The lead
Pentagon lends $150 million each to Stoke Space and Rocket Lab
The Pentagon backs Stoke Space and Rocket Lab, a 378-day Mars analog mission ends, and a Mars Seed preprint proposes making bioplastic from Martian resources.
The US military is putting money behind SpaceX's competitors. Its Office of Strategic Capital announced a $150 million conditional loan commitment to Stoke Space on October 26. On Tuesday it disclosed a second $150 million loan, this one to Rocket Lab, Ars Technica reports.
Ars reads the loans as a sign that defense officials see the planned wind-down of SpaceX's Falcon rocket program as a possible national security risk. Stoke Space and Rocket Lab are the first launch companies to receive significant support from the office, which was set up in 2022. In recent weeks it has also committed hundreds of millions of dollars to battery, drone and semiconductor companies, and lent $150 million to the satellite tracking firm LeoLabs for radar units.
Source: Ars Technica
Road to Mars
CHAPEA crew ends 378 days in the simulated Mars habitat
The crew of NASA's CHAPEA Mission 2 left their habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, October 31, after 378 days of isolation. NASA said the health and performance data from the simulation will help it develop ways to counter the risks of human spaceflight on future Artemis and Moon Base missions.
NASA unveils a long list of Moon Base contracts and plans
Senior NASA officials spent more than 90 minutes last weekend laying out lunar awards, new solicitations and mission decisions, Ars Technica reports. They covered landers, nuclear-powered rovers, scouting drones, power generation and storage, and communication satellites. Moon Base Program manager Carlos García-Galán said: "This is what it takes to do the Moon Base in the timeline we have set forth."
Mars solar conjunctions test the Earth–Mars communications link
A guest post on the Mars Society's blog sets out the delay. On October 18 Mars was 230,236,700 kilometers away, and light took 12 minutes, 48 seconds to cross it. A question and answer would take almost 26 minutes. Solar conjunctions come about every 26 months and last about two weeks. The last was January 9; the next is March 21, 2028.
A simple robot builds truss structures in space
Universe Today reports on NOM4D, a program that recently showed a simple robot can assemble truss-like structures in space from premade components. The ISS, Mir and Tiangong were all built in orbit from pre-constructed modules. NOM4D is presented as a step beyond that, toward building large structures in space.
Simulated lunar dust is printed into LEGO-like bricks
Researchers at the University of Arkansas report that pure regolith, the loose material covering the moon, could be 3D-printed into LEGO-like bricks. The work used simulated moon dust. Building with it could cut the amount of material NASA must send from Earth as it works toward lunar settlements, Phys.org reports.
The Lab
Preprint sketches bioplastic production from Martian resources
A preprint on arXiv presents Mars Seed, a reference architecture for making polyhydroxybutyrate bioplastic entirely from Martian resources, for building habitats. The authors report that the upfront power and mass costs of the equipment are recovered within two synodic periods compared with shipping the material from Earth. They say production could continue until equipment fails, without further supplies from Earth.
Climate model tests what a warm, oxygen-rich Mars could support
A preprint on arXiv reports the first 3-D climate simulations of a terraformed Mars with an oxygen and carbon dioxide atmosphere. At 30 hPa, five times today's pressure, temperatures would suit lichen and moss. At 60 hPa, forests become possible, starting in Hellas Basin. Making the air breathable through photosynthesis alone would take at least thousands of years, the authors say.
A unified database compares electric propulsion thrusters
A preprint on arXiv describes a database for sizing electric propulsion systems. It holds 390 models from 22 countries across twelve thruster types, spanning 0.4 W to 1 MW, with first flights from 1964 to 2025. The authors report that thruster choice directly constrains the spacecraft power bus, and call the work a preliminary study.
Sound Money
Bitcoin developers discuss how decentralized mining pools can pay miners
A post on Delving Bitcoin opens a discussion on payout protocols for decentralized mining pools. Paying each miner with its own coinbase output does not scale. The authors describe the Rich List Attack, where a large miner splits hashrate across many identities to take limited payout slots and push out the smallest miners. They invite the community to work on solutions.
LNbits issues urgent 1.7.0 security update after attacks
LNbits released version 1.7.0 on November 10 after attacks began on November 8, Bitcoin Magazine reports. One operator said attackers created accounts and withdrew 2,285,545 satoshis. The project says funds on earlier versions are at risk. It advises operators to upgrade, and to set up a fresh server if they suspect compromise. A full technical report is promised.
Deutsche Bank opens bitcoin custody to institutional clients
Deutsche Bank said Wednesday that its digital asset custody service is live for paying institutional and corporate clients, Bitcoin Magazine reports. It supports bitcoin, ether and the USDC, EURC and EURAU stablecoins. The bank manages wallets and keys for clients. It did not name its first clients or disclose fees.
Watch
2026 Mars Society Convention - Day 3
The Mars Society · Oct 25, 2026
2026 International Mars Society Convention - Day 2
The Mars Society · Oct 24, 2026
2026 Mars Society International Convention -- Day One
The Mars Society · Oct 23, 2026
The Marscoin Ledger
Marscoin at $0.0613, three swap offers open, new Electrum-Mars release
Marscoin is priced at $0.0613. On the swap market, three offers are open, with 401.8 MARS between them. A new wallet release, Electrum-Mars v4.4.5, was published on November 10. Anyone who runs the Electrum-Mars wallet can find it on the project's release page and upgrade from there.
