NASA’s Perseverance Rover Has Successfully Landed on Mars
Photo Credit: NASA[/caption]
Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and for over a year — since the end of Spirit and Opportunity's mission in 2019 — it has been the only rover on the planet with an active mission. It will continue its mission of determining if Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support small life forms known as microbes. It will now be joined by Perseverance whose mission is to "address high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life on Mars," according to NASA.
Perseverance will not only seek signs of habitable conditions for life on Mars, but it will search for signs of "past microbial life" as well. It is equipped with a special drill that can collect core samples of "the most promising rocks and soils" and set them aside in a cache on Mars for a potential return to Earth in a future mission. The rover's mission also gives NASA scientists opportunities to gather information about future human expeditions to Mars.
"These [opportunities] include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources such as subsurface water, improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars," NASA's Perseverance mission page reads.
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Associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Thomas Zurbuchen, said the Perseverance mission shared the scope of the Perseverance's mission on Mars.
"Perseverance is NASA's most ambitious Mars rover mission yet, focused scientifically on finding out whether there was ever any life on Mars in the past," Zurbuchen said. "To answer this question, the landing team will have its hands full getting us to the Jezero Crater — the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing."
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Photo Credit: NASA[/caption]
The landing team was fortunately successful and Perseverance is now live and getting to work on the Red Planet. Here's an approximate timeline of how Perseverance's landing went, according to NASA.
- Cruise Stage Separation: NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was attached to Perseverance and responsible for flying the rover through space, detached itself at approximately 3:38 p.m. EST.
- Atmospheric Entry: Perseverance hit the top of Mars' atmosphere at approximately 3:48 p.m. EST at 12,100 miles per hour/19,500 kilometers per hour.
- Peak Heating: The bottom of Perseverance hit its peak temperature of 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit/1,300 degrees Celsius, at approximately 3:49 p.m. EST as a result of the friction it endured flying through the atmosphere.
- Parachute Deployment: Perseverance deployed its parachute at 3:53 p.m. EST.
- Heat. Shield Separation: The protective heat shield on the bottom of Perseverance detached roughly 20 seconds after its parachute was deployed. This detachment was done to allow the rover to begin using its radar to determine how far away it is from the surface of Mars.
- Back Shell Separation: The back shell of the entry capsule that is attached to Perseverance's parachute separated from the rover at approximately 3:54 p.m. EST. At this point, the rover began to use rockets to slow down its speed and fly to the landing site.
- Touchdown: Perseverance successfully landed on Mars at approximately 3:56 p.m. at a speed of about 1.7 miles per hour/2.7 kilometers per hour.
Photo Credit: NASA[/caption]
If you were one of the 10.9 million people who submitted your name to Nasa back in March of last year, your name is aboard Perseverance and roving around Mars right now. For more Mars, read about how researchers are trying to turn the Red Planet green and then check out this story about new ideas researchers have about how Mars might have formed.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. His name is aboard Perseverance and he is so happy today because space is the best. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. Nvidia Makes RTX 3060 GPUs Less Attractive for Cryptocurrency Miners
Ever since cryptocurrency mining became a hot business, miners have gobbled up the best GPUs in order to boost their output, making it more difficult to find and purchase said GPUs. Thankfully, Nvidia has announced its upcoming RTX 3060 GPU will feature new software drivers that makes it less desirable for cryptocurrency miners, while also launching a new GPU dedicated to mining.
Nvidia says that RTX 3060 GPUs, releasing February 25, will come with software drivers that detect when the GPU is using the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm. The GPU will limit the hash rate (the measuring unit for how fast a GPU is processing cryptocurrency), making the GPU about 50% less effective for miners.
Nvidia CMP is the company’s answer for miners, featuring various upgrades that make it more effective at specifically mining cryptocurrency. It’s essentially the computing strength of a GPU without the graphics.
“CMP products — which don’t do graphics — are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency,” Nvidia said. “They don’t meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.”
CMP also lacks display outputs and has a lower peak voltage output, improving its mining efficiency.
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“With CMP, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while preserving GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers,” Nvidia said.
Crypto miners, scalpers, and just generally strong demand have made it incredibly difficult to find 30-series GPUs, like the highly coveted RTX 3080, since September of last year. When Bitcoin and Etherium value skyrocketed last October, with Bitcoin reaching heights of $20,000 per Bitcoin, that GPU demand increased even further, according to Tom's Hardware. Nvidia has previously stated in January that availability for its 30-series GPUs will remain low for the coming months.
Demand for the RTX 3060, Nvidia’s most affordable 30-series card at $329, will likely continue the trend. Nvidia’s plans for mobile 30-series GPUs may assuage that issue, but it’ll come at the cost of purchasing an entire gaming laptop.
[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN. Mine his feelings on Twitter.Nvidia Makes RTX 3060 GPUs Less Attractive for Cryptocurrency Miners
Ever since cryptocurrency mining became a hot business, miners have gobbled up the best GPUs in order to boost their output, making it more difficult to find and purchase said GPUs. Thankfully, Nvidia has announced its upcoming RTX 3060 GPU will feature new software drivers that makes it less desirable for cryptocurrency miners, while also launching a new GPU dedicated to mining.
Nvidia says that RTX 3060 GPUs, releasing February 25, will come with software drivers that detect when the GPU is using the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm. The GPU will limit the hash rate (the measuring unit for how fast a GPU is processing cryptocurrency), making the GPU about 50% less effective for miners.
Nvidia CMP is the company’s answer for miners, featuring various upgrades that make it more effective at specifically mining cryptocurrency. It’s essentially the computing strength of a GPU without the graphics.
“CMP products — which don’t do graphics — are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency,” Nvidia said. “They don’t meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.”
CMP also lacks display outputs and has a lower peak voltage output, improving its mining efficiency.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nvidia-ces-2021-geforce-rtx-3060&captions=true"]
“With CMP, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while preserving GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers,” Nvidia said.
Crypto miners, scalpers, and just generally strong demand have made it incredibly difficult to find 30-series GPUs, like the highly coveted RTX 3080, since September of last year. When Bitcoin and Etherium value skyrocketed last October, with Bitcoin reaching heights of $20,000 per Bitcoin, that GPU demand increased even further, according to Tom's Hardware. Nvidia has previously stated in January that availability for its 30-series GPUs will remain low for the coming months.
Demand for the RTX 3060, Nvidia’s most affordable 30-series card at $329, will likely continue the trend. Nvidia’s plans for mobile 30-series GPUs may assuage that issue, but it’ll come at the cost of purchasing an entire gaming laptop.
[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN. Mine his feelings on Twitter.Little Nightmares 2 Review
About an hour into Little Nightmares II, I found a toy duck resting on a hardwood floor. It was the kind of carved, wooden plaything that kids drag around on a piece of twine, with wheels where the real waterfowl's webbed feet would be. A dim spotlight from somewhere above shone on its reflective wings. Behind it, there was an oaky barrier, formed from leaning one table against another--too tall for my character, a tiny child named Mono, to climb. When I approached, the floorboard the duck was sitting on sunk into the floor. I turned to run just as a metal light fixture swung down from the ceiling, smashing me into the barrier and killing me.
Once the checkpoint reset, I tried again, attempting to quickly run away from the floorboard before the pendulum fell. No dice. Again, it smashed me against the wall.
"I wonder if I can..." I thought, eyeing the nearby toy, "...duck."
Continue Reading at GameSpotLittle Nightmares 2 Review
About an hour into Little Nightmares II, I found a toy duck resting on a hardwood floor. It was the kind of carved, wooden plaything that kids drag around on a piece of twine, with wheels where the real waterfowl's webbed feet would be. A dim spotlight from somewhere above shone on its reflective wings. Behind it, there was an oaky barrier, formed from leaning one table against another--too tall for my character, a tiny child named Mono, to climb. When I approached, the floorboard the duck was sitting on sunk into the floor. I turned to run just as a metal light fixture swung down from the ceiling, smashing me into the barrier and killing me.
Once the checkpoint reset, I tried again, attempting to quickly run away from the floorboard before the pendulum fell. No dice. Again, it smashed me against the wall.
"I wonder if I can..." I thought, eyeing the nearby toy, "...duck."
Continue Reading at GameSpotOutriders: Full Details of February 25’s Demo Revealed
Outriders: Full Details of February 25’s Demo Revealed
Controversial Saudi Crown Prince Invests Billions in Three More Games Companies
New Zombies Outbreak Experience Coming in COD: Black Ops Cold War Season 2
- The new Zombies: Outbreak experience
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