Month: September 2019

Enlarge / An employee counts 100-yuan notes at a bank in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province on July 23, 2018. (credit: -/AFP/Getty Images)

China's central bank is working on a cryptocurrency that will be similar to Facebook's Libra, a government official said this week, according to Reuters.

China's central bank has had a group studying digital currencies since at least 2014, but their efforts seem to have come into focus in recent months. Last month, a Mu announced that an official Chinese digital currency was "almost ready."

Details about the technology remain scarce, but it seems that the new currency will—like Libra—be pegged to a conventional currency to maintain its value. While Libra will be linked to a basket of conventional currencies including the dollar and the euro, China's digital currency will be pegged to the yuan.

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  On Friday, India's Vikram lander will attempt to make a soft landing on the Moon's surface. This gallery highlights how that will happen. [credit: ISRO ]

In late July, an Indian rocket launched the Chandrayaan-2 mission from a spaceport in the Bay of Bengal. This is the second spacecraft India has sent to the Moon and the first to attempt a soft landing. Since launching, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has spent the last six weeks spiraling toward lunar orbit, reaching it, and releasing a lander that will attempt to reach the surface.

India seeks to make history with its Vikram lander—until now, only the US, Russian, and Chinese space agencies have ever successfully landed on the Moon. Friday is the day for this landing attempt, which should begin around or shortly after 3:30pm ET (19:30 UTC).

However, as an Israel-backed private company found out in April, softly landing a spacecraft on the lunar surface can be very difficult. The Beresheet vehicle's main engine failed about 10km above the Moon and thereafter struck the Moon at a velocity of around 130 meters per second.

Enlarge (credit: elyob @ Flickr)

As part of Porsche's build-up to Wednesday's launch of the Taycan electric car, it took a track-prepped prototype to Germany's famous Nürburgring Nordschleife. This 12.9-mile (20.8km) track, built in the 1920s as a depression-era public works project, is widely considered to be one of (if not the) most challenging race tracks in the world. It's narrow, extremely bumpy, very fast in places, and rises and falls a total of 900 feet (300m) throughout the lap.

Opinions remain divided about how relevant a Nordschleife lap time is to your average Jane or Joe driving their daily commute, but the fact remains a 'Ring lap time is useful ammo for marketing and bench racing. Which is why Elon Musk took to Twitter last night to let the world know that he's sending a Model S around the track they call "the Green Hell" next week in an effort to beat the Taycan's 7 minute 42 second run.

Model S on Nürburgring next week

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2019

To which I say: Bravo! I've been dying to see Tesla engage with motorsport for at least five years now, and this is as close as the company—which builds ludicrously quick cars, lest we forget—has gotten. But it's going to be a tough challenge for the car.