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Mars has competition from Venus after new study shows signs of life
NASA and SpaceX are simultaneously planning their trips to Mars and the Moon, but a recent study published in Nature Astronomy has brought a different planet into the running for a new near-term exploration mission: Venus.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Jane Graeves of Cardiff University in the UK just announced the discovery of phosphine in the clouds of Venus. This rare molecule is made either industrially or as a byproduct of microbes that live in oxygen-free environments, meaning there’s serious evidence that life may exist on our sister planet.
“This was an experiment made out of pure curiosity, really,” Dr. Graeves detailed to the Royal Astronomical Society. “I thought we’d just be able to rule out extreme scenarios, like the clouds being stuffed full of organisms. When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus’ spectrum, it was a shock!”
With NASA’s 2020 Mars Rover Perseverance on its way to do some astrobiological science on our red neighbor, this new finding on Venus looks to now have some high-level advocates for prioritized exploration.
“Life on Venus? The discovery of phosphine, a byproduct of anaerobic biology, is the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted about the news shortly after its publication. “About 10 years ago NASA discovered microbial life at 120,000ft in Earth’s upper atmosphere. It’s time to prioritize Venus.”
https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1305598182571810822
Planetary scientist Paul Byrne of North Carolina State University echoed this same sentiment in a quote published by The New York Times. “If this planet is active and is producing phosphine, and there is something that’s making it in the Venus atmosphere, then by God almighty, forget this Mars nonsense,” Byrne opined. “We need a lander, an orbiter, we need a program.”
Similar to thinking about Mars’ ancient past being filled with more Earth-like components such as water bodies (or perhaps not), Venus is thought to have been the home to lakes, rivers, and oceans before a runaway greenhouse effect made it into the hellish landscape it is today. This thinking has partly lead to speculation about the possibility of microbes migrating or developing in the clouds of the planet as ‘aerial’ life where temperatures are much more Earth-like, albeit very acidic. “Finding phosphine on Venus was an unexpected bonus! The discovery raises many questions, such as how any organisms could survive. On Earth, some microbes can cope with up to about 5% of acid in their environment – but the clouds of Venus are almost entirely made of acid,” commented team member Dr. Clara Sousa Silva of MIT.
For planetary science enthusiasts, of course, the idea of looking for life or even a new home for humans in the clouds of Venus isn’t new. Astrobiologist David Grinspoon, for one, has been advocating for the planet’s cause for quite some time. “Venus, this planet where I’ve been proposing for decades that there could be a biosphere in the clouds,” he exclaimed in a recent video chat about the discovery. “I mean, Venus is a place we do not associate with extraterrestrial life… It’s so hot, and so dry, the pressure’s so huge…we think life is gonna be anywhere but Venus. But interestingly if you go 30 miles up into the clouds, it’s rather comfortable in the sense that it’s sort of like room temperature [and pressure] in the room you’re in right now.”
The discovery of phosphine on Venus is also exciting for exoplanet hunting endeavors, i.e., looking for signs of life on planets outside our solar system. “It’s very exciting because phosphine is a gas that should not exist in an atmosphere like Venus’,” Grinspoon explained. “It stands out as an anomaly… Not only that, phosphine has been previously suggested as a very good biosignature that we might find on an exoplanet – a gas that’s made by life. It’s not easy to make in non-biological ways.”
A renewed call for Venusian exploration is already ready to be answered by a few scientists and groups, one notable example being startup launch provider Rocket Lab. As a rocket company focused on dedicated missions for small payloads, Rocket Lab stands as a ready and willing partner for any organization looking to gather more data from Venus directly. In fact, CEO Peter Beck already has plans in the works for the planet most symbolically synonymous with romance.
“I’m madly in love with Venus,” Beck said on August 5th this year during a live streamed company update. “I’m working very hard to put together a private mission to go to Venus in 2023… At the very least, I think it’s a needle-mover even for just a private mission to try and go do something interplanetary. That sends a message to the rest of the world that, ‘Hey, look — we can do these things privately.’”
Another notable mission that’s relevant to Beck and Rocket Lab’s goals for small payload missions to interplanetary destinations was the Mars Cube One companions of NASA’s InSight lander launched in 2018. After traveling the the red planet with the lander, the twin cube satellites were able to send back data and a photo of Mars to Earth. This proved that tiny affordable spacecraft could be used for some serious deep-space science. Perhaps one of the biggest discoveries in our solar system of late could be followed up by an itty bitty mission (respectively)?
You can watch Dr. Jane Greaves, explain the discovery on Venus in detail:
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
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