Month: January 2024

Enlarge / Artist's view of the configuration of Ariane 6 using four boosters on the ELA-4 launch pad together with its mobile gantry. (credit: ESA-D. Ducros)

There is “no guarantee” France’s ArianeGroup will continue to be Europe’s rocket launch company of choice according to the head of the European Space Agency, after ESA member states agreed to introduce more competition to the market.

Josef Aschbacher, the agency’s director-general, told the Financial Times that the decision at its space summit in Seville last November to open the European launcher market to competition was a “game-changer.”

The next generation of launch would be done “in a very different way,” he said, acknowledging that this would put pressure on ArianeGroup’s owners, Airbus and Safran. “If they have a very competitive launcher then they are in the race. But there is no guarantee.”

Enlarge / The Rexroth Nutrunner, a line of torque wrench sold by Bosch Rexroth. (credit: Bosch Rexroth)

Researchers have unearthed nearly two dozen vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to sabotage or disable a popular line of network-connected wrenches that factories around the world use to assemble sensitive instruments and devices.

The vulnerabilities, reported Tuesday by researchers from security firm Nozomi, reside in the Bosch Rexroth Handheld Nutrunner NXA015S-36V-B. The cordless device, which wirelessly connects to the local network of organizations that use it, allows engineers to tighten bolts and other mechanical fastenings to precise torque levels that are critical for safety and reliability. When fastenings are too loose, they risk causing the device to overheat and start fires. When too tight, threads can fail and result in torques that are too loose. The Nutrunner provides a torque-level indicator display that’s backed by a certification from the Association of German Engineers and adopted by the automotive industry in 1999. The NEXO-OS, the firmware running on devices, can be controlled using a browser-based management interface.

NEXO-OS's management web application. (credit: Nozomi)

Nozomi researchers said the device is riddled with 23 vulnerabilities that, in certain cases, can be exploited to install malware. The malware could then be used to disable entire fleets of the devices or to cause them to tighten fastenings too loosely or tightly while the display continues to indicate the critical settings are still properly in place. B

Enlarge / The Milky Way above Mauna Kea. (credit: Samuel Muller)

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It's January 9, and today's image showcases the Milky Way Galaxy rising above the visitor's center on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Big Island is one of my favorite places on Earth. It has some of the world's best beaches, some of its most active volcanoes, wonderful people, and a world-class observatory on the great mountain, which climbs about 13,800 feet above sea level. Astronomers say the atmosphere up there, so remote from major landmasses, has some of the best "seeing" quality in the world.