning, material discovery, and studies of how space travel affects the space environment. Solving the space debris problem is an area that may sound corny, but, as Phillips notes, “it’s actually a small problem.” Quantum, he explains, can model space debris removal “hundreds and hundreds” of years into the future.

In the longer term, quantum technologies could improve our understanding of how people are affected by their time in space. “We have data on Mars and we have data on humans, but we don’t understand the interaction between those environments,” says Phillips. With quanta, he says, “we could figure out how to protect people working in space,” which he believes is a critical issue.

Building a collaborative startup ecosystem

As applications of quantum computing in space continue to grow, the UK space start-up ecosystem is also growing.

For example, Space Forge is developing a production center that will go in and out of Earth’s atmosphere. They will only produce goods in space that result in positive net utility on the ground, Western says. He points to the various benefits of working in space, including a cleaner environment, lower pressure, extreme temperatures and reduced carbon emissions. “You can access plus or minus 250 °C,” he says.

Meanwhile, the sun’s rays could be used for lithography in the manufacture of semiconductors. While it sounds like science fiction, “all the technology to do that is already there,” says Western.

Another notable British space startup is Lumi Space. With support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency, Lumi Space is building the world’s first global commercial satellite laser ranging service that will enable safe and sustainable space exploration. Applications of its technology include collision avoidance, debris clearance and constellation management.

OpenAI today announced support for new third-party plugins for ChatGPTand Twitter is already buzzing about the company’s potential platform game.

in one to blog postthe company explained that the plugins are “tools specially designed for language models with security as a core principle, helping ChatGPT to access up-to-date information, perform calculations or use third-party services”.

A sign of the increasing dominance of OpenAI

The announcement was quickly taken as a signal by the public OpenAIAmbitions to further expand its dominance by transforming ChatGPT into a developer platform.

TOKYO — scandal contested JapanElectronics and technology maker Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) takeover bid from Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund made up of major banks and corporations.

If the proposal is successful, it will be an important step in Toshiba’s year-long turnaround effort, allowing the company to be privatized and delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. However, overseas activist investors own a significant portion of Toshiba’s shares, and it’s unclear whether they will be happy with the latest offering.

Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. announced late Thursday that its board of directors accepted the offer at 4,620 yen ($36) per share after trading in Tokyo closed. Toshiba closed at 4,213 yen ($32) a share on Thursday and was up 4.3% on Friday to 4,395 yen ($34).

The move comes at a time when markets are becoming nervous about the fallout from the recent US bank collapses

The takeover would keep Toshiba’s business Japanese in an alliance with Japanese partners.

Japan Industrial Partners, formed in 2002 to restructure Japanese companies, lists big names in which it has invested such as: SonyHitachi, Olympus and NEC.

According to Japanese media reports, the consortium includes around 20 Japanese companies, including Orix Corp., a financial services company, electronics manufacturer Rohm Co. and megabanks such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Toshiba’s big troubles began in 2015 with a wide-ranging accounting scandal that saw books manipulated for years. That contributed to his problems related to his nuclear power business.

Its US nuclear arm, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after years of deep losses in security costs. Toshiba is also involved in the decommissioning of the severely damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Toshiba has gone through several presidents over the years as the brand once prized for making home appliances, laptops, batteries and computer chips has become the target of activist overseas shareholders.

The latest proposal still has to go through regulatory reviews in several countries, including the US, Vietnam, Germany and Morocco. The process is expected to take several months.

Toshiba has tried to go private in recent years. Proposals to split Toshiba into three and then two companies were rejected by shareholders. A delisting would allow Toshiba to leave activist investors behind.

Toshiba had its humble beginnings in a telegraph equipment factory in 1875. The brand was synonymous with the power of modern Japanese manufacturing. It sold parts of its business, including its flash memory business now known as Kioxia, although Toshiba remains a Kioxia shareholder.

Whether Toshiba can return to a solid growth path remains uncertain. Last month, Toshiba lowered its profit guidance for the fiscal year ended March to 130 billion yen ($1 billion) from an earlier forecast of 190 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in profit.

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Yuri Kageyama is there Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama