The Download: NASA’s New Telescope and Chinese Tech Import Curbs

This is today’s edition of *The Download*, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. ## NASA’s New Dark Energy Space Telescope Can Also Detect Killer Asteroids At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its primary mission is to help us better understand how the universe works—from the glue-like dark matter that holds galaxies together to the elusive dark energy that drives the expansion of the cosmos. However, Roman could also serve a secondary, yet equally critical, purpose: defending Earth from killer asteroids. In September, a multi-institutional team of planetary scientists and astronomers will outline how the telescope is uniquely positioned to scan asteroids, providing crucial data on their trajectories, sizes, and compositions. This capability could significantly enhance our planetary defense strategies, offering early warnings and detailed characterization of near-Earth objects. Read our story about how this new space telescope might boost planetary defense. —Robin George Andrews ## MIT Technology Review Narrated: The Inevitable Weakness of Metrics —Bryan Gardiner There are plenty of useful things a metric can reveal. There are even more that it can obscure or corrupt. Like a lot of people bitten by the self-quantifying bug, I started gathering personal data to pursue a nebulous collection of goals—better health, sharper focus, and a sense of control over daily life. Yet, as I delved deeper, I began to see how metrics, while powerful, often fail to capture the full human experience, and sometimes even distort our priorities. In this narrated piece, I explore the double-edged nature of metrics: how they can drive improvement but also lead to tunnel vision, gaming, and unintended consequences. From corporate KPIs to personal fitness trackers, the allure of measurement is strong, but its pitfalls are real. As we head into 2026, with data-driven decision-making more prevalent than ever, it's crucial to ask: what do we lose when we reduce complex realities to numbers? You can listen to the full narration and read the accompanying article—now with updated examples from recent tech policies and privacy debates—on our website. To get this in your inbox every weekday, subscribe to The Download newsletter.

via MIT Tech Review AI