Daily Archives: August 28, 2021

IIT-Roorkee to offer advance certificate program in cloud computing and DevOps – The Indian Express

Posted: August 28, 2021 at 12:14 pm

The Electronics & ICT (E&ICT) Academy, IIT Roorkee has launched an advanced certification in cloud computing and DevOps. The curriculum of the programme includes cloud computing concepts, DevOps tools, AWS, virtualisation, cloud security. The programme will be offered in partnership with Intellipaat.

This course is led by faculty from IIT Roorkee along with industry experts to help professionals gain the most in-demand skills. Through the 7-month-long online programme, learners will undergo multiple hands-on exercises and project work. All the enrolled learners will be provided with career services which include mock interview preparations, one-on-one mentorship.

The 2020 Emerging Jobs Report- India by LinkedIn expects 60-65 million jobs to be created in India by 2025 in diverse industries where cloud computing and DevOps skills are crucial. The trend toward cloud adoption has seen a significant uptick over the last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic forces organisations to enable and support more remote, distributed workforces.

Cloud computing and DevOps have changed the game for companies that wanted to build products, services, and every year these technologies get bigger.

Diwakar, founder and CEO, Intellipaat, said, Cloud Computing and DevOps are some of the key skills while hiring candidates. The cloud computing market will continue to grow more than it did in the last few years and companies will continue to seek qualified professionals with these skills.

In todays highly competitive and increasingly virtual learning environment career enhancement and upskilling are the key to a steady professional growth, said Sanjeev Manhas, principal investigator, E&ICT, IIT Roorkee. He added that the specialised certification will place the students a notch above in their respective fields.

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7 benefits of Cloud Computing in the telecom industry – Telecom Lead

Posted: at 12:14 pm

In the past decade or so, cloud computing has gained immense popularity and it has made its impact on almost every sector, whether it is business, technology, health care, or any other sector. All of this has led to an increase in spending on Cloud Computing globally and more & more businesses are now implementing cloud computing into their operations.The main advantage of cloud computing is that you only get to pay for the cloud services that you are using which reduce the operating costs and help you to run your business more cost-effectively.

As mentioned, cloud computing has made an impact in almost every industry, and one of the industries where cloud computing has made an enormous impact is the telecom industry. In the telecom industry, cloud computing has helped to reduce the operational and administrative costs along with a unified communication and collaboration system and a massive Content Delivery Network. Cloud Computing has allowed the telecom service providers to focus on the essential things that actually matter for this business rather than focusing on IT things such as server maintenance, server updates, etc.

Lets have a look at some of the vital benefits of Cloud Computing on the Telecom Industry:

With Cloud Computing, Network Providers can provide software at much lower rates with the help of virtualization of the software on the remote servers that allows easy allocation of the computing resources as required and thus it also helps to reduce the hardware costs as well. This will help to generate more revenue as compared to the costs and it will be basically like Gold Rate, revenue getting higher and higher every day.

A very useful feature of cloud computing is that you have the flexibility to allocate resources when required. Cloud Computing allows the users to scale up or scale down the resources such as IT, Server, Storage, Network, etc when required.

The flexibility and stability of cloud computing make it possible for the network providers to meet the peak loads and seasonal variations demands. When there is a peak and the load is high then they can easily scale up the resources from the cloud service provider and it will result in being able to handle the peak loads without any problem or downtime.

The different Cloud Delivery Models available can help deliver IT and Communication services over any network whether it is fixed, mobile, or requires worldwide coverage.

Through Cloud Computing, a vast range of communication services can be delivered hassle-free such as audio calls, video calls, video conferences, messaging, broadcasting, etc.

With the help of cloud computing, it has become much easier for both the cloud service provider and telecom companies to collaborate. The advent of cloud computing has led to improved data centers efficiency and server utilization.

This is another very useful thing about cloud computing that the migration costs are very low. If the customers of a service provider are not satisfied with the cloud services that they are being provided then it is quite easy for the providers to migrate to a new solution by terminating the previous contract, signing a new contract, and then transferring or migrating the user data to the new servers, retaining the customers and making them happy at minimal costs.

Cloud Computing offers extensive data backups that allow the companies to backup, store, and secure the critical data of the customers on multiple cloud servers at a time so in case one server fails then the data will be available on the other servers and it will allow the service provider to carry on with the business immediately.

One of the biggest benefits of cloud computing is that the user data remains secure and it is also able to predict if a server is going to fail or not like a Horoscope. If the server does fail then it wouldnt be an issue since the data is already backed up. Whereas if it was the conventional method of computing and networking then in case of a natural disaster all the data would be lost.

If we were to compare cloud computing with any other technology then obviously it would be cloud computing that would be considered eco-friendly since it puts a very minimal load on the environment in terms of carbon emission.

These were only some of the benefits that cloud computing can provide to the telecom industry. In conclusion, cloud computing has had a huge impact on various industries and sectors including both public and private enterprises. The majority of businesses are using cloud services to help their business grow and meet the constantly changing demands of their customers. The Telecom Industry is also witnessing massive growth with the implementation of cloud into their business operations.

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Demand for IT Cloud Workers to build more vacancies in India – Siliconindia.com

Posted: at 12:14 pm

Cloud computing is transforming the business model in the present world. It simplifies the user's accessibility and gives virtual storage space to the user, which could be accepted without worrying about the details of the complete mechanism. As per the analysis, 76% of the digital workers in India today expect cloud computing. Cloud architecture design, software operations support, website/game/software development, large-scale data modelling, and cybersecurity skills are India's top five in-demand digital skills. It will be a required competency for digital workers to make their jobs proficient by 2025.

Reasons why every enterprise needs cloud computing?

Cloud career pathways

Cloud Computing is a promising career because of its massive demand in the market. The need for trained and certified Cloud Practitioners is also overgrowing because the number of people who know cloud computing are increasing. You are probably familiar with the unmet demand for cloud computing skills in the job market.

Cloud computing jobs cover from architects and developers to data scientists, security pros, and more, all of which need a particular focus. We want to figure out the best path ahead, given your experience, interests, goals, and market needs. This path will offer you cloud computing in general, giving insight into the three major platforms - Amazon Web Service (AWS), Microsoft's Azure, and Google Cloud Platform - before outlining career opportunities by role.

Cloud computing is a rapidly growing career domain. Statistically, almost 90% of the firms across the world are already on the cloud, and the global public cloud computing market is set to cross around USD 350 Billion by 2021. Moreover, most organizations spend more than one-third part of their IT budget on Cloud Services. Certainly, Cloud Computing is here to rule and will need more and more skilled professionals, and that should be enough to prompt you to make a career in the Cloud Computing domain.

Nasscom: Indias cloud talent pool is expected to grow 2.4X by 2025

India has the potential to become the worlds second-largest cloud talent hub with the combined effort of government bodies, education and skilling organizations, and technology providers. Currently, India ranks third with 6,08,000 cloud professionals across all verticals, including technology. Nevertheless, the demand for cloud solutions is growing exponentially in India and worldwide, leading to higher demand for cloud talent, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said in a report.

In association with Draup, Nasscom launched their report titled Cloud Skills: Powering Indias Digital DNA in which it said India saw about 3,80,000 job openings for cloud roles in 2020, a 40 percent growth over 2019. The demand for cloud skills far outweighs the current supply, and stakeholders should focus on upskilling, it said, adding that Tata Consultancy Services and Accenture were strategic partners for this research.

India has the potential to grow as the worlds second-largest cloud talent hub with the combined effort of government bodies, education and skilling organizations, and technology providers. Currently, India ranks third with 6,08,000 cloud professionals across all verticals, including technology. Nevertheless, the demand for cloud solutions is growing exponentially in India and worldwide, leading to higher demand for cloud talent, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said in a report.

In association with Draup, Nasscom launched their report titled Cloud Skills: Powering Indias Digital DNA. It said India saw about 3,80,000 job openings for cloud roles in 2020, a 40 percent growth over 2019. The demand for cloud skills far outweighs the current supply, and stakeholders should focus on upskilling, it said, adding that Tata Consultancy Services and Accenture were strategic partners for this research.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is still a topic of research. A driving factor in the development of cloud computing has been chief technology officers seeking to minimize the risk of internal outages and mitigate the complexity of housing networks and computing hardware in-house. They are also looking to share information to workers located in diverse areas in near and real-time to enable teams to work seamlessly, no matter where they are located.

The Major cloud technology companies invest billions of dollars per year in cloud Research and Development. For the global pandemic of 2020, it is said that cloud technology has jumped ahead in popularity due to the level of security of data and the flexibility of working options for all employees, notably remote workers.

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Perseverance Mars rover gearing up for 2nd rock sampling attempt (photos) – Space.com

Posted: at 12:14 pm

NASA's Perseverance rover will soon try again to snag its first Mars sample.

Perseverance landed inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater this past February, on a mission to hunt for signs of ancient Mars life and collect dozens of drilled samples for future return to Earth. On Aug. 6, the car-sized robot attempted to grab the first of those samples, but things didn't go according to plan: The rock Perseverance drilled into turned out to be surprisingly soft, breaking into crumbly bits that didn't make it into the sampling tube.

Since then, the rover has cruised 1,493 feet (455 meters) away to a craggy ridge the mission team calls "Citadelle" (French for "castle"), which seems to offer greener sampling pastures.

Related: Where to find the latest Mars photos from NASA's Perseverance rover

"The ridge is capped with a layer of rock that appears to resist wind erosion, a sign that it's more likely to hold up during drilling," officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which manages Perseverance's mission, wrote in an update Thursday (Aug. 26).

The rover team has spotted a particularly inviting target at Citadelle a rock dubbed "Rochette." Over the coming days, Perseverance will use a tool at the end of its 7-foot-long (2.1 m) robotic arm to abrade the rock, allowing mission team members to get a look at its subsurface. If they like what they see, next week they'll command Perseverance to drill Rochette and collect a sample, which will hopefully be retained in one of the rover's 42 remaining tubes.

And the mission team has added a step in the sampling process for this attempt, to make sure Perseverance doesn't sock away another empty tube. After drilling and sampling Rochette, the rover will pause, giving the team time to review photos of the tube captured by Perseverance's powerful Mastcam-Z imaging system. Perseverance will seal the tube only if those photos show that it does indeed contain a sample, NASA officials said.

All of that being said, the sealed empty tube from the Aug. 6 try is far from a disaster. Perseverance still has more than 40 other tubes left, after all. And the mission team had planned to collect an empty tube at some point during the mission anyway, so researchers here on Earth could study a pristine sample of the Martian atmosphere.

"By returning samples to Earth, we hope to answer a number of scientific questions, including the composition of Mars' atmosphere," Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley, who's based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in Thursday's update. "That's why we're interested in an atmospheric sample along with rock samples."

NASA and the European Space Agency are partnering to bring Perseverance's samples back to Earth. The Martian material could land here as early as 2031, if everything goes well.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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VIYI Algorithm Services, Provides Data Management Solutions, Will Be Listed Through the Combination of SPAC and – GlobeNewswire

Posted: at 12:14 pm

HONG KONG, Aug. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recently, TickerWin, the leading market research firm, has released a research report "VIYI Algorithm Services, Provides Data Management Solutions, Will Be Listed Through the Combination of SPAC and Venus". With the development of the economy and the internet industry, the global spending on IT continues to increase and the central processing algorithm service has a huge room for development in the internet industry. With the emphasis on efficient operation and refined management of algorithmic services, enterprises have increasing demands for central processing algorithms integrated solutions and high value-added services solutions. With the diversified development of the internet industry, there will be increasing needs for application scenarios of central processing algorithms. The central processing algorithm services will be applied in various industries, including advertising, games, finance, industrial internet, telecommunications, energy, logistics, urban management, biomedical, social security and leisure and entertainment.

According to the report, Venus Acquisition Corporation ("Venus"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, and VIYI Algorithm Inc. ("VIYI Algo"), a Cayman Islands exempted company operating in China, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. A newly created merger subsidiary of Venus will be merged with and into VIYI Algo with VIYI Algo being the surviving entity and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Venus. Upon closing of the transaction, Venus will change its name to MicroAlgo Inc.

The merger is structured as a stock for stock transaction and is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization. The terms of the merger provide for a valuation of VIYI Algo and its subsidiaries and businesses of US $400,000,000.

VIYI is dedicated to the development and application of bespoke central processing algorithms. VIYI provides comprehensive solutions to customers by integrating central processing algorithms with software or hardware, or both, thereby helping them to increase the number of customers, improve end-user satisfaction, achieve direct cost savings, reduce power consumption, and achieve technical goals. The range of VIYIs services includes algorithm optimization, accelerating computing power without the need for hardware upgrades, lightweight data processing, and data intelligence services. VIYIs ability to efficiently deliver software and hardware optimization to customers through bespoke central processing algorithms serves as a driving force for VIYIs long-term development.

Currently, VIYI is focused on developing and delivering central processing algorithm solutions to customers engaged in internet advertisement and gaming, and intelligent chips. Moreover, VIYIs customer base is rapidly growing due to a general demand for more efficient data processing in various industries driven by the growing internet population and prevalence of AI. According to the CIC Report, revenue of central processing algorithm services derived from internet advertisement and online gaming alone grew from RMB 2.2 billion in 2016 to RMB 6.9 billion in 2020, representing a CAGR of 32.7%. This market is expected to maintain a rapid growth trend, expanding at a CAGR of 15% during the period from 2020 to 2025.

In the mid-to-long term, VIYI will continue to adhere to its strategic mindset. By improving upon each iteration of VIYIs one-stop intelligent data management solutions made possible by its proprietary central processing algorithm services, VIYI can help customers to enhance their service efficiency and make model innovations in business, and actively enhance the industry value of the central processing algorithm services in the general field of data intelligent processing industry.

Customized central processing algorithm solutions in a diverse range of scenarios, serving customers in a diverse and growing range of industry verticals

VIYIs diverse range of customers from multiple industries is evidence that its central processing algorithm technology is highly versatile, which allows VIYI to ensure a constant stream of revenue from various sources. VIYI primarily provides central processing algorithm solutions to enterprise customers in three industry verticals: internet advertisement, gaming, and intelligent chips, which translate to a range of customers including advertisement integration agencies, game developers and distributors, electronics manufacturers, internet information infrastructure service providers, and intelligent chip designers and integrators. Having the capability to service customers from a range of industries works to VIYIs advantage because it can derive business from multiple industry sources to ensure a stream of revenue even when one industry faces downturns.

Generally, the central processing algorithm services of VIYI achieve computing power acceleration, digital lightweight processing, and intelligent data management and processing. These improvements help VIYIs customers grow and enhance their businesses operational quality and overall efficiency. Currently, VIYIs central processing algorithm solutions have the following applications to its existing core customers:

In addition, due to the versatility of VIYIs central processing algorithm solutions and VIYIs proven commitment to research and development, VIYI is well-positioned to continue growing its customer base to reach customers from a broader range of industries that are reforming the way they do business as a result of the rapidly developing information technology, prevalence of smart phones and 5G connectivity, AI, big data, IoT and cloud computing. According to the CIC Report, industry verticals such as government, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, education, and cultural media demand better data processing and management capabilities from an internet advertisement perspective. VIYI believes that its highly versatile central processing algorithm solutions will be ideally suited to meet those demands.

VIYI plans to expand its central processing algorithm solutions to cover more applications and increase marketing efforts aimed at different industries.

VIYI plans to expand the range of VIYIs central processing algorithms application for use in mobile internet, finance, government, manufacturing, and other industries where there is an increasing demand for data management and processing efficiency, according to the CIC Report. While focusing on VIYIs customers in internet advertisement, gaming, and intelligent chips to generate revenue, VIYI intends to branch out in accordance with market trends and continue to expand the application and platform of VIYIs central processing algorithm solutions consistently with this development strategy. In so doing, VIYI intends to expand VIYIs integrated services built upon VIYIs proprietary central processing algorithms to penetrate industries including:

At present, the development of artificial intelligence is in the third wave. The key feature of this wave is the gradual implementation of artificial intelligence application scenarios closely linked with businesses, and enterprises with advanced algorithms and strong computing capabilities become the most important promoters. The intelligent chip optimization solutions of central processing algorithms will be widely applied and developed in the artificial intelligence industry that require large amount of data processing and analysis, such as smart city, smart manufacturing, smart building, smart community, smart healthcare, smart transportation and other application fields.

According to the CIC Report, benefiting from the development of IoT, cloud computing technology and the increasing government investment, Chinas artificial intelligence market size is in the process of speedy expansion, and it is expected that the scale of core industries will reach RMB 400 billion by 2025, with an increase of RMB 350 billion from 2020 to 2025. The development of artificial intelligence market will drive the development of the central processing algorithm intelligent chip optimization solution industry.

According to the Notice on the Development Plan for New Generation of Artificial Intelligence issued by the State Council, by 2020, the AI technology and application will be synchronized with the global standard. The scale of core industries will reach RMB 150 billion, and the scale of related industries will exceed RMB 1 trillion; by 2025, AI will be widely used in industries such as smart cities, smart healthcare and smart agriculture, with an expected industrial scale reaching RMB 400 billion and the scale of operation of related industries exceeding RMB 5 trillion; and by 2030, a complete AI industrial chain and high-end industrial groups will form, with the core industries achieving a scale of RMB 1 trillion and the production value of related industries exceeding RMB 10 trillion.

In the future, IoT will provide more data collection terminals, which greatly enhances the data volume; big data provides information sources for artificial intelligence, cloud computing provides a physical carrier for artificial intelligence, and 5G reduces the latency of data transmission and processing. Driven by emerging technologies, the demand for chips continues to grow.

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TickerWin is a leading market research firm in Hong Kong. They have built a proprietary research platform in the financial markets. TickerWin focuses on emerging growth companies and paradigm shifting companies. TickerWin has a team of professionals with a proven track record in market research reports, industry analysis and financing trend analysis. For more information, please visit: https://tickerwin.com

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VIYI Algorithm Services, Provides Data Management Solutions, Will Be Listed Through the Combination of SPAC and - GlobeNewswire

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Mars Exploration Celebration Blasts Off This Weekend in Mars – Clearfield Progress

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BUTLER COUNTY, Pa., Aug. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --The Borough of Mars, Pennsylvania, is hosting a "free" two-day STEAM education festival called the Mars Exploration Celebration on August 27-28, 2021. The outdoor event inspired by exploration, innovation, and celebration includes a mix of virtual and in-person speakers as well as exhibits, is being offered for the fourth time in the small Borough of Mars; the Red Planet's namesake.

"Mars Exploration Celebration provides hands-on and minds-on activities with the goal to make STEAM education not only fun but to empower our youth to become curious learners," said Missy Gralish, member of Mars New Year Board of Directors. "At the same time, the Celebration provides an exciting and engaging event for folks of all ages."

Friday, August 27 (5:00-10:00 pm EST), is a celebratory night and includes live interactive virtual presentations from NASA's Chief Scientist Dr. James Green as well as other NASA officials; in-person presentations from Sharad Bhaskaran of Astrobotic and Dr. Andy Aldrin of the Aldrin Family Foundation; live music from Dancing Queen, and a custom drone show in the night sky provided by Firefly Drone Shows.

Saturday, August 28th (12:00-10:00 pm EST), will be filled with live virtual NASA speakers on the Mars Bank Stage and the NASA Theater; a live virtual presentation from Festival of the Spoken Nerd, and in-person presentations from Astrobotic and Dr. Andy Aldrin. Saturday also boasts a Sci-Fi Costume Contest with cash prizes and the Martian of the Year Awards. The Winners of the Mars STEAM Challenge will be announced and prizes awarded. Live music from Elmoz Fire will be provided and another fantastic evening of the custom drone show in the night sky.

Throughout the streets of Mars and on both days, you will find robotics competitions in the Robotics Village, drone races, a STEAM maker build, interactive Mars and Moon Maps from the Aldrin Family Foundation, Moon rovers from Astrobotic, a mini history museum from Carnegie Museum of Natural History, an autonomous vehicle from Argo AI, a mobile glass studio from Pittsburgh Glass Center, kid zone games, hands-on STEAM related activities, food, vendors, and so much more. Stop and say hello to Ralph Crewe of "Isn't That Something" podcast as well as Buzz Aldrin's son Dr. Andy Aldrin.

Both a NASA Theater and SpaceX Theater will be included in the festival this year. The NASA Theater will offer live interactive educational sessions from NASA and other space related organizations. Seating availability will be on a first come basis. Questions for our presenters are encouraged. The SpaceX Theater will offer educational videos, and informational materials. NASA and SpaceX materials and memorabilia will be available at both locations.

"The Borough of Mars is excited to a festival for families and youth centered on traveling to and someday living on the planet Mars,"said Mars Borough Mayor Gregg Hartung."We have put together this two-day festival in challenging times of COVID in collaboration with NASA and now for the first time Astrobotic Pittsburgh's leading aerospacecompany and the Aldrin Family Foundation who follows in the footsteps of Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Come join us in celebrating and exploring the planet Mars in Mars, Pennsylvania!"

Mars New Year and the Mars Exploration Celebration are following COVID guidelines issued by the CDC and the Pennsylvania Health Department for outdoor events.

The festival will be streamed live from the Mars New Year Facebook page and YouTube account. For the streaming links and more information on scheduled events and speakers, STEAM activities, exhibits, parking, shuttles, and an interactive map, please visit http://www.marsnewyear.com.

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Missy Gralish

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Phone: 412-996-9350

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Even small Mars dust storms dry out the Red Planet, scientists find – Space.com

Posted: at 12:14 pm

Thanks to data from three different Mars orbiters, scientists have determined that small, local dust storms, like their much larger counterparts, play a key role in drying out the Red Planet.

Martian dust storms can spread across the whole planet and envelope it in darkness. For a long time, planetary scientists have known that those behemoth storms were responsible for wicking away the planet's water. But Mars was once a lush world, oceans and all, and the large dust storms can't explain the full magnitude of Mars' water loss. According to new research, smaller local dust storms, too, are drying out the Red Planet as well.

"This paper helps us virtually go back in time and say, 'OK, now we have another way to lose water that will help us relate this little water we have on Mars today with the humongous amount of water we had in the past," Geronimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement.

Related: Water on Mars: Exploration & evidenceRead more: Mars dust storm 2018: How it grew & killed the Opportunity rover

Regional dust storms toy with water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, warming it up and slowing its transition to water. The dust storms also hold that water vapor up higher in the atmosphere, where ultraviolet radiation can more easily strip the hydrogen atoms out of water molecules, a process that can't run in reverse.

The new research focuses on one particular regional dust storm that unfolded in January and February 2019. Before the dust storm began, scientists could only identify water vapor near the Martian surface, since it usually freezes at quite low altitudes. As the storm intensified, the researchers saw temperatures warming and the water vapor rising. And as the vapor rose closer to the sun's ultraviolet rays, the researchers saw a swell of hydrogen, the signature of water molecules coming apart.

No single spacecraft in orbit at Mars could have tracked all of those dust storm characteristics; instead, the researchers needed to incorporate data from three different probes. The European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter measured water vapor and ice concentrations in the lower atmosphere, where NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter backed it up by watching dust and temperature. And another NASA probe, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), monitored hydrogen in the upper atmosphere.

That teamwork is a unique achievement. According to the researchers, it's the first time that so many probes have worked in tandem like this. "We've really caught the whole system in action," Mike Chaffin, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in the statement.

The new research is described in a paper published Monday (Aug. 16) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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NASA Will be Sending two More Missions to Mars in 2024, Costing Just $80 Million – Universe Today

Posted: at 12:14 pm

One of the biggest ongoing changes in space exploration is the introduction of commercial methods into the field. Commercial launch providers like RocketLab and SpaceX have fundamentally changed the way the industry does business. Now researchers are taking their move fast and break things approach to another part of the industry actual mission design.

One of a trio of missions that will attempt to lower a missions cost to launch by a factor of 10 is led by researchers at UC Berkeley. Known as the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE), the mission will consist of twin satellites, known as Blue and Gold after UC Berkeleys colors. Their primary mission will be to monitor Mars, watching for its atmosphere and how the planet is affected by the solar wind. One of the most intriguing things about the project is that it should cost only around $80 million from start to data collection in Mars orbit.

Various factors enable such a dramatic price drop from the $800 million that such a mission would typically cost using traditional satellite development methods. One large cost savings is high-risk tolerance. Dr. Robert Lillis, an associate director at UC Berkeleys Space Sciences Laboratory, puts it plaintively: Instead of spending $800 million for a 95% chance of success, can we spend $80 million for an 80% chance?

Such risk tolerance has been rare in the space industry in the past. Still, it has slowly grown in acceptance as SpaceX and its competitors literally blow through rocket prototypes regularly. One of those competitors is RocketLab, which has begun collaborating with the ESCAPADE team to help develop the program further.

All this different thinking has already caused some problems in the development of ESCAPADE, even to this point. The Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program at NASA funded previous work on the project. It had already received $8.3 million in funding to kickstart preliminary development. However, its original launch partner (Psyche) got moved to a different launch vehicle, leaving no space for ESCAPADE.

Thats where RocketLab stepped in. Its Photon launch platform can send the satellites into a different orbit than originally intended, but it is still the right kind of orbit to complete its mission objectives. The missions instruments had to be redesigned to fit the new launch vehicle as well, though they still perform the same general functions.

Theres still some time to go before the final designs need to be completed, though. Currently, the plan is to launch Blue and Gold on a Photon in 2024, with data coming back from the satellites beginning in 2026. Thats still a much longer time than the rapid prototype development cycles in Silicon Valley or Shenzhen, but it also takes into account just how massive the solar system truly is.

Learn More:UC Berkeley Blue and Gold satellites headed to Mars in 2024NASA NASAs ESCAPADE Mission Twin Martian Orbiters Moves Toward LaunchRocketLab Rocket Lab Spacecraft Confirmed for Mars as NASA Greenlights ESCAPADE Small Satellite Interplanetary MissionDailyCal.com NASA approves key funding for UC Berkeley satellite mission to Mars

Lead Image:Artist depiction of the ESCAPADE satellites.Credit Rocket Lab

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NASA Will be Sending two More Missions to Mars in 2024, Costing Just $80 Million - Universe Today

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Will it be safe for humans to fly to Mars? – UCLA Newsroom

Posted: at 12:14 pm

Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles. One of them is the grave risk posed by particle radiation from the sun, distant stars and galaxies.

Answering two key questions would go a long way toward overcoming that hurdle: Would particle radiation pose too grave a threat to human life throughout a round trip to the red planet? And, could the very timing of a mission to Mars help shield astronauts and the spacecraft from the radiation?

In a new article published in the peer-reviewed journal Space Weather, an international team of space scientists, including researchers from UCLA, answers those two questions with a no and a yes.

That is, humans should be able to safely travel to and from Mars, provided that the spacecraft has sufficient shielding and the round trip is shorter than approximately four years. And the timing of a human mission to Mars would indeed make a difference: The scientists determined that the best time for a flight to leave Earth would be when solar activity is at its peak, known as the solar maximum.

The scientists calculations demonstrate that it would be possible to shield a Mars-bound spacecraft from energetic particles from the sun because, during solar maximum, the most dangerous and energetic particles from distant galaxies are deflected by the enhanced solar activity.

A trip of that length would be conceivable. The average flight to Mars takes about nine months, so depending on the timing of launch and available fuel, it is plausible that a human mission could reach the planet and return to Earth in less than two years, according to Yuri Shprits, a UCLA research geophysicist and co-author of the paper.

This study shows that while space radiation imposes strict limitations on how heavy the spacecraft can be and the time of launch, and it presents technological difficulties for human missions to Mars, such a mission is viable, said Shprits, who also is head of space physics and space weather at GFZ Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany.

The researchers recommend a mission not longer than four years because a longer journey would expose astronauts to a dangerously high amount of radiation during the round trip even assuming they went when it was relatively safer than at other times. They also report that the main danger to such a flight would be particles from outside of our solar system.

Shprits and colleagues from UCLA, MIT, Moscows Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and GFZ Potsdam combined geophysical models of particle radiation for a solar cycle with models for how radiation would affect both human passengers including its varying effects on different bodily organs and a spacecraft. The modeling determined that having a spacecrafts shell built out of a relatively thick material could help protect astronauts from radiation, but that if the shielding is too thick, it could actually increase the amount of secondary radiation to which they are exposed.

The two main types of hazardous radiation in space are solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays; the intensity of each depends on solar activity. Galactic cosmic ray activity is lowest within the six to 12 months after the peak of solar activity, while solar energetic particles intensity is greatest during solar maximum, Shprits said.

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Will it be safe for humans to fly to Mars? - UCLA Newsroom

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Snowflake Shares Rally On Q2 Results: What 3 Analysts Are Saying – Benzinga – Benzinga

Posted: at 12:14 pm

Cloud computing-based data warehousing company Snowflake Inc. (NASDAQ:SNOW) reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal year second quarter, sending its shares higher Thursday.

The Snowflake Analysts: Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin maintained an Overweight rating on Snowflake shares and increased the price target from $290 to $305.

Needham analyst Jack Andrews maintained a Hold rating on the shares.

JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens maintained a Market Perform rating and lifted the price target from $300 to $320.

Snowflake Witnessing RobustTrends, Piper Sandler Says: Strong enterprise consumption contributed to yet another quarter of triple-digit product growth for Snowflake, Piper Sandler analyst Bracelin said. The annualized product revenue scaled to above a $1 billion run-rate, the analyst said.

The addition of 25 new Fortune 500 customers, he said, further validates robust enterprise adoption and brings the Fortune 500 logo penetration to 42%.

Remaining performance obligation growth moderated, in line with expectations, due to a tougher comparison with the year-ago period, the analyst said. On the other hand, cRPO growth accelerated for the third consecutive quarter, he said.

Based on robust consumption and customer addition trends, Piper Sandler raised its revenue estimates for 2022 and 2023.

Related Link: Is Snowflake's Stock Doomed After A Cross Below Support?

Needham's Key Takeaways On Snowflake: Snowflake is benefiting from the growing demand for modern data workloads as customers use its platform to unlock new and previously unaddressable use cases, Needham analyst Andrews said.

Additionally, the company's Data Cloud vision is resonating well with new customers as they look to avoid data silos and create new AI/ML applications, the analyst said.

Legacy migrations appear to be contributing more modestly to growth as customers face technical hurdles to move workloads, he said.

"Despite our positive view on SNOW's fundamentals and what appears to be a significant runway of market opportunity to grow large accounts, we remain HOLD-rated solely based on valuation."

JMP On 5 Reasons Why Snowflake Offers Long-Term Capital Appreciation: Snowflake offers as an excellent opportunity for long-term capital appreciation, Walravens said.

Firstly, Snowflake's cloud data platform is disrupting the database management systems market, which is valued at about $65 billion, the analyst said. Secondly, Snowflake has a highly differentiated, modern, cloud-native architecture, he said.

Thirdly, the company's business uses a consumption model and is demonstrating best-in-class net retention rates, Walravens said. Fourthly, the team executing against Snowflake's vision is one of the strongest teams in the software industry, the analyst said.

Finally, Snowflake is demonstrating its strong product market fit, and has landed nearly 5,000 customers, including 212 of the Fortune 500, and 116 customers that generate over $1 million per year in product revenue, according to JMP.

SNOW Price Action: Snowflake shares were up 7.66% at $305.26 at the close Thursday.

Related Link: 4 Snowflake Analyst On Q4 Results: 'A New Enterprise Data Cloud Platform Of Choice'

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Snowflake Shares Rally On Q2 Results: What 3 Analysts Are Saying - Benzinga - Benzinga

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