Science News Roundup: Passenger drone, SpaceX rockets

Philippine inventor aims to cut travel times with passenger drone

A Philippine inventor has unveiled what he calls the flying sports car that represents the future of transport, riding it out of a warehouse toward a cheering crowd, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. Former dancer and camera operator Kyxz Mendiola flew and hovered for a few minutes in a single-passenger contraption powered by the "multicopter" technology commonly used in small unmanned drones.

Japan lunar exploration firm to head for the moon on SpaceX rockets

Japanese lunar exploration startup Ispace said it has signed up for launches on Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets in 2020 and 2021, its first step towards offering services such as searching for water on the moon. On reaching space in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, Ispace plans to orbit its lunar lander around the moon and, in its second mission, land two rovers on the moon's surface, paving the way for further expeditions.

(With inputs from Reuters)