FREE Metro Exodus next-gen/PC upgrades go 4K 60fps with full ray tracing and more – 9to5Toys

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Free Metro Exodus upgrades are on the way for next-generation consoles, but we now have details on the complete upgrade the 4A Engine is getting to support them. Metro Exodus a somewhat under-appreciated first person shooter with elements of survivalism, stealth, and post-apocalyptic crafting is getting some serious visual upgrades on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles along with the freshly-announced Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition. A game that was already oozing with atmosphere and even visual story-telling to some degree, 4A games is completely overhauling its game engine to realize a fully Ray Traced experience on next-gen. consoles and high-end PC. Head below for more details.

The third installment in the unique post-apocalyptic Metro series, Exodus more open-world like formula initially released back in 2019. Players finally flee the confines of the Moscow Metro to set off on a continent-spanning journey aboard a locomotive known as the Aurora. The Aurora acts as your entry to various open-world like spaces and adds an interesting wrinkle to what was already a very compelling experience. However, everything is about to get even more immersive with the Free Metro Exodus upgrades and PC Enhanced Edition.

According to 4A, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the upgraded version of Metro Exodus will see a number of optimizations, upgrades, and new features to the Ray Traced Global Illumination and Emissive Lighting that [it] pioneered with the original release. The team has built an all-new Fully Ray Traced Lighting Pipeline to make this a reality while implementing an upgraded version of its Temporal Reconstruction technology to further boost resolution, visual detail, and performance.

What does that all mean? Well, the free Metro Exodus upgrades for PS5 and Series X will run at 4K 60 frames per second with full Ray Traced lighting throughout. And as you can see in the imagery above, it looks fantastic. But its not just visual upgrades we are getting here. Gamers can also expect to see what 4A calls dramatically reduced loading times by way of leveraging PS5 and Series X SSD storage optimizations, 4K texture packs, and some platform-specific enhancements:

Platform specific features including spatial audio and controller latency improvements on Xbox, and support for the haptic features of the PlayStation 5 Dual Sense controller anyone whos frantically tried to pump up the pressure on their Tikhar in the middle of a pitched battle will be able to imagine the kind of thing were aiming for!

The Series S version is, unsurprisingly, targeting 1080p with 60fps and ray tracing.

Free Metro Exodus upgrades continue with the PC Enhanced Edition as well. 4A says it needs to deliver this version as a separate product it is not a simple patch to the base game. Andinstead will be offering it as an extra entitlement to all existing Metro Exodus PC players on the Epic Games Store, Steam, and GoG. It too makes use of full ray tracing technology, but takes things up a notch with Advanced Ray Traced Reflections and support for DLSS 2.0 on NVIDIA hardware.

There are no dates available here yet, but the free Metro Exodus upgrades will be available on consoles (Xbox Smart Delivery included) and PC via the Enhanced Edition sometime this year and later this spring, respectively.

These free Metro Exodus upgrades are great for fans of the series who have upgraded to next or what is now current-generation hardware. But the real win here is for new players who havent given the pneumatic weapons, terrifying nuclear monsters, and story arch a look just yet. Just keep in mind, it might make sense to score a last-generation version for cheap and then get the upgrade when it comes available later this year.

Be sure to dive into our games/apps deal hub for all of the best price drops across every platform, and dont forget about the ongoing Steam Lunar New Year game sale.

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FREE Metro Exodus next-gen/PC upgrades go 4K 60fps with full ray tracing and more - 9to5Toys

This is the first image taken by NASAs Perseverance Mars rover. Now the hunt for life begins. – MIT Technology Review

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NASAs Perseverance rover has landed safely on Mars. The spacecraft survived its journey through the Martian atmosphere and made a soft touchdown at Jezero crater.Shortly after landing, it sent back this picture from the surface using its Hazard Avoidance Cameras, which it will use when on the move. The image is partially obscured by a dust cover.

What happened: Perseverance began its descent into the Martian atmosphere Thursday afternoon, a process affectionately called the seven minutes of terror. The spacecraft survived scorching temperatures thanks to its heat shield. Its parachute deployed without a hitch, the rover was able to locate and navigate toward a safe landing spot, and the descent apparatus lowered the spacecraft down to the surface. NASA confirmed a successful touchdown at 3:55 p.m. US Eastern time. During its descent, Perseverance went from traveling at 12,000 miles per hour to just 1.7 mph in seven minutes.

Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, communication between NASA mission control and the spacecraft is delayed by 11 minutes. That means the entire landing process had to be accomplished autonomously. Onboard systems tracked the surface for hazards during descent and steered the rover away from any threats.

NASA

Whats it doing on Mars? Perseverances predecessorsSojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosityled to compelling revelations of what Mars currently looks like and what it once was. Scientists learned that the planet was once a warm planet teeming with lakes and rivers, and that its home to complex organic matter. Together, these key ingredients suggest Mars could have been habitable to microbial life in the ancient past.

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This is the first image taken by NASAs Perseverance Mars rover. Now the hunt for life begins. - MIT Technology Review

Space Foundation Discovery Center hosts Mars Week as NASAs Perseverance rover set to land Thursday – FOX21News.com

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COLORADO SPRINGS Its a journey months in the making and now NASAs Mars rover Perseverance is preparing to land on the red planet, and the Space Foundations Discovery Center is celebrating the event with activities and events for all.

Perseverance rover is set to reach Mars on Feb. 18 around 2 p.m., but that will only be possible if the rover survives what NASAs dubbed the seven minutes of terror.

The last time we sent a rover like Perseverance to Mars was in 2012 when Curiosity landed, Curator for Space Foundations Discovery Center Rachel English said.

Perseverance will have virtually the same landing as Curiosity. But there is only about a 50% chance this landing will be successful. If it is, Perseverance will work to determine whether life ever existed on Mars.

Its going to be doing some incredible work in Jezero crater, where its landing, to search for signs of microbial life on Mars, English added. So itll tell us a lot about the history of Mars as a planet from a geological standpoint, from a climate standpoint, and also, you know, we might find some cool fossils.

Its novel technologies that are enabling the next leaps of exploration: landing with more precision and safely, learn how to make oxygen from CO2 out of the atmosphere and more, NASAs Associate Administrator For Science Thomas Zurbuchen explained.

Whether the mission is successful or not, the Discovery Center is celebrating all week long!

Upcoming Events:

English added, We realize that everyone is getting a little bit of screen fatigue, and we work really hard here at the discovery center to make sure that everything is clean, fun, and safe.

The great part about space exploration is that even if we fail, we still learn.

Failure is one of our greatest teachers as scientists and engineers, so no matter what happens on Thursday, were really excited, English said.

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Space Foundation Discovery Center hosts Mars Week as NASAs Perseverance rover set to land Thursday - FOX21News.com

The Quest to Live on Mars: Could Humans Really Survive? – Interesting Engineering

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The challenge of building a settlement on Mars is daunting, but it's beginning to feel less alien every day. While plans to get us there have multiplied as additional nations enter Martian orbit private aerospace firms have also set their eyes on the Red Planet.

The quest to settle Mars is on, but what are the obstacles to building a Martian colony?

NASA's Artemis program will put humans on the surface of the moon for the first time in decades by 2024 with aims to establish sustainable exploration by the end of the 2020s. Much of what the agency learns from living and working on the moon will prepare it for the "next giant leap" of humanity: landing astronauts on Mars.

The Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion are crucial to NASA's aims to explore deep space beyond the moon. While there, astronauts will test novel instruments, tools, and equipment to advance human interests on Mars. It's here the agency will unfold new human habitats, technologies, and life support systems to inform the pursuit of building self-sustaining outposts far away from Earth.

Sometime in the future, NASA plans to send humans to Mars. But for now, the agency is still in the preparation stage sending robotic exploration missions like the Perseverance rover to develop the technology to sustain a human presence on the Red Planet.

CEO and Founder of SpaceX Elon Musk aims to use the Starship rocket to launch what are easily the most ambitious plans for colonizing Mars. He wants his company to mass-produce Starship which is designed to ferry up to 100 people.

"Building 100 Starships/year gets to 1,000 in 10 years or 100 megatons/year or maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync," tweeted Musk. And by "orbital sync," he means the period during which Earth and Mars are nearly aligned, with a minimum transit time.

In other words, Musk envisions unspeakably large fleets of Starships departing in these periods every 26 months. "Loading the Mars fleet into Earth orbit, then 1,000 ships depart over ~30 days every 26 months. Battlestar Galactica..." added Musk in another tweet. The ideal operational life for Starships would be 20 to 30 years.

The goal, of course, is to build a gigantic colony on Mars and effectively turn humanity into a multiplanet species. According to Musk, this is why he founded SpaceX in 2002, and also why he has raised unconscionable sums of money.

In 2017, Musk claimed his Starship ambitions for Mars could allow a city of one million people on Mars within the next century. A year ago, a Twitter follower of Musk's asked him: "So a million people [on the Red Planet] by 2050?"

Musk's succinct reply: "Yes."

Obviously, this is easier said than done.

However ambitious his plans for Mars, it's not irrational to question the timelines Musk has tweeted. Neither he nor NASA has developed concrete, proven plans of how to build domes on Mars under which humans could breathe and live.

While somewhere near the poles of the Red Planet is the ideal location for building a permanent settlement, SpaceX hasn't announced or possibly even developed the architecture for building a self-sustaining habitat on Mars.

Moving back a step, Starship itself has yet to be tested in outer space (though this could happen later this year), let alone on the moon or Mars. But once there, it should be able to take off without a booster rocket provided enough rocket fuel is stored on Mars (which everyone is still figuring out how to create on the Red Planet).

In 2019, the other tech billionaire and founder of Blue Origin declared his plans to colonize space beginning with the moon.

"We're going to build a road to space," said Bezos during a press conference in Washington, D.C., according to an ABC News report. While the current Amazon CEO wasn't sure how to build them, there are "certain gates, certain precursors" to colonizing space, and Bezos wants Blue Origin to lead.

"It's time to go back to the moon, this time to stay," said Bezos during a long and imprecise monologue about space. But considering the early stage of his aerospace company, it still looks like Blue Origin is trailing behind SpaceX.

The Orbital Assembly Corporation recently announced plans to design and build a habitable "space hotel" in low-Earth orbit with at least two prototypes to simulate generating artificial gravity up to the level one would feel on Mars.

The completed project called Voyager Station will serve as a luxury space hotel, but also as a scientific orbital platform where researchers can experiment and study the effects of sub-nominal gravity on human bodies.

"We have lots of data in zero-G, we have lots of data on 1 G, but what about in between?" asked Shawna Pandya, medical advisor for OAC, rhetorically. "In a seminal 2017 paper fromNaturecalled Artificial Gravity agencies came together to analyze how the human body would react to partial-Earth gravity."

"We offer solutions to these questions in a place that's as convenient as low-Earth orbit," said Pandya.

One day the company of NASA veterans could build a similar platform in orbit of Mars and create a waypoint for weary pilgrims of the Earth-Mars transit. But it still needs to test its concept of robotic construction in space, develop a way to transfer a space station to Mars, or build one from Martian resources.

China recently put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars for the first time called Tianwen-1. The craft will detach a lander, which will attempt a landing on Mars and send a rover out onto the Martian surface.

However, the reason China's government gave for the country's interest in Mars suggests it may have bigger plans for the Red Planet: "If we do not go there now even though we can, then we will be blamed by our descendants," said Ye Peijian, senior aerospace engineer and head of China's lunar exploration program, according toThe Daily Beast. "If others go there, then they will take over, and you will not be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough."

While China has yet to develop (or perhaps, share) concrete plans to colonize Mars, it seems the concern that other entities or nations could limit the country's ability to do so in the future serves as motivation to try.

Russia has proposed several plans to put humans on Mars from the now-defunct Soviet Union's plans to launch a six-cosmonaut crew to live on Mars for 900 days in 1975, to Russia's 2002 aim to land humans on Mars by 2015, and then another announcement in 2018 with aims for a 2019 landing on the Red Planet.

Despite these repeated announcements and delays, Roscosmos the Russian space agency maintains that Mars is the most preferable planet to colonize. "The studies of the Sun show that it is getting hotter while the temperature on Venus and Mars is growing slowly and this is one of the reasons why Mars looks, perhaps, most preferable today from the prospect of terraforming," said Roscosmos' Executive Director for Long-Term Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko in a TASS interview.

However, Russia still needs to develop (or share) plans for traveling, landing, and living on Mars before it can think of terraforming. And while it has adamantly disagreed with ideas (like Musk's) about terraforming the Red Planet with nuclear explosions the idea of terraforming itself is still highly theoretical, and could take centuries.

The United Arab Emirates also recently put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Called "Hope," it's the first step in a very long-term plan for the Arab nation to recruit and send astronauts to Mars. The mission called Mars 2117 will purportedly involve both Earth-bound and interplanetary steps. But judging from the name of the mission, it will almost certainly not be the first entity to land on Mars.

There are many plans to settle Mars, from nearly every space-faring country and private entity. But the architecture to build a human colony on Mars is still in the very early stages for all of them with SpaceX the sole entity actively performing test launches on a vehicle designed to make a landing. But until a new generation of space-worthy habitats, resource infrastructure, means to generate rocket fuel, and a proven landing vehicle are concrete realities, it's difficult to say for certain when humans will be ready to colonize Mars.

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The Quest to Live on Mars: Could Humans Really Survive? - Interesting Engineering

Why are there so many missions to Mars? – The Economist

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The planet offers hope for the existence of extraterrestrial life, and a chance for countries on Earth to show off

Feb 19th 2021

MARS IS AWASH with alien technology. On February 18th NASAs Perseverance rover landed in a crater called Jezero, near the planets equator, after travelling 470m kilometres over seven months. The United Arab Emirates Hope orbiter has been circling since February 9th. Chinas Tianwen-1 entered the planets orbit a day later, and its lander and rover will attempt to touch down sometime in May or June. There were six operational satellites in orbit when Hope arrived; NASAs Curiosity rover and InSight lander, which arrived in 2012 and 2018, respectively, are also sending back information from the planets surface. Why are there so many Mars missions and what do countries that send them hope to achieve?

In the late 1800s Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, fixed a telescope on Mars and observed a network of long straight lines that he believed to be canals built by an alien civilisation. In the second half of the 20th century, orbiters circling the planet returned far more detailed data about its atmosphere and surface, putting an end to the theory that a race of Martians had existed. But subsequent missions did raise new questions about alien life. They showed that Mars was once more like Earth. Streams, river valleys, basins and deltas on the planets surface suggest there may have been water covering its northern hemisphere. Orbiters, landers and rovers have set out to explore the planets topography and probe its interior for decades in the hopes of revealing whether microbial life might have existed in the pastand whether it still exists today.

There have been roughly 50 years of Mars missions before Perseverance. NASA was the first to land a craft successfully on its surface, in 1976. The latest flurry of activity is down to two things: new opportunities to answer questions about life beyond Earth, and astropolitical grandstanding. Americas rover will study the planets rock record and look for chemical traces of ancient microbial life, whereas the UAEs Hope orbiter will help scientists to understand how gas escapes its atmospherea process that has made Mars cold and dry. Technological advances mean that samples collected by Perseverance could eventually be brought back to Earth, allowing more detailed analysis.

But space exploration is also a matter of prestige and techno-nationalism. Chinas growing space race with its neighbours, India and Japan, which have also sent probes to Mars, reflects their jostling for influence on Earth. The UAE, the space agency of which was founded only in 2014, has crowed that its Hope orbiter is the first interplanetary mission by any Arab country. This posturing is a far cry from the white-hot space rivalry between America and the Soviet Union during the cold war, and there is plenty of collaboration, too: NASA is working with the European Space Agency to retrieve samples collected by Perseverance, for example. But the number of new spacefaring countries reflects a diffusion of wealth, technology and power.

As well as the UAE, lots of other countries have founded space agencies since 2010, including Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and Turkey. For now, states have a monopoly on Mars. But billionaires want in, too. Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a private rocketry firm, claims he will launch people to Mars by 2026. Jeff Bezos recently announced that he will step down as the chief executive of Amazon partly to focus on his space venture, Blue Origin. Last month the company successfully tested a rocket designed to carry passengers, although Mr Bezos prefers the idea of floating space colonies to dusty rocks like Mars. One day a trip to Mars may be more about leisure than scientific endeavour. As Perseverance scours the planets surface for clues of ancient life, new life is preparing to set foot.

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Why are there so many missions to Mars? - The Economist

UAE’s Hope probe beams back its first picture of Mars – New Atlas

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The United Arab Emirates first interplanetary mission has passed a major milestone, successfully placing a spacecraft in orbit around Mars and beaming back its first ever picture of the Red Planet. The Hope probes arrival marks an important step forward in the countrys efforts to explore space, which include sending a rover to the Moon and pursuing a vision of one day building a human colony on Mars.

The Hope probe was launched in July of 2020 and arrived at the Red Planet following a journey of almost 500 million km (310 million miles). This makes the UAE just the fifth nation to reach Mars, and after slipping into its orbit last Tuesday, the spacecraft fired up its multi-wavelength camera to grab some photographic evidence.

The 12-megapixel image was taken around 25,000 km (15,500 miles) above the surface of the planet, and represents the first instalment of more than 1 TB of data that the Hope probe will relay back to Earth. Along with the camera, the spacecraft is equipped with an infrared spectrometer and ultraviolet spectrometer, which it will use to study weather and the Martian atmosphere and eventually build the first complete picture of the different layers within it.

As part of this science phase of the mission, the probe will also gather the first ever planet-wide, 24x7 picture of Mars daily weather and atmospheric dynamics across the course of a full Martian year, or 687 Earth days. This is expected to take until April 2023, though the probe could potentially be used to gather data for another two years after that.

Also forming part of the UAEs ambitious space exploration program is the Rashid Lunar Rover mission, which aims to make the country just the fourth nation to land on the Moon. Slated for launch in 2024, the mission is intended to probe the makeup of the lunar soil and thermal properties of the surface.

Both missions will inform the UAEs Mars 2117 strategy, which involves a simulated Mars mission here on Earth and the overarching aim of establishing human colonies in Mars by 2117.

Source: Emirates News Agency

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UAE's Hope probe beams back its first picture of Mars - New Atlas

The race to live on Mars – Conversations – ABC News

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Tamara Davis is a cosmologist who is is wildly excited by the NASA rover landing on Mars.

She says its only a matter of time until astronauts visit Mars and that before long there will also be a colony on the Red Planet.

Tamara also studies black holes, dark energy, dark matter and is helping manage the Dark Energy Survey, involving over 400 researchers on four continents.

And is leading a multi-million-dollar Laureate Fellowship to explore why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Over two episodes, Catalyst explores what it will take to get to and live on Mars and why scientists think life could once have existed there and may still do.

Mars: Our Second Home? Tuesday February 23 - 8:30pm

Mars: The Hunt for Life Tuesday March 2 - 8:30pm

Tamara is a presenter on ABC TV's Catalyst

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The race to live on Mars - Conversations - ABC News

The geopolitics of NASA’s Perseverance mission to Mars – Quartz

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A robotic exploration mission sent by NASA will attempt to land on the Martian surface later today (tune in to watch starting at 2:15 US eastern time), catching up to two probes sent by China and the United Arab Emirates that arrived last week.

The US has been here before, and its rover is equipped, for the first time, with a small helicopter that will attempt to explore Mars in flight. Chinas first trip to Mars will also attempt the difficult task of landing sometime in May or June. The UAEs mission will orbit the planet, carefully mapping it with remote sensors.

The arrival of all three probes at the Red planet was driven by its relative proximity to earth last year when the missions launched, but also presents a symbolic lineup: The reigning space power and its main competitor, along with a third nation outlining a new model of national space investment.

Its really important that NASA and the US continue to lead in space exploration, continue to do these civilization-first type missions, says Steve Jurczyk, a veteran NASA executive currently serving as the agencys interim head until president Joe Biden nominates a permanent replacement.

But what does leading in space mean in a world where space technology is increasingly easy to access? The old model of the Apollo program, which signaled technological superiority to the rest of the world, is now outmoded.

The US has been slow to catch on, to be frank, because it misunderstands some of the fundamentals of the new race, says Peter Garretson, a retired US Air Force officer who is now a senior fellow focused on space strategy at the conservative-leaning American Foreign Policy Council. For newly arrived space powers, repeating old tricks and doing new first-of-a-kind tricks still commands attention. But what really matters is who is establishing a long-term industrial and logistical base from which they can command long-term economic power.

Garretson and Namrata Goswami, an independent space policy analyst, have written a book called Scramble for the Skiesthat outlines their expectation that space power will be built around exploiting the economic potential beyond earth. In particular, they fear China will outstrip other powers because of its long-term focus on development.

Today, the context of space is much more about the economic returns, Goswami told Quartz in an email. A service like GPS or BeiDou offers the possibility of billions of dollars in return on investments. Countries like China are investing in space technologies like 3D printing, advanced robotics, and AI given their rationale of trillions of dollars of resources waiting on the Moon and asteroids to be harvested. The idea is not just showcasing space technology for its own sake, but towards a long-term strategic purpose.

US goals in space are not even one-thousandth as ambitious as what the Chinese have articulated, Garretson says, citing Beijings detailed plans to outstrip the US as a space power by 2045with a new space station, a moon colony, and the development of technology to capture solar power in orbit.

In comparison, American experience with space success during the Apollo program has led to a culture that favors symbolic moonshot projects over long-term, cumulative investment. But under recent presidents the growing role of public-private partnerships and policy directives prioritizing the economic development of space has bent policy toward this vision.

The Artemis program, launched under Trump to return US astronauts to the moon, provides a case study. The initial goal of laying the groundwork for sustainable long-term presence there fits with this new vision of space power, but the push to strip away the more complex parts of the program in order to meet an arbitrary 2024 deadline made less sense. Garretson says that delaying the 2024 date to build more useful lunar infrastructure makes sense. Any part of the architecture that is expendable and is not able to be used by the private sector for their own purposes is a missed opportunity, he adds.

As the US warily eyes China (and Russia) as rivals in space, it will also find itself working more with partners, both traditional and newly arrived.

In some cases, the UAE has an advantagethey havent got a history, they dont have these processes and procedure, Jurczyk says, comparing the young space program with its private-sector start-ups. In some ways they can be more innovative and lean forward in exploiting cube sats and small spacecraft. Were supporting them with lessons learned engineering very complex systems and help them with enabling their innovation.

For NASAs rover Perseverance, a key part of its mission will be setting aside samples of Martian geology to return to earth. The return mission, launching in 2026, relies on a rover built by the European Space Agency to snatch the samples.

For the countries with new programs, space power isnt just about achieving scientific milestones. It is about economic development, as in India, which began its space program just weeks after the Apollo 11 landing to enable weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and other development goals, Namrata says. And the message of exploration isnt just for other countries but also for a domestic audience, allowing unelected governments in Abu Dhabi or Beijing to gain prestige in front of their people.

But small, wealthy countries like the UAE and Luxembourg, itself a satellite pioneer, see a chance to win more than just prestige. Garretson argues that these countries are well positioned to be mediators and craft a new global consensus on space activity, enabling access to other technologies and attracting financial activity, as well as bigger role in global affairs.

Any nation that seeks to carry the banner of leadership in the world symbolically must also carry it in space, he says.

A version of this story originally appeared in Quartzs Space Business newsletter.

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The geopolitics of NASA's Perseverance mission to Mars - Quartz

Mars is an example of something that’s useless. There are others – Real Change News

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Whats the attraction of Mars? I dont get it. Its an entire planets worth of desert. The total surface area of Mars is slightly less than the land area of earth, minus the water area, and its all cold desert.

Who needs this planet? You cant breathe the air. Itll be decades before anyone will ever be able to build a golf course there with real grass. Theyll have to settle for astroturf, shipped in at a cost of billions of dollars. Not only will there be no hope of raising dairy cows or goats in the foreseeable future, you can forget almonds and soy beans, too. Mushrooms will only grow between your toes.

People will have to live underground to get away from cumulative radiation exposure at the surface. You go a couple 100 million miles through vacuum, and as soon as you get to your destination, you have to dig a trench, build a subterranean home in it and cover it and live in it almost all the time.

The streaming video will be terrible, and Amazon deliveries will take ages. The gravity is so weak people will need special exercise equipment to keep their muscles from wasting away. No more getting the exercise you need by walking to work and back.

And yet for all that, there are people eager to sign up to join in colonizing Mars as soon as Elon Musk is ready to fire them at it. In the meantime the exploration of the planet by robots is getting ridiculous. Just the last two weeks weve seen not one but two Mars orbiters arrive at Mars, days apart, one from the United Arab Emirates and the other from China. Then, this Thursday, a US robot explorer is expected to land on the surface of the planet.

The US robot is equipped with microphones so we will be able to hear what Martian wind sounds like. Because, were buying property there, and thats the kind of thing you want to know when youre buying property. Whats the noise like? Is it going to keep me up at night?

Conditions on Mars are so awful, it would be immoral to set up a penal colony there. A crime against humanity.

Comparing colonizing Mars to colonizing the Moon, the Moon has pretty much all the same drawbacks Mars has. Nothing but desert. You have to live underground. Nothing will grow there for ages. Extra exercise equipment necessary.

But you could get Netflix. The view from the earth-facing-side is way better than any view from Mars. And when you got tired of it, you could get back to earth a whole lot easier and in just a few days.

Speaking of escaping tiresome conditions, I just googled When will this Senate hearing be over? Navigator, plot me a course for out of here. Google didnt help much.

There could be witnesses! That could drag the whole process out for days.

Its a pity the final vote cant be anonymous. The Senate can agree to an initially secret ballot, but if just 20 senators demand the votes be read off publicly, they have to be. And you can count on those 20 senators coming forward.

As a result, the whole exercise is going to provide multiple chapters in an upcoming book to be titled Profiles in Cowardice: the Trump Acquittal. Subtitled: All the Presidents Cowards.

The bad news: The Senate will probably vote to acquit. The good news: The trial isnt just before the Senate. It is, more importantly, before the American people. The people have been watching. As one of Trumps own lawyers said, the trial is unnecessary because the people can decide whether to vote for Trump again. All the more reason for the trial. Let the people see what voting for Trump again entails.

It entails a repeat of the January 6 coup attempt. If he even runs again in 2024 and loses again, we could get another assault on the Capitol building and Congress. It might be better organized the next time.

During the 2024 campaign season, the Republicans could choose to remove all barriers to the renomination of Trump. They could choose to have no primaries and let him coast to nomination. But if they do and theres another fiasco like we had January 6th, it will be on their heads, and the Republican Party will become history.

Dr. Wes Browning is a one time math professor who has experienced homelessness several times. He supplied the art for the first cover of Real Change in November of 1994 and has been involved with the organization ever since. This is his weekly column,Adventures in Irony, a dry verbal romp of the absurd. He can be reached at drwes@realchangenews.org.

Read more in the Feb. 17-23, 2021 issue.

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Mars is an example of something that's useless. There are others - Real Change News

A Spanish startup is offering trips to space in helium balloons as a cheaper alternative to SpaceX – Business Insider

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Founded in 2009 by Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales, Spanish startup Zero 2 Infinity wants to launch passengers 40 kilometers into space using helium balloons.

Setting off from Andalucia in the south of Spain, the trip will take six hours.

The ascent will take three hours, while two hours will be spent floating in space, and a further hour will be spent on the descent.

Lopez-Urdiales was first struck by the idea while helping his astrophysicist father to float helium balloons to the threshold of space, he told Sifted.

The aim of the 40km flight is to allow passengers to experience the "overview effect," allowing them to experience the blackness of space, the roundness of the earth, and its blue color all without actually entering space itself, which is at around double the distance from Earth at 80 kilometers.

For the landing, the capsule containing the passengers detaches from the helium balloon and lands with a very large parachute, Lopez-Urdiales told El Economista.

He also highlighted that the space flight didn't produce any noise or CO2 emissions, nor did it bring with it any risk of explosion.

The company previously carried out a test in 2012 sending a humanoid robot up to an altitude of 32 kilometers.

At the time they said they wanted to eventually offer hours of flight time so people could experience longer periods in space.

They conducted a further test in 2017 launching a prototype consisting of a balloon and a rocket to a height of 40 kilometers, Phys.Org reported.

Zero 2 Infinity the only Spanish startup in the space tourism market. EOS-X Space, founded by Kemel Kharbachi, is exploring a very similar concept and plans to launch its first commercial flight in 2023.

Lopez-Urdiales accused Kharbachi of copying the company's concept after he worked with them on a funding deal that fell through. However, Kharbachi has denied the accusations.

Other space tourism concepts entail entering space itself at a high altitude. One landmark moment was when Space Adventures launched businessman Dennis Tito up to the International Space Station for eight days.

The Richard Branson-headed Virgin Galactic also aims to launch flights into space. In 2019, it became the first space tourism company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to go even further, getting humans to Mars by 2026 and eventually building colonies on the red planet.

Zero 2 Infinity's concept comes at a much lower price than the other options, at just over $130,000. However, Lopez-Urdiales says the transport still has to be tested out by professionals, who are scheduled to do so later this year.

The company also still needs to secure another $2.4 million in funding, despite having already raised around $7.2 million.

"We already have the capsules, the permits, the insurance, and the flight center," Lopez-Urdiales said. "It's now just a question of securing the remaining funding."

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A Spanish startup is offering trips to space in helium balloons as a cheaper alternative to SpaceX - Business Insider

Will Mars become an object of international competition? – Brookings Institution

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February has been a big month for Mars exploration. We already have seen the United Arab Emirates and China successfully place orbiters around Mars, while the United States hopes to build on its past successes with Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity by landing a new one named Perseverance there this week. That rover is equipped with instruments that will search for life, seek to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen, and fly around the surface.

All of these activities are exciting for scientists and space enthusiasts because of the possible gains in knowledge and technical innovation. As noted in a Mars blog post last year, there are many reasons to explore the Red Planet from the potential to gain a better understanding of the origins of life to the chance to develop new technologies and lay the groundwork for space tourism and mining.

Much of space exploration in recent decades has been marked by international cooperation. The United States, for example, has worked with Russia and 13 other countries on the International Space Station, the launch of space telescopes, and the development of land-based observatories. Scientists from many nations compare notes, share data, and collaborate on academic papers. There are international conferences where experts report preliminary findings and get feedback from their peers.

Yet the geopolitical situation is shifting dramatically in ways that could imperil future cooperation. There is anger over Russias alleged role in the SolarWinds hack of U.S. government agencies and leading business enterprises. In addition, there are Russia sanctions due to that countrys takeover of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine.

Relations with China also have grown tense as the two countries compete over trade, national security, and economic power. There is concern over that nations treatment of Hong Kong and its human rights record in regard to political and religious minorities. Many Democrats and Republicans have called for tougher action against China.

These tensions are spilling over into space exploration. Not wanting to be reliant upon Russian launch rockets, the United States has developed its own multi-stage rocket to send astronauts to the space station. And a number of years ago, Congress enacted legislation that precluded NASA from working with Chinese scientists.

As a result of its exclusion from the American space program, China has developed agreements with Asian, European, and Latin American nations to explore the Moon and space in general. It is expected to launch its own international space station this year with financial support from other countries.

Last year, the United States negotiated an agreement with eight nations called the Artemis Accords that enables individual nations or specific private companies to create exclusive zones on the moon. That will enable the founding signatories (Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States, with later signatures by Brazil and the Ukraine) to build colonies, engage in space tourism, or undertake mining activities in those areas.

Yet other nations have criticized the agreement. Countries such as China, France, Germany, India, and Russia so far have not signed the accord. Among their objections include its focus on bilateral agreements that may be outside of existing international frameworks, the role of private exploration companies, and concerns about American primacy in space.

The risk of planned activities is that the Moon, Mars, comets, asteroids, and other solar system objects will become the focus of international competition and space commercialization. Are exclusive zones going to become mini-nations that engage in similar competitiveness, conflict, and mistrust that characterize their earth-based entities? Are there meaningful ways to create cross-national areas that encourage peace, cooperation, and prosperity?

Going forward, these are crucial questions. On planet Earth, countries are establishing defense forces that militarize near-earth orbits. With the importance of satellite communications, leaders are taking steps to defend orbiting satellites and make sure those of other nations were not used for offensive purposes. While understandable given their status as critical infrastructure, these moves set precedents that could prove quite risky.

As countries see outer space through the lens of colonization and commercialization, we need to think about how to govern the solar system beyond our planet. Will settlements on the Moon and Mars be democracies or run according to military principles? Which environmental rules should apply to lunar mining operations? What legal rules and norms should apply to Mars and the Moon? If we do not develop answers to these questions and have broad-based international agreements that enforce them, we could end up in a dystopian space future based on military interests and commercial exploitation.

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Will Mars become an object of international competition? - Brookings Institution

Crayolas sprawling new exhibit launches at Franklin Institute with creativity on the brain (PHOTOS) – lehighvalleylive.com

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If humanity ever colonizes Mars, its bound to need some sort of recreational outlet similar to the sports played here on Earth. But in a zero-gravity environment, what kind of sports can be played? What kind of weight and angle measurements will come into play when designing Mars-appropriate sports?

If those questions have sent you into a head-scratching brainstorm session, then Clayton Ferguson can call Crayola IDEAworks a success. Problem-solving exercises like this one are just one of the components to the new 17,000-square-foot Crayola exhibition opening on Saturday at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition is a sprawling interactive experience making its premiere this weekend, and its designed for participants to maximize their creativity and tap into their unique talents to solve problems and complete imaginative activities.

Ferguson, the executive producer and co-owner of the exhibition, and his company Agency 808 have been working with Crayola for about two and a half years on IDEAworks, focusing on the goal of tapping into the creativity people use every day.

You make thousands of creative decisions every single day, he said. Were really trying to teach kids and families to really tap into the process of it. Creative problem-solving skills are something that really are building blocks to every single pillar of individuals.

The exhibition is broken up into two sections: the IDEA (which stands for Identify, Define, Explore and Assess) Workshop and the Colorverse. The IDEA Workshop, Ferguson said, is basically creating a profile of the participant (which is geared towards kids, of course, but people of all ages can exercise their creativity muscle) and how they approach solving problems and decision-making. That approach is then used in the Colorverse through imaginative challenges such as the Mars colony.

Those involved in this partnership between the world-renowned Franklin Institute and globally beloved Crayola feel its a no-brainer. Ferguson, whos worked on different exhibitions with the institute before, credits the museum with always thinking ahead of the curve. The team at the institute jumped at the chance to be involved in the launch of IDEAworks when Ferguson brought the idea to some major museums.

Theyve been a part of the entire process with us from even the creative development a year and a half ago, he said.

While it helps that each institution is essentially in the others backyard, with more or less an hour and a half drive separating the institute and Crayolas Easton headquarters, Franklin Institute President and CEO Larry Dubinski cites their similar missions as another binding factor.

Were rooted in this spirit of invention and innovation and entrepreneurship, he said. I think thats essentially this great synergy between Crayola and the Franklin Institute.

Opening an exhibition like this during the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly provided its challenges. But both Ferguson and Dubinski expressed their confidence in the safety measures in place so that IDEAworks can be a completely safe adventure.

Regular cleaning and mask-wearing has been a constant since the institute opened back up in July. And with the sheer size of IDEAworks, operating at 25% capacity means there can be about 85 people in a 17,000-square-foot space. Plenty of room for problem-solving in peace.

IDEAworks opens on Saturday to the general public and is scheduled to close on July 18. Purchasing tickets in advance is highly recommended, and tickets are $12 per person.

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Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.

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Hubmen trying the meet the challenges in the new conference – SW News Media

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The Jordan boys basketball team is being challenged in its first season in the Wright County Conference.

The Hubmen endured a stretch where it lost five straight league games after a 4-1 start. But the losing skid was snapped Feb. 17 with a 50-43 home win over Delano, getting 10 points apiece from sophomore Mack Schmidt and senior Reagan Koch.

Jordan won the Minnesota River Conference title last year with a 13-1 mark. The WCC is a bigger step up for the program this season.

"This is a very good conference and there is never a night off," Jordan coach Matt Urbanek said. "I think every team in the conference is capable of beating every other team. That makes it fun, and it will also help to prepare us for the playoffs.

"Our goal is to continually improve throughout the season and play our best basketball in the postseason," Urbanek added. "Our conference schedule will certainly help us with that."

The Hubmen will end the regular season March 12 with a league game at Hutchinson. The Tigers won 84-82 over Jordan in the first meeting between the two teams Feb. 16.

Last winter, back on March 13, Jordan was all set to take on Waseca in the Section 2AA championship, but the Minnesota State High School League ended the winter sports season the morning of the title game due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waseca looks to be the team to beat again this season. The Bluejays are ranked No. 1 in the state.

The Section 2AA tournament will start March 16. The title game is set for March 26.

State quarterfinal play for boys basketball will be March 30-31, followed by the semifinals April 6-8 and the title games for all four classes April 9-10. The Target Center in Minneapolis has been tentatively set as the venue.

Jordan made the state field in 2018, finishing sixth.

Meanwhile, in the loss to Hutchinson, Koch led the Hubmen with 32 points. Junior Isaac Young finished with 18 points, while senior Jojo Kloeppel and junior Owen Montreuil were also in double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Jordan also lost 85-73 at home to Orono Feb. 12. Koch again led the way with a season-high 33 points. He leads the team at 20.1 points per game.

Young scored 16 points for the Jordan in the loss, while Kloeppel finished with 11 points and Montreuil added 10.

"We've been very competitive in every game," Urbanek said. "We feel like we are right there. In the last few games we have been hurt by a big run from our opponents in each of those games.

"We need to play with more consistency and be able to stop those runs when they start," Urbanek added. "Overall, our players are confident and they've brought a great attitude every day."

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Hubmen trying the meet the challenges in the new conference - SW News Media

Alabama Basketball’s Jordan Bruner On the Brink of Returning to Action: "He’s Close" – Bama Maven

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. The University of Alabama men's basketball team could get a key contributor back into the lineup very soon.

Forward Jordan Bruner, who tore his meniscus on Jan. 12 against Kentucky, is not the brink of returning to action according to coach Nate Oats.

Before his injury, the Yale transfer was averaging 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 13 appearances.

In the game before he suffered the knee issue, he dropped a season-high 20 points and added seven rebounds, three steals and one block in a 94-90 win on the road versus Auburn.

"He is close," Oats told the media via Zoom on Friday afternoon. "He would have been playing already but he had a setback a couple of weeks ago. He's back to where he is shooting this week and he's been able to go through some drills. I think we are going to have some guys warm up tomorrow and see how they feel and go through walkthroughs. We were hoping we could have him back by the Arkansas game.

"It's close. It's very close. He's been in a lot more drills in the last couple days of practice. Up until this week, he hadn't been able to do anything outside of some spot shooting, free throws and some stationary ball-handling. They are amping everything up now. He's close to where he could be back.

"I think it would be great to get him back. He was playing great. I don't know if he can come back and play at the same level when he left but he should be pretty good, I would think."

Oats also noted that the week-long break in between the Crimson Tide's two most recent games has "rested and rejuvenated" the team after Thursday's postponement against Texas A&M.

"When that game got canceled it wasn't the worst thing for us," Oats added. "Herb Jones is still not 100 percent and that gave him a game off. Bruner is still recovering. If that game gets tacked on at the end, hopefully he's close to 100 percent by then... It gives us time to get healed up."

Alabama will face Vanderbilt on Saturday at noon inside Coleman Coliseum and it will be televised on SEC Network. Seven Crimson Tide players will be honored after the game for Senior Day.

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Jordan Spieth turning in another star performance at Genesis Invitational in shadow of Hollywood – usatoday.com

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Jordan Spieth has flipped the script.

Instead of a weekly update on his shocking descent down the official world rankings the past three years, Spieth has turned the page and become a daily occupant of the front page of the leaderboard the past three weeks.

With his second consecutive 3-under-par 68, the former world No. 1 and three-time major champion continued his crawl out of the abyss and moved into contention Friday in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

In search of his first win since the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, the winner of 11 PGA Tour titles sat in a tie for fourth when he signed his card, six shots behind leader Sam Burns.

All in all, very pleased with the ballstriking today, Spieth said. I feel like today it was almost the highest score I could have shot and its really a good sign for things to come.

After looking lost at times since midway through 2018, Spieth has now broken par in nine of his last 10 rounds and is 38 under in the stretch. He took at least a share of the 54-hole lead into his past two tournaments and finished in a tie for fourth in the Waste Management Phoenix Open and in a tie for third in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

He looks more comfortable over the ball, more confident striding down the fairways. The two-way miss hasnt been his unwelcomed and painful 15th club for three weeks now. After falling to as low as 92nd in the world rankings, hes now 62nd with a bullet.

I made a couple iffy driver swings, but I actually drove the ball really, really well today until No.9, said Spieth, who despite hitting just 46 percent of his fairways in regulation, has hit 78 percent of his greens in regulation. My ballstriking was really solid and my bogeys came from, you know, just being in the wrong place on 18, which can happen, and missed about a sixfooter.

Obviously Sam had some success on the greens and everywhere else, but its not like you can go chase people on this golf course. So Im happy with where Im at, but just eliminate a couple of the kind of minor mistakes here and there and try to keep clean cards on the weekend and let the rest of it take care of itself.

Genesis Invitational:Leaderboard|Photos|Tee times, TV info

Despite his uptick in form, Spieth has not changed his expectations.

No, and they shouldnt ever no matter what, he said. Im trying to just get better every single day, have everything feel better each day and be able to be kind of outwardly focused versus kind of swing oriented. The more I can shift that direction and eventually to where it can be 100 percent that way, the better off Ill be. Im in good shape. Just try and get myself close to the lead by the end of tomorrow, that will be the goal.

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North Carolina coach Roy Williams on a round of golf with Michael Jordan: ‘You better be able to stand up for the lip’ – usatoday.com

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Roy Williams, the longtime North Carolina mens basketball coach, knows a thing or two about the level of competition Michael Jordan brings to any kind of contest.

On Wednesday, Jordans 58th birthday, Williams, who was an assistant coach at North Carolina when Jordan played college basketball there from 1981-84, appeared in a video filmed at Pinehurst Resort in which he talked about Jordans game on the golf course as opposed to his game on the basketball court.

Most of Williamss observations had to do with Jordans penchant for chatter as opposed to his actual shot-making.

With Pinehursts iconic Putter Boy figure at his right elbow and the practice putting green and clubhouse in the background, Williams was asked a simple question for the short clip shared on Pinehursts Twitter account: Whats a round of golf like with Michael?

Its just competitive and the only thing he ever did that was better than playing basketball was talking. And so you better be on his team or hes going to talk you to death. He can hit it a long way, got a great touch, he hits it a long way sideways every now and then, but you better be able to stand up for the lip because hes going to talk you to death.

Many, many stories of Jordan golf bets and talk have emerged through the years, and perhaps none greater than this tale of Jordan taunting PGA Tour player Dominic Bozzelli at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida.

It takes some focus, it seems, to tee it up with Jordan.

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North Carolina coach Roy Williams on a round of golf with Michael Jordan: 'You better be able to stand up for the lip' - usatoday.com

Utah Jazz: Why Charles Barkley thinks Jordan Clarkson is an All-Star – Deseret News

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The Utah Jazz already know coach Quin Snyder will be on hand at the NBA All-Star festivities on March 7, as head coach of the Western Conference team.

The question is, which Jazz players will join him in Atlanta?

While Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert werent named to the starting lineup when the league unveiled the All-Star starters Thursday, both are expected to earn their second All-Star invites. The All-Star reserves will be named on Tuesday.

Point guard Mike Conley is seen as another All-Star option from the Jazz, who currently sport the NBAs best record.

Charles Barkley, the former 11-time All-Star who now works on the NBA on TNT crew, threw another Utah player into the ring for consideration: guard Jordan Clarkson.

Hes been the best bench player in the NBA this year. Theyve got the best record in the NBA, Barkley said of Clarkson on Thursday. Hes been fantastic this year. Thats why I got him on my list.

Clarkson posted a season-high 40-point effort in the teams win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. Hes averaging a career-best 18.2 points per game as the teams valuable sixth man.

Mitchell was left out of the starting lineup, as he finished fourth in All-Star voting among Western Conference guards with the fourth-most fan and media votes and the fifth-most player votes.

He trailed starters Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic, as well as Damian Lillard. The other Western Conference starters include LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Kawhi Leonard.

Barkley also advocated for Mitchell to be a starter during the TNT broadcast. Mitchell has averaged 24.2 points and 5.1 assists per game, while shooting 43% from the field heading into the teams game Friday against the Clippers.

No disrespect to anybody, but this kid has been the best player on the best team in the NBA, and its unfortunate hes not starting, Barkley said of Mitchell.

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Utah Jazz: Why Charles Barkley thinks Jordan Clarkson is an All-Star - Deseret News

Michael Jordan Once Used the Most Expensive Wine on the Menu to Teach His Agent a Lesson About Respect – Sportscasting

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Among basketball fans, Michael Jordan is still spoken of with great reverence; even if you think LeBron James has taken the top spot in the GOAT rankings, its impossible not to respect all that he accomplished on the hardwood. It seems that MJs agent, however, needed to be reminded of that from time to time.

According to Michael Jordan, he once had trouble getting a word in during a dinner meeting with David Falk. Everything changed, though, once His Airness started ordering the most expensive wine on the menu.

RELATED: President Barack Obama Reveals Who He Thinks Is the NBA GOAT: Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

Even though its been almost 20 years since Michael Jordan suited up for an NBA game, no one will forget his exploits anytime soon. Its still worth noting, though, just how impressive His Airness was.

Although he infamously failed to make his high schools varsity basketball team at the first attempt, Jordans career only went up from there. By the time he graduated, MJ had become a McDonalds All-American; he then headed to the University of North Carolina, won an NCAA title as a freshman, and grew into a star.

Once in the NBA, Jordan only continued to strut his stuff. While the Detroit Pistons proved to be an early roadblock, His Airness greatness eventually shown through. He won six championships in two separate three-peats, earned five NBA MVP awards, and took home virtually every individual honor imaginable.

On the back of that basketball success, Jordan became a massive pop-cultural presence. Hes incredibly famous, worth more than $1 billion, and stands tall in the collective memory of sports fans everywhere.

RELATED: Michael Jordan Is Worth $1.6 Billion, but He Was Known to Spit on an Entire Tray of Cinnamon Rolls Just to Avoid Sharing

Michael Jordan wasnt just an incredible talent, though. He was also a ruthless competitor who you didnt want to cross.

MJ stoked his inner fire as a boy, battling against his brother, Larry. As he grew up, that fire didnt dissipate; if anything, it got stronger.

During Jordans time in the NBA, he proved to be a ruthless trash-talker. No one, whether they were a teammate, fan, or opponent, was safe from MJs wrath. Some men, like Steve Kerr, even absorbed a punch from His Airness.

Even away from the court, MJ needed to win. If you took the top spot away from him, he was going to take it personally.

RELATED: Michael Jordan Pulled the Ultimate Power Move When LeBron James Threatened His GOAT Status

During his time in the NBA, Michael Jordan made plenty of opponents pay the price for crossing him. Even his agent, David Falk, it seems, wasnt safe from occasionally feeling MJs wrath.

We had a dinner meeting, and I couldnt get a word in, Jordan explained during a 2005 interview with Cigar Aficionado. The meal was on his company bill. Anytime he orders wine, or orders anything, he checks the price. But that night, he was taking time out from what we were talking about to make sure about the price.

Eventually, Jordan had enough and decided to use Falks concern about the price of dinner against him.

So now I say, Give me the most expensive wine, and hes picking up the tab, Jordan continued. Then, I say, Every time you interrupt what were talking about, Im going to order another bottle. When I started ordering the 61s, I quieted him right down, and we got through the conversation. That is a true story.

Whether youre playing basketball or having dinner with Michael Jordan, you can cross him at your own risk.

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Jordan Clarkson drops 40 to lead the Utah Jazz past the Philadelphia 76ers – UtahJazz.com

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When it was all over, Donovan Mitchell sprinted at Jordan Clarkson, a pair of water bottles in his hand, and doused the Utah Jazzs sixth man.

That was as close as anyone came to cooling down Clarkson on Monday night at Vivint Arena.

The Jazz guard torched the nets, scoring 40 points to help his team beat the Philadelphia 76ers 134-123.

The Sixers were the best team in the East as of Monday night, but they couldnt handle the Wests best, as the Jazz (23-5) reeled off their eighth win in a row.

The biggest thing for me is them believing in me, Clarkson said. Letting me be myself and embracing me just plays a role in who I am. That gives me confidence. Those guys always come over to the bench and tell me to keep shooting, even when Im having an off night, even when Im hot. Theyre telling me to shoot the ball no matter what.

Donovan Mitchell had 24 points. Joe Ingles scored 20. And three Jazzmen finished with 11 points.

Phillys Ben Simmons had 42 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in the loss.

Even with All-Star center Joel Embiid getting a late scratch because of a back issue, the Sixers jumped out to an early lead in Salt Lake City. Philly led 24-10 midway through the opening quarter.

Behind 19 points and five assists from Simmons, the Sixers shot 72.7 percent from the field and scored 22 points in the paint in the period.

At the beginning of the game, he had too much space in transition, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said. Tonight he attacked the rim early. He felt the game. We had to get back and show him more of a crowd and make it harder for him to see a drive, to deter him.

The hot hands of Clarkson and Georges Niang kept Utah within arms reach. Clarkson went 4-for-5 from deep in the first quarter while Niang went 2-for-2.

When Jordan came in with the performance he had, weve seen that obviously beforebut that was another level, Snyder said. I thought he kept us in the game.

The Jazz kept clawing their way back. And when Bogdanovic converted a wild and-one bucket midway through the second, the Jazz had their first lead, a 57-55 advantage.

Despite shooting just 2-for-11 from deep in the second, the Jazz took a 72-66 lead into the locker room at halftime. Clarkson had 19 at the break.

The Jazzs sixth man stayed hot in the second half. His 13 points in the third helped the Jazz build their first double-digit lead and take a 106-94 advantage into the final quarter.

Hes not bashful and we dont want him to be, Snyder said of Clarkson.

Simmons kept the Sixers close, leading an 10-0 charge in the opening minutes of the fourth.

But Clarkson and the Jazz would not be deterred en route to their 19th win in the last 20 games, answering with big play after big play.

Clarkson scored eight more points in the fourth, finishing just two points shy of his career high.

Royce ONeale crashed into the scorers table during a defensive stand and then sank two clutch 3-pointers. Rudy Gobert denied Dwight Howard at the rim on one end and then rocked his own rim on the other.

Philly played great, Snyder said. It took us making some big plays at the end of the game.

The Jazz will hit the road for a pair of games against the L.A. Clippers. Tipoff is set for Wednesday at 8 p.m.

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Trinity hires Super Bowl Champion Jordan Hill as head football coach – ABC27

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Trinity football has a new coach headed into the 2021 season: Jordan Hill. The Steel-High alum won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and has since returned to the midstate as a high school coach.

Hill had been an assistant coach with Cumberland Valley for the 2020 season.

Hill was an all-state player his senior season with the Rollers and helped Steel-High to the Class A State Championship that season. He went on to play for Penn State from 2009-12. He was first-team All-Big Ten in 2012.

Seattle drafted Hill in the third-round of the 2013 NFL Draft with the 87th-overall pick. Hill and the Seahawks won a Super Bowl in his first season.

Seattle released Hill in 2016. He then played for Washington, Jacksonville and Detroit before retiring after the 2017 season.

He recorded 50 tackles and seven sacks in his NFL career.

Former Trinity Todd Ryan announced his departure from the program to PennLive in January. Ryan was with the team for five seasons, and recorded a 6-21 record as head coach.

abc27 is awaiting comment from Trinity High School and Hill.

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Trinity hires Super Bowl Champion Jordan Hill as head football coach - ABC27