QuantumScape revealed that it had created the first functioning prototype of a solid-state battery, promising to massively increase battery capacity.[6]
Group14 Technologies has patented SCC55, a silicon-carbon composite, leading to 50% more in fully lithiated volumetric energy density than graphite used in conventional lithium-ion battery anodes.[8][9]
NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which includes the Perseverance rover, was successfully launched on 30 July 2020 to study the habitability of Mars in preparation for future human missions.[11]
The Chang'e 5 successfully landed on the surface of the Moon in 2020.[12]
16 September 2021, SpaceX launched Inspiration4. It was the first orbital launch of an all-private crew, including the first person with a prosthesis who was also the youngest person in space (aged 29).
The James Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched on 25 December 2021. On 12 July 2022, the first full-color images captured were released to the public which included Webb's First Deep Field and others.[13]
The first component of the Lunar Gateway, a proposed inhabitable space station to be implemented by multiple international space agencies on the Moon, the Power and Propulsion Element, is set to be delivered by a SpaceXFalcon Heavy in November 2024.[15]
On 7 October 2024, the Hera spacecraft was launched successfully. It will arrive at the asteroid Didymos in 2026 after Mars flyby, where it will study the effects of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.
In January 2020, Physicists discovered a unique metal with billions of quantum entangled electrons.[25]
The Large Hadron Collider will once again begin operation in early 2021;[26][27][28][29] the collider was shut down in December 2018 "to enable major upgrade and renovation works."[26]
