Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program

Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency's near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn't seem realistic until a few years ago.

The first real use of drones for science at Mars will come with the SkyFall mission, a fleet of three helicopters set for launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall's helicopters will ride to the red planet with NASA's Space Reactor-1 "Freedom" mission, which has the primary objective of demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.

The launch schedule is aggressive for SR-1 Freedom and SkyFall, projects that didn't even exist in NASA's portfolio six months ago. NASA's plan for the SR-1 Freedom mission, estimated to cost $2.1 billion, calls for repurposing the core module of the canceled Gateway lunar space station into a testbed for nuclear electric propulsion. SkyFall will build on NASA's success with the Ingenuity helicopter, an experimental vehicle that became the first rotorcraft to fly on another world in 2021.

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Private group wants to launch "cheapest possible" mission to Alpha Centauri

Private group wants to launch "cheapest possible" mission to Alpha Centauri

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

There are, by various estimates, several trillion planets within what is known as the Local Group of galaxies—our closest galaxy neighbors, including our own Milky Way. Many of these planets are within the habitable zone of their stars. So if life finds a way, where are the alien civilizations?

This is the crux of what is known as the Fermi paradox, which posits that if life is fairly common in the Universe, humans should have collected credible evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations by now. People who think about this paradox believe there may be some "filter" that limits or entirely prevents an advanced civilization from sending out probes or even life-bearing spacecraft to nearby stars.

Philip Johnston is someone who thinks a lot about the Fermi paradox. A mathematician and physicist from the United Kingdom, Johnston has gained some notoriety lately in the space community as one of the biggest proponents of orbital data centers. He co-founded Starcloud in 2024 to develop such data centers, and the company is presently valued at $2.3 billion.

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Trump admin shelves Cyclospora research despite record-breaking outbreak

Trump admin shelves Cyclospora research despite record-breaking outbreak

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

The Trump administration is halting vital federal research on the foodborne parasite Cyclospora, despite the record-breaking, nationwide outbreak of the diarrheal pathogen, according to Politico.

Of the three research programs that represent nearly all of the Cyclospora work at the US Department of Agriculture, two have been defunded, and the third is about to lose every scientist working on it. The Trump administration is shuttering the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center near Washington, DC, and moving its work to a location in Iowa. That includes relocating the remaining Cyclospora research.

Although the research is still funded, insiders told Politico that not one of the scientists working on the project plans to relocate from Maryland to Iowa. Instead, they are either retiring, being reassigned to a different project, or leaving the USDA's research services.

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Get in on the Ars community that doesn’t fit beneath an article

Get in on the Ars community that doesn’t fit beneath an article

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

If you’re like many of our readers, you’ve got Ars Technica bookmarked and hit the front page a few times a day. But for others, a compelling story is what brings them here for the first time. And the discussions sometimes keep them coming back.

Since its launch in 1998, Ars Technica has been known for its depth of community. If all you're doing is checking out the front page and the discussion threads that sit beneath each story, you’re missing out on more than you realize.

The Ars OpenForum is a place for readers to ask questions, compare notes, argue (without being jerks to each other), and go down all sorts of rabbit holes. Our Hardware and Tweaking forums cover PC builds, networking, mobile computing, CPUs and motherboards, A/V, and just about any other hardware-related topic you can think of. Stop by the Operating Systems & Software forums for in-depth discussion on Windows, macOS, or Linux or just to have a good, friendly argument over why your preferred OS rules.

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Review: Coyote vs. Acme is an unabashed love letter to Looney Tunes

Review: Coyote vs. Acme is an unabashed love letter to Looney Tunes

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

It took three years, but Coyote vs. Acme is finally in theaters and delighting audiences of all ages with its irresistible blend of slapstick humor, pointed satire, and even a warm fuzzy here and there. We're happy to report that the film was worth the wait.

(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

The film is based on a well-known satirical piece by Ian Frazier (also titled “Coyote vs. Acme”) published in The New Yorker in 1990. Development of a film version didn’t start until 2018, but some pretty talented people worked on the script, including James Gunn. Small wonder that Warner Bros.’ bizarre 2023 decision to shelve the film in order to take a tax write-off sparked outrage both within the industry and among fans online.

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Trump tells FCC to punish journalist for calling his election results "mixed"

Trump tells FCC to punish journalist for calling his election results "mixed"

fivenewscrypto    septembre 02, 2026   

President Trump yesterday demanded that the Federal Communications Commission punish or rebuke an NBC journalist for saying he has "mixed results" in his election endorsements. In the latest example of how Trump is using the FCC to harass reporters and news organizations that he dislikes, he said Meet the Press host Kristen Welker "will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment" for what he claimed was a "purposeful inaccuracy."

"Kristen Welker, the Unpopular 'Hostess' of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has 'mixed results' on his Endorsements of Candidates, when the recent WINS of Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei, stand at 100% for the U.S. Senate, and 98% for the U.S. House, recently and over the longterm. How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

A separate post from Trump yesterday said, "THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE! President DJT." Trump also posted a rant on Friday about New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, calling her "an unattractive person both inside and out" who "should be forced to turn over any and all money that she’s made through her fake reporting on me." Trump referred to Haberman throughout his post as "Maggot Haberman."

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“Zlibrary my beloved”: Anthropic staff chats extolling piracy cited in Sony suit

“Zlibrary my beloved”: Anthropic staff chats extolling piracy cited in Sony suit

fivenewscrypto    septembre 01, 2026   

Some of the world’s leading music publishers think that Anthropic got off too light in a historic settlement where the Claude maker paid authors $1.5 billion after admitting to pirating more than 7 million books to train AI.

“$1.5 billion is obviously not a large enough settlement to deter infringing conduct by a company that has parlayed such mass infringement into a staggering $2-trillion-dollar valuation,” music publishers said in a lawsuit filed Friday.

Music publishers suing Anthropic include Sony, EMI, and Warner Chappell. They alleged that Anthropic’s illegal torrenting also included “thousands upon thousands” of their copyrighted musical compositions.

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