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(Credit: Relativity Space) From bodily organs to entire houses, it’s now possible to 3D print just about everything—and now an aerospace startup is adding rockets to that list. California-based Relativity Space is preparing to launch the first 3D-printed orbital rocket this month after six years of work.

Relativity Space initially planned to launch the rocket Wednesday, March 8. Observers eagerly watched the company’s YouTube livestream, vapor swirling around the 35-meter rocket. After an hour and 40 minutes, however, Terran 1 was still sitting atop its Cape Canaveral launchpad, and commentators announced Relativity Space’s decision to push back the launch.

“As you saw, we unfortunately scrubbed for today,” one commentator, Relativity Space infrastructure project manager Arwa Tizani, said. “While we obviously had high hopes for sending our Terran 1 off today, we’re going to continue to take a measured approach so we can ultimately see this rocket off to max q and beyond.”

Relativity Space quickly followed up with a tweet saying it had been forced to push back Terran 1’s launch after it exceeded Stage 2’s launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions. “When using liquid natural gas, the methane needs time to get to the right concentration,” Relativity Space explained. “This is why our next attempt will be a few days from now.” The company now plans to attempt the launch between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.

Today’s launch attempt for #GLHF Terran 1 was scrubbed due to exceeding launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions on stage 2. The team is working diligently toward our next launch window in the coming days. Check back here soon for updates on the launch… https://t.co/LxWJzfZ9BI pic.twitter.com/M4RVu6EkR8

— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) March 8, 2023

Relativity Space first began developing Terran 1 back in 2017. Today, the expendable two-stage small-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting up to 1,250 kilograms (2,755 pounds) into low-Earth orbit (LEO). But its first flight won’t carry a payload: Relativity Space just wants to see Terran 1 touch space to consider the rocket a success.

What makes Terran 1 so special, though, is how it’s manufactured. Relativity Space says 85% of the rocket by mass is 3D printed, including its engines, which run on liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid natural gas (LNG). The company’s printers, collectively called Stargate, are said to be the biggest metal 3D printers in the world and can bring Terran 1 from raw material to flight in just 60 days.

Once Terran 1 finally gets off the ground, Relativity Space plans to shift its focus toward Terran R, an entirely 3D-printed rocket that can be reused. Terran R, which will be capable of bringing 20,000 kilograms to LEO, will hopefully launch from Florida’s Space Coast sometime in 2024.

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Launching something into space isn’t easy — even small payloads like the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), which weighs as much as the average 7-year-old child, are costly and complex. That’s why NASA and other space agencies design spaceflight hardware to last. The IBEX probe was launched 15 years ago, and there was some concern last month that the mission had reached the end of the line. However, NASA now says IBEX has been resurrected and is back at full operational capacity.

The problems started on Feb. 18 when a routine system reset caused the spacecraft to stop operating. NASA eventually learned that a flight computer error caused the satellite to enter safe mode. So, uploads reached the probe but were not being processed. Initial attempts to reset the spacecraft were unsuccessful.

NASA suspected that IBEX might come back online after an automatic system reset scheduled for March 4, but the agency opted to speed things up. IBEX is in a highly eccentric orbit around Earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of 220,866 kilometers (137,252 miles) and a minimum (perigee) of just 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles). It hit perigee on March 2, and the team felt that was their best chance to restart the probe. The “firecode reset” command worked, and IBEX is again online.

IBEX was launched in 2008 to map the edge of the solar system. Engineers equipped it with two energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers, IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo. Both instruments allow the probe to collect and separate ions of different energy levels. During its lifetime, IBEX has reported that the heliosphere has no bow shock, an area of higher density and energy where the sun’s magnetic field encounters interstellar plasma. It also found the relative speed of the heliosphere was 23.2 km/s, about half of the previous estimates. In 2013, IBEX revealed the heliosphere has a four-lobed tail on its trailing end.

A map of the heliosphere from the IBEX-Hi instrument showing an expected ribbon of brighter ENAs. Scientists believe this ribbon may shift as the solar system moves through the interstellar medium.

In 2008, NASA only needed IBEX to last for two years, but it has long since surpassed that. As it comes up on 15 years in space, IBEX is still ready to make discoveries about the border of our solar system.

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• NASA’s NuSTAR Observatory Pinpoints Hottest Spots on the Sun
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• Voyager 2 Probe Talks to Upgraded NASA Network After 8 Months of Silence

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(Credit: Asus)  If you’re a hardcore multitasker, Asus has some good news: The company has partnered with Corsair to allow up to 192GB of DDR5 to run in all of its high-end Intel motherboards. The support comes via updated BIOSes for its Z690 and Z790 motherboard that allow using Corsair’s new 24GB and 48GB DDR5 modules. If you have an Assus board, you can now set up RAM parings that equal 48GB, 96GB, or 192GB. That’s a lot of RAM, but now you have options if 128GB isn’t enough.

Asus announced the news along with Corsair as part of a marketing campaign via Techpowerup. Corsair first spoke of its new UDIMMs in late February, but now it’s officially selling them on its website. Asus is the first company we know to announce support for these capacities. The memory kits range in speed from DDR5 5200 to 7000 MT/s. Asus has already released BIOS updates for its range of Z790 boards, and it says it’ll do the same for B760, H770, and 600 series shortly. It’s currently available for ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, ProArt, and Prime 700-series boards. The new memory kits are available in RGB and non-RGB versions.

The new capacities allow 96GB of DDR5 on ITX boards with only two RAM slots. (Credit: Corsair)

One unsurprising detail is the 192GB package is crazy expensive. Corsair’s website lists the RGB version at $750, with the non-bling version at $725. There’s also a 48GB kit for $275 or $284 without or with RGB. The 96GB kit will set you back around $400, depending on which sticks you prefer. The 96GB kit might be hard to find, though, as Corsair isn’t selling it in its web store.

Asus says you can run 48GB kits at 7000 MT/s or 192GB kits at 5,200 MT/s. Intel’s 12th or 13th gen CPUs also support slower-speed kits. However, you’ll need a Raptor Lake CPU to run DDR5 7000 MT/s modules at full speed. The Corsair memory kits also support Intel XMP 3.0 for one-click overclocking.

The move by Corsair and Asus comes as the market is seriously moving to DDR5. Intel’s Raptor Lake platform supports DDR4 and DDR5, but AMD’s AM5 is DDR5 only. It’s also been rumored that Intel’s Meteor Lake will only support DDR5. That would make sense, as DDR5 is now easy to acquire, and its performance benefits are non-trivial depending on the application. For example, it’s been shown that DDR5 can increase performance on Raptor Lake by up to 20% in some applications. AMD is also pushing DDR5 adoption by adding EXPO overclocking to its newest platform. Sadly, AMD seems to have been left out of Asus’s update, but perhaps that will change.

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(Credit: Ross Stone/Unsplash) The havoc wreaked by wildfires isn’t just on the ground. Researchers at MIT have found that wildfire smoke particles actively erode Earth’s protective ozone layer, thus widening the gap we’ve been spending the last decade trying to close.

When something burns and produces smoke, those smoke particles—otherwise called wildfire aerosol—can drift into the stratosphere, where they hang out for a year or more. According to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, chemists and atmospheric scientists have found that suspended wildfire aerosol sparks chemical reactions that ultimately degrade the ozone layer, or the thin atmospheric layer responsible for shielding Earth from the Sun.

The newly-discovered chemical reaction increases hydrochloric acid’s solubility. While hydrochloric acid is already present in the atmosphere, MIT found that larger hydrochloric acid quantities activate chlorine in the air and increase ozone loss rates when warmer temperatures strike. This spells danger for the storied hole in the ozone layer, which environmental activists, scientists, and policymakers have been fighting to shrink for several years.

Wildfire smoke was particularly destructive in 2020, when near-constant blazes caused more than $4.5 billion in damage globally. Many of these wildfire woes occurred in Australia, where the “Black Summer” megafire burned from December 2019 through January 2020. According to MIT’s research, wildfire aerosols released during this period widened the ozone hole over Antarctica by 2.5 million kilometers by the end of the year. That’s a 10% size increase.

The Antarctic ozone hole in 2022. (Credit: NOAA)

This research unintentionally complements another study we covered this week, in which an international team of scientists showed that multiple environmental positive feedback loops exacerbate climate change. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that holes in the ozone layer can lead to changes in plant metabolism and aquatic food webs. Ozone erosion can also spur changes in terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemical cycles, potentially resulting in biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks that feed atmospheric warming. Studies show that atmospheric warming can trigger wildfires, resulting in a nasty cycle.

Thankfully, recent attempts to mitigate damage to the ozone layer have been quite successful. International treaties like the Montreal Protocol have helped phase out the use of ozone-depleting pollutants. The world’s gradual adoption of electric vehicles might have also helped. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration even found that the Antarctic ozone hole was slightly smaller in 2022 than in 2021 and far smaller than in 2006 when its size peaked. That said, it’s difficult to know right now whether these efforts are enough to compensate for the ozone damage caused by wildfire smoke.

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It’s been a long road, but NASA finally launched the first Artemis lunar mission late last year. The flight appeared to go off without a hitch from launch, to lunar orbit, to splashdown. The data NASA gathered from the uncrewed mission has been scrutinized over and over for the past few months, and now the agency can confirm Artemis 1 was a smashing success. The team plans to move forward with Artemis 2 in late 2024.

The Space Launch System (SLS) took years longer to develop than NASA initially projected, and the cost ballooned to more than $23 billion (about $5 billion more than early estimates). According to the analysis, the SLS flew precisely as designed. All its systems met and, in some cases, exceeded performance expectations. This rocket delivered the Orion capsule into the perfect orbit to get it to the moon.

Orion collected an impressive 155GB of data during the weeks-long mission. NASA says Orion successfully completed 161 test objectives while it looped around the moon. The ESA-built service module also passed the test with flying colors, generating 20% more power than expected while using 25% less. NASA plans to reuse some avionics components from Artemis 1 on Artemis 2. All these devices, including phased antenna arrays and GPS receivers, were successfully extracted and refurbished. These parts have now been loaded into the Artemis 2 Orion.

Engineers also took a close look at the Exploration Ground Systems, which includes the mobile launcher and tower that stabilize the rocket during launch. NASA reports that the launcher sustained more damage than expected from the 8.8 million pounds of thrust, but work is already underway to repair and strengthen the structure for Artemis 2.

Artemis I Post-Flight Heat Shield Inspections. Credit: NASA

NASA is still looking at two minor issues from Artemis 1, neither of which threatens the timeline for Artemis 2. First, Orion’s heat shield (see above) showed evidence of uneven wear. The team is examining the shield itself as well s data from hundreds of onboard sensors to understand the phenomenon. Orion also experienced some glitches in the power system, which caused current limiters to engage on their own. These parts are responsible for transferring power from the solar panels to other systems. Again, engineers are checking flight data in search of a cause.

Artemis 2 could launch as soon as November 2024. This will be the first crewed Artemis mission, featuring a lunar orbit but no landing. If all goes as planned. Artemis 3 will deliver the first humans to the lunar surface in more than 50 years when it launches in 2025.

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(Image: Asus) Since the first transparent side panel appeared on a PC case, some people have wanted their PC’s wires to remain out of sight. That movement gained strength when RGB lighting became a thing. However, it’s not easy in the cramped quarters of a PC case to perfectly tuck the cables out of the way. To combat this scourge on our glorious rigs, hardware manufacturers have developed custom hardware that makes it easier to hide cables. Previous attempts by motherboard manufacturers were usually prototypes, but Asus has announced a real product you can (theoretically) buy. It’s an Intel-based B-760 motherboard with all connectors on the back.

Asus has even given this new kind of motherboard a moniker: BTF. According to its website, “BTF” means “Back To (the) Future” for a new era for all PC DIY gamers. The BTF series hides all its connectors on the underside of the motherboard for clean cable management and a minimalist build appearance.” The Asus TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI D4 is a micro-ATX board with every cable connector on the back. That includes the CPU/AIO fans, power cables, SATA, and front I/O:

The backside of the TUF GAMING B760M-BTF motherboard. (Image: Asus)

One notable feature is an M.2 SSD port on the back. Though it seems part of the “wire hiding” agenda, Wccftech notes it’s also on the non-BTF board. It’s just due to the small footprint of the mATX motherboard. The front holds PCIe lanes, two M.2 ports, RAM slots, the chipset heatsink, and the CPU socket. It is incredibly clean, and we’d love to see what it looks like with all the hardware installed.

(Image: Asus)

This isn’t Asus’s first time trying this. Back in October, it showed off similar motherboards it branded DIY-APE Revolution. At the time, it tried to get case manufacturers such as Lian Li and Cooler Master on board its “revolution.” The reason is apparent; these motherboards require a compatible case. As far as we know, that doesn’t exist yet. We don’t think Asus even has a case that will support this BTF motherboard. All Asus says about that is, “This motherboard is compatible with specific case models.” Thanks for the news flash, Asus, but it would be helpful to know which ones it is compatible with. Looking on the Asus website, we don’t see anything that’s labeled BTF or looks compatible.

This is also not the first hardware designed to hide PC cables. Both MSI and Gigabyte have shown off similar projects in the past. MSI’s motherboard was just a prototype and, from our recollection, never came to market. Gigabyte did sell something similar to customers, though. The company’s Project Stealth was a cable-hiding DIY PC kit. It included a custom motherboard, chassis, and GPU. Though it is a stealth PC, the lack of options is a big drawback. You can only buy those specific parts, and there are no AMD options for the motherboard or GPU.

Now that Asus has made an official product, it’s unclear if other companies will join its revolution. We’re not even sure if a single case is compatible with it. We did reach out to an Asus rep and will update this if we get an answer. We need an ecosystem of cases and a variety of motherboards that offer similar features. On a related note, Corsair’s new Shift PSUs would work well with this motherboard. Unlike standard power supplies, its connectors are shifted to the left, facing the motherboard panel.

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• Asus Unveils Beefy W790 Motherboards for Sapphire Rapids Workstations
• Motherboard Shipments Fell by 10 Million Units in 2022
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(Credit: RTX 3060 via Nvidia) Nvidia went a bit crazy in the Ampere era, trying to capitalize on the GPU shortage. There were endless variants of its GPUs, with every card getting a Ti version. This allowed for small differences between the Ti card and the next card in the stack, such as the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3090, for example. However, the cards it sells the most are always the x60 variants. As such, it created three GPUs: the RTX 3060 8GB, the 3060 12GB Lite Hash Rate (LHR), and the 3060 12GB. Now it’s reportedly considering adding a fourth version to the lineup with a new GPU and faster memory. This could be viewed as an RTX 3060 Super.

The person who runs Techpowerup’s GPU database posted news of this rumored GPU. This is a comprehensive listing of GPU specs that are widely used and reliable. The site is also responsible for the popular GPU-Z video card utility. Therefore, it’s possible this person saw this GPU pop up in some validation test for the utility. They go by T4C Fantasy on Twitter and flagged the GPU with little context. However, they noted it would use GDDR6X memory, which is faster than the GDDR6 used in current RTX 3060s. They also note it’ll use a new GPU, the GA104 currently in the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070. All current RTX 3060s use GA106.

The RTX 3060 Ti might be getting a competitor from below soon. (Credit: PCMag)

The difference between the two dies is not insignificant. GA106 has 12 million transistors and is 276mm². GA104 has over 17 million transistors and is 392mm². By granting this card the RTX 3060 Ti’s GPU and faster memory, it’ll create the most powerful “regular” RTX 3060. However, one facet of this alleged card is genuinely confusing. Previously Nvidia added GDDR6X memory to an upgraded RTX 3060 Ti, which has the same GPU, GA104. Therefore, the two cards would have identical specs but different names. Though it sounds confusing, Nvidia might be making this GPU just for one specific market, such as China, according to Videocardz.

Last week we reported on Nvidia’s desire to clear the channel of existing RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti GPUs to make way for the RTX 4060. Given the news of this rumored GPU, it may have a bunch of GA104 dies sitting around. If it can wedge them into an RTX 3060 at an affordable price, it won’t have much trouble selling them. It’ll make the RTX 3060 Ti redundant, but maybe Nvidia doesn’t mind at this game stage.

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• Nvidia RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti Debut in the Steam Hardware Survey
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and Radeon RX 7900 XT Top Sales Charts
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti: A Beefy GPU Hobbled by Pricing (Again)

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