Month: March 2021

Enlarge / Hot fire test of integrated second stage for ABL Space System's RS1 rocket in the fall of 2020. (credit: ABL Space Systems)

Welcome to Edition 3.38 of the Rocket Report! This week, we have launch news from around the world, including several snippets from across the pond, where Europe is grappling with the rise of SpaceX as well as how best to foster its nascent commercial launch industry. As ever there is much to track.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Relativity proving that 3D-printing rockets works. There remain very real questions about whether or not this additive-manufacturing approach is ultimately feasible. The acid test will come when Relativity attempts to reach orbit. Nevertheless, the company's 3D-printing technology does seem to be working. Two recent milestones in the development of the company's Terran 1 rocket, in fact, suggest the tech is working really well, Ars reports.

Enlarge / Nvidia is already tied heavily to the existing Nintendo Switch, since it includes the company's Tegra X1 SoC. But recent rumors make us wonder about Nvidia's potential push into mobile 3D-rendering dominance. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)

Earlier this week, Bloomberg Japan's report on a rumored Nintendo Switch "Pro" version exploded with a heavy-duty allegation: all those rumors about a "4K" Switch might indeed be true after all. The latest report on Tuesday teased a vague bump in specs like clock speed and memory, which could make the Switch run better... but jumping all the way to 4K resolution would need a massive bump from the 2016 system's current specs.

What made the report so interesting was that it had a technical answer to that seemingly impossible rendering challenge. Nvidia, Nintendo's exclusive SoC provider for existing Switch models, will remain on board for this refreshed model, Bloomberg said, and that contribution will include the tantalizing, Nvidia-exclusive "upscaling" technology known as Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

Since that report went live, I've done some thinking, and I can't shake a certain feeling. Nvidia has a much bigger plan for the future of average users' computing than they've publicly let on.

Enlarge / FreeBSD's core development team, for the most part, does not appear to see the need to update their review and approval procedures. (credit: Aurich Lawson (after KC Green))

At first glance, Matthew Macy seemed like a perfectly reasonable choice to port WireGuard into the FreeBSD kernel. WireGuard is an encrypted point-to-point tunneling protocol, part of what most people think of as a "VPN." FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system that powers everything from Cisco and Juniper routers to Netflix's network stack, and Macy had plenty of experience on its dev team, including work on multiple network drivers.

So when Jim Thompson, the CEO of Netgate, which makes FreeBSD-powered routers, decided it was time for FreeBSD to enjoy the same level of in-kernel WireGuard support that Linux does, he reached out to offer Macy a contract. Macy would port WireGuard into the FreeBSD kernel, where Netgate could then use it in the company's popular pfSense router distribution. The contract was offered without deadlines or milestones; Macy was simply to get the job done on his own schedule.

With Macy's level of experience—with kernel coding and network stacks in particular—the project looked like a slam dunk. But things went awry almost immediately. WireGuard founding developer Jason Donenfeld didn't hear about the project until it surfaced on a FreeBSD mailing list, and Macy didn't seem interested in Donenfeld's assistance when offered. After roughly nine months of part-time development, Macy committed his port—largely unreviewed and inadequately tested—directly into the HEAD section of FreeBSD's code repository, where it was scheduled for incorporation into FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE.