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  For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency’s near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn’t seem realistic until a few years ago. The first real use of drones for science at Mars will come with the SkyFall mission, a fleet of three helicopters set for launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall’s helicopters will ride to the red planet with NASA’s Space Reactor-1 “Freedom” mission , which has the primary objective of demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. The launch schedule is aggressive for SR-1 Freedom and SkyFall, projects that didn’t even exist in NASA’s portfolio six months ago. NASA’s plan for the SR-1 Freedom mission, estimated to cost $2.1 billion, calls for repurposing the core module of the canceled Gateway lunar space station into a testbed for nuclear electric propulsion. SkyFall will build on NASA’s success with the Ing...

  Google is entering the creative design market with a new image-creation and editing tool called Google Pics, which will become a part of its Google Workspace suite for business customers and premium Google AI subscribers. The company says the product, which is powered by Google’s Nano Banana image-generation model, will roll out over the coming weeks to most Workspace customers and those who pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra. Similar to popular design tools like Adobe Express and Canva, Google’s new product is meant to be used for the sort of everyday design tasks you might come across at work and sometimes in your personal life. For instance, you could use Google Pics to create a poster, social media posts, and other visuals and illustrations. But unlike Canva, where artists, illustrators, and photographers can publish templates, graphics, photos, and other art to a marketplace where they earn royalties, Google Pics is about creating things based on AI, which was trained on artists...

  After 15 years, Tim Cook has handed off the Apple CEO role to John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. As of Tuesday, Ternus now leads one of the world’s most valuable companies. But if you’re not a dedicated Apple enthusiast, you’ve probably never heard of this man, who has largely remained out of the spotlight until he was announced as Cook’s successor in April. Ternus is assuming the CEO role at a crucial time for Apple. Next week, the company will host its iPhone launch event , ushering in its newest line of hardware. Apple will also soon roll out its new-and-improved Siri AI experience, which is powered by Google’s Gemini. “I take enormous comfort in handing the helm to someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable as John,” Tim Cook wrote to staff on his last day as CEO. “Few people understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does and I could not be more excited for his leadership.” Cook will remain at A...