Technologies

NASA’s Mars helicopter set for tricky takeoff with first flight of 2022

Ingenuity is sitting on a mass of featureless sand, which could make takeoff more challenging than usual.

This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.

It’s a new year on Earth, and there’s also plenty to look forward to on Mars in 2022. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is getting ready to take its first flight of the year, and its 19th flight overall. The Ingenuity team anticipates takeoff could be tough due to the terrain it’s sitting on.

Flight 19 is scheduled to take place no earlier than Friday. The remarkable rotorcraft has long outlived its expected five-flight lifespan and continues to function well in the harsh conditions of the Jezero Crater.

Each flight on Mars is a minor miracle. The chopper’s first flight proved it could work. The following flights tested its capabilities. The latest flights have been in service of its companion Perseverance rover. «The current mission goal is to reach the Jezero river delta to aid the Perseverance rover in path planning and scientific discovery,» Ingenuity pilot Martin Cacan wrote in a status update on Tuesday.

Flight 19, which is scheduled to last for about 100 seconds, won’t necessarily be easy. «While short, the flight has a challenging start due to featureless sandy terrain that the helicopter currently sits on,» Cacan wrote. Ingenuity uses a navigation camera to help it track its location. The terrain triggered some warnings during the landing process for Flight 18, but the team hopes updates to Ingenuity’s parameters will allow for a clean ascent.

Ingenuity and Perseverance have proven to be quite the buddy team since landing on Mars in early 2021. The new year will be filled with exploration and scientific studies as the rover continues to roll and collect rock samples and the helicopter plays scout from the air.

To get an idea of what Ingenuity looks like when it’s soaring over Mars, check out this fun NASA video of its Flight 13.

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.

Not being part of change. Leading it. Verum Messenger — the future that speaks first.

Technologies

Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account

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Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal