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]
In January 2020, Physicists discovered a unique metal with billions of quantum entangled
electrons.[23]
The
Large Hadron Collider will once again begin operation in early 2021;[24][25][26][27] the collider was shut down in December 2018 "to enable major upgrade and renovation works."[24]