Europe’s A.I. ‘Champion’ Sets Sights on Tech Giants in U.S. – The New York Times

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Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet. He had an unassuming look for a person European officials are counting on to help propel the region into a high-stakes match with the United States and China over artificial intelligence.

Mr. Mensch, 31, is the chief executive and a founder of Mistral, considered by many to be one of the most promising challengers to OpenAI and Google. You have become the poster child for A.I. in France, Matt Clifford, a British investor, told him onstage.

A lot is riding on Mr. Mensch, whose company has shot into the spotlight just a year after he founded it in Paris with two college friends. As Europe scrambles to get a foothold in the A.I. revolution, the French government has singled out Mistral as its best hope to create a standard-bearer, and has lobbied European Union policymakers to help ensure the firms success.

Artificial intelligence will be built rapidly into the global economy in the coming decade, and policymakers and business leaders in Europe fear that growth and competitiveness will suffer if the region does not keep up. Behind their worries is a conviction that A.I. should not be dominated by tech giants, like Microsoft and Google, that might forge global standards at odds with the culture and politics of other countries. At stake is the bigger question of which artificial intelligence models will wind up influencing the world, and how they should be regulated.

The issue with not having a European champion is that the road map gets set by the United States, said Mr. Mensch, who just 18 months ago was working as an engineer at Googles DeepMind lab in Paris, building A.I. models. His co-founders, Timothe Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, also in their 30s, held similar positions at Meta.

In an interview at Mistrals spartan, whitewashed offices facing the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, Mr. Mensch said it wasnt safe to trust U.S. tech giants to set ground rules for a powerful new technology that would affect millions of lives.

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Europe's A.I. 'Champion' Sets Sights on Tech Giants in U.S. - The New York Times

Neil Young’s Spotify tiff is a reminder that tech giants always win – Euronews

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

As a listener, you might not care. But as an artist, it can be a tough pill to swallow to know that an algorithm, as opposed to human preference, might be behind your success or failure, Jonah Prousky writes.

Neil Young and Joni Mitchell begrudgingly returned their music to Spotify last month, two years after leaving the platform in protest of its largest podcaster, Joe Rogan.

According to Young, Rogan was using the platform to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

They can have Rogan or Young. Not both, wrote Young to his manager at Warner Music Group.

It turns out, Spotify can have both.

And, no matter what you think of Youngs protest (or boycott, or whatever it was), his clash with Spotify is a reminder that tech giants have a funny way of getting what they want and resistance from artists is usually futile.

Many creators have long been frustrated with platforms like Spotify and YouTube due to the algorithms they employ, which in part drive views and streams, and by extension, pay.

Most creators, however, dont have the clout to issue ultimatums, nor the money to leave these platforms.

While some artists on Spotify make a decent living, there is a far, far greater volume of artists literally millions of them who are struggling to make ends meet from their streaming royalties, according to Rolling Stone.

Also, without an established audience of ones own, artists are pretty much beholden to Spotify and YouTube for views.

According to Forbes, Spotify holds a dominant 30.5% of the music streaming market, more than double its nearest competitor, Apple Music, which has a 13.7% share. YouTube is virtually unrivalled.

Who cares, you might say, Spotify is beloved. And, hasnt the company done a lot to democratise music?

Its true, the company cut out a lot of the red tape associated with the legacy music business by giving new artists a direct line (and business model) for reaching listeners.

That ethos is even enshrined in the companys mission statement, which is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.

The company has done much to advance that mission. Its capable of launching music careers in ways that never would have been possible in decades past. An artists streams and by extension, earnings can skyrocket almost overnight if their songs make it onto one of the platform's most-listened-to playlists.

It can quite literally be the difference between driving Uber and making music on the side and earning $200,000 (187,880) in streaming royalties.

So any attempt to criticise the platform ought to be wary of what its done for some musicians. But, in many ways, the platforms algorithm has homogenised music tastes around a small number of top artists, making it harder for new musicians to gain traction.

Algorithms", wrote Scott Timberg in a column for Salon, "are about driving you closer and closer to what you already know. And instead of taking you toward what you want to listen to, they direct you toward slight variations of what youre already consuming.

What people are already consuming is just a small subset of Spotifys artist base, whose tunes gobble up our collective attention.

In 2013, the top 1% of artists accounted for over three-quarters of all revenue from recorded music sales. In that year 20% of songs on Spotify had never been streamed, wrote Ludovic Hunter-Tilney for the Financial Times.

Maybe thats always been the case, youll wonder. I mean, anyone who's seen The X Factor knows that not every artist is worthy of our attention. But the decision of what and who to listen to used to be a human one.

As a listener, you might not care, especially if you think the algorithm has a good handle on your taste. But as an artist, it can be a tough pill to swallow to know that an algorithm, as opposed to human preference, might be behind your success or failure.

So, say youre a musician or content creator who feels the algorithm has treated you unfavourably. What are you going to do, leave? Boycott?

Well, some are. A growing wave of artists and content creators are leaving Spotify and YouTube, often for platforms like Substack and Patreon, where their earnings arent beholden to the algorithm.

Platforms like Substack and Patreon allow creators to own their audience since earnings on these platforms arent tied to views, rather, audience members pay creators directly and the platforms take a small cut.

Still, that move is really only viable for established artists like Young and Mitchell who have audiences.

So, if youre just starting out as a musician or content creator, you really have no choice but to dig in your heels and hope the algorithm likes your stuff.

Jonah Prousky is a Canadian freelance writer based in London. His work has appeared in several leading publications including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Toronto Star, and Calgary Herald.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at view@euronews.com to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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Neil Young's Spotify tiff is a reminder that tech giants always win - Euronews

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek surprised at negative impact of laying off 1500 Spotify employees – Fortune

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When Spotify announced its largest-ever round of layoffs in December, CEO Daniel Ek hailed a new age of efficiency at the streaming giant. But four months on, it seems he and his executives werent prepared for how tough filling in for 1,500 axed workers would be.

The music streamer enjoyed record quarterly profits of 168 million ($179 million) in the first three months of 2024, enjoying double-digit revenue growth to 3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) in the process.

However, the company failed to hit its guidance on profitability and monthly active user growth.

It didnt seem to put off investors, who sent shares in the group soaring more than 8% in New York after markets opened Tuesday morning.

Still, as he addressed those investors following the latest earnings release, Ek didnt shy away from the obstacles that stopped the streamer from hitting some of its targets this year.

In addition to surprisingly successful 2023 growth to compare against and the impacts of falling marketing spend, Ek blamed operational difficulties linked to staffing for the group missing its earnings target to start the year.

In December, Spotify culled 1,500 jobs, equivalent to 17% of employees, as part of an aggressive efficiency drive as the group strived for profitability.

Staff costs for those employees carried a long tail, as most workers received five-month severance packages when they were let go in December.

At the same time, the footprint left behind by those employees was bigger than Ek and his executives anticipated.

Another significant challenge was the impact of December workforce reduction, Ek said on an investors call following Spotifys Q1 earnings release.

Although theres no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipated.

It took us some time to find our footing, but more than four months into this transition, I think were back on track and I expect to continue improving on our execution throughout the year getting us to an even better place than weve ever been.

Ek didnt elaborate on what aspects of operations were most affected by the layoffs.

Back in December as the platform he founded faced persistent losses and a falling share price, Spotify CEO Ek used a well-trodden path by tech giants to steer the ship around: mass layoffs.

We still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work, rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact, Ek said in a memo as he announced he would be cutting his workforce by 17%.

Investors initially reacted well to the news, though skeptical voices asked whether the move merely put a sticking plaster over harder-to-solve issues at the group, particularly its low margins thanks to the costs of bumper record deals.

However, it appears to have worked so far. In the four months since the layoff announcements, shares in the group have jumped more than 60%.

Spotify has also recently proved it is able to raise prices in some of its key markets without seeing a flight of listeners to rival services like Apple Music.

In the long run, Spotify and Ek also remain convinced the tough round of layoffs has set Spotify up for long-term profitability.

The apparent collective surprise at how that can affect operations in the short run, though, marks a dash of hubris for the newly bullish streaming group.

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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek surprised at negative impact of laying off 1500 Spotify employees - Fortune

Microsoft, AWS & Oracle: Why Big Tech is Investing in Japan – Technology Magazine

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AWS-commissioned research by AlphaBeta shows that cloud and cybersecurity skills will be the top two most sought-after digital skills by Japanese employers by 2025. AWS has trained over 400,000 individuals in Japan with cloud skills since 2017, providing them with in-demand cloud skills and best practices to help learners and organisations innovate in the cloud.

For over a decade, AWS has been committed to helping our Japanese customers access the latest cutting-edge technology, build digital solutions on highly resilient and secure cloud infrastructure, and adapt their businesses to maintain an edge in todays complex economic environment, said Tadao Nagasaki, President of AWS in Japan. Our investment into cloud infrastructure generates a ripple effect across the Japanese industries including the public and government sectors. It will help more Japanese organisations with the ability to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are committed to and excited about the future of Japans digital economy.

Microsoft has also announced plans to invest in Japan over the next two years, aiming to increase hyperscale cloud computing and AI opportunities.

The company aims to do this by expanding its existing digital skills programmes with the goal of providing AI skills to more than three million people over the next three years. This follows a recent similar commitment to teach millions in India about AI by 2025.

Microsoft also plans to open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab and states it seeks to deepen its cybersecurity collaborations with the government of Japan.

The US$2.9bn commitment is Microsofts largest investment into Japan in the 46 years it has been present in the country. With this financial boost, Microsoft will be able to provide more advanced computing resources in Japan, including the latest graphics processing units (GPUs) to speed up AI workloads.

We are honoured to contribute to Japan and its future with our largest investment to date, technology and knowledge, says Miki Tsusaka, President of Microsoft Japan. In collaboration with our partners, Microsoft Japan is fully committed to supporting the people and organisations of Japan to solve social problems and achieve more.

Google Cloud has announced a US$1bn investment in digital connectivity to Japan, including the expansion of the Pacific Connect initiative and delivery of two new subsea cables, aimed at creating new fibre-optic routes between the continental United States and Japan in support of Googles Japan Digitization Initiative, while improving the reliability and resilience of digital connectivity between the US, Japan, and multiple Pacific Island countries and territories.

Subsea cables can bring economic and productivity gains to the places where they land. For example, in Japan, studies estimate Google network infrastructure investments drove an additional US$400m in GDP in the previous decade. With increased access to digital services, more people can take advantage of skill development and career opportunities, while businesses and public sector organisations can better serve their customers and constituents.

Were excited about the long-term benefits that these latest Pacific initiatives will bring to people, our users, and our customers, wrote Brian Quigley VP of Global Network Infrastructure at Google Cloud in an announcement. Well continue to share more as we continue working with partners to reduce the digital divide across the Pacific.

OpenAI meanwhile recently announced its first office in Asia, together with the release of a GPT-4 custom model optimised for the Japanese language.

The AI startup said it is providing local businesses with early access to a GPT-4 custom model specifically optimised for the Japanese language, offering improved performance in translating and summarising Japanese text and operating up to three times faster than its predecessor.

We are committed to collaborating with the Japanese government, local businesses, and research institutions to develop safe AI tools that serve Japans unique needs and to unlock new opportunities, the company said in an announcement blog. We chose Tokyo as our first Asian office for its global leadership in technology, culture of service, and a community that embraces innovation.

OpenAI says it is working with leading businesses like Daikin, Rakuten, and TOYOTA Connected who are using ChatGPT Enterprise to automate complex business processes, assist in data analysis and optimise internal reporting.

Were excited to be in Japan which has a rich history of people and technology coming together to do more, said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined.

In April Oracle Corporation Japan announced that it plans to invest more than US$8bn over the next 10 years to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. The investment will grow Oracle Cloud Infrastructures (OCI) footprint across Japan. In addition, to help customers and partners address the digital sovereignty requirements in Japan, Oracle will significantly expand its operations and support engineering teams with Japan-based personnel.

Oracle plans to increase local customer support of its public cloud regions in Tokyo and Osaka and its local operations teams for Oracle Alloy and OCI Dedicated Region. This will enable governments and businesses across Japan to continue to move their mission-critical workloads to the Oracle Cloud and embrace sovereign AI solutions.

We are dedicated to meeting our customers and partners where they are in their cloud journey, said Toshimitsu Misawa, member of the board, corporate executive officer and President of Oracle Corporation Japan. By growing our cloud footprint and providing a team to support sovereign operations in Japan, we are giving our customers and partners the opportunity to innovate with AI and other cloud services while supporting their regulatory and sovereignty requirements.

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Microsoft, AWS & Oracle: Why Big Tech is Investing in Japan - Technology Magazine

Europol calls for Tech Giants to Get Lawful Access To end-to-end Encryption – GBHackers

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GBHackers on security is a highly informative and reliable Cyber Security News platform that provides the latest and most relevant updates on Cyber Security News, Hacking News, Technology advancements, and Kali Linux tutorials on a daily basis. The platform is dedicated to keeping the community well-informed and up-to-date with the constantly evolving Cyber World.

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Europol calls for Tech Giants to Get Lawful Access To end-to-end Encryption - GBHackers

Tech Giants Promise to Crack Down on AI-Generated Child Porn – The Daily Beast

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Artificial intelligence leaders including OpenAI, Meta, and Google have agreed to install child protection safeguards in response to an alarming rise in AI-generated child porn, The Wall Street Journal reported. Organized by the child-safety group Thorn and the ethical tech nonprofit All Tech Is Human, the agreement asks AI labs to avoid training models off data sets that could include explicit images of children and calls for more vigilance in shutting down back doors that allow that content to be generated. For instance, Thorn wants AI platforms and search engines to cut links to services that generate naked photos of kids, which has caused serious privacy problems at middle and high schools this year. Big tech, which famously moves at a breakneck pace, worries that attempts to install sweeping safeguards could hinder innovation or lead to a less useful modelsbut theres a dire need for self-regulation. In a report released Monday, Stanfords Internet Observatory found the volume of AI-generated child porn is on the brink of overwhelming the single organization that monitors crimes against children.

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Tech Giants Promise to Crack Down on AI-Generated Child Porn - The Daily Beast

Zoho is the Google Workspace alternative African tech companies are choosing – Rest of World

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When Nigerian edtech startup, Flexisaf, decided to cut costs earlier this year, it realized it needed to reduce its spending on technology.

One of the companys biggest costs was the money it paid Google to use its Workspace a collection of Google products including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Meet, and Docs. Flexisaf had used Google Workspace since 2010, but with 100 employees now, it was becoming too expensive for the small business.

In March, Flexisaf found a solution to its problem in Zoho, an Indian company that offered similar products as Google, but at a fraction of the price. Flexisaf has started the process of migrating to Zoho once that is completed, it will save the company around 8,000,000 naira ($6,960) a year, Saad Shehu, Flexisafs people and talent manager, told Rest of World.

The approach weve taken is to introduce the mail and meeting tools first, and drive adoption of the other features within the coming months, Shehu said.

Zoho, a lesser-known rival of Google and Microsoft in the enterprise software space, has been stepping up in Africa as an affordable alternative to the global giants. The company has hired local staff, introduced payment options in local currencies, and even sponsored a cricket tournament to dig its heels into the market. But even as it has seen some early success, African tech experts say Zoho needs to strengthen its branding and engage with the local tech community to give serious competition to its larger rivals in the future.

There is a tremendous opportunity for digital transformation in African countries, Praval Singh, vice president of marketing and customer experience at Zoho, told Rest of World. A lot of companies are adopting digital, either for the first time or theyre on that path of making their businesses more efficient using technology, he said. Rest of World spoke to seven startups in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa that have ditched Google and switched to Zohos products over the past year or so.

While Zoho launched in India in 1996, it was only in 2019 that it started on-the-ground operations in Africa, with one salesperson each in South Africa and Nigeria. Now, it has about 60 employees across the continent, Zohos regional manager for Africa, Andrew Bourne, told Rest of World. Besides work management tools like the equivalent of Gmail or Google Drive, Zoho sells software for customer relationship management, human resource management, and accounting, among other products.

Globally, Zoho has over 100 million users. Its clients include e-commerce major Amazon, leading carmaker Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Indian airline SpiceJet, and food delivery platform Zomato. Zohos advantage over its bigger rivals is that it does not run ads or sell customers data to third parties, Singh said.

In 2023, Zohos user base in Nigeria grew by 50% year-on-year, while its revenue from South Africa rose by 73%, Bourne said. The company refused to disclose how many users it had in Africa or how much revenue it had made from the continent. A Zoho spokesperson told Rest of World its clients include Kenyan lifestyle app Pesapal, South African fintech Payfast, and events ticketing portal Quicket. The companys combined annual revenue has crossed $1 billion.

But despite its initial success, Zoho doesnt have the same support for the local developer ecosystem as Google does in Africa, according to Prosper Otemuyiwa, a Nigerian software engineer and co-founder of ForLoop, an African nonprofit developer community. They dont have enough goodwill yet, Otemuyiwa said. [Google] has built an ecosystem of tools and support, [and] users are likely going to hesitate before clocking out of [it], just as people would rather pay for an Apple product just to remain within that ecosystem of tools.

In 2021, Zoho started allowing African companies to pay for its software in local currencies. This decision has been a major reason for Zohos success in Africa as it allowed customers and potential clients to avoid regulatory hurdles around dollar spending, Kehinde Ogundare, country director for Nigeria, told Rest of World. We saw the rise in adoption of Zoho technology in Nigeria when we started pricing in local currency and building a local support team.

In comparison, African companies can pay for Google Workspace only in dollars and euros, as verified by Rest of World.

As long as theres a naira equivalent for anything thats coming in dollars, Zoho will win, Adewale Yusuf, co-founder and CEO of edtech startup AltSchool Africa, told Rest of World. They have great products and pricing whats left is to build trust and engage in strong marketing activities to completely shake out the big guys. Yusuf, who has co-founded three startups, said all his companies now use at least one Zoho product.

Google and Microsoft did not respond to Rest of Worlds queries about offering localized solutions in Africa, including adding payment options in local currencies.

Zoho has also been aggressive with its pricing in Africa. Zoho One, a bundle of more than 45 products, sells for just $6.70 per user in Nigeria, compared to $30 in the rest of the world.

Cost is the biggest driver for me, Neto Ikpeme, founder and CEO of Nigerian health-tech startup Wellahealth, told Rest of World. Ikpeme had opted for Zoho over Google when he launched his company in 2016. We know that its difficult enough to access dollars, and if you can, you might want to reserve it for other services that you cant pay for locally, he said. But the low pricing may not be enough for Zoho to dethrone its larger rivals. Users told Rest of World the companys products lack sophistication.

Zoho hasnt done a design upgrade in a while and it is starting to get a little bit stale. They also need to have better mobile apps, said Vijay Anand, an Indian angel investor and founder whose startups use Zoho. When he tested Zohos new Slack-like service, Cliq, Anand was disappointed by the lack of emojis and GIFs. Its the one happy thing the teams have, he said.

ForLoops Otemuyi said Zoho lacks a developer community that can support its products in Africa. Theres no strong community to leverage when you run into a problem, he said. Google has that in abundance and across the continent in terms of developers, startups, and IT professionals generally.

Zoho is partnering with local business communities, incubators, accelerators, and venture capital firms to tackle that challenge, Veerakumar Natarajan, the companys regional manager for East Africa, told Rest of World. In Kenya and South Africa, for instance, it has partnered with startup incubator hubs like J-Hub Africa and Silulo Foundation, respectively, Natarajan said.

Google is a lot bigger than we are in terms of size, Singh said. But our portfolio, with a spread of 55-plus apps, is the most prolific in the industry, owing to our bullish focus on [research and development]. He said some customers might use only Zoho, while others might use it along with Googles products to meet different needs. It takes each of a kind to make a village, said Singh.

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Zoho is the Google Workspace alternative African tech companies are choosing - Rest of World

The Linux Foundation and tech giants partner on open-source generative AI enterprise tools – ZDNet

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Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger focused his sales pitch for Gaudi 3 on enterprise customers, telling them a "third phase" of AI will mean automating complex enterprise tasks.

The Linux Foundation and a host of major tech companies are teaming up to build generative AI platforms for enterprise users.

Intel, Red Hat, VMware, Anyscale, Cloudera, KX, MariaDB Foundation, Qdrant, SAS, and several other companies are partnering on the Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA), a Linux Foundation initiative to develop open-source AI solutions for companies worldwide. While the partners stopped short of saying what exactly they will develop, they promised "the development of open, multi-provider, robust, and composable GenAI systems."

The corporate world is abuzz over AI and its potential. While some companies are building their own AI solutions, others are reliant upon third-party providers. Some of the AI services they need are unique to their businesses, but in many cases, AI services that can predict outcomes, autocomplete spreadsheet formulas, and optimize worker time can be used across industries.

Also: AI business is booming: ChatGPT Enterprise now boasts 600,000+ users

OPEA tries to address the latter use case. Because the companies have committed to building open-source AI products, they would conceivably be able to jump between the various products without compatibility or cross-functional operation issues.

The companies also hope to address the increasing adoption of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions, they said. RAG refers to an AI model's ability to access external data to supplement its understanding of user queries and deliver better results.

A view of how OPEA solutions could work, with help from RAG.

For example, if doctors use an AI model to enhance their practice, externally sourced medical journals could make that AI model -- and their outcomes -- even better. The problem, however, is that RAG pipelines haven't been standardized, creating issues for companies wanting to deploy new AI platforms.

"OPEA intends to address this issue by collaborating with the industry to standardize components, including frameworks, architecture blueprints and reference solutions that showcase performance, interoperability, trustworthiness and enterprise-grade readiness," the companies said in a statement.

Although these companies have committed to building cross-compatible AI tools through OPEA, they're still competitors that have a vested interest in generating revenue from their own products. While enterprises could ultimately benefit from open-source AI tools, the companies will still need to play nicely together if the want to achieve OPEA's goals.

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The Linux Foundation and tech giants partner on open-source generative AI enterprise tools - ZDNet

Tech giants agree to child safety principles around generative AI – Evening Standard

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The principles see firms commit to develop, build and train AI models that proactively address child safety risks, for example by ensuring training data does not include child sexual abuse material, as well as maintaining safety after their release by staying alert and responding to child safety risks that emerge.

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Tech giants agree to child safety principles around generative AI - Evening Standard

Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream – The Australian Financial Review

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We need better performance from our politicians, and that requires us to ignore the populist bait on offer. And to reward the politicians who act against their own interests to benefit the country.

Graeme Bennett, Artarmon, NSW

Ed Shann would have us continue business as usual and go with our strengths (Forget Made in Australia, do what we already do well). But what of energy security, and the need to decarbonise?

We have recently witnessed Australias dependence on imports, whether in the 90 per cent of our imported oil supplies at risk due to conflicts elsewhere or a pandemic that isolated the very industries Mr Shann believes are our strengths: education and tourism.

As for subsidies, the Australia Institute reported that in 2022-23, Australian governments provided fossil fuel industries with $11.1billion in spending and tax breaks: This years figure represents a 5 per cent decline on last years, but subsidies in the forward estimates have increased from $55.3 billion to a record $57.1 billion.

The focus on returns to fossil fuel shareholders needs to shift to a focus on making renewables work for the environment and for an equitable transition to cheaper energy sources. This will require investment.

On a micro level, millions of Australians have worked this out already. New home battery installations rose 21 per cent last year. According to the Climate Council, rooftop solar is now providing 11.2 per cent of our nations total power supply after 314,507 households installed solar panels last year, bringing online 2.9GW of new generation.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Vic

It was pleasing to read rational commentary detailing criteria necessary to boost investment (Four ways we can lift investment in local manufacturing).

It was all about fundamentals: approvals; build times; competitive input costs; skilled workforce. The only mention of tax was the sensible suggestion for faster depreciation of manufacturing investments.

Improved depreciation rates can apply across all industries. Developing and purchasing computer software is part of everyday business and necessary to drive productivity and revenue. It is like employing people to achieve outcomes. All software expenditures should be able to be written off as incurred rather than depreciated.

Graeme Troy, Wagstaffe, NSW

I offer a counter to the self-serving views of the Minerals Council of Australia as presented by chief executive Tania Constable (Dont make stuff Australia has no edge in, says MCA).

Ms Constable seems to have no idea there is much more to a manufacturing sector than raw inputs and outputs. For a start, there is the whole can do mindset that a thriving manufacturing sector can engender. Ms Constable probably cant conceive that there might be thousands of young Australians who would much rather spend their work time actually making things and gaining practical skills than answering emails and moving numbers around on a screen all day.

Can I suggest she read Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama and pause for a moment to consider the lasting damage to society that can occur when considerations of individual dignity and respect are simply cast aside for the narrow economic benefit of the nation?

Fraser Faithfull, Caulfield South, Vic

The AFR View is right to say the tragedy at Bondi Junction at the weekend would be 10 times worse if the perpetrator had a gun (Bondi Junction tragedy brings out the best). The reason Australians rush to help is that we dont think a gun is involved; the first thing Americans do is run away for fear of being shot.

While it is comforting to see all politicians and media condemn this monstrous act and understand the publics need for full and continuous disclosure, this period will soon end. We will then want to see real change, and real action.

This is where our political leaders could easily let us down. Labor is often criticised for being soft on crime, and time will tell if NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fall into this category.

As The AFR View rightly points out, drugs are pernicious and a scourge; we need tougher action on drug dealers (especially ice, which seems to be in every suburb, and destroys too many lives), greater focus on reducing male violence towards women, reducing domestic violence, and fast action on mental health. We must support the police use of firearms in these situations, look at technology (artificial intelligence and CCTV), the carrying of mace by women made legal, and stab vests and tasers for security guards (with appropriate training and checks).

It is time for our political leaders to realise that laying flowers and sharing updates is important to help unite people and to grieve, but its 1 per cent of the job; taking effective action is the other 99 per cent.

Glen Frost, Darlington, NSW

The news that KIA is marketing a super-sized diesel vehicle specifically for the Australian market says a lot about our mind set. The world is in a climate emergency yet we are partying like there is no tomorrow.

When I drive to the local shopping centre, my little Corolla is dwarfed by a sea of Rams, Rangers and Range Rovers. They are excessive for doing the weekly shopping and school run.

What does it take to shake Australians from their complacency? We are all in this together, folks.

Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove, Vic

I had no idea CPI was running at 20 per cent until I bought a copy of AFR Weekend in Adelaide on Saturday with a new cover price of $6, up from $5. No doubt Rear Window will shortly do a forensic analysis. After all, the Fins preoccupation with transparency is legendary.

John Bridgland, Adelaide, SA

We are always interested to hear your views on current topics.

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Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream - The Australian Financial Review

Food trucks and concerts: Prinsjesdag to get populist overhaul – DutchNews.nl

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Prinsjesdag, the tradition-laden state opening of the parliamentary year is to get a facelift after declining crowds and an increase in protests directed at the royals, forces officials to rethink their approach.

Every year the king and queen drive through The Hague in a horse-drawn carriage, on their way to perform the opening ceremony. And on their return to their Noordeinde palace, they stand on the balcony for a few minutes and wave at the crowds.

But fewer people have been showing up to watch the procession and the royals have had to face jeers and demonstrations, particularly during the coronavirus era.

Now, officials from the royal household, the upper and lower chambers of parliament, and the government are putting together a new plan to boost the publics involvement in Prinsjesdag, documents which have been leaked to broadcaster NOS show.

Some of the traditional elements, such as the procession of four coaches, the kings reading of a speech outlining government policy, and the balcony scene will be retained. But new elements will be added in, including some sort of walk-about by the royals to meet the public, NOS said.

One suggestion is a public concert on the square next to the parliamentary complex which should be similar in atmosphere to the events hosted by popular classical music conductor Andr Rieu in Maastricht.

Other ideas include encouraging everyone to wear a hat, a performance by an artist who is popular with the young, open days at the various palaces and other royal buildings in The Hague, and a food truck festival.

The first changes should be visible on September 17 when the next Prinsjesdag takes place, but it is unclear as yet what they are likely to be.

The governments spending plans for the following year are always presented on the third Tuesday in September.

According to research published last November, 50% of the general population support the monarchy but 26% would like the Netherlands to become a republic.

Among the under 35s, almost four in 10 support the monarchy but 34% consider themselves republicans. Eleven years ago, when Willem-Alexander was sworn in as king, 80% of the population backed the monarchy.

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Food trucks and concerts: Prinsjesdag to get populist overhaul - DutchNews.nl

Argentina’s populist president meets billionaire Elon Musk in Texas and a bromance is born – PinalCentral

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Argentina's populist president meets billionaire Elon Musk in Texas and a bromance is born - PinalCentral

Argentina’s populist president meets billionaire Elon Musk in Texas and a bromance is born – Idaho Press

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NASA to look for new options to carry out Mars Sample Return program – SpaceNews

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WASHINGTON NASA will seek out of the box ideas in a bid to reduce the costs and shorten the schedule for returning samples from Mars.

In an April 15 briefing, agency officials announced they would solicit proposals from NASA centers and from industry on innovative designs to reshape its Mars Sample Return (MSR) effort after an internal review confirmed the ballooning costs of the overall program.

That review found that the current program would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion, the same range offered by an independent assessment completed last September. To fit that into the overall planetary science budget without affecting other programs would delay the return of samples from the early 2030s to 2040.

The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the briefing.

To try to reduce costs and schedule, NASA will issue a request for proposals April 16 seeking ideas on alternative approaches for the overall MSR architecture or specific elements of it, like the sample retrieval lander or Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) rocket that would place the collected samples into orbit. Proposals would be due to NASA May 17, with the agency issuing contracts for 90-day studies shortly thereafter.

Im expecting to get everybody in high gear and that we have the answers to this by this fall, Nelson said.

While NASA is looking for innovative approaches, it is not necessarily looking for new technologies. What were looking for is heritage, said Nicola Fox, NASA associate administrator for science. What were hoping is that well be able to get back to some more traditional, tried-and-true architectures, things that do not require huge technological leaps.

One example she gave is technology that enables a smaller, and presumably less expensive, MAV. The studies, she said, will seek proposals that could return an unspecified number of samples, and not necessarily all the roughly 30 samples that the Perseverance rover will have on board when it completes its work.

NASAs hope is that the studies can significantly reduce the cost and schedule for MSR, but officials did not set a specific goal. Were definitely going to try, Nelson said, adding he was counting on the expertise of NASA personnel and those in industry to find a solution.

The goal is to do better than a revised version of the baseline architecture for MSR that NASA developed in response to the independent report last fall. That architecture would see the launch of the ESA-developed Earth Return Orbiter in 2030, slightly later than currently planned, said Sandra Connelly, NASA deputy associate administrator for science, during a town hall meeting after the briefing. That would be followed by the sample retrieval lander with the MAV in 2035, allowing samples to make it back to Earth in 2040.

One issue is the longevity of Perseverance. Connelly said the new plan would have Perseverance complete its exploration of terrain outside Jezero Crater and return to the crater floor in 2028. Once there, it would go into a quiescent state until the sample retrieval lander arrived.

Fox suggested in the town hall meeting that this baseline concept would not fly given its projected high cost. In the current budget climate that we have, $11 billion, as the administrator said, is too much, she said. I wouldnt say the entire thing is dead on arrival. What were looking at is how we can infuse some innovation and heritage and simplification.

MSR, though, will be on a fiscal diet the next two years. Fox said that NASA plans to spend $310 million on MSR in the current fiscal year, near the low end of the range offered by congressional appropriators in the final omnibus spending bill last month. That is a little less than one third of the $949.3 million that NASA originally requested for MSR in its 2024 budget proposal.

NASAs fiscal year 2025 budget request left funding for MSR as TBD or to be determined. NASA now says it will seek $200 million for the program. Lori Glaze, director of NASAs planetary science division, said at the town hall meeting that the $200 million will come from a line for Planetary Decadal Future in the original budget proposal, avoiding taking money away from existing missions or research programs. It would, though, further delay new missions, like a proposed Uranus mission recommended by the latest planetary science decadal survey.

Nelson said he has had extensive discussions about NASAs MSR plans with members of Congress, including senators and representatives from California worried about the effects of the changes on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which laid off 8% of its workforce in February in response to reductions in spending on MSR. They seem to be quite understanding of the predicament were in.

However, in a statement a few hours after the briefing, Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) criticized the budget reductions. These funding levels are woefully short for a mission that NASA itself identified as its highest priority in planetary science and that has been decades in the making, they stated, asking Nelson to work with Congress to better balance these cuts to protect the JPL workforce.

NASA officials said at the briefing and town hall that there was no discussion of suspending or even canceling MSR, citing its high ranking in the last two planetary science decadal survey among flagship-class missions. Returning these samples from Mars is such a huge priority for us. That is why were doing all of these things, Fox said.

Returning the samples from Mars remains an important operation, Nelson said.

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NASA to look for new options to carry out Mars Sample Return program - SpaceNews

NASA’s Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: ‘The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive’ – Space.com

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NASA is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth.

Those samples are being collected by the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Getting ahold of the samplesis one of NASA's top science goals; studying pristine Red Planet material in well-equipped labs around the world could reveal key insights about Mars including, perhaps, whether it has ever hosted life, NASA officials say.

The agency has had a Mars sample-return (MSR) architecture in place for some time now, but repeated delays and cost overruns have rendered the original plan impractical, NASA officials announced today (April 15).

"The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," NASA chief Bill Nelson said during a call with reporters this afternoon.

Related:NASA's Mars Sample Return in jeopardy after US Senate questions budget

That price tag is the upper-end estimate calculated by an independent review board, which released its findings last September. For perspective: A study from July 2020 estimated the total cost of MSR to be between $2.5 and $3 billion.

A team from within NASA analyzed those September results, determining that the agency won't be able to get Perseverance's samples back to Earth until 2040 with the established architecture. This conclusion cited reasons such as current budget constraints and the desire not to cannibalize other high-priority science efforts, like the Dragonfly drone mission to Saturn's huge moon Titan.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

The established architecture, by the way, would have sent a NASA-built lander to Jezero Crater. This lander would have brought with it a rocket called the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and, potentially, several small retrieval helicopters akin to NASA's pioneering Ingenuity rotorcraft.

The idea was for Perseverance to drive its samples over to the lander, then load them into the MAV. The retrieval choppers may have done some of this loading work as well, especially if Perseverance wasn't in great shape by the time the lander arrived. The MAV would then have launched the samples into Mars orbit, where a spacecraft built by the European Space Agency would have snagged the container and hauled it back toward Earth.

NASA is now seeking a new way forward, however, in an attempt to cut costs and get the samples here sooner. Saving money will aid other agency science projects, and speeding up the timeline could help the agency plan out crewed Mars trips down the line.

"That is unacceptable, [to] wait that long," Nelson said today. "It's the decade of the 2040s that we're going to be landing astronauts on Mars."

The wheels on the new plan (which may retain elements of the old) are already turning. NASA is asking the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California its lead facility for robotic planetary exploration and other agency research centers for innovative MSR ideas, Nelson said today.

NASA is also looking to private industry: The agency plans to release a solicitation for new ideas from the commercial sector tomorrow (April 16), Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, said during today's call.

NASA will hold an industry day on April 22 and accept proposals through May 17, she added. The goal is to have enough information on hand by late fall or early winter to begin charting a new path forward on MSR. "We're opening this up to everyone, because we want to get every new and fresh idea that we can," Nelson said.

It's unclear at this point, of course, what that new path will look like. But Fox previewed some possibilities, such as a smaller and cheaper MAV and a descoped sample-return tally (from 30 of Perseverance's sealed tubes to some unspecified lower number). Fox and Nelson both stressed that MSR remains a high priority for NASA, despite the difficulty of the task humanity has never launched a rocket from the surface of another planet, after all (though three countries have launched from the moon) in addition to the problems the project has experienced so far.

"I think it's fair to say that we are committed to retrieving the samples that are there at least some of those samples," Nelson said. "We are operating from the premise that this is an important national objective."

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NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive' - Space.com

NASA’s About to Make a Big Announcement About Mars. Here’s What We Know. – ScienceAlert

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We're about to find out what's happening with NASA's beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission. In just a few hours at 1PM EDT NASA is going to host a media teleconference that sets out its recommendations for moving forward.

The mission has been ongoing for several years, with the deployment of the Perseverance rover in February 2021. Part of Perseverance's mission is to gather interesting samples of Martian rock to be collected by another mission and returned to Earth.

Last year, the future of the Mars sample return mission became shaky after an independent review determined that the program had "unrealistic budget and schedule expectations", an "unwieldy structure" and was "not arranged to be led effectively".

The House and Senate appropriations committees subsequently recommended a budget that included a cut of $454,080,000 to NASA's 2024 budget, specifically from the Mars Sample Return mission. NASA has also reduced spending on the mission, and laid off a large number of workers and contractors from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is leading the mission.

This has led to some alarm that the mission may be axed, and the canisters filled by Perseverance left useless on the surface of Mars. NASA's upcoming announcement offers a glimmer of hope yet maybe.

"Mars Sample Return has been a major long-term goal of international planetary exploration for the past two decades," the agency writes.

"NASA's Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and prepare for future human explorers. The return of the samples will also help NASA's search for signs of ancient life."

The current plan has an orbiter launching in 2027, a lander launching in 2028, and pristine Mars samples coming to Earth in 2033. Fingers crossed the new recommendations offer a way to meet those timelines.

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NASA's About to Make a Big Announcement About Mars. Here's What We Know. - ScienceAlert

NASA announces major overhaul of ambitious Mars Sample Return mission – The Washington Post

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NASA announced Monday it is dramatically overhauling its highly anticipated but troubled mission to bring pieces of Mars to Earth, a move that experts say puts the project on life support. The space agency said it continues to support Mars Sample Return, but will operate the program under bare-bones budgets in the near-term while it seeks proposals for a faster and cheaper mission architecture.

The mission is an ambitious attempt to secure pristine chunks of the Red Planet that might help scientists reveal whether it ever hosted life. But the future of the project has been uncertain since last fall, when an independent review board produced a dire report saying the mission needed a management overhaul amid probable cost overruns and delays.

A 2020 report from the board had estimated sample return would cost $3.8 billion to $4.4 billion. Now the estimated cost over the lifetime of the mission is between $8.4 billion and $10.9 billion, with samples arriving on Earth in 2040.

That would put Mars Sample Returns price tag similar to that of the James Webb Space Telescope, a scientific and engineering marvel now observing the universe from a solar orbit about a million miles from Earth. The Webb took decades to get off the ground and gobbled up more of NASAs science dollars than anyone had hoped.

The estimated 2040 return date is unacceptable, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Monday in a news briefing.

Its the decade of the 2040s that were going to be landing astronauts on Mars. Its also unacceptable that its $11 billion, Nelson said.

The costliness of Mars Sample Return comes at a time when NASAs science budget isnt sufficient to fund all the telescopes and space probes already underway or being planned. With congressional support for the mission unclear, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory earlier this year laid off about 8 percent of its workforce.

Still, Mars Sample Return has been the top priority of the planetary science communitys decadal survey process, which elevates the most promising missions from the blizzard of proposals. But retrieving pristine scraps of Mars for laboratory analysis on Earth requires unprecedented technological feats. NASA and its partners, including the European Space Agency, cant simply send a spacecraft to the surface of Mars and expect it to blast off again and return to Earth. Instead, the mission calls for a fleet of spaceships operating as a team.

The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, has been collecting and storing samples of Martian rock and soil in Jezero Crater, where scientists believe a river flowed into a lake several billion years ago. The rover has separate funding from the sample return project.

I think its fair to say we are committed to retrieving the samples that are there, Nelson said.

The original plan called for NASA to send another vehicle to land on Mars and collect the samples from Perseverance. That lander will carry an ascent vehicle that will blast off Mars and carry the samples to orbit. There the material will be transferred to yet another spacecraft, a Mars orbiter built by the European Space Agency and charged with the task of hauling the samples back to Earth.

At the briefing, NASA officials called on the scientific community and industry to propose new ideas that use more existing, proven technologies and possibly a simpler process to retrieve the samples.

We are looking at out-of-the-box possibilities that could return the samples earlier and at a lower cost, NASAs head of science Nicola Nicky Fox said during the briefing.

G. Scott Hubbard, a Stanford professor who formerly led NASAs Mars program, said in an email he was pleased by the robust drumbeat of support for the mission expressed by Fox and other officials in a NASA town hall Monday. But he questioned whether a new architecture could bring down costs and speed up the mission.

[A] magic-wand solution that dramatically reduces cost or schedule without substantially increasing risk is hard to imagine, Hubbard said. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at Caltech and president of the Planetary Society, said NASA needs to find the willpower to finish a job already started by Perseverance.

I am confident that we have the technological pieces to put sample return together. But when we choose to do things that are hard, we need to decide to do them and overcome the challenges together, Ehlmann said. What we need is the leadership and the commitment to do it.

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NASA announces major overhaul of ambitious Mars Sample Return mission - The Washington Post

NASA needs a cheaper, faster way to bring Mars dirt back to Earth – The Verge

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Budget constraints have NASA looking for a faster and cheaper method to bring samples from Mars surface back to Earth. In a teleconference on Monday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that an independent review concluded that the agencys current plan to bring the first samples collected by the Mars rover Perseverance could cost up to $11 billion and would likely not be achievable until 2040. The fiscal 2025 budget for the space agency, as well as additional anticipated budget cuts, are behind how slowly the current plan is being executed.

That is unacceptable to wait that long, Nelson said about the mission to return samples of dust and rocks from Mars to Earth. Its the decade of the 2040s that were going to be landing astronauts on Mars.

NASA is planning to solicit ideas from its various centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a quicker, cheaper return mission. Nelson said the agency is aiming for a budget of under $7 billion and is hoping to bring the samples back in the 2030s.

The independent review, conducted last September, raised numerous concerns over the feasibility of NASAs Mars Sample Return Mission. NASA had originally estimated that the return missions launch would take place in 2027 or 2028, but the independent review concluded that this would be impossible due to technical issues, risks, and performance-to-date.

In an X post on Monday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote that the company will be responding to NASAs solicitation for alternatives and that the companys Starship rocket has the potential to return serious tonnage in less than five years.

Starship has run into its own delays and challenges. The most recent launch of a prototype in March was successful, but SpaceX lost contact with the rocket just as it reentered the Earths atmosphere.

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NASA needs a cheaper, faster way to bring Mars dirt back to Earth - The Verge

Supporting the future of Mars exploration with supercomputers – EurekAlert

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You may have flown a flight simulator in a computer game or at a science museum. Landing without crashing is always the hardest part. But thats nothing compared to the challenge that engineers are facing to develop a flight simulation of the very large vehicles necessary for humans to explore the surface of Mars. The Red Planet poses innumerable challenges to astronauts, not the least of which is getting there. Thats where the Department of Energy Office of Sciences user facility supercomputers come in. Researchers at DOEs Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are working with NASA engineers and scientists tosimulate the process of slowing down a huge spacecraft as it moves towards Mars surface.

Landing spacecraft on Mars isnt new to NASA. The agency ran its first missions to the planet in 1976 with the Viking project. Since then, NASA has successfully carried out eight additional Mars landings.

What makes this goal different is the fact that its much more difficult to land the huge spacecraft required for human exploration than those for robotic missions. The robotic vehicles use parachutes to decelerate through Mars atmosphere. But a spacecraft carrying humans will be about 20 to 50 times heavier. A vehicle this large simply cant use parachutes. Instead, NASA will need to rely on retro-propulsion. This technology uses rockets that fire forwards to slow down the vehicle as it approaches the surface.

A number of challenges come with using retropropulsion. The high-energy rocket engine exhaust interacts with both the vehicle and the Martian atmosphere. Those dynamics change how the team needs to guide and control the vehicle. In addition, engineers cant fully replicate how a flight on Mars would go on Earth. While they can test spacecraft in wind tunnels and use other tools, those tools arent a perfect replacement or direct analog for the Martian environment.

To fill in the gaps, NASA turned to the OLCF supercomputers and their expert computer scientists. In theory, programs running on supercomputers could fully simulate the Martian environment and many of the complex physics associated with using retropropulsion.

The project team has relied on FUN3D, a long-standing suite of software tools that models how fluids including air move. Engineers created the first version of the code in the late 1980s and have continually made major improvements since then. Agencies and companies in aeronautics and space technology have used it to tackle major challenges.

The current Mars effort began in 2019 on Summit, OLCFs fastest computer at the time. The initial simulations assumed fixed conditions. They simulated just one point along the vehicles trajectory. Those early versions allowed scientists to evaluate the impacts of flight speeds, engine settings, and more. Further developments enabled engineers to explore real gas effects. They could account for the liquid oxygen-methane rocket engines and the carbon dioxide-heavy Martian atmosphere. Even these early simulations typically resulted in petabyte-sized datasets. It would take about 1,000 powerful home computers to store a single petabyte. But even these werent full simulations that wasnt possible yet.

The next step was to incorporate a whole new piece of software into the simulation the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST2). NASA developed POST2 to analyze flight mechanics for a broad range of applications. While initial simulations relied on static conditions, POST2 allowed scientists to dynamically fly the vehicle in the simulation. The team engaged researchers from Georgia Techs Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory. They had previously developed unique strategies to couple POST2 with high-fidelity aerodynamic simulations. Incorporating POST2 also required engineers to change the project workflow. The softwares use was restricted to NASA computing systems for security reasons. As such, the team needed to ensure the NASA systems could communicate smoothly with Summit at OLCF. Resolving issues with firewalls, network interruptions, and other programs required a full year of planning for the cybersecurity and system administration teams at both facilities!

The latest advance involved moving the entire simulation over to the newest and most powerful computer at OLCF Frontier. The firstexascale computerin the world, Frontier is massively more powerful than previous supercomputers. With a series of coordinated runs over a two-week period, the team ran its most elaborate flight simulation to date. It was a 35-second closed-loop descent from 5 miles altitude to approximately 0.6 miles. The simulation slowed the vehicle from 1,200 miles per hour to approximately 450 miles per hour. POST2 was able to autonomously control the vehicle in a stable fashion using its eight main engines and four reaction control system modules.

With the immense power provided by Frontier at OLCF, NASA engineers are moving forward to tackle new frontiers in space travel.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Supporting the future of Mars exploration with supercomputers - EurekAlert

This Documentary Explores The Loneliness Of A Mars Mission – Science Friday

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NASA is preparing to send humans to Mars. Although the launch date has been pushed back over the years, the agency says it wants to get there in the 2030s. And it has a lot on its to-do list. NASA needs to build new rockets, new habitable living spaces, new spacesuits, and new radiation shielding, just to name a few items.

But what if the one of the biggest challenges of these missions is not the engineering, but the mental health of the astronauts? Can all of the crew members get along with each other and stay alive over the course of three years in tight quarters and unforgiving environments? How will they cope with being separated from their families and friends for so long? And what lessons can they learn from astronauts whove lived on the International Space Stationand from our collective experience of isolation during the pandemic?

A new documentary, out March 8, explores all these questions and more. Its called The Longest Goodbye, and it dives intoNASAs Human Factors program, which includes a group of psychologists who are trying to figure out the best way to preserve astronauts mental health on a long and demanding mission.

Host D. Peterschmidt spoke to the films director, Ido Mizrahy, and one of its featured astronauts, Dr. Cady Coleman, about how NASA is thinking about tackling loneliness in space and what we can learn from astronauts whove already lived on the space station.

Plus, a listener shares his experience about performing a drumroll for the solar eclipse.

Universe of Art is hosted and produced by D. Peterschmidt, who also wrote the music. Our show art was illustrated by Abelle Hayford. Support for Science Fridays science and arts coverage comes from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Do you have science-inspired art youd like to share with us for a future episode? Send us an email or a voice memo touniverse@sciencefriday.com.

D. Peterschmidt

D. Peterschmidt is a producer, host of the podcast Universe of Art, and composes music for Science Fridays podcasts. Their D&D character is a clumsy bard named Chip Chap Chopman.

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This Documentary Explores The Loneliness Of A Mars Mission - Science Friday