Technologies

NASA will chase down the smallest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft

The Artemis I mission will do more than check out the moon. It will also release the NEA Scout solar-sail spacecraft.

Most of the excitement around NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission is about testing out the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as a precursor to sending people back to the moon. But Artemis I will also launch a nifty side mission, the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout spacecraft.

NEA Scout is a dainty CubeSat and NASA says it will «chase down what will become the smallest asteroid ever to be visited by a spacecraft.» Its target is 2020 GE, an asteroid smaller than a school bus. The space rock measures in at under 60 feet (18 meters).

Visiting a tiny asteroid is cool enough, but the way NEA Scout will get around is even cooler. «It will get there by unfurling a solar sail to harness solar radiation for propulsion, making this the agency’s first deep space mission of its kind,» said NASA in a statement on Thursday.

Solar sail technology is a relatively new frontier. The sailing metaphor is apt, though the tiny spacecraft rely on photon particles from the sun rather than wind. The Planetary Society launched a successful demonstration of the tech with the LightSail 2 CubeSat in 2019.

NEA Scout’s solar sail is made from super-thin plastic-coated aluminum and will unfurl to the size of a racquetball court. The CubeSat is about the size of a shoebox.

NASA plans to study 2020 GE and find out if it’s one solid object or a tight collection of smaller rocks. «Although large asteroids are of most concern from a planetary defense perspective, objects like 2020 GE are far more common and can pose a hazard to our planet, despite their smaller size,» said NEA Scout principal science investigator Julie Castillo-Rogez.

Artemis I is expected to launch this year, perhaps as early as March or April. If all goes well, NEA Scout will look to meet up with its asteroid in late 2023.

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Technologies

Apple’s New Smart Home Display Delayed Until Fall Over Siri Issues

It has been nearly a year and a half since the company announced the AI-powered product.

Your home could get smarter with Apple’s Siri, but it will have to wait a few more months. Bloomberg reported the iPad-shaped AI home hub won’t be ready until September, several months after the company was hoping to launch it this spring. Apple engineers first need to complete work on a new and improved Siri assistant for the home device, code-named J490, according to Bloomberg.

Apple was hoping to release J490 this month, along with a slew of other new devices, including the iPhone 17e, MacBook Neo, MacBook Air M5, new Pro models, and iPad Air M4. Apple first teased the smart home display in November 2024.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri is Apple’s virtual assistant that uses voice recognition and AI to fulfill a variety of tasks and commands, along with intriguing uses. You might use Siri to find your iPhone — «Hey Siri, where are you?» — or to hear the weather forecast — «Siri, what will the weather be today?» Siri is available on iPhones, MacBooks and iPads. It was launched in 2011 as a feature of the iPhone 4S.

As CNET reported last month, Apple engineers have struggled to push the upgraded Siri assistant out the door. It isn’t fast enough, gets confused by complex commands and doesn’t interact well with other Apple AI models. The company is also wrestling with how much personal data to access to inform the AI, and the new Siri is not yet able to complete in-app tasks, such as finding a photo and posting it to socials, all with one command.

It has been nearly two years since Apple announced that it would give Siri a major upgrade. In the meantime, competitors like Alexa Plus and Gemini for Home have entered the marketplace.

Tech tester Jon Rettinger, whose YouTube channel has 1.66 million subscribers, says the repeated delays in upgrading Siri can «erode» confidence in Apple’s ability to keep up in the AI race.

«Apple as a whole is still one of the strongest companies on the planet. But their AI play is clearly the weakest link in an otherwise very strong chain,» Rettinger told CNET.

Rettinger said he has had issues getting Siri to complete basic commands, such as setting two alarms at the same time, and that it’s a bit of «a mess» right now.

«Having said that, the iPhone has such massive market penetration that I’m not sure it will actually matter in the end. Which is kind of wild when you think about it,» Rettinger said.

Facial recognition for residents

The hardware for the forthcoming smart home display has already been finished. It resembles an iPad and can be either attached to a wall or rest on a half-domed-shaped base, the Bloomberg report said.

The device will be equipped with facial recognition, so when residents walk up to it, they will be shown personalized data such as music preferences, news headlines, appointments, reminders, tasks and so on.

The screen interface will include a bunch of circular app icons, similar to the display on an Apple Watch. The Bloomberg report said the smart home display will be the first of several home devices by Apple. Future products include a tabletop robotic limb with a 9-inch screen, a smart security camera and a Face ID-enabled smart doorbell.