Topps Blog

Tuesday, 28 December 2021

NASA Launches James Webb Space Telescope, but Success Is Not Assured

After 20 years of work, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally in space. NASA and the ESA successfully launched the next-generation observatory on Christmas Day, fulfilling the agency’s commitment to beginning the mission in 2021. While the Ariane 5 rocket performed perfectly, there are still many trials ahead for Webb — hundreds of things have to go right in the coming months to make the telescope fully operational.

The coming month will be stressful for astronomers around the world as Webb deploys more than 40 major systems. And it’s not just about turning things on — Webb has to physically change shape like a Transformer. The final configuration of the Webb telescope will measure about 66 by 44 feet (20 by 14 meters), including the sunshield. However, Webb was loaded aboard a rocket that was only 5.4 meters in diameter. Thus, the observatory was folded up and secured to withstand the extreme forces of launch. If even one thing fails to unfurl correctly, the mission could be in jeopardy.

Some of the most vital deployments have already happened. Shortly after separating from the launch vehicle, Webb deployed its solar panel to supply the observatory with 2 kW of power. The following day, NASA successfully unfolded the main communication array, which has a high-gain antenna that will beam 28.6GB of data to Earth twice per day.

The next major hurdle is the sunshield, which is essential to Webb’s infrared observations. The sunshield will ensure solar radiation doesn’t heat the instruments beyond their operating temperature of -369.7 degrees Fahrenheit (-223 Celsius). That’s also why it’s going way out to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point a million miles away. There, on the far side of the moon, the telescope’s instruments can remain nice and frosty.

Here it is: humanity’s final look at @NASAWebb as it heads into deep space to answer our biggest questions. Alone in the vastness of space, Webb will soon begin an approximately two-week process to deploy its antennas, mirrors, and sunshield. #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/DErMXJhNQd

— NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021

As Webb gets closer to L2 in the coming weeks, NASA will move on to deploying the secondary and primary mirrors. The secondary mirror (so-called because it’s the second surface light hits as it’s bounced down into the telescope’s instruments) is a single element of beryllium and gold. The primary mirror will be a greater challenge. The Korsch-style mirror consists of 18 hexagonal segments with the same beryllium-gold surface. To fit inside the rocket, NASA had to design the mirror with “wings” to fold down three segments on the left and right sides. Hubble famously had a flaw in its primary mirror, but NASA was able to fix it with a service mission. However, Webb won’t have any service missions — there’s currently no way to reach it with a spacecraft on the far side of the moon.

We may have seen our last glimpse of Webb on Christmas, but the data it sends back could keep astronomers busy far into the future. We should know in about a month if all the major deployments went well. The first images from Webb should appear in about six months.

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China Appears to Have Blocked the Global Steam Store

Valve’s Steam storefront has been nominally available in China for years, but the company launched a China-specific store earlier this year. Now, the other shoe has dropped. Chinese authorities appear to have blocked the global Steam domain, leaving affected gamers with only the much smaller (and government-approved) Steam China domain.

The Chinese government has been slow to accept video games as a legitimate form of media. It didn’t even allow game consoles in the country from 2000 until 2015, and restrictions have been ramping up even on mobile games. For example, China has instituted limits on how long children are allowed to play games, and a few publishers have even implemented creepy features in their games to enforce the restrictions. China is also strengthening its restrictions. As of earlier this year, gaming companies can only let those under 18 play online for one hour per day, from 8 to 9 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.

China also aims to control the content of games. That’s why the Chinese version of PUBG, known as Game for Peace, doesn’t have any blood, and defeated players wave to let you know they’re alright. The Chinese Steam store launched in February 2021 with just a few dozen games, and its growth has been slow with just over 100 currently available. The catch is that anything published in the official Chinese store has to be approved by the government. The only mainstream titles available in the China-specific store are DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). It also lacks community features, the Steam Workshop, forums, community market, and more. So, cutting off access to the global store severely limits the content Chinese gamers of all ages can access.

Basically, Steam is blocked in China pic.twitter.com/552bej6vqA

— 🎄 Santa Ricky (@_FireMonkey) December 25, 2021

If there’s good news, it’s that Steam’s client is not affected at this time. That means they can still play the games they’ve already downloaded. It’s unclear if China is planning to expand the block to all of Steam’s global services. This would hardly be the first time China has blocked a global service at its borders.

For years, internet users in China have used VPNs to circumvent the Great Firewall, but the government began cracking down on VPNs in 2017. Today, some services claim to work in China, but their usage is considered illegal by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Still, some gamers are probably going to be firing up a VPN to download the games in their global Steam libraries.

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Micron confirms DDR5 Memory Shortages

If you were considering upgrading your gaming rig to Intel’s new Alder Lake platform, and dropping in some DDR5 memory modules, memory manufacturer Micron has some bad news for you. The company confirmed in an earnings call recently that production of the next-gen memory modules is quite difficult at this time due to a shortage of required components, and the situation isn’t going to improve until the middle of next year, probably.

For the uninitiated, Alder Lake is the first PC platform that supports DDR5 memory, which will eventually replace the DDR4 memory that we all use now. Compared to its predecessor, DDR5 is better in almost every way, offering more memory bandwidth, increased memory density per module, and higher clock speeds. We say “almost” because you can actually buy DDR4 RAM right now, whereas DDR5 sticks are only being sold at scalper prices currently.

The current scalper rate for a pair of DDR5 sticks.

On the call, which was transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra explained the problem quite succinctly. “Across the PC industry, demand for DDR5 products is significantly exceeding supply due to non-memory component shortages impacting memory suppliers’ ability to build DDR5 modules.” Looking ahead a bit, he added, “We expect these shortages to moderate through 2022, enabling bit shipments of DDR5 to grow to meaningful levels in the second half of calendar 2022.” The “non-memory component shortages” he’s talking about are reportedly VRMs and power management circuits (PMIC), according to Tom’s Hardware. In a cruel twist of fate, both of these components were found on the motherboard previously, but for DDR5 they have been moved onto the modules themselves for better voltage regulation. This means Micron has plenty of memory lying around, but not enough of the other parts it needs to create DDR5 sticks for customers.

Compounding the problem even further is there is only one manufacturer of PMICs that is validated by Intel for use on its platform. And if even that wasn’t bad enough, the website 12chip reports that DDR5 PMIC chips cost roughly ten times what chips for DDR4 platforms cost, and they also take up to 35 weeks to procure.

All of this is a long way of saying, if you want to upgrade to Alder Lake, just go with DDR4 memory. It could take years for the supply problems to resolve, and even if supply catches up to demand at some point in the distant future, DDR5 will still be much more expensive than DDR4 simply because it’s a more advanced version of system memory, and this is the normal situation when a new memory type is introduced.

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Monday, 27 December 2021

Ubisoft is Hemorrhaging Developers

(Photo: Ubisoft) During these unprecedented times, Ubisoft has found itself joining the ranks of many other shocking firsts. The video game studio is losing employees much faster than it can hire them, and for uglier reasons than it’d probably like to admit.

In what workers have dubbed “the great exodus” and even “the cut artery,” developers are following one another in droves out of Ubisoft’s metaphorical doors, Axios reports. Insufficient pay, frustration with the company’s creative direction, and disappointment with the way Ubisoft has historically addressed workplace harassment claims have created a perfect storm of dissatisfaction, prompting employee after employee to call it quits. (French newspaper Libération exposed the company’s harmful work environment in 2020, and while several higher-ups have resigned since, Ubisoft’s culture appears to remain very much a work-in-progress. Hundreds of Ubisoft employees signed a letter earlier this year accusing the studio of burying its head in the sand.)

The company’s many issues have made Ubisoft an “easy target for recruiters,” according to one of many former developers interviewed by Axios. While several of these developers were sentimental about their time at Ubisoft, the studio’s slew of messes made it no longer worth their loyalty. Those who tried to stick around to improve the company’s culture were reportedly met with constant reminders about “moving on” and “looking forward” while management ignored employees’ concerns in real-time.

Inside Ubisoft’s Montreal office. (Photo: Ubisoft)

“The company’s reputation was too much to bear. It’s legitimately embarrassing,” one former developer said. Yet another mentioned that while “abuse and toxicity” were deciding factors for women and people of color who chose to leave Ubisoft, they were likely only contributing factors for others.

Tenured employees who have made names for themselves at Ubisoft, such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla director Eric Baptizat, are among those who have found opportunities with other players in the gaming industry. In a candidate’s job market, many Ubisoft employees have been able to secure “generous” competing offers; one departing developer was even able to triple their income by making the jump. LinkedIn reveals that Ubisoft’s attrition rate hovers around 12 percent, a statistic confirmed by the studio’s own management to Axios.

For better or for worse, Ubisoft isn’t the only company losing employees at a remarkable speed. Mainstream news outlets are rife with stories of workers deciding they’re fed up with low pay, long hours, uncomfortable work environments, and blatant mistreatment. Ubisoft, like many others, probably just didn’t expect to become a part of one of those stories.

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Former Googler and Facebooker Launches COVID Testing Startup

The world is currently reeling from the rapid expansion of yet another COVID variant, but the timing couldn’t be better for a startup called Detect. The company, helmed by former Google and Facebook executive Hugo Barra, offers a system for at-home COVID testing, but unlike other home options, Detect uses the more advanced PCR method of detection. Demand has been so high, Detect has had to limit people to one test per household. The kits aren’t cheap, but they’re cheaper and faster than the tests people are standing in line to get.

COVID testing comes in two basic forms. There’s the antigen (or molecular) test, which is fast and inexpensive, and then there are Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests, or NAAT. The most common type of NAAT is PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which amplifies and detects viral genetic material (RNA in the case of coronaviruses). Antigen tests simply probe your sample for viral particles in a similar fashion to home pregnancy tests. PCR is more accurate, and that’s why many countries require these tests for travel authorization. Unfortunately, same-day PCR results can cost hundreds of dollars — I personally had to pay $250 for one recently. Detect’s reusable kit with one test costs $75, which goes a long way to explaining why demand is through the roof.

Anyone who has followed Android and Google since the early days might remember Barra. He was on stage at several major Android announcements, and he seemed much more comfortable in the spotlight than most Google engineers. However, he abruptly moved on to Xiaomi in 2013 and then to Facebook in 2017. He was announced as the CEO of Detect last week.

Antigen tests can detect virus particles in a sample, but PCR amplifies and detects viral genetic material for a more accurate assessment.

Demand has been so high that the company is releasing tests in batches every day at noon, according to an interview with The Verge. The test kits are $49 each, but you can keep using the same Hub, which is essentially an incubator for the sample. Detect kits can provide PCR test results in an hour at home, and it should be much more reliable than antigen tests. You can also purchase a $20 voucher for certified travel results, which involves having a health practitioner watch over video while you run the test.

The testing platform was also designed to be reprogrammed as needed. The company plans to release other genetic tests that will use the same Hub, including an STI test and a respiratory panel. Even absent these other tests, Detect is probably going to sell every kit it can make. I could see frequent travelers relying on these tests, which sound cheaper and more convenient than other rapid PCR options.

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Astronomers Detect an Exoplanet’s Magnetic Field for the First Time

All we can say about most of the 4,000+ known exoplanets is that they exist. Their physical characteristics are unknowable with current technology, but a few have given up some secrets. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified a magnetic field around the exoplanet HAT-P-11b. Earth’s magnetic field is essential for our continued existence, and this is the first time we’ve confirmed one around an exoplanet.

Earth and several other objects in our solar system have magnetic fields, a consequence of the way planets and moons interact with the solar wind. On Earth, the magnetosphere deflects damaging radiation, which would otherwise render the surface inhospitable. Fields surrounding exoplanets could serve a similar purpose. There was every reason to think exoplanets could have magnetic fields like the ones we see locally, but this is the first time we’ve been able to confirm that.

Astronomers from the University of Arizona observed the exoplanet HAT-P-11 b across six transits — that’s when the exoplanet passes in front of its host star from our perspective. This is how the HATNet Project discovered HAT-P-11 b in 2009. It was confirmed and further characterized later using radial velocity measurements from the Keck Observatory, which is the other standard method for detecting distant planets. Although, HAT-P-11 b is relatively close in the grand scheme at just 123 light years away.

Size comparison of Neptune with HAT-P-11b (gray).

Hubble detected a cloud of ionized carbon atoms, a sure sign HAT-P-11 b, which is about the size of Neptune, has an active magnetic field. The particles were not just around the planet, though. The carbon ions extend away from HAT-P-11 b like a tail, reaching about 1 AU (the distance between Earth and the sun). The team speculates the tail is a consequence of the planet’s proximity to its sun. At just five percent of an AU from the star, the upper atmosphere is superheated and ejected into space.

Hubble wasn’t designed with this kind of investigation in mind, but it has still managed to pick up some tantalizing hints of the exoplanet’s composition. HAT-P-11 b is just eight percent of Jupiter’s mass, but has similarly low metal content and a powerful magnetic field for its size. Meanwhile, smaller gas giants in our solar system (like Neptune) have higher metal and weaker magnetospheres. This suggests we’re missing part of the puzzle when it comes to planetary formation. We might get there with The James Webb Space Telescope, which has successfully launched after decades of work. Deployment will be the next major test for the new observatory.

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Nikola Hit with $125M Fine For Lying to Investors

(Photo: Nikola) Electric truck maker Nikola has been slammed with a $125 million fine by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for lying to investors and falsely inflating its stock price.

Following a year-long investigation into the company’s representation of its business practices, the SEC found that Nikola lied about its products’ and facilities’ technical capabilities, leading investors to believe they were more propitious than they actually were. In the settlement, the SEC accused Nikola of having “misled investors by misrepresenting or omitting material facts about the refueling time of its prototype vehicles, the status of its headquarters’ hydrogen station, the anticipated cost and sources of electricity for its planned hydrogen production, and the economic risks and benefits associated with its contemplated partnership with a leading auto manufacturer.”

Such deceit served Nikola by boosting its stock price to the tune of a $26 billion valuation despite a complete lack of revenue. Having positioned itself as the next big thing, Nikola earned an 11 percent backing from General Motors—which appeared to further legitimize the company’s promise. Nikola still hadn’t sold a single truck, but founder Trevor Milton was already rolling in cash; even after being forced to resign from his position as chairman and CEO last year, he and his spouse are estimated to hold Nikola stock worth $458 million.

Trevor Milton, former chairman and CEO of Nikola. (Photo: Massimo Pinca/Reuters)

Now the company’s sparkling successes seem to be crumbling to the ground. The SEC claims Nikola violated the antifraud and disclosure control provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, as well as the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, by misleading investors “through scores of misrepresentations by its CEO” and “[painting] a picture of Nikola that diverged widely from its then-current reality.” The settlement details occasions on which Milton tweeted that his company was actively producing hydrogen (it wasn’t) and had sourced electricity using renewable or “clean” methods (it hadn’t). Milton also allegedly told multiple people that Nikola had engineered and prototyped an electric pickup truck made mainly with proprietary parts. “The Badger,” as this imaginary truck was called, did exist on paper but was contracted to be produced by GM. The Badger program as it was written would also have lost the company $3.1 billion over the course of six years.

The settlement doesn’t require that Nikola admit to or deny the SEC’s charges. Nikola appears to be thankful for the chance to wipe its hands of the investigation, saying in a separate statement that it’s “pleased to bring this chapter to a close” and that it will be seeking reimbursement for costs and damages from Milton. Milton will continue to face federal criminal charges, for which he was indicted earlier this year.

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