The XiaomiUI resource, which tracks the release of firmware for various Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices, shared details about software support for the Xiaomi Pad 5 and Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro tablet computers. There are two news here: good and bad.

The good news is that the devices of the line (and there are three of them – Xiaomi Pad 5, Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 5G and Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro WiFi) will receive MIUI 15, but the bad news is that this firmware will be based on Android 13, and not Android 14. Thus, the release of MIUI 15 will be the last major software update for these models.

Known for its subsurface ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust, Europa shares characteristics with Earth. While the presence of solid carbon dioxide on Europa’s surface had been discovered previously, studying the composition of the subsurface ocean remained a challenge for scientists.

The team used the James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared spectrograph to detect carbon dioxide in a region called Tara Regio. Using 320 x 320 kilometer resolution data and studying the area, scientists identified pockets of solid carbon dioxide in the disturbed ice sheet, indicating a connection between the surface and the subsurface ocean.

Jupiter’s icy satellite Europa. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Dr. Samantha Trumbo, an astronomer at Cornell University, explains that previous observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have already indicated the presence of salt coming out of the ocean in the Tara Regio region. And the discovery of concentrated carbon dioxide further suggests that the carbon most likely does come from Europa’s subglacial ocean. While these findings do not directly indicate the presence of life, the discovery of such a connection is a significant step in understanding Europa’s potential for habitation.

Further detailed analyzes of Europa are planned for the coming years, with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission scheduled to launch next year in 2024, and the European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft approaching Europa in 2030. These missions will provide more detailed observations and data to further our understanding of Europa’s composition and how it could potentially support life.

The principal investigator at the SmartSat Cooperative Research Center (CRC) says future satellites will have the ability to make autonomous decisions, be equipped with artificial intelligence, and be able to operate in their own cloud system.

In June, a research project called SCARLET (SpaceCraft Autonomy Research Laboratory) was launched to implement this idea.

“Australia has enormous expertise in software, technology and artificial intelligence. And now our plan is to transfer this experience to space,” says Zubert, who worked at NASA for almost ten years.

In the future, remote sensing satellites will become as autonomous as possible to make decisions about orbit adjustments and will be equipped with AI to enable rapid joint work. Source: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty

Once they reach orbit, satellites and other spacecraft are relatively simple technology. They can take pictures or collect data, but this information must be transmitted to Earth and it takes time to receive the data. Due to the way data is transmitted to Earth and the constant movement of satellites, it can take up to a day to receive the information you need.

An excellent example is the early detection of fires or smoke. A SmartSat project called Kanyini is exploring this possibility using an artificial intelligence algorithm that analyzes images directly on board the satellite. To test the technology, the developers plan to demonstrate early smoke detection using AI processing on satellite images, where spectral bands are analyzed to distinguish smoke from other signals that may look similar, such as clouds or fog.

The delay in receiving data also affects how satellites are controlled in space. In most cases, satellites in low Earth orbit must be individually tracked and instructed to move out of the way of other satellites or other objects that may pose a potential collision hazard.

It’s fine if we only have a few satellites, but with “constellations” like Starlink that have 42,000 satellites, overpopulation begins. How to control such a “constellation”? To do this, it is necessary to give satellites autonomy.

The last and most complex type of future satellite is the “space cloud” – a network of interconnected satellites in which there is little or no human intervention. In such a space cloud, satellites of various architectures can perform their own specific tasks: take pictures, process data, and a third one can transmit data to Earth. At the same time, they all interact with each other and avoid collisions.

This will significantly speed up the processes of discovering, analyzing and communicating critical information.