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Science, TechNews

Nasa to send 2 more Ingenuity drones to Mars

Two more drones are scheduled to land on Mars in 2027 bring samples to Earth.

Nasa announced that it plans to send two more Ingenuity drones to Mars aboard its upcoming Sample Retrieval Lander. As early as 2020, the US space agency sent a model to Mars along with the Perseverance rover, which landed on the red planet in February last year. The small helicopter made a total of 29 flights – scanning the surface and taking lots of photos. The new Ingenuity drones not only have additional wheels, but also a slightly different task: They are supposed to collect samples from the surface of Mars so that they can be sent back to Earth.

Image: Nasa/JPL-Caltech

First Ingenuity drone has exceeded expectations

It’s no surprise that NASA is using two Ingenuity drones for its next big mission. After all, the almost 1.20 meter tall helicopter exceeded the expectations of the researchers. The first flight was a hover at a height of three meters. The drone only flew over the surface of Mars for 40 seconds – but successfully. Subsequent flights became increasingly ambitious as the time allotted to operate the helicopter became increasingly scarce. No one at NASA expected the drone to survive a full 29 flights, making it a year older than planned. That’s why two successors to the Ingenuity model are now to be sent to Mars.

First time to bring Mars samples to Earth

This time, however, the drones have a different mission: instead of taking photos, soil samples are to be collected from the surface of Mars. The Sample Fetch Rover and the associated second lander will therefore have to stay at home for the next mission. The Mars Sample Retriever, which – as the name might suggest – accepts and collects the samples from the two Ingenuity drones is also allowed to come along . Also part of the Retriever is the Mars Ascent Vehicle . Here, too, the creative naming can be traced back to the function: the rocket is to take off from Mars together with rock and oil samples and bring them safely to Earth.

Anyone who is looking forward to being able to hold a Mars sample in their hands in a short time will have to be disappointed. The joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) is not scheduled to start until autumn 2027. A second launch is scheduled for summer 2028. We’ll have to wait a lot longer for rehearsals. If everything goes according to plan, it will take more than ten years until 2033 for the samples to arrive on Earth. However, once the samples are here, we can learn a lot more about the history of the planet. One can only hope that no grim discovery is made in the process.

Comes Next, Gaming

No more Boys Club: Why the “GTA 6” release is further delayed

The game company Rockstar Games strives for fairer working conditions for its employees. This should also affect the next part of the “GTA” series.

Massive, beautifully animated worlds, innovative game principles and a hearty pinch of corrosively cynical humor – with games like the “Red Dead Redemption” series, “Max Payne”, “LA Noire” and of course the now five independent “Grand Theft Auto parts have made some of the most successful and important contributions to the computer and video game market. However, it is said to have been catastrophic working conditions under which these masterpieces were created. While attention is now paid to fair production in many areas of consumption, this has not played a significant role in the games industry so far.

Photo: Shutterstock/Rafapress

Rockstar Games: Overtime and Strip Club Field Trips

In 2018, the year the milestone “Red Dead Redemption 2” was released, several Rockstar Games employees spoke up. As the game magazine Kotaku reported, there were incredible working hours with 100-hour weeks before the release. This is so common in the industry that it even has its own name: crunch. Personal life, mental health and marriages have been sacrificed to meet the release date. Employees described the company’s former corporate philosophy to the news site Bloomberg as a boys’ club, with “boozes, fights and excursions to strip clubs”. Sexism and verbal violence were the order of the day. However, that is about to change.

Rockstar Games is contemporary – and so is “GTA 6”

The company, founded in 1998, has since fired some managers who are said to have behaved inappropriately towards employees. The gender pay gap is to be increasingly closed, and there are also additional benefits for the mental health of employees. Of course, this internal restructuring takes time, and according to some statements, certain processes have to be established first. This will primarily have one effect on the developers’ latest project: the release date will be pushed back further. Rockstar Games has been working on “GTA 6” since 2014 – and there is no end in sight, although experts expect it to be released in 2023/2024. But that’s not the only change the latest installment in the action series is set to see.

“GTA 6” for the first time with a female protagonist

For the first time, one of two main characters should be female. In a gaming world in which women have so far mainly appeared as sex objects, this can definitely be called progress. The protagonist, who will also have a Latin American background, is said to be part of a Bonnie and Clyde-esque duo. After New York City and Los Angeles, a fictional version of Miami is to be offered as a new location. Fans of the series should be reminded of “GTA Vice City”. In contrast to earlier times, however, in the future more attention will be paid to satirical content not to step down and thus create a mood against minorities. Whether and to what extent the new company philosophy is actually reflected in the game remains to be seen.

Business, Financial, Science, TechNews

SpaceX is already breaking the record from the previous year

At the weekend, SpaceX brought its number of rocket launches to 33 with two more missions. Elon Musk’s group broke its record from the previous year – and that in July. 

Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX launched 31 rockets last year. In 2022, the group already exceeded this number when the Falcon 9 rocket sent a load of 46 Starlink satellites into space on Friday, setting off on its 32nd mission. On Sunday, SpaceX added 53 satellites – rocket launch number 33.

The company has already broken its existing record for most rocket launches in a year, as confirmed by Elon Musk on Twitter , where he congratulated his team. In addition, there are still several months left to further expand the record.

Screenshot: Twitter

Elon Musk’s goal for 2022: 52 rocket launches

SpaceX intends to do the same, because at the beginning of the year the ambitious goal was announced of sending 52 rockets into space this year. So far, SpaceX is on track to meet its schedule. This is made possible by the reusable rocket stages of the Falcon 9. The rocket, which was launched on Sunday, has already completed four missions. Another rocket already has 13 missions under its belt. These cycles allow SpaceX to ramp up its rocket launch cadence every year except for 2019, when the number dropped.

In addition, SpaceX is its own customer for a large number of the rocket launches. The company is using the missions to increase its fleet of Starlink Internet satellites. Around 2,900 have been sent into orbit so far, of which around 2,600 are currently active. SpaceX has approval for a total of 12,000 but is seeking to relax international rules to allow up to 30,000 satellites into orbit.

SpaceX has big plans

But even without its Starlink project, SpaceX will not run out of work. Thanks to the cooperation with NASA, the company repeatedly sends off Dragon-type space capsules to send people and cargo to the ISS. There are also SpaceX’s commercial space flights, which take tourists into space, and launches for the US Department of Defense.

In the long term, Elon Musk is pursuing particularly ambitious plans with SpaceX. The billionaire has never made a secret of the fact that he has set himself the goal of populating Mars – and even wants to outperform NASA in the race for the red planet . 

Comes Next, Security, TechNews

Infineon introduces battery-free electronic lock

A new chip from Infineon is powered via NFC via the smartphone – enough to open and close small locks

Infineon’s new NAC1080 chip makes it possible to open and close digital locks without their own power supply. Instead of an internal power supply, the user’s smartphone – which is also the key – supplies the power to open it, as the chip manufacturer reports.

Both data and energy are exchanged via NFC – a process that is used, for example, for payment transactions via smartphone. Data transmission is encrypted thanks to an integrated AES128 accelerator and a random number generator.

To open the lock, the smartphone must be held directly against the lock equipped with the chip, as with other smart locks. The lock then draws energy from the built-in NFC technology through so-called energy harvesting. On average, different devices can transmit around 20 milliwatts, according to Infineon, and significantly more with some models.

Use with smaller locks

A capacitor collects the energy; the chip uses them to check whether the user is authorized and to open the lock with a small motor. According to Infineon, the technology is particularly suitable for smaller locks on office cabinets, lockers, parcel boxes or mailboxes. The duration of the opening process should be around two seconds – depending on the smartphone used and the energy transmitted.

Larger, harder-to-move locks require more energy to be transferred, which takes longer. It is therefore more conceivable to use it as an emergency option for house or hotel doors if the lock’s own energy supply fails. According to Infineon, one would then have to wait a little longer for the opening, but at least this could save the expensive key service. The first products with the chip could be on the market next year.

Business

Microsoft Responds to Critics of Store Policy for Open Source Software

The Microsoft Store has to deal with numerous plagiarisms. Popular and free open source software is price tagged under other names. From a purely legal point of view, this is permitted thanks to liberal software licenses. However, it is not nice to see when inexperienced users pay money for free software that does not go to the actual developers.

Image: Microsoft Store

Because of this, Microsoft introduced a new store policy, as we reported in a previous article . It completely prohibits the pricing of free open source software. From a purely formal point of view, no one should be able to earn money with their app as soon as it is available elsewhere free of charge and open source.

It was clear to us from the start that Microsoft’s goal was to fight annoying plagiarism. I found it very unlikely that the legitimate developers charging for their apps would also be subject to this policy. However, I have expressed concerns. Because it is not possible for the store team to understand whether the submission came from the actual developer or from a third party.

New Microsoft Store policy causes critics

However, the directive, taken literally, prohibits any financial gain from open source free software. Accordingly, it was foreseeable that Microsoft could reap massive critics for this. That’s how it happened.

Both in numerous news articles and on platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, many people are visibly disappointed with Microsoft. Because it gives the impression that Microsoft would have a problem with the fact that developers would be rewarded for their great work if they made it available open source. Mainly because many developers take this route of charging a small price in the store as it is a simple and straightforward payment interface.