NASA's planned moon base announced last week could pave the way for deeper space exploration to Mars, but one of the biggest beneficiaries may be the terrestrial energy industry. Nestled among the agency's 200-point mission goals is a proposal to mine the moon for fuel, helium-3, used in fusion reactors -- futuristic power plants that have been demonstrated in proof-of-concept but are likely decades away from commercial deployment.
As NASA's space shuttle fleet sputters toward a planned 2010 retirement, the next generation of U.S. space planes is gestating in the heart of the U.S. military.
Aerospace industry groups are lobbying the U.S. congress to fast-track funds for developing space weapons.
The U.S. military has assembled the world's most formidable hacker posse: a super-secret, multimillion-dollar weapons program that may be ready to launch bloodless cyberwar against enemy networks -- from electric grids to telephone nets.
Vigilante groups are tracking down terrorist groups on the web and taking down their websites. Some law enforcement and intelligence experts are concerned that such actions are counterproductive by removing a potentially valuable source of intelligence.