The president of Emirates has said he sees a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic coming from Europe which is concerning the airline.
Speaking to CNBC at the Dubai Air Show, Emirates President Tim Clark said: “I see a fourth wave coming through and we have all sorts of concerns about what may happen.”
“We’ve got to look at it very carefully, because if the European markets — which have already started to open in a big way — start to go the other way we’re going to have to deal with that. But we will deal with it … we’re very good at working around problems, and we’ll just do what we have to do,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
Earlier this month, the WHO warned that Europe was once again the epicenter of the Covid pandemic. The region’s biggest economy, Germany, is currently reporting around 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day, and France has also reported a surge in cases. Austria, meanwhile, is expected to shortly impose lockdown restrictions on millions of unvaccinated people in an effort to contain rising infections.
Airlines have been hoping that the Dubai Air Show marks a turning point for the industry after a devastating period. It’s the first major aerospace exhibition to take place since the start of the coronavirus pandemic which saw travel restrictions across the world decimate the industry.
The International Air Transport Association said last month that the global airline industry is expected to lose almost $12 billion next year. The IATA, which represents nearly 300 airlines that operate more than 80% of the world’s air traffic, added that industry losses in 2020 were worse than originally thought, coming in at $137.7 billion.
However, Clark said that Emirates was already experiencing a significant pick-up in demand and had started to turn a profit.
“We’re bouncing back with a high degree of, dare I say, robustness,” he said. “Demand is coming back at such a pace that we’re frankly having difficulty trying to supply the assets because we’re short of pilots, we’re short of cabin crew, we’re short of just about everything. But there’s no shortage of demand, it’s a really good story.”
Clark highlighted the difficulties Emirates was facing in hiring enough staff to meet this demand, after it laid of swathes of staff amid the pandemic.
“You’re talking about supply chain disruptions, you’re talking about gross distortion in the labor markets,” he said, adding that he expected some sense of normality to return towards the end of 2022 and into early 2023. “I think then … the heat will come out of the situation. I hope, anyway.”
Another potential headwind for airlines is higher oil prices. The demand shock sparked by the Covid pandemic saw Brent prices fall to $20 a barrel; they’re now trading over $80 a barrel.
But Clark said he was not fazed. “Of course, $80 – we’ve been there before. We’ve been much higher than that before,” he added. “At the moment, we’re managing it. It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen; I think we’ve got about 15 months of turbulence, but we’ll be alright.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Joseph contributed to this report.
The rumors have percolated in industry circles for weeks. Wednesday’s developments may have caused the rumors to transmogrify into an official report.
Via Michael McCarthy and A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com, Caesaers Sportsbook “is preparing go after” ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter’s contract expires in the summer of 2022. A buzz has been building among those in the NFL media business that Schefter plans to leave ESPN for one of the gambling companies. Surely, Caesers isn’t the only one thinking about trying to hire him.
None of that should be a surprise. The sports books are VERY aggressive about exploring opportunities to add individual reporters/analysts and/or entire media companies. A massive audience for sports content instantly becomes a captive audience for the purposes of converting members of that audience into gambling customers.
As more and more states legalize gambling, the competition for media personalities and/or media outlets will intensify.
What’s compelling about the Schefter/Caesars report is that, while it had been an open secret for many in the media, it finally became reduced to print last night, after Schefter found himself heavily criticized for sending an unpublished article to Washington executive Bruce Allen in 2011, referring to Allen as “Mr. Editor,” and asking Allen if there is anything that should be “added, changed, tweaked” before the story goes live.
Well after defending himself in a Wednesday morning radio appearance, Schefter issued a statement acknowledging that he shouldn’t have done what he did. The statement was not posted or amplified by Schefter’s Twitter account, but by the much smaller ESPN P.R. Twitter page.
Throw in the publication of a report that took the backroom chatter public in the hours after Schefter issued a statement that he quite possibly didn’t want to issue, and it’s fair to wonder whether Schefter or his agent leaked his potential departure as a message to ESPN. Indeed, the die may have been cast the moment Schefter concluded (if he did) that ESPN didn’t support him on the Allen situation the way that Schefter believed it should.
Meanwhile, the article about Schefter also mentions that “cash-rich gambling companies could eventually try to pick off ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.” That’s not an accident. The chatter has been that Schefter and Wojnarowski are considering joining a gambling company as part of a package deal.
The question of reporters whose value comes from having inside information (even if, as to Schefter, it’s obtained and published literally five minutes before it’s otherwise announced) working for gambling operations who thrive on having inside information raises plenty of questions that may or may not ever be fully explored and resolved.
While some will suggest that the NFL will be faced with telling its teams to cut Schefter off if he works for a sports book, someone will need to remind the NFL of the ever-growing collection of gambling commercials that end with a reference to the fact that the company in question is an “official sports betting partner of the NFL.”
The Brooklyn Nets remain unclear on All-Star guard Kyrie Irving’s ultimate intentions to get vaccinated and have made no decision on whether the organization will accommodate him as a part-time player this season, sources told ESPN.
There had been previous optimism that Irving would get vaccinated and fulfill local governmental mandates allowing him to practice and play in New York this season, but that hope is waning and Irving’s continued resistance to vaccination has the Nets preparing for the possibility that they’ll be without him for home practices and games for the foreseeable future, sources told ESPN.
If Irving remains unvaccinated, the Nets could be faced soon with a decision on whether they’ll allow Irving to come and go with the team in and out of New York — or just keep him sidelined all together, sources said.
The Nets have been outwardly supportive of Irving’s process to consider vaccination and believe they’ve listened, supported, and educated him, but the franchise’s collective patience will be increasingly tested the longer that Irving stops short of committing to join the team on a full-time basis.
The Nets believe they’re still a championship contender with a roster constructed around Kevin Durant and James Harden and could ultimately have to make hard decisions on Irving’s future should he remain unvaccinated and unable to play in the Barclays Center or Madison Square Garden.
Under an agreement between the league and player’s union, Irving could lose game checks of approximately $380,000 for every home game he misses due to the protocols starting with Friday’s preseason home game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Irving, 29, is under contract for $35.3 million this season.
After Irving missed practice on Tuesday in Brooklyn, Nets coach Steve Nash said the team will not consider relocating practices outside New York to accommodate him. The team will only be away from home for one day the rest of the preseason — Monday for a game at Philadelphia. At that point, Irving will not have been allowed to practice or play with the team for 10 days.
The challenge of an unvaccinated Irving could test the Nets immediately in the regular season. With a six-game homestead starting the second week of the season, Irving would be away from his teammates for 11 days before he could workout with them again. That’s a situation that will repeat itself over and over for varying lengths. During one stretch in November and December, the Nets are home for 20 out of 26 days.
After Monday’s market turbulence, the Federal Reserve’s challenge will be to sound reassuring while acknowledging it’s preparing to make its first major step away from the easy policies it put in place to fight the pandemic.
The Fed will release a policy statement along with the economic and interest rate forecasts it issues quarterly at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to brief the media at 2:30 p.m. ET. The central bank is widely expected to indicate it is getting ready to announce it will start paring back its $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities.
“I think they’re going to lay out that they had a discussion on tapering. I don’t think they’re going to provide any details. I think they’re going to provide a framework where they can start doing it in November or December,” BlackRock chief investment officer of global fixed income Rick Rieder said.
The Fed’s meeting began Tuesday, following a turbulent day in global markets on worries that China’s big property developer Evergrande could collapse and spread contagion outside China’s borders. The S&P 500 had its worst day since May on Monday. Stocks stabilized a bit Tuesday, as investors looked to the Chinese government to contain the situation.
“Does the last couple of days’ price action in markets or China have an influence on their thinking? My guess is it’s going to enter the discussion, but I still think they’re going to end up in the same place we were going to end up in,” Rieder said.
He expects the Fed to cut back the purchases at a pace of $10 billion Treasurys and $5 billion mortgage-backed securities a month, once it starts the taper.
What could move markets
“By and large, the tapering is probably not a market moving event,” Columbia Threadneedle head of multi-asset strategy Anwiti Bahuguna said. She noted the focus Wednesday will be heavily on the forecasts and the Fed’s “dot plot,” the chart it uses to present the anonymous interest rate forecasts of central bank officials.
While the Fed’s move away from asset purchases may be well broadcast, strategists say its interest rate forecast may be a wild card for markets. Tied closely to that will be the Fed’s expectations for inflation. In June, it forecast 3.4% for the personal consumption expenditures inflation index this year, before falling back to 2.1% in 2022.
Also in their June forecast, Fed officials targeted the first two increases to the fed funds target rate in 2023, but there’s a risk that could change. Two officials had expected the first hike in 2022, and many market pros are betting on a hike by the end of next year.
“If we just see two or three members change their minds that could be a hawkish surprise. There is no chance that [Fed officials] will take the dots off, so the risk is that there are more dots that appear in 2022 and 2023, and the market starts thinking the rate hiking cycle commences next year,” Bahuguna said, noting that would be a “hawkish” message that would be negative for stocks, and it could result in higher interest rates at the short end of the Treasury curve.
In June, the addition of dots to the 2022 forecast was a surprise and suggests some Fed members see the increase in inflation as something more than just transitory, she said. There is a risk that could happen again if more Fed officials believe that inflation is more persistent.
Powell has repeatedly stressed that he believes the jump in inflation is temporary, but some officials inside the Fed have pushed back on that idea.
Consumer price index inflation has run above 5% for the past three months, though the pace cooled slightly in August.
Rieder does not expect the Fed to change its interest rate forecast for 2022, though it will reveal its forecast for 2024 for the first time. Those longer term forecasts often change, he said.
“I still think they can taper and leave a window, an option for them to move and start to raise rates in 2022,” Rieder said. “I do think they will delink the taper from rates, but that will provide them the optionality to actually be able to go in 2022, assuming employment continues to improve. … But I don’t think they in any way, shape or form transmit that that’s their base case, by any stretch.”
Push back on rate hikes
Rieder said the Fed will make the taper seem more dovish by emphasizing the end of the bond purchase program does not mean a rate hike is coming. But the bond market will still focus on the rate hike projections and inflation.
“Powell will probably do his best to distinguish and decouple the association of tapering and rate hikes,” Bank of America head of U.S. short rates strategy Mark Cabana said.
“We think that they’re going to make some modest adjustment to their overall economic and inflation forecasts,” Cabana said. “So we think they’re going to mark down growth this year, given some of the softness of recent data. They’re going to mark up inflation given some of the firming we’re seeing. The real focus will be on the dots. We anticipate still no hike in 2022, but they will add 2024. We anticipate that will show three additional hikes in 2024.”
Rieder has been a proponent of the Fed moving to taper its easy policies. He said Fed policy and the economy are no longer working the way they had.
“I think there’s something critical here,” he said. “For our generation, we’re used to when the data softens, monetary policy has usually been a driver of the modulation … but the softness of the data is coming exclusively from the supply side which is not affected by monetary policy.”
Demand is high but supply chain issues and shortages have resulted in a slower economy. By stimulating the economy with easy policy, the Fed adds to that dynamic.
Market pros also expect Powell to be asked about recent reports that Fed officials owned and traded securities. An in-depth look by CNBC at officials’ financial disclosures found three who last year held assets of the same type the Fed itself was buying, including Powell, who held municipal bonds. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren invested in REITs and Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan owned corporate bonds. The trades appear to be in compliance with Fed rules, and the Fed is conducting a review.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Health officers across the Bay Area are preparing to roll out another round of vaccinations as the FDA approval for Pfizer’s COVID-19 booster shot is expected in two weeks.
“I expect the rollout for boosters may be as early as the end of September or as late as the end of October,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, deputy health officer for Marin County.
The FDA is holding an advisory committee meeting on Sept. 17 to discuss the safety and efficacy data of Pfizer’s booster vaccine.
RELATED: Doctors say Labor Day COVID-19 surge ‘very possible’ for the Bay Area in the coming weeks
Santora explains if Pfizer’s booster receives approval from the FDA, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will determine which groups should be prioritized first. Then the California Department of Public Health will issue formal guidance to counties before any rollout can begin.
“What I anticipate is that the CDC will release a holding statement providing some direction to both the states and the local health jurisdictions on the next steps,” said Santora.
ABC7 confirmed all nine Bay Area counties are preparing to roll out booster shots through healthcare partners like local pharmacies or doctor’s clinics. “I can imagine that UCSF and Kaiser will set up large vaccination sites, the city may do some too,” said UCSF’s Dr. George Rutherford.
WATCH: SF vaccine mandate now in effect for indoor bars, restaurants, gyms, more
Preparations are underway for the San Mateo County Event Center to transition into a mass vaccination site to administer at least 2,000 to 3,000 COVID booster shots per day.
“Once all those approval happen, we can turn the event center into a vaccination site within a few days,” said Dr. Anand Chabra with San Mateo County Health.
In Solano County, the health department is working with healthcare providers to distribute booster shots directly to long-term care facilities and senior housing complexes during the beginning stages.
“We want to make sure our vulnerable populations get access right away,” said Solano County Health Director Dr. Bela Matyas.
The Solano County Fairgrounds is being prepped to turn into a mass vaccination site in Vallejo. Once opened, the site is expected to be running four days a week and on the weekends.
RELATED: How to show proof of vaccination in San Francisco or anywhere in California
“We’re planning to be able to deliver 100,000 to 120,000 vaccinations at that site over the course of several months,” said Matyas.
In Marin County, the health department is working to reopen one large expanded vaccination clinic that will administer 1,500 booster shots per day to serve the county’s priority populations.
“Some people have compared this to giving a life jacket to someone who already has a life jacket,” said Santora. “So that is one of our concerns.”
According to CNN’s global vaccine tracker, there are 23 countries around the world where less than 1% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
UCSF’s Dr. Bob Wachter weighed in on the ethical dilemma of giving boosters when some countries don’t have enough supply for their populations.
“I just think it’s unrealistic to ask a society to say we’re not going to give people a vaccine that they really do need…because we want to save those doses to give to other countries,” Wachter said. “It would be very humanitarian if we did that, but it’s not realistic.”
Take a look at all of ABC7’s Building a Better Bay Area stories and videos here.
VACCINE TRACKER: How California is doing, when you can get a coronavirus vaccine
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Once the troublesome element of the Constellation (now Artemis) Program, three Orion spacecraft are in various stages of preparation for flight, two of which now already reside at their Kennedy Space Center launch site.
With the Artemis 3 Orion – set to depart Earth with the crew that will step foot on the surface of the Moon – now being constructed at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), Orion’s multi-billion dollar journey to transporting humans into deep space is back on track. Orion’s Painful Childhood:
Orion’s development has been ongoing as long as NASASpaceflight.com has been on the internet – with the site recently celebrating its 16th birthday.
At the time, the Space Shuttle fleet was returning to flight with a final swansong of missions that would complete assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) before Orion – then called the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) – was scheduled to take over ISS crew rotations before heading out on missions to the Moon and Mars.
This was called the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) – “Moon, Mars and Beyond” – and was based on a schedule that resulted in a short gap between the end of the Shuttle and Orion entering operation.
The keep the gap to a minimum, NASA opted for the utilization of former Shuttle hardware to be included in the rocket architecture, with the Ares I launch vehicle as a single five-segment Solid Rocket Booster “Stick” design that would be joined by the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) Ares V, which is akin to what SLS has since become.
Ares I and Ares V, a 1.5 launch system architecture for LEO and BEO missions. NASA render.
However, Ares I provided the greatest challenges during the Constellation Program (CxP) during the early phase, impacting Orion. While the changes were part of any new spacecraft’s natural evolution, the main challenges were associated with “mass reserves” and shortfalls in Ares I’s performance.
This, in turn, forced Orion to shed weight in a painful and obstructive series of exercises, almost immediately causing the CEV to reduce its diameter by 0.5 meters, soon followed by its Service Module being stripped down by up to 50% of its original mass.
Provided with the name “Orion,” engineers at Lockheed Martin – the vehicle’s prime contractor – were told to reduce the spacecraft’s mass further, resulting in a cull of the amount of propellant the vehicle would carry during International Space Station (ISS) missions – the initial role for Orion.
The CxP manifest, created in 2005 and acquired by NSF L2
In what seemed to be a never-ending series of demands, Orion lost its ability to use an airbag system to land on terra firma, reverting to Apollo-style water landings.
Other advanced systems – part of the “Apollo on Steroids” ideal of creating a super capsule far more capable than its predecessor – were also removed from the vehicle.
With frustrations growing between Ares I – which also claimed the design changes were hindering it – and Orion, project managers held a summit in 2007 and decided they would strip Orion down to a “minimum requirement” spacecraft, thus allowing Ares I some breathing space to work within several thousand pounds of mass reserves.
Orion lost its airbag landing capability due to mass issues – via NASA
Orion underwent a mass ‘scrubbing’ process to reduce it to a minimum weight, ahead of the reapplication of some of the deleted capability, element by element. The project noted it was using the Block 2 “Lunar Orion” for this exercise, as much as the results were to be fed into the Block 1 “ISS Orion.”
With CxP starting to show signs it was going to have to slip its schedule, an All Hands meeting at the end of 2007 referenced the need for “teamwork and chemistry,” with then-Ares program manager Steve Cook warning, “Failure is an option during development,” while a System Definition Review (SDR) Board meeting noted major “red” risks in controlling Orion’s weight to match Ares I performance.
In 2008, the Orion Vehicle Engineering Integration Working Group (OVEIWG) began to reinstall some of the “critical capability” back onto the vehicle without breaching strict mass requirements. Some engineers joked the Group was providing the role of Ken Mattingly when he juggled limited amps as he created a power-up sequence for the crippled Apollo 13 capsule via testing in a simulator.
Ironically, it was Apollo 13 Flight Director Gene Kranz who issued a stirring speech to the Constellation workforce (video in L2) that year, noting how the Apollo workforce “had to learn to leave our egos at the door and become a team, so we became one.”
By the middle of 2008, a new Design Analysis Cycle (DAC) was called for in tandem with efforts to resolve Thrust Oscillation (TO) issues – resulting in a major slip to the vehicle’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to 2009.
One of the options to reduce Thrust Oscillation on the crew – a pallet (adding yet more mass) – via NASA
With the additional stresses of a reduced budget for Constellation, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) called for the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee in 2009 – better known as the Augustine Commission.
The review highlighted CxP’s critical issues, ultimately resulting in its cancellation by the Obama administration via the FY2011 Budget Proposal.
Orion Realignment:
Orion was saved from the CxP cull, albeit in stages – including a near-pointless role as a very expensive lifeboat for the ISS – before the 2010 Authorization Act refocused Orion on Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) missions.
The first physical sign of Orion’s new life was seen at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), as the Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) vehicle saw its first panels welded together.
With NASA representing the start of construction as “the first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991,” the EFT-1 Orion enjoyed a successful build in New Orleans before heading to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for outfitting.
EFT-1 proved to be a success, launching atop the Delta IV-Heavy on a mission that played a major role in allowing Orion to pass Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) and enter a production cadence.
Nevertheless, challenges were still found with the European Space Agency’s commitment to provide the Service Module elements; however, that too is now back on track.
Artemis 1 Orion:
Set to launch on the first flight of SLS, the Artemis 1 Orion spent a lengthy time “mothballed” in the O&C (Operations & Checkout) Building at the Kennedy Space Center.
Finally, in a major milestone for the spacecraft, Orion was moved to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) for fueling operations.
However, with the delay to the SLS launch date, Orion engineers had to be wary about pushing Orion through hypergolic loading tasks due to a 400-day clock that begins once the vehicle is fuelled.
Artemis-1 Orion ahead of Hypergolic loading – via NASA
The team completed the first ammonia tank servicing on February 26, 2021, and the second ammonia tank on March 2, 2021. Both tanks were filled with 32 pounds of ammonia ahead of a boiler functional test. After the functional testing, the tanks were then drained and refilled to final flight tank commodity requirements.
That final “go” for hypergolic loading was further held after the aborted SLS Green Run Static Fire test. With the Core Stage having now passing its four-engine firing at Stennis, fueling operations can now occur.
The run-up to hypergolic loading saw engineers sample the fueling hoses prior to vehicle mate to meet the contamination specifications. This set up a March 23 loading event, although competition of that task has yet to be confirmed by NASA.
The Artemis 1 Orion is currently housed next to the ULA-provided Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). The two hardware elements will be mated and then rolled to the VAB for stacking with SLS on Mobile Launcher -1 (ML-1).
Artemis-1 Orion next to its ICPS in the MPPF via NASA
NASA is yet to rule out a launch by the end of this year. However, internal schedules point to a February 2022 launch being the most realistic target.
Artemis 2 Orion:
The second Orion is already at KSC, a spacecraft tasked with repeating Artemis 1’s uncrewed flight around the Moon, but this time with a crew of four onboard.
Recent work has revolved around environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) subassembly installations and fit checks in addition to welding operations.
Artemis-2 Orion inside the KSC O&C via NASA
The crew module underwent work in the cleanroom in the O&C Building for the completion of over 100 welds on the ECLSS and propulsion systems. Click bonds on forward walls 3 and 4 for the Optical Communication System (OpCom) – which will provide Orion with a high rate communication system for Artemis 2 – is also being worked on.
The Artemis 2 Crew Module was then moved into the Crew Module Station to enable the installation of several environmental control systems components, while the Crew Module Adapter (CMA) was moved into the cleanroom for completion of welding operations.
The Service Module is currently being worked on in Bremen, Germany – which recently saw the installation and checkout of the OME (Orbital Maneuvering System) engine that had previously flown with Shuttle Atlantis.
Shuttle Atlantis to the Moon!
The engine for the second European Service Module (ESM) for Orion Artemis-2 crewed mission around the moon has been installed at Airbus facilities in Germany.
It previously flew as an OME on Atlantis.@esa link:https://t.co/QhyK0mXqEc pic.twitter.com/yA1wY90zBC
— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) March 25, 2021
While active thermal control system loop B testing is completed, planned activities include OME engine thrust vector system checkout and gimbal testing to confirm that all electronic system signals are correctly interpreted and whether all mechanical components are working as planned.
Artemis 3:
This Orion will be tasked with transporting the first crew on a Lunar Landing mission involving the first use of the Human Landing System (HLS).
Following the roadmap of previous Orions, assembly is taking place at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The first three-cone panel welds on the Artemis 3 crew module pressure vessel were completed on January 20, 2021. The final element of the crew module pressure vessel – the tunnel – then underwent its forward bulkhead weld, while engineers worked in parallel on set up for the following barrel-to-aft bulkhead weld activities.
Welding the panels on the Artemis-3 Orion – via NASA
Initial non-destructive evaluation (NDE) data and visual inspections of the welds were noted to be good, allowing progress to move to the barrel-to-aft bulkhead weld.
While the Crew Module Assembly inner wall is making good progress in machining at its contractor in Illinois, MAF engineers moved into plug welds and planishing tasks.
The Service Module for Artemis 3 is also making good progress, with the Airbus team in Bremen, Germany, working through active thermal control system (ATCS) Loop B testing. ATCS testing sets the stage for Orbiter Maneuvering System engine installation.
It is unknown which OME will be involved with Artemis 3’s service module, although it will be one of the stock of donated engines from the Space Shuttle era.
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is closing in on its landing date, which is expected to be just a few weeks away.
The mission, which includes the Perseverance rover as well as the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, depends on a successful landing that is largely out of NASA’s hands at the moment.
The landing sequence is mostly automated, so NASA engineers can do little but sit back and hope for the best.
When NASA launched its Mars 2020 mission last year it was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The mission, which has been traveling through space for the past several months, is slated to arrive on the Martian surface on February 18th, and NASA is counting down the seconds until that touchdown happens.
One of the biggest hurdles that still exists between NASA and a successful Mars 2020 mission is the landing of the rover capsule itself. The so-called “seven minutes of terror” that NASA often speaks about regarding the landing is essentially a seven-minute window where the spacecraft will begin its descent and, if all goes as planned, deliver the most technologically advanced machine ever built for space exploration to the surface of the planet.
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In a new blog post, NASA offers a glimpse at where the mission stands, and the potential pitfalls in its way:
The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2 million kilometers) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8-million-kilometer) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second). Once at the top of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent awaits – complete with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the Sun, a supersonic parachute inflation, and the first ever autonomous guided landing on Mars.
Because of the distance between Mars and Earth, controlling the spacecraft in realtime is out of the question. Commands would take minutes to make it to their destination, so it’s up to the spacecraft to account for any variables that could threaten the descent and landing.
If the spacecraft is successful, and the landing goes off without a hitch, the potential for new discoveries on Mars is huge. The Perseverance rover is the most advanced piece of hardware ever sent to Mars, and it will be able to tell scientists things about the Red Planet that have never been studied in such a way before.
“Perseverance’s sophisticated science instruments will not only help in the hunt for fossilized microbial life, but also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and its past, present, and future,” Caltech’s Ken Farley, a scientist working on the Mars 2020 mission, said in a statement. “Our science team has been busy planning how best to work with what we anticipate will be a firehose of cutting-edge data. That’s the kind of ‘problem’ we are looking forward to.”
We can’t wait to see what happens.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and future tech.
Most recently, Mike served as Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other web and print outlets. His love of
reporting is second only to his gaming addiction.
The ‘After the Bell’ panel discusses the first $100 billion quarter in the company’s history due to strong iPhone 12 demand.
Facebook is preparing a lawsuit against Apple over its App Store policies, according to a new report.
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The lawsuit would allege that Apple abused its power by making apps listed on its App Store follow specific policies that Apple’s own apps do not, The Information reported Thursday.
Facebook would not comment on pending litigation but told FOX Business in a statement that it believes “Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses.”
iPhone user touching Facebook app (iStock)
Apple first announced a number of new, transparency-driven changes to its App Store policies for iOS 14 in June, including permission requests for user data that are expected to roll out “soon” after the tech giant delayed the update “to give developers time to make necessary changes,” according to a September blog post.
TIM COOK SLAMS FACEBOOK SMALL BUSINESS CAMPAIGN
The permission requests update, called App Tracking Transparency, will “roll out broadly in early spring” and require apps to ask a user’s permission before tracking their personal data across apps or websites belonging to other companies, Apple said Wednesday in a press release.
Users will be able to see which apps have requested permission to track data under the “Settings” sections of their iPhones.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemned Apple and its new policies during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
APPLE CEO TIM COOK SLAMS TECH RIVALS FOR COLLECTING USER DATA AT THE COST OF SOCIAL POLARIZATION
“Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to preference their own,” he said. “This impacts the growth of millions of businesses around the world, including with the upcoming iOS14 changes, many small businesses will no longer be able to reach their customers with targeted ads.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen testifying remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool)
He also said some of Apple’s new privacy policies are hypocritical. The iPhone maker’s new “nutrition labels,” for example, show what types of data apps collect from users, which Zuckerberg said focuses “largely on metadata that apps collect rather than the privacy and security of people’s actual messages.”
The social medial chief continued noting that Apple’s “iMessage stores non-end-to-end encrypted backups of your messages by default unless you disable iCloud, so Apple and governments have the ability to access most people’s messages,” he said. “So when it comes to what matters most — protecting people’s messages, I think that WhatsApp is clearly superior.”
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Apple did not immediately respond to an inquiry from FOX Business.
Facebook has criticized Apple’s new rules since the summer and launched an ad campaign on Dec. 18 saying it is “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere” by pushing back against Apple’s privacy updates.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Facebook-owned Instagram, defended the use of personal data in a Dec. 16 tweet, saying it helps small businesses create personalized ads.
Such ads “are an important tool for small businesses to identify and connect with their customers in a way that only big budgets allowed before. This is particularly important right now, given all the challenge[s] that small businesses face,” he wrote.
Videos posted to Twitter at the time showed App Store users scrolling through Facebook’s privacy information section, revealing a lengthy list of the website’s data-collection practices.
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Before the campaign launched, Cook tweeted an image of Apple’s new data permission request feature, which asks users, “Allow Facebook to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?”
“We believe users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it’s used,” Cook said. “Facebook can continue to track users across apps and websites as before, App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will just require that they ask for your permission first.”
