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NASA plans to put another Curiosity-like rover on Mars in 2020
Who says NASA doesn't have big plans for the next decade? Following the universally extolled launch of Curiosity onto Mars' surface earlier this year, the American space entity is reportedly looking to launch another in 2020. The news was dealt at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco today, and while details are thin at the moment, we're hearing that the next-generation 'bot will be "based on Curiosity." John Mace Grunsfeld, a NASA Management Astronaut and the Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, was cited as the man responsible for divulging the news. All told, the budget for the so-called "Science Rover" will be around $1.5 billion, with none of that funding to be raked in from other departments. The launch is part of a multi-year Mars program, which NASA says "affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives." The planned portfolio includes the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers; two NASA spacecraft and contributions to one European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; the 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study the Martian upper atmosphere; the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars; and participation in ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing "Electra" telecommunication radios to ESA's 2016 mission and a critical element of the premier astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover. More details can be found in the full release embedded after the break.
NASA Curiosity rover digs Mars, finds sulfur, chlorine and organic traces of unknown origin
Since NASA's Curiosity rover made its way to Mars, it's been sending back a wealth of data from our rust-colored planetary neighbor: landscape photos, radiation readings and even evidence of liquid water. We can now add soil composition to the list, as Curiosity became Earth's first visitor to the Red Planet to both gather and analyze Martian soil on its own. What's Mars made of? Well, after scooping up some loose sand, Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite and the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments found a menagerie of chemicals, including sulfur, chlorine, and traces of carbon-based materials. Don't get carried away thinking there's life on Mars just yet, however, because NASA's boffins aren't sure the organic molecules are native -- they may have come from Earth on this, or a previous mission. Still, the analysis is a significant step in unlocking Mars' secrets, and the high quality data resulting from it will keep NASA's best and brightest busy as Curiosity continues sampling Martian dirt in the coming months. Those interested in learning more can check out the source below or tune into the press conference after the break.
22 Cans talks Curiosity: What's in the Cube and more
22 Cans is Peter Molyneux's latest endeavor -- a smaller indie game company from the creator of titles like Populous, Black and White and Fable that's putting together more experimental games on platforms like iOS. The company's first title is Curiosity, a game/experience that arrived on the App Store a little while ago. And now the developers are doing some interviews talking about how Curiosity is doing, and what's next for 22 Cans going forward. Jack Attridge is up first; he's a game designer at 22 Cans, and he recently talked with 148Apps about how Curiosity has changed during development. Initially, it was very straightforward (and the game is still very simple): Players would just tap away "cublets" off of a gigantic cube, in a sort of massively multiplayer attack of destruction. But the devs found that the game needed even more rewards, so they added in combo bonuses and a clear screen bonus for clearing cubes completely off of the iPhone or iPad's screen. He hints at what's next with the game as well: "There is something that people tapping on the cube are doing, and are already involved in that they are unaware of," says Attridge. "I can't say what that is yet, but in the future...that tapping will have counted for something." We're not sure what that means, but Curiosity has been interesting so far, and odds are it will continue to be so. Over on RockPaperShotgun, Molyneux himself chimes in to say that 22 Cans has been overwhelmed by the reaction to Curiosity, both in terms of its servers being overrun, and Molyneux's own emotional state (at one point in the interview, he reportedly breaks down and cries when considering just what he wants the experiment to mean to the world). 22 Cans has also just launched a Kickstarter for another game, called Project Godus and supposedly based on Populous itself, so Molyneux talks about how he's approaching game design these days. It sounds much more agile and responsive than the big titles he's worked on in the past. Both interviews are definitely worth reading, especially if you've been as fascinated by the experiment behind Curiosity as I am. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the 22 Cans model as it continues forward.
Molyneux's Curiosity getting six new, big features
Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube, Peter Molyneux's first experiment with 22 Cans, will be updated with six big, new features, possibly added next week.Curiosity has players on mobile devices chip away layers of a gigantic cube in the hope of discovering what's at the center. Apparently, it's something pretty special. As of today, players have removed 30 layers, but it seems there are still plenty more to go.The updates are designed "by looking at how people interact with Curiosity," Molyneux tells CVG. Considering the game has been plagued by server issues and bugs since its launch on November 6, perhaps the updates are "a better connection" and "a refund for all those coins you lost."Now, before we see another barrage of comments complaining that a story on Molyneux isn't necessary, remember that CVG has a Curiosity liveblog. You're welcome.
Curiosity rover finds radiation levels on Mars are safe for humans
It's been three months since NASA's Curiosity rover set foot wheels down on Martian terrain, and now the space agency has divulged what it's learned about radiation on Mars. Marking the first time radiation has been measured from the surface of another planet, preliminary data collected using the rover's Radiation Assessment Detector (or RAD for short) revealed that levels on the ground are similar to what astronauts encounter on the International Space Station. What's that mean for space travel? "The astronauts can live in this environment," Don Hassler, principal investigator on Curiosity's RAD hardware, said in a press conference. However, humans would still experience higher levels of radiation on the way to and from the red planet than on its surface. The results are encouraging, but they're just one of many developments left before Homo sapiens set foot on Mars. For more details on the RAD's findings, look below for the press release.
22 Cans apologizes for Curiosity's popularity, working on fixes
The last 48 hours have been tough for Peter Molyneux's new outfit, 22 Cans. After launching Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube? earlier this week on iOS and Android, the servers were overloaded by the sheer numbers of players participating. There is also another significant bug that seems to be erasing player coins, which are used for in-game boosts.The video update above was made by 22 Cans designer Jack Attridge, wherein he tours the office and asks a bunch of employees what they're doing about the problems. The team looks to be working to resolve these issues but, in response to the server overloads, 22 Cans has also opened a PayPal page for donations – you know, in case you really want to know what's inside that cube.
Curiosity team squares off against connectivity problems
22Cans is at work fixing connectivity issues with Curiosity: What's Inside The Cube. If your experience with the networked cube-tapping game is limited to error messages, it should be addressed soon. "I now understand what's going on," Peter Molyneux tweeted. "Basically we and our server are overwhelmed by the number of people trying out the experiment." His team is working on an update.As of writing, users who have successfully connected have cleared the first layer of "cubelets" off of two faces of the cube. After the first layer is completely cleared, players will begin clearing ... an unknown number of additional layers in an effort to find a secret in the center of the cube.
Daily iPhone App: Curiosity makes you wonder what is in the cube
Curiosity, a free app that arrived on the App Store last night, is more of an experiment than a game. It's developed by a company called 22 Cans, which is Peter Molyneux's latest endeavor. Molyneux is the famous creator of classic games like Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Fable. Now he's built 22 Cans to work on smaller, more experimental projects. Curiosity is definitely that. As you can see in the video below, it's essentially a collaborative destruction engine, tasking thousands of users around the world with chipping away at a large virtual cube, in hopes of discovering what's at its center. That's the whole game, really. When you log in (optionally with a Facebook account), you can tap away at various surfaces on the cube, and clear them out to earn coins. The coins let you buy various implements to destroy the cube with additional effectiveness. All 50,000 players (the total when I logged in to play) will continue to hack away at the cube's many layers until its center revealed. Some text that appears in the game's introduction reveals a twist: only one player will discover what's in the cube (because presumably only one player will get to hack away at the final square in the middle). Of course, no one knows who that will be. If you're curious and want to help find out, Curiosity is a free universal download on the App Store right now.
PSA: Molyneux's 'Curiosity - What's Inside the Cube?' now on iOS, if you're curious
Peter Molyneux and 22 Cans' Curiosity - What's Inside the Cube? is now available for free on the App Store. The first of the studio's 22 "experiments" was due on Android tomorrow, but Molyneux tweeted this morning 22 Cans is now trying to push it out today.So how does the game work? Quite simply, actually. Curiosity revolves around, surprise surprise, a giant cube. You can rotate the cube to get access to all six sides, and then zoom in and out as you please. The aim is to get to what's inside the cube, and that's done by tapping away at its sides to shatter its outer layers of 'cubelets,' one cubelet by one. Each tap alters the state of the cube on the game's servers - meaning in theory the cube appears the same to everyone at the same time. Of course, latency plays its part.Tapping squares earns you coins, with multipliers added when you build up a run of taps. You can also earn coins by getting friends to play the game. Coins can be used to purchase square-smashing add-ons, like a diamond chisel or a bomb. We tried out the firecracker, which manically breaks the cubelets around it in a quick little spiral.As for what's actually inside the cube, that is now public knowledge. And it is - drumroll please - a video link, which actually explains what's really inside the cube. So what's actually in the video? It could be instructions for how to find the secret treasures of Xanadu, or maybe all of Molyneux's hopes and dreams somehow condensed into five seconds of footage. Whatever it is, it'll be up to that one winner to decide whether to keep the link private or show it to the world. Of course, the winner could just link to some other vid and we'd never know.
Curiosity lands at the App Store, in the massively multiplayer cube-chipping category
Peter Molyneux's first creation since Lionhead is now live on the App Store, presenting gamers with a humungous cube composed of billions of tiny cubelets. Curiosity's virtual block needs to be stripped down layer by layer through collective effort, to reach the center and reveal "something life-challengingly amazing". There's no sign of the expected tear-inducing paid DLC; instead, you pay for power-ups using coins earned by tapping away at the game. 100 of those coins will let you see the stats screen, while 3 billion will reward you with the Diamond Chisel -- the ultimate tool for block-whacking. Based on our brief time at the grindstone, it's safe to say the game's impact won't be as profound as that of the other Curiosity, but its social aspects have some interesting potential -- not least using Facebook to locate friends who are playing and compare each other's progress. The game is available free at the App Store if you'd like to leave your mark.
'Curiosity: What's Inside The Cube?' reveals all on iOS, Android November 7
Peter Molyneux's 22 Cans will satiate your Curiosity on November 7, releasing the game for free on Android and iOS. 22 Cans confirmed the Android release details to us, noting Curiosity: What's Inside The Cube? (to give it its full title) launches at 0.22AM Pacific (3.22 AM ET, 8.22AM British). Molyneux then tweeted Curiosity is arriving on the App Store the same day.Curiosity is the first game from Molyneux's new outfit, and the first he'll have released since leaving Microsoft and Lionhead. Although, Molyneux is referring to Curiosity and his next 21 projects as experiments, before 22 Cans finally makes its one and only game proper. Whatever you want to call it, Curiosity is supposedly going to change someone's life forever.So no, Molyneux hasn't really changed.
The Mog Log: Where in the world is Seekers of Adoulin?
Square-Enix has long had a very different approach to MMOs compared to the rest of the world. In some ways, this is understandable; I know that every company operates in its own way. But where American and European companies are playing the electric guitar and Korean companies are playing keytar/acoustic duets, Square seems to be bringing out the xylophone to do a heartfelt rendition of Long Distance Runaround. (For those of you not willing to click the link, that song is not normally played with a xylophone.) As a result, on one level I'm not surprised that we know virtually nothing about Final Fantasy XI's next expansion beyond the upcoming jobs and the fact that it's not going to be released for the PlayStation 2 here in America. I am also completely baffled that in the time since the expansion's announcement we have heard nothing about it. We first found out that the expansion existed in any form back in June, and we've learned pretty much nothing new since... and that's not a good sign.
22 Cans will make one game and only one, after all those other games
22 Cans, Peter Molyneux's development studio, is "only going to make one game and that's it," Molyneux tells VG24/7.Of course, this game will come after the 22 "experiments" Molyneux's team is working on now, the first of which is Curiosity: What's inside the Cube, a million-player game that ends with one person discovering the life-changing secret inside a big cube."But everything that we do, every thought that we have, every moment of a day, is all working towards this full game," Molyneux says. "22 Cans is only going to make one game and that's it. You just release that single experience then you refine it and adapt it like – and don't think of this in any way other than an analogy – when a TV company makes a soap opera."Considering Curiosity was announced in June and has since undergone a delay, name change and beta (and is expected to launch on iOS any day now), we can look forward to 22 Cans' actual, singular game in about seven years.
What's inside Molyneux's Curiosity cube? Not a dead cat or Half-Life 3
Peter Molyneux is narrowing the answer to the question posed by 22 Cans' first experimental game, Curiostiy: What's Inside the Cube? It's not a huge pile of money, a dead cat, a sports car or Half-Life 3, Molyneux says. However, whatever's inside there will "change your life forever."Maybe Molyneux is toying with us. Maybe the cube is harboring two huge piles of dead sports cars and a copy of Black Mesa Source. The answer was right in front of us the entire time, and the knowledge of purposeful human deception will change anyone's life, at least for a little bit.Curiosity is undergoing Apple certification now.
Molyneux's Curiosity submitted to Apple
Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube, the first experimental iOS game from Peter Molyneux's 22Cans, has been submitted to Apple for certification. Apple will then carefully inspect the cube, determining the relative safety of its sharp edges and pointed corners. They will open the cube to determine if its contents are potentially harmful to any users.Once the cube and its included secrets pass muster with Apple, the audience will be able to begin chipping away at the mysterious solid.
NASA's Curiosity rover finds ancient streambed on Mars, evidence of 'vigorous' water flow
Curiosity may have spent a while limbering up for the mission ahead, but now it's found evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars that once had "vigorous" water flow. Photos of two rock outcroppings taken by the rover's mast camera between the north rim of Gale Crater and the foot of Mount Sharp reveal gravel embedded into a layer of conglomerate rock. The shape of the small stones indicate to NASA JPL scientists that they were previously moved, and their size (think from grains of sand to golf balls) are a telltale sign that water did the work instead of wind. Evidence of H2O on Mars has been spotted before, but this is the first direct look at the composition of riverbeds NASA has observed from above. According to Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich, it's estimated that water flowed at the site anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago, moved at a clip of roughly 3 feet per second and was somewhere between ankle and hip deep. "A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger said. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."
Dreams, curiosity and a passion for what's next: picking the brain of Innovation Lab's Mads Thimmer
Innovation. According to one Mads Thimmer, it's a word that held a great deal of mystery some 10-plus years ago, but today, "it's thrown around as a cliché." When you really get down to it, though, the art of innovating is a hugely delicate and complex one, fraught with frustration and a curious passion for never settling on the here and now. In covering the world of consumer technology, I've come to form my own understanding of what innovation is, what it isn't and how companies are embracing (or outright shunning) the idea. After an evening with the cofounder of Innovation Lab, however, I was rightfully ready to toss my own preconceived notions aside.
Molyneux seeks Curiosity beta testers
Peter Molyneux is curious about whether his new game works, and so he's opening a beta test for Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube. Anyone interested in trying the first of 22Cans' experimental games, and with "a spare hour at about 16:00 GMT Tuesday-Friday," can apply for the beta on Facebook.Curiosity is due sometime this month, following a delay caused by Molyneux's interest in avoiding confusion between his game and the Mars robot.
Curiosity rover starts light robotic arm workout in preparation for scientific main event
As NASA promised, Curiosity has stopped at the quarter pole toward its first scientific destination to test its robotic arm and attached scientific instruments. After 100 yards of driving, the rover extended its 7-foot limb, and will now spend six to ten days checking its predetermined positions and range of motion. That will ensure the appendage is ready after surviving the chilly vaccuum of space and subsequent setdown, and will let its minders see how it functions in the unfamiliar Martian gravity and temperatures. The JPL scientists in charge of the six-wheeler will also peep the Mars Hand Lens Imager and made-in-Canada Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to warrant that they're up for all the geology to come. If all goes well, the rover will start scooping, drilling and analyzing in earnest when it hits Glenelg, then Mount Sharp -- so, we'd limber up first before tackling all that, too.
Mars Curiosity leaves its landing area, heads to distant frontier a quarter-mile away
Now that Curiosity has survived its thrill-a-minute landing and passed an upgrade and physical with (nearly) flying colors, the rover is off to earn its $2 billion keep. The trip started well, with the buggy driving 52 feet towards its first science site "beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it," according to NASA. The destination, Glenelg, is 1,500 feet away from the now-familiar Bradbury Landing where it first set down, which is pretty far for a rover that treks along at about a tenth of a mile per hour. On top of that, its minders have some stops in mind to test instruments -- meaning it'll arrive there in about two weeks. Once at Glenelg, Curiosity will scope the unusual geology of the region, though its principal destination for science is Mount Sharp, a relatively vast six miles away. Don't worry about it running out of gas, though -- the nuclear power supply will last a full Martian year, or 687 earth days.
