Topps Blog

Tuesday, 2 August 2022

ESA Begins Designing Probe to Explore Deep Within Venus’ Hellish Atmosphere

Venus is considered Earth’s sister planet because they’re about the same size and have similar compositions. That’s where the similarities end, though. Once scientists got a close-up look at Venus, they were greeted with a blistering hot hellscape with clouds of sulfuric acid. The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning a new mission to Venus, where its EnVision probe could conduct detailed science that has never been possible before. First, engineers have to figure out how to keep the spacecraft from blowing itself to bits as it descends into the planet’s ferocious atmosphere.

The ESA announced its selection of EnVision last year, and in recent days, it provided an update on the design and construction of the probe. The plan is for EnVision to perform an aerobraking maneuver in orbit of Venus, allowing it to gradually lower its orbit as it scans the surface. The agency has experience with this process from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), as well as Venus Express. In the latter case, the ESA only attempted aerobraking at the end of the mission in 2014, and it did burn up in the atmosphere. With EnVision, the ESA needs to surf the corrosive soup clinging to Venus before it can get started doing science.

Samples for simulated aerobraking tests.

The Venusian atmosphere is 92 times denser than Earth, composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide, and probably doesn’t support life. The crushing pressure is complemented by temperatures that reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius). For the record, that’s several hundred degrees above the melting point of lead. This is what makes it so difficult to study Venus up close, but EnVision is being designed specifically for these conditions.

EnVision will most likely launch in the early 2030s on an Ariane 6 rocket. The ESA says it cannot budget enough mass to give the orbiter fuel to lower its orbit, so it will rely on aerobraking. The mission will begin in a very high orbit at 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles), and through successive passes through the atmosphere, it will drop to a 500-kilometer (310-mile) polar orbit for science operations — it won’t land on the surface.

The ESA plans to take it slow with EnVision. Because heat is generated as a cube of velocity, it will spend about twice as long slowing down as the TGO did. Engineers are also hard at work testing different aerobraking materials. They have extreme temperatures to contend with, and Venus’ atmosphere is also high in reactive atomic oxygen. Luckily, the ESA has a facility that can generate atomic oxygen at energy levels that are equivalent to orbital speed. They are testing materials for insulation, antennas, star tracker elements, and more. These materials need to resist erosion while also maintaining their optical properties, which ensures the probe’s sensitive instruments work after it’s reached the intended orbit. The team expects to have the results of this testing by late this year.

When EnVision settles into its final orbit, it will map the planet in greater detail than ever before. Scientists hope that by studying Venus, which may be a victim of a runaway greenhouse effect, we could gain insights into what’s happening on Earth.

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Intel Plans to Raise Prices on CPUs, Wi-Fi Chips in Q4

In case you haven’t heard, Intel had a pretty rough second quarter. Its revenue was down 22 percent year-over-year, and overall, it was the worst quarter financially for Intel since 1999. “We do think we’re on the bottom in terms of revenue,” CFO David Zinsner said on the earnings call. One way Intel is looking to rebound from this predicament is to raise its prices in the fourth quarter, confirming the previously reported rumor.

Despite the lousy results, Zinsner says everything is about to turn around, thanks to a solid lineup of products and the price increases. “[I] think we’re kind of operating with wind at our sails in terms of product offerings in all of our businesses,” Zinsner said on the call. He added that inflation factored into the decision to raise prices. He said the company thought it might be transitory at first, but now that it’s become more entrenched, it’s time to pass that on to its customers. Intel didn’t discuss numbers, but the hikes are rumored to be as high as 20 percent for certain products, according to Wccftech.

The timing of the price increase is interesting as Raptor Lake is already undergoing validation. Many leaks have already appeared online too, suggesting the launch is quite close. This makes me wonder if the price increase will affect Raptor Lake or just Intel’s current products. The jittery economic conditions around the globe have combined with inflation to make consumers more budget-conscious. Launching an expensive CPU lineup while doing battle with AMD’s Zen 4 architecture might prove challenging.

It also remains to be seen if Intel raising prices will alleviate some of its financial headwinds. It’s reportedly already told its partners about the impending price increase. That might spur them to order more product now, before the price hike kicks in. However, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in the earnings call that lowered demand for PCs was a prime factor in its reduced earnings. “The sudden and rapid decline in economic activity was the largest driver of the shortfall,” said Gelsinger. So if Intel’s customers have a ton of inventory sitting around, why would they order even more?

Regardless, Intel says Q3 and Q4 should allow it to reverse its fortunes. That will be due to Raptor Lake’s launch, as well as the typical surge in sales that accompanies the holiday season. Gelsinger reconfirmed Raptor Lake will deliver “double-digit performance gains” over Alder Lake and said he expects it to do quite well. He added that Intel has sold over 35 million Alder Lake CPUs.

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US Regulators to Certify First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Design

Since 2016, engineering firm NuScale has been working toward getting approval for a first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor, and late last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave it the green light. The company’s pint-sized nuclear reactor has numerous safety benefits over larger reactors, and the small size makes it possible to build them at a centralized facility before shipping them to their final destination.

Nuclear power seems to flip between savior and boogeyman every few years. As climate change escalates due to the use of fossil fuels, nuclear is seen as a way to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining high electricity generation. However, all it takes is one accident like Fukushima or a reminder that Chernobyl is still incredibly dangerous decades later to make people second-guess the construction of new fission generators.

NuScale, which has been anticipating approval of this design since the last technology review in 2020, says its small modular reactor (SMR) addresses these concerns. It’s based on a “Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor” developed at Oregon State University in the early 2000s. It has a compact uranium nuclear core along with helical coil steam generators inside the same steel reactor vessel. So, it generates power through the same mechanism as a traditional reactor (no fancy uranium or thorium salts here), but each SMR only produces about 50 MWe (megawatts electrical) compared with 1,000 or more in existing reactor designs.

The compact SMR designed by NuScale can be produced in one place and then moved to another, eliminating many of the costs associated with building a bespoke reactor chamber at a power plant’s final location. It also includes safety features that could make the horror of nuclear accidents a thing of the past. If left unattended, gravity will pull the control rods down into the reactor, and the design also calls for SMRs to be completely submerged in water that acts as a heatsink. That eliminates water piping, which can be a failure point for traditional reactors.

The configuration tested by the NRC calls for 12 SMRs, each about nine feet tall, all sunk in a reactor pool. They each generate 160 MWt (megawatts of thermal energy) with a yield of 50 MWe for a total of 600 MWe.

With certification now complete, the designs will be published in the Federal Register. This is only the seventh reactor design approved for use in the US. After publication, new energy projects will be able to specify they are using the NuScale SMR without duplicating the design certification. One project is already aiming to use NuScale’s technology, but the “Carbon Free Power Project” at Idaho National Lab won’t be ready to begin operation until 2030 at the earliest.

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Monday, 1 August 2022

Valve Bans Game Awards and Review Scores From Steam Listing Visuals

An upcoming Steam update will prohibit developers from adding award and major review scores to their games’ primary visual assets.

According to Valve, developers have gradually prioritized their titles’ various accolades in Steam banner images (officially referred to as capsule images). This has resulted in cluttered visual assets that confuse potential customers when shopping for their next favorite game. Rather than allowing the eye to take in a game’s name and general design, these jam-packed capsule images often contain multiple review scores, impressive review quotes, and award information.

While some seasoned Steam users might have learned over time to tune these out, others tend to find the award and review information cluttered. That goes doubly for listings in which award and review information obfuscate the game’s story, theme, or purpose. (It reminds me of flipping over a paperback to read the blurb on the cover, only to find a bunch of reviews from The New York Times instead. Like, what is this book even about?)

In a blog post covering the update, Valve argued some developers were even adding inaccurate or heavily outdated scores to their games’ visuals. When that’s the first thing a prospective customer sees, it makes sense that the company would want to take another stab at its capsule image guidelines.

Valve employee Claire Hummel made fake game art to find as Easter eggs during the Steam Summer Sale, and those are apparently the images Valve has chosen to illustrate its new rules with.

Valve’s new rules will roll out Sept. 1, 2022, and will cover a number of capsule image limits. “Content on base graphical asset capsules on Steam is limited to game artwork, the game name, and any official subtitle,” Valve says. Developers will no longer be able to add review scores (including those garnered on Steam), award information, or discount marketing copy to their titles’ capsule images. They won’t be able to advertise wholly separate products in a game’s capsule images, either. Valve has even included a “No other miscellaneous text” rule, likely to prevent developers from finding a roundabout way to include the aforementioned information.

Valve is willing to make an exception to the last rule for specific, time-limited cases. Developers will be required to submit a temporary “Capsule Artwork Override” if they want to quickly inform customers of a recent game update or a seasonal event, and even then, restrictions will apply. Most notably, developers will need to localize the image’s language (or set of languages) to match the language(s) used in-game. (This is reportedly to avoid the longstanding issue of marketing material being in English, even when the game is played in another language.)

Games found out of compliance with the new rules after Sept. 1 “may have limits to visibility within the Steam store,” Valve says. Uncooperative developers may also have their games removed from official Steam sales and events.

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Startup Introduces ‘Clean’ Air Conditioning to Reduce Carbon Emissions

(Photo: Carlos Lindner/Unsplash) A startup from Florida has devised a new method of air conditioning said to carry less of a negative burden on the environment. Blue Frontier—which just received $20 million from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bill Gates’ clean tech investment fund—says its technology cools the air using 60 percent less energy than conventional air conditioning systems.

The way we currently cool our homes, schools, and businesses reportedly has a heavier impact on climate change than one would assume. Some researchers estimate air conditioning could be responsible for up to four percent of the world’s annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with that figure expected to rise with global temperatures.

Conventional air conditioning has already received one Earth-friendly update: Chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons have largely been removed from major refrigerants due to their negative effect on the ozone layer. But there’s still a long way to go if we want to remove air conditioning’s climate culpability altogether. The refrigerants used today still contribute to air conditioning’s overall CO2 emissions, as does the transportation of said refrigerants and actual air conditioning equipment. Additionally, nearly a third of the energy used to power an air conditioning unit isn’t even used to cool the air—it’s used to dehumidify it.

(Image: Blue Frontier)

Blue Frontier says its system significantly reduces the amount of energy needed to cool a building while also massively reducing refrigerants’ effect on the environment. The system works by using electricity to power a heat pump, which concentrates a liquid desiccant and stores it in an energy storage tank. When cooling is needed, that high-concentration desiccant can dehumidify air and subject the air to indirect evaporative cooling. This means the system is capable of removing excess moisture from the air for users’ comfort without sacrificing energy efficiency, even in generally humid locations. (However, Blue Frontier’s site does say its technology is 10 times as efficient in arid climates, like Phoenix, Arizona, as opposed to humid ones like Miami.)

The startup is still in its early stages, but it plans on testing its system in the “real world” soon. Blue Frontier will install a few units in buildings as early as this year, with commercial tests coming in 2023. Commercial units could be on the market as soon as 2025, with residential units to come in the years following.

In an age when celebrities’ gratuitous private flights are responsible for half of the world’s plane-related CO2 emissions, it’s difficult to stomach blaming conventional air conditioning (which individuals increasingly need to, you know, survive) for even some portion of climate change. But one might argue the planet needs all the help it can get, and if 1,950 million tons of annual CO2 emissions might be reduced or erased by revamped air conditioning techniques, Blue Frontier’s technology may be worth a try.

Blue Frontier’s website doesn’t appear to say anything about the cost of entry for homeowners, property management companies, or business owners who might be interested in installing one of its systems someday. Reduced long-term energy costs aren’t as convincing if Blue Frontier’s system costs significantly more than a standard HVAC unit. Blue Frontier might still be working to figure these costs out, but a lot of sustainability technology remains out of reach to those without the discretionary funds necessary to test it out.

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Google Cracking Down on Spam and Scams With New Play Store Rules

Most of the Android malware scares we hear about originate in shady third-party marketplaces, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing suspicious in the Play Store. Google has announced a series of changes to make the apps safer and less annoying for users. In fact, one of the first moves will limit how long intrusive video ads can be.

The first change won’t be immediately apparent to users, but it could have a positive impact on your battery. On July 31, Google will begin enforcing stricter limits on the use of exact alarms. An “alarm” in this context is a trigger that wakes up your device so it can perform a task. Any apps targeting the latest version of Android will need to use the new USE_EXACT_ALARM permission if they need to wake your phone from a low-power state without delay. However, only apps that really need this, like timers and event notifications, will be allowed to do so.

Starting Sept. 30, developers will have to limit the length of full-screen video ads. Those are a common feature in free apps, which insert the videos between levels (if you’re lucky) or right in the middle of gameplay (if you’re not). Going forward, these ads must be dismissable after no more than 15 seconds. However, if you’re using an app that lets you watch videos to unlock content or features, those ads can be longer.

At the end of August, Google will implement a number of changes aimed at improving security and safety. For one, the new impersonation guidelines mean apps won’t be able to use misleading icons that make them appear to be affiliated with governments or organizations. Google offers a few examples of icons that will be forbidden after the change. Google will also ban apps that “contradict existing medical consensus” and harm users.

Another August policy change is something I’m surprised Google didn’t ban a long time ago. Android supports a feature called FLAG_SECURE, which allows developers to indicate an app has sensitive information and should not allow screenshots. This is common for streaming and banking apps. Google will no longer permit apps that attempt to bypass this feature to record content on the screen. The lone exception is screen reader accessibility tools.

Finally, Google is cracking down on VPN apps in the Play Store. Beginning on Aug. 31, apps in the Play Store will not be allowed to access the VPN functionality of Android if they are collecting personal information, manipulating traffic, or manipulating ads. Google will still allow some exceptions like apps for parental control, app usage tracking, and network analysis tools. However, there is some concern this could affect valid, privacy-preserving features like DuckDuckGo’s app tracking prevention. Even if that’s not the intention, Google’s app reviewers often apply the rules with little regard for it.

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Analogue Pocket Gets the World’s First Video Game From 1962

The world’s oldest video game is now available on a sought-after handheld game machine — and no, I don’t mean the Steam Deck. Developers have released the iconic 1962 game Spacewar! on the Analogue Pocket. This Game Boy-style device is built from the ground up to preserve the games of yesteryear, but it does have one thing in common with the Steam Deck: There’s a very long wait to get your hands on one.

In 1962, computer scientists at MIT, including Martin Graetz and Steve Russell, created Spacewar! on their brand new DEC PDP-1 minicomputer. This machine cost $120,000, the equivalent of more than a million dollars today. It consisted of 2,700 transistors and 3,000 diodes, and it used a 1024 x 1024 type 30 CRT for display output. Only 53 were made, and one of them gave birth to the first program we would recognize today as a video game.

Decades later, you can play this game on the Analogue Pocket. Well, you can in theory. The $220 device is heavily back-ordered, but that’s a hell of a lot cheaper and more accessible than the PDP-1. As you might expect, the gameplay in Spacewar! is simple. It consists of two spacecraft orbiting a star. Each ship has a limited supply of torpedoes and fuel. The goal is to destroy your opponent or simply wait for them to make a mistake and crash into the star.

A third-party developer known as Spacemen3 recreated Spacewar! for the Analogue Pocket, which was only possible thanks to its OpenFPGA architecture. The game had a unique way of generating images on the PDP-1 vector display, which was a challenge to recreate on modern hardware, but the original source code for the game and the PDP-1 are in the public domain.

Using openFPGA, a 3rd party developer “Spacemen3” recreated the PDP-1 and Spacewar! using the original source code in the public domain. You can play it today on Pocket with openFPGA by following this guide here: https://t.co/XFS3ARmaUe pic.twitter.com/ut6N6Ovois

— Analogue (@analogue) July 29, 2022

The original game was a two-player affair, complete with custom controllers that The Verge notes were designed to be silent so you couldn’t tell when your opponent was starting an attack run. The Analogue Pocket version doesn’t have AI for the other player, but it’s apparently still plenty fun to slingshot around the star and blast another vessel.

To play the game, you’ll need an Analogue Pocket, which is the hardest part — current orders will be fulfilled in 2023. After that, you can grab the PDP-1 and Spacewar! openFGPA files from Github. After loading them on the device’s SD card, you should be able to experience the dawn of video games in the palm of your hand.

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