Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Welcome to our Skyrim: How To Be A Part Of The Thieves Guild? guide. In Skyrim, being a part ofthe Thieves Guild is an easyprocess. Before becoming a member, players must complete various trials in Riften.

The Thieves Guild is one of Skyrims simplest factions to join. Its located in Riften, meaning,travelling to this distant south-eastern city is probably the most challenging portion. Its not as far as it seems, since a carriage could be hired from any big city. No matter how you enter the Thieves Guild, their entrance trials are simple enough for a newbie to complete. Normally, utilizing the quicksave function ensures pickpocketing and theft success. The first task for the Thieves Guild seems so forgiving that passing or failing doesnt matter.

Most players first discover the Thieves Guild by finishing the main mission till Delphine is located. Upon infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy, she will lead youto the Ratways underneath Riften in A Cornered Rat. To reach Esbern, players must first pass via The Ragged Flagon, that also introduces Brynjolf & the Thieves Guild. Brynjolf will still accept you into the Thieves Guild if you can arrive to Riften before the main questline. On a new save, proceed to Whiterun & take a carriage to go toRiften. On the Market, search for Brynjolf, who is sometimes within the Bee & Barb pub. Speak to him to start your path into the Thieves Guild.

A loose-knit gang of enforcers & thieves, this Thieves Guild of Skyrim is also a form of brotherhood that provides its members privileged treatment, special goods, plus access to many of the games finest magical gear designed for Thieves and stealth-based players. Each of the three sets is solely accessible via a Skyrim Thieves Guild main quest. Get Chillrend,the Daedric Artifact Skeleton Key, and a reusable lockpick. Players earn much more than justmaterial stuff. There are plenty of free lockpicks as well as other handy items for Thieves. Guards will start taking bribes in return for turning the other way, without havingthe related Bribe perk. You can even fill up a Trophy Case by finishing tough Radiant tasks or finding it along the road.

So, this was our Skyrim: How To Be A Part Of The Thieves Guild? guide. Feel free to leave a comment below!

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Skyrim: How To Be A Part Of The Thieves Guild? - The West News

Im old enough to have watched the grainy TV images of the first moon landings by Apollo 11 in 1969. I can never look at the moon without recalling this heroic exploit. It was achieved only 12 years after the first object, Sputnik-1, was launched into orbit. Had that momentum been maintained, there would surely have been footprints on Mars a decade or two later. Thats what many of our generation expected. However, this was the era of the space race between the United States and the USSR, when Nasa absorbed up to 4% of the US federal budget. Once that race was won, there was no motivation for continuing this huge expenditure.

To young people today, these exploits are ancient history. Yet space technology has burgeoned. We depend on satellites every day, for communication, weather forecasting, surveillance and satnav. Robotic probes to other planets have beamed back pictures of varied and distinctive worlds; several have landed on Mars. And telescopes in space have revolutionised our knowledge of the cosmos. Whats more, humanity, or rather a narrow sliver of us, may be on the verge of an era of space exploration that makes the moon landings seem parochial by comparison.

The last visitors to the moon Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, on Apollo 17 returned in 1972. During the subsequent 50 years, human spaceflight has seemingly regressed: hundreds have ventured into space but, anticlimactically, none has done more than circle the Earth in low orbit, mainly in the International Space Station (ISS). The scientific and technical payoff from the ISS isnt trivial, but it has been less cost-effective than robotic missions. Nor are these voyages inspiring in the way that the pioneering Soviet and US adventures were.

The space shuttle was, until its decommissioning, the main vehicle for transporting people to and from the ISS. It failed twice in 135 launches. Astronauts or test pilots would willingly accept this level of risk less than 2%. But the shuttle had, unwisely, been promoted as a safe vehicle for civilians (a female schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe was one of the casualties of the Challenger disaster in 1986). Each failure caused a national trauma in the US and was followed by a hiatus while costly efforts were made, with very limited effect, to reduce risks still further.

During this century, our whole solar system will be explored by flotillas of miniaturised probes. These technologies are far more advanced than Nasas wonderful Cassini probe, which was launched nearly 25 years ago on a seven-year journey, and spent 13 years exploring Saturn and its moons. In coming years, robotic fabricators may assemble vast lightweight structures in space: huge, gossamer-thin mirrors, for telescopes or solar energy collectors, perhaps using raw materials mined from the moon or asteroids. Such robots could repair spacecraft even in high orbits.

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are eroding the need for humans in space. The fact that the Apollo 17 astronaut Schmitt was a geologist enabled him to gather especially interesting samples of lunar rocks and soil. But future probes to Mars will be able to make such choices themselves. If you can get a robot to do it, why send a human at all? Nonetheless, I hope people do follow the robots as adventurers, rather than for practical goals.

Private-enterprise ventures such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have brought a Silicon Valley culture into a domain long dominated by Nasa and a few aerospace conglomerates. They have managed to improve rocketry and cut costs. Moreover, they can be less risk-averse than Nasa, and still find volunteers willing to tolerate higher risks than a western government could impose on publicly funded civilian astronauts. So its these cut-price ventures with private sponsorship, rather than public money that should be at the forefront of human space travel.

The phrase space tourism should be avoided. It lulls people into believing that such ventures are routine and low-risk. And if thats the perception, the inevitable accidents will be as traumatic as those of the space shuttle were. These exploits must be promoted as dangerous sports or intrepid exploration. Later this century, courageous thrill-seekers in the mould of, say, Ranulph Fiennes or the early polar explorers may well establish bases independent of the Earth. Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, himself says he wants to die on Mars but not on impact.

But what is the longer-range goal? Musk and my late colleague Stephen Hawking envisaged that the first settlers on Mars would be followed by literally millions of others. But this is a dangerous delusion. Coping with the climate crisis is a doddle compared to terraforming Mars. Nowhere in our solar system offers an environment even as clement as the top of Everest. There will be no planet B for most of us. But I still want to cheer on those pioneer Martians because they will have a pivotal role in shaping what happens in the 22nd century and beyond.

This is because the pioneer settlers ill-adapted to their new habitats will have a more compelling incentive than those of us on Earth to literally redesign themselves. Theyll harness the super-powerful genetic and cyborg technologies that will be developed in coming decades. These techniques will be, one hopes, heavily regulated on Earth but those on Mars will be far beyond the clutches of the regulators. We should wish them luck in modifying their progeny to adapt to alien environments. This might be the first step towards divergence into a new species.

Its these space-faring adventurers, not those of us contentedly adapted to life on Earth, who will spearhead the post-human era. Its perhaps in deep space not on Earth, or even on Mars that non-biological brains may develop powers that humans cant even imagine.

The sun will survive six billion more years before its fuel runs out. And the expanding universe will continue far longer perhaps for ever. So even if intelligent life had originated only on the Earth, it need not remain a trivial feature of the cosmos: it could jump-start a diaspora whereby ever more complex intelligence spreads through the whole galaxy. Interstellar or even intergalactic voyages would hold no terrors for near-immortals.

Even though we are not the terminal branch of an evolutionary tree, we humans could claim truly cosmic significance for jump-starting the transition to electronic entities, spreading our influence far beyond the Earth. But this raises a further question: will our remote progeny be the first intelligences to spread through the galaxy? Or will they encounter something already out there, whose origins lie on a planet around an older star where evolution had a head start over us?

Martin Rees is the astronomer royal and a former president of the Royal Society. His new book, co-authored with Donald Goldsmith, is The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration

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Could space-going billionaires be the vanguard of a cosmic revolution? - The Guardian

Welcome to our guide called Nintendo Switch Sports: How To Get New Cosmetics?. Follow this tutorial to get the latestcosmetics for Nintendo Switch Sports fans who want to be a little more creative with their characters style.

To get these latestoutfits & other cosmetic goodies, gamers must go online and choose the Play Globally mode. This mode requires no Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but it should be noted that just bot characters would be matched together. Players must earn points to access new cosmetics. To make matters easier, players gain points irrespective of how good they do in various sports. Heres the summary.

Every match rewards players 30-40 points. However, towards the end of a game, players might earn multipliers based on their performance and achievements, such as bowling strikes. After a match, theplayers can quickly surpass 100 points for good play. Among the five sports, bowling is by far the most popular and quickest way to gain points. Most players will have lots of points by the end of every match, specially if they reach the third & final round.

Once a player reaches 100 points, they are rewarded with a randomized cosmetic item from any set. Nintendo is continually adding new cosmetic items, including special limited time collections, so users will likely never be bored. Players may now access the customization menu via Spocco Square menu screens bottom right corner. Search for a clothes hanger symbol. Unlocked material will appear here, so players can customize their Sportsmates character.

So, this was our guide called Nintendo Switch Sports: How To Get New Cosmetics?. Please leave a comment below!

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Animal Crossing New Horizons: How To Get Ruby? - The West News

Thymesia A Bloodborne-style action RPG, Gets a Release date

Many other creators have been influenced by FromSoftwares game aesthetic, but many of them seem to draw entirely from the two Souls series: Dark Souls and Demons Souls. With their game Thymesia, though, OverBorder Studio takes more inspiration from the Bloodborne series. This exciting action game has been given a release date: August 9, 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The studio revealed the date via an IGN clip. Players will get a taste of the surreal surroundings as well as the games rapid and stylish fighting, which is similar to FromSoftwares 2015 success but turned up a few notches.

This exciting action game has been given a release date: August 9, 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

A demo of Thymesia is available on Steam for players to gain a better idea of the game. From May 2 through May 9, this demo, which is just under 6 GB in size, will be available. It currently lacks a console demo, however OverBorder stated that it will discuss this at a later date, potentially. The Festival of Rogue event on Steam is presently showcasing titles in the roguelite and roguelike genres, thus a demo would be a good choice for this occasion. The whole game will, however, be released on all platforms on the same day.

When it was announced in March 2021, Thymesia created a splash with its speedier and more original take on FromSoftwares formula. Because of the games bright aesthetic, OverBorder has created a slew of short videos of it in action on Twitter. It was originally scheduled to arrive on PC in 2021, but was postponed until 2022, after which it was expanded to include the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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Globle Game Answer Today April 29, 2022 - The West News

Powerball Winning Numbers of April 30, 2022

On Saturday, April 30, 2022, these are the Powerball numbers that won the jackpot for that day:

The numbers 14, 21, 37, 44, 63, and Powerball 1

When Powerplay was 3x

After a lottery player in Arizona won $473.1 million on Wednesday, the Powerball website calculated the jackpot at $20 million with a cash option of $12 million.

With the addition of Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, there are now three opportunities each week to win the Powerball jackpot

According to the Mega Millions website, the jackpot for the next drawing is $57 million, with a cash equivalent of $33.9 million.

$1.586 billion, Jan. 13, 2016: Three winners in California, Florida, Tennessee$768.4 million, March 27, 2019: Won in Wisconsin$758.7 million, Aug. 23, 2017: Won in Massachusetts$730 million, Jan. 20, 2021: Won in Maryland$699.8 million, Oct. 4, 2021: Won in California$687.8 million, Oct. 27, 2018: Two winners in Iowa, New York$632.6 million, Jan. 5, 2022: Two winner in California, Wisconsin$590.5 million, May 18, 2013: Won in Florida$587.5 million, Nov. 28, 2012: Two winner in Arizona, Missouri$564.1 million, Feb. 11, 2015: Three winners in North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas

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Welcome to our Animal Crossing: What Is New Horizons May Day? guide. Until May 7, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gamers may celebrate May Day.

To participate, contact Tom Nook at Resident Services. A May Day Ticket for a special May Day Island Tour. By flying to an island with a hedge labyrinth, youll save money on airfare.

The labyrinth will include tools, crafting materials, and fruit concealed. To get out of the labyrinth, youll need to create new gadgets and consume the fruit at the proper moments. You cant bring anything with you, which adds to the difficulty. To finish the labyrinth, you can only utilise items found there.

With patience, you should be able to finish in minutes. Grab the Bell Vouchers spread throughout the labyrinth to gain more cash. Each is 3,000 Bells. (If 3,000 Bells arent your thing, feel free to skip them and go directly to the finish.)

At the end of the labyrinth, youll find Rover, a cat character from earlier Animal Crossing games. Hell gift you Rovers Briefcase, a travel-themed accessory. If youve done the event before, youll obtain Rovers Photo. Your award will be sent to you after you get home.

The tour and ticket are only valid after you have your prize. Although this event has just one task, it is good to meet a familiar face. We have no idea what this means for Rover or whether he will return.

In conclusion, we hope you liked our Animal Crossing: What Is New Horizons May Day? guide. Please do feel free to leave all your comments below. We post fresh content daily and if there is something specific that you would like us to cover then please do let us know all about it. Your thoughts and opinions matter the most to us because they help us to serve you better.

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Animal Crossing: What Is New Horizons May Day? - The West News

Board games are an excellent way to spend an afternoon or evening socialising with friends around a table. No doubt their popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, not just because of the pandemic but because theres been plenty of new and familiar classics hitting the shelves.

There really is something for everyone, with games ranging from traditional world-conquering strategy or even ones themed around niche hobbies, like bird watching. But, while there are board games aplenty, it can be difficult to find enough people to play with.

As a social in-person event, rounding up enough players for a quick game can be a painful exercise and thats before youve even had a chance to read the rulebook.

Even if you rally the troops, trying to recount complex turn movements or keep people engaged enough to play can be a challenge in itself, especially for tabletop games that can take hours to work through. So maybe you want to find a game that you can play through by yourself?

Thankfully, there are plenty of tabletop experiences that now come included with a single-player element. Whether you want to play through solo to teach yourself the rules or just want a quiet night in, these are some of our favourite board games that can be enjoyed with just one player.

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How we tested

Each game on our list was included based on not just the engagement and quality of the gameplay itself, but the contents of the box, including game pieces, cards, instructions and other paraphernalia. While our list is focused on the single-player experiences being offered, we only considered games that could also be played in a larger group, so that if you wanted to take it over to a friends house or invite people over to play it, thats still possible you wont find any exclusively solo experiences here.

The difficulty ranking assigned to each entry not only covers how hard it is to play, but also to learn the rules and generally set it up before the game commences. Weve tried to include a variety of different challenge levels and prices so that players new to tabletops can start things off easy before throwing themselves into more complex games. Heres the ones to buy ahead of your next games night,

The best single-player board games for 2022 are:

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Gloomhaven has been cited as one of the best board games ever made, and for good reason. Its deep, player-driven campaign goes far beyond most other role-playing board games and an evolving narrative gives plenty of reasons to keep returning. Players will make choices along the way, fight stronger enemies improve the towns prosperity, and even retire their characters once theyve completed their story arc before taking on a new role.

Its certainly a good fit for a party of would-be adventurers but it works equally as well as a single-player experience with one person controlling two characters. Each game session can be broken down into a single scenario which makes it much less daunting than the number of pieces would have you believe. Like all good adventure games, it will take time to complete but players will be grateful for the journey.

Best: Easy set up

Rating: 8/10

Assemble a quilt that will attract the most cats by laying hexagonal tiles on a small board. Points can be gained for matching pattern-types with a particular cats preference or simply having three adjacent colours.

Its an easy game to set up with tiles being stored in a drawstring bag before being laid on the table for players to choose to add to their quilt. Single-player mode works by having each of the tiles moving out of the game like a production line and means there is a constant fresh supply to choose from. Calico is easy to learn and challenges a players spatial reasoning and pattern recognition.

A fun little note, the cats featured in the game are based off of each of the game designers real-life pets, which is just lovely.

Best: Survival

Rating: 8/10

As a co-operative board game, players assume different roles such as a cook, soldier and explorer. They are stranded on a deserted island and must build shelter, hunt/forage for food and gather resources to survive long enough to be rescued. The survival element is what makes it a worthy solo experience if not for the added authenticity.

There are a number of different scenarios that players can choose from, starting with a basic castaway premise all the way up to escaping an island of cannibals. As more of the island is explored, players can re-establish their base camp to make the most of their new surroundings but tropical storms blowing in or wandering apex predators can easily undo a lot of progress.

Best: Engine builder

Rating: 9/10

About as wholesome as a board game can get, players are tasked with attracting birds to their aviary to score points. Birds can be summoned based on their preferred habitat and as the number of birds start to grow, players can use their abilities to create a chain reaction that benefits them such as laying more eggs or gathering more food tokens.

The single player component works against an AI opponent known as Automa so while there is still a competitive element, players can use a separate deck of cards to determine their counterparts moves. Players can even determine how much of a challenge Automa will put up, so theres plenty of opportunities for replayability.

Best: Sci-fi

Rating: 8/10

In Terraforming Mars, players take control of a corporation as they go through the process of making the red planet inhabitable. This is achieved by creating oceans, building greenhouses and raising the temperature of the planet so that it is liveable. Each turn (or generation) gives players a chance to move one step further towards achieving a sustainable space colony.

While a group-based game requires players to score points and complete objectives, the single-player experience is a simple race against the clock, with all parameters (oxygen, temperature and oceans) needing to be completed by the end of the fourteenth turn to achieve victory. Each corporation plays differently, so its worth replaying as each one to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses.

Best: Town builder

Rating: 8/10

In Tiny Towns players build, well, a tiny town. Each player has a four by four grid that they place resource cubes on to create a new building for their town. Once a building is complete, the tile it is located can no longer be used for construction so the grid gradually gets smaller as the game goes on and players finish when theres no space left to build.

Its single player variant requires players to draw from a deck of cards rather than choose resources themselves, with players tallying their scores at the end to determine their success in miniature city planning. Its a game that requires a careful balance of forward planning and resource management with players needing to adapt their strategy based on what resources are available.

Best: Strategy

Rating: 9/10

In an alternative 1920s post-war landscape on the fictional continent of Europa, different factions are all vying for control of resources to rebuild their economy using workers and giant mechs. Players win by having the most money by the end of the game which can be achieved through a number of different objectives, such as controlled resources and even their popularity with the common people. Its a game with a lot of depth and interlacing systems but it is much easier to follow than its set up would have you believe.

Like Wingspan (42, Amazon.co.uk), single-player games are played against our old friend, Automa. Difficulty levels will differ based on what deck of cards are being dealt, with Automas turns determining everything from worker movements to combat. It may take a bit more time to adjust to the updated rules the AI has to follow in order for it to work, but it makes for a decent adversary when the ball gets rolling.

Best: Horror

Rating: 9/10

Mansions of Madness sees characters exploring creepy houses in a Lovecraftian setting to reveal the Eldritch horrors therein. The board game works with an app that dictates what happens next in the story, such as what new rooms, non-playable characters and enemies are revealed.

Players move their characters figurines around the board to explore different rooms, escape monsters and gather clues hidden around each mansion. As the app is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, its a fairly simple board game to learn and makes a one-person game move quite quickly if youre using it on your phone.

Best: Fantasy

Rating: 8/10

If youre looking for a similar experience to that of Mansions of Madness (72.99, Amazon.co.uk) but without the horror, then the official Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth is a great alternative. It has similar rules and a familiar fantasy setting but there are a few mechanical differences, for example, the roles that each character can choose at the start of each game. However, exploration takes much the same form, using a companion app to dictate where enemies come from and what new areas appear in each scenario.

If you are already a Tolkien fan, then this will clearly be the better choice to showcase your devotion and offers enough deviation from Mansions of Madness to be considered in its own category for its simple set up and the quality of its miniatures.

Best: Escape room

Rating: 7/10

Boiling down the experience of a timed escape room into a deck of tarot-sized cards is a great way to spend an hour at home. The first card drawn gives a detailed description of each scenario before an in-app timer is started and the card is flipped to reveal the room.

Players draw numbered cards from the deck according to different points of interest in the room and must use them to find a means of escape. When two corresponding cards (such as a key and a door) have their numeric values added together, another card is drawn to reveal the result, which may not always be the correct solution and can cost you time if you get it wrong. The app can also be used to solve other puzzles such as a opening a padlocked box or finding the right button combination on an electronic door.

Most of the scenarios available in this box of three can be played with just one player but The Island of Doctor Goorse will require at least two players. The only drawback is that once a scenario has been completed, the mystery is revealed so it can really only be played once (unless you really like solving puzzles you already know the answer to).

Our pick for our favourite board game that you can play solo is Gloomhaven, a deeply expansive RPG that will give players plenty of reasons to return just to see their characters grow as the campaign unfolds. It consistently tops the list of best board games ever made for a reason and it really is worth the journey.

If you are completely new to the world of designer board games, then Calico is also a good place to start, if only to prove that tabletop games dont need to be gritty, complicated fares in order to be enjoyed. It also helps that it comes in a relatively small box and can be set up and put away in just a few minutes without much fuss.

If youre looking for a good middle ground between those two extremes, then something like Wingspan or Terraforming Mars are also good games to delve into deeper once youve caught the board game bug. Theyre both quite popular and can easily be found online and in stores.

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Want to double the fun? Read our review of the best board games for two players

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10 best solo board games that can be enjoyed by one-player - The Independent

The temperature on Mars is much colder than on Earth. But then, the planet is also farther from the sun. The small, barren planet also has a thin atmosphere that is 95 percent carbon dioxide.

This combination of factors makes Mars a harsh and cold world whose temperature can drop to as low as minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 128 degrees Celsius). As a point of comparison, the lowest recorded temperature on Earth is minus 128.6 degrees F (minus 88 degrees C) in Antarctica according to Arizona State University.

Meanwhile, the highest temperature on Mars is 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), significantly below the highest temperature recorded on Earth, which Arizona State University places at 134 degrees F (56 degrees C) in Inyo County, California, USA.

Related: How long does it take to get to Mars?

Mars's atmosphere is about 100 times thinner than Earth's. Without a "thermal blanket," Mars can't retain any heat energy. On average, the temperature on Mars is about minus 80 degrees F (minus 60 degrees Celsius) according to NASA. In winter, near the poles, temperatures can get down to minus 195 degrees F (minus 125 degrees C). A summer day on Mars may get up to 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) near the equator, but at night the temperature can plummet to about minus 100 degrees F (minus 73 degrees C).

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is giving us new insight into the environment on Mars all the time. For instance, it measured air temperatures as high as 43 degrees F (6 degrees C) in the afternoon, with temperatures climbing above freezing for a significant number of days. Meanwhile, the Perseverance rover recorded a high of 8 degrees F and a low of -112 degrees F on January 29, 2022.

"That we are seeing temperatures this warm already during the day is a surprise and very interesting," Felipe Gmez, of the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid, said in a statement.

Frost forms on the rocks at night, but as dawn approaches and the air gets warmer, the frost turns to vapor, and there is 100 percent humidity until it evaporates. The high humidity could help make Mars more habitable, if the water condenses to form short-term puddles in the early morning hours.

"The conditions on Mars, where the relative humidity is high and the available water vapor is approximately 100 precipitable microns, is the equivalent of the drier parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile," John Rummel, of East Carolina University, told Space.com by email.

According to Rummel, the humidity of Mars is tied to temperature fluctuations. At night, relative humidity levels can rise to 80 to 100 percent, with the air sometimes reaching atmospheric saturation. The daytime air is far drier, due to warmer temperatures.

"At present, the temperatures and atmospheric pressures on Mars are too low for liquid water to exist stably," wrote William Sheehan and Jim Bell in "Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet" (University of Arizona Press, 2021).

On Earth, some forms of life are able to survive in parched regions by poaching water from the humid air. Among these, lichens dominate, surviving in arid climates without succumbing to the dry spells that frequently occur. Some lichens in super-dry areas have been found to photosynthesize at relative humidity levels as low as 70 percent. Other research has demonstrated that a form of Antarctic lichen can adapt to life under simulated Martian conditions.

"Such short-term wet periods might be long enough and warm enough to allow for Earth organisms to metabolize and even reproduce," said Rummel.

Like Earth, Mars has four seasons because the planet tilts on its axis. "On Earth, the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter are all of similar length. On Mars, because of the marked eccentricity of its orbit, the seasons differ much more in length," wrote Sheehan and Bell. In the northern hemisphere, spring is the longest season at seven months. Summer and fall are both about six months long. Winter is only four months long.

During a Martian summer, the polar ice cap, composed mainly of carbon dioxide ice, shrinks and may disappear altogether. When winter comes, the ice cap grows back. There may be some liquid water trapped beneath the carbon dioxide ice sheets, scientists say.

In the past, Mars may have been warmer and wetter, with an average global temperature of 50 degrees F (10 degrees C).

"We've learned that Mars is a dynamic planet," Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program, told reporters in 2011. "We've learned that it has a history where it was warm and wet at the same time that life started here on Earth."

Other research suggests that the Red Planet may have once been white, an icy wasteland with an average temperature of minus 54 degrees F (minus 48 degrees C). According to Robin Wordsworth, a researcher at Harvard, a colder scenario is more straightforward to model because Mars only gets 43 percent of the solar energy of Earth, and early Mars was lit by a younger sun believed to have been 25 percent dimmer than it is today.

"That makes it very likely early Mars was cold and icy," he said in a statement.

And the planet continues to change today. Recent research found that the planet is emerging from an ice age involving shrinking polar caps and growing glaciers at midlatitudes.

"All around the ice cap, there is evidence for a climate change from ice age to interglacial period," planetary scientist Isaac Smith told Space.com. Smith studied the shrinking ice caps while at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.

"Layered ice deposits at the poles of Mars record a detailed history of accumulation and erosion related to climate processes. Radar investigations measure these layers and provide evidence for climate changes such as ice advance and retreat," wrote Smith for "Science," the

American Association for the Advancement of Science journal.

We're learning new things about Mars all the time, such as that water may have been flowing on Mars for a lot longer than initially thought. Or there's a giant impact crater that looks like a tree stump that was recently identified on the surface of Mars. Definitely worth learning more about.

"How Far Away is Mars?" Space.com

"World: Lowest Temperature" Arizona State University

"World: Highest Temperature" Arizona State University

"Mars Facts" NASA

"Temperatures measured at Gale Crater higher than expected" Phys.org

"Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet," by William Sheehan and Jim Bell (University of Arizona Press, 2021)

"Unveiling the ancient climate of Mars" Harvard

"NASA Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap" NASA JPL

"An ice age recorded in the polar deposits of Mars" "Science"

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What is the temperature on Mars? | Space

Terraforming management simulator Per Aspera has a new expansion on the way, arriving May 2nd 2022, that will deepen the game around that all-important source of life: Water. New buildings will allow transport over your newly-made Martian oceans, as well as exploitation of underwater resources andperhaps most importantlyfisheries to harvest the life you've seeded in those oceans.

Other buildings shown off in the annoucement trailer look to include floating power stations, ports, shipyards, research outposts, and perhaps floating algae and fish farms. Developer Tln Industries said in a press release that new outposts will allow the research of underwater special sites, and that the update will also improve the Per Aspera's simulation of Mars' water cycle.

I'm pretty positive on Per Aspera, a game that I gave an 85 in initial review and which has improved a lot since launch. The first expansion, Green Mars, was completely free, adding more fauna, delineated biomes, and outdoor gardening as well as landscaping. It's a neat game, and one I'm glad is getting more materialbecause it's not just a sim game, it's also a narrative one that encourages you to think and behave like an AI.

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Per Aspera expands ocean terraforming with Blue Mars expansion - PC Gamer

Board games are enjoying their time in the spotlight right now, but I'm not just talking about stuff like Monopoly or Cluedo. There's been a boom in titles that vary in playstyle, complexity and design, appealing to a wide range of demographics.

Given board games are still mostly entirely physical (with some popular titles getting digital board game adaptations and ports on Tabletop Simulator) it's pretty hard to imagine what the future of board games will look like without picturing the Hologame Table from Star Wars. But a bridge connecting us to this holographic fantasy setup might finally have appeared.

Teburu is a platform created by Xplored that can be best described as a console for your games. It allows tabletop games to take advantage of digital assets and features, all while retaining the physical and social aspects that make them great. The platform itself simply folds out and must be placed underneath the physical game pieces (provided you're playing a title supported by Teburu).

Part of its appeal is its simplicity. The system uses a combination of sensors built into the board, a series of electronic identification tags that must be placed on miniatures and tokens, and the official Teburu companion app.

The board can also track individual tiles, and even comes with physical dice packed with fancy tech that allows the app to read and log your scores. Most of the marketing material I've seen focuses on Teburu's own game The Bad Karmas and the Curse of the Zodiac but other Teburu-compatible games are also being developed in collaboration with Vampire: The Masquerade and Sword & Sorcery.

This gets into the other major appeal of Teburu for nerds like me: it's still a physical system. I'm a big fan of board games and tabletop RPGs, and while I do like to play titles like Terraforming Mars or Scythe on Steam, the video game versions can't replace the feeling of sitting down with friends, in person, around a table, with snacks.

It was something that was sorely missed during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. Playing online certainly scratched the itch, but it can't replace the real deal for me.

The board game community contains a lot of collectors who have an appreciation for physical hardware, myself included, and I'm not prepared for tablets and computers to make my growing pile of RPG rulebooks and games irrelevant just yet.

The Bad Karmas does a great job of showcasing Teburu's capabilities. This is a boss-battle style game where players will move character miniatures around a board while fighting huge monsters inspired by the twelve zodiac signs.

While you still have to physically move your models around the board, you're able to view important information on your smartphone, which acts almost like a controller. A separate tablet, such as an iPad, will display all the essential game information, including player turn order, enemy health, and a general overview of what's going on with the game.

While you'll have to move enemy miniatures around the board, Teburu will control their actions and movement. It feels like you're fighting an AI video game enemy rather than one that's usually dictated by random dice rolls. Teburu's base has other features, too, with different light-up sections that indicate the direction of incoming enemy attacks. Thanks to those sensors in the base of your player models, the enemy AI knows exactly where you are on the board.

At the end of each match, you're even handed a video game-like scoreboard to browse. The companion app awards titles for player achievements, such as match MVP or taking the most damage. It really does feel like a hybrid system rather than a true analog or digital board game, so while it's no hologram, the goblin part of my brain that loves flashing lights and graphics definitely feels appeased.

I'm not just excited for The Bad Karmas though, as fun as that title looks, but for what Teburu could offer more mainstream titles in the future if it proves to be successful. Yes, there are some official collaborations in the works, but if Teburu can be expanded for use across other established games then I'm completely sold on the idea.

That's going to require a lot of development within the companion app, but having the ability to enjoy your favorite games without any of the boring or frustrating admin sounds like a blessing. One of the biggest issues we have when buying a new game is learning the ropes and trying to remember a complex new set of rules. People who aren't swift learners, like myself, have to treat the initial set up and playthrough like a pancake the first one never comes out right.

Teburu is capable of correcting players if they're trying to perform an action or move that's against the rules. While physical rulebooks collect all the information you need to play a game, pausing to swot up can be a nuisance, and often 'illegal' moves won't be detected until many moves after they've already occurred.

Naturally, this isn't going to be something that appeals to all board game fans so it falls under a slightly niche demographic, but it certainly feels like this is a halfway point between traditional board game systems and something being entirely online or even VR-based.

It also isn't the first time we've seen board games dipping their toes into the world of digital, with the likes of One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Gloomhaven both having an official app that can be used alongside the game. Descent Legends in the Dark also made some waves last year when it was released thanks to integrating a mobile app to manage enemy movements, story content and the general numerical game admin.

Supporting a crowdfunding project comes with its risks so we can't advise you to pledge, but if this is something you're interested in supporting then there's still some time left on Teburus Kickstarter. The 170 (around $185 / 140 / AU$250) price is steep, but far from outlandish in the world of tabletop games, where Warhammer miniatures can cost a small fortune and many of the best board games cost as much as a full-priced triple-A video game.

I really hope Teburu delivers on its promise, and thankfully Xplored founder Davide Garofalo confirmed that Teburu will be an open platform, with hopes to provide developer kits to companies of any size who want to bring their games to the platform. That will allow players to use existing board games in their collection (including the figurines and tokens from those games) with Teburu in the future.

More here:

Teburu could be the future of board games that gamers actually want - TechRadar