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Climate strike of Fridays for Future together with the trade union Verdi, sign OK Boomer, Munich, Odeonsplatz, 3 March 2023
Hard Numbers: Boomers go bust, Canada aims for the moon, China chips away at Western tech dominance, TikTok smuggler fees revealed
65: The boomers had a good run. For 65 years, they were the largest population cohort in Canada, but new census data says they’ve been eclipsed for the first time by millenials. Increased immigration has helped swell the ranks of those born from 1981 onward. But don't get too comfortable, millennials – Stats Canada expects Gen Z to knock you off your perch as soon as 2038.
7: An unmanned lunar lander is aiming to become the first commercial craft to touch down on the moon this week, and Canada is part of it – literally. Odysseus, as the lander is called, was made by a Houston-based company, but it includes seven systems and key components developed by the Ontario-based Canadensys Aerospace Corporation. Odysseus will make its attempt as early as Thursday evening Eastern Time.
14: Local companies’ share of the Chinese market for microchip-manufacturing equipment hit 14% last year. That’s up a full 10 points since 2020, in a sign that Beijing has found ways to ramp up domestic production in response to a US-led move to ban exports of advanced chipmaking tech to China. Experts say that Chinese chip foundries still aren’t able to produce chips as thin as those made by South Korean or Taiwanese rivals but that Xi Jinping is aiming to close that ground fast.
2,000: How much will a smuggler charge to spirit you illegally from Canada across the US border? A reporter from the Times Union paper in Albany New York responded to one of thousands of TikTok posts that subtly offer this service and was quoted a fee of $2,000. A pregnant Mexican woman who reportedly paid $2,500 for the same route was recently found dead in an upstate New York river.The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, aka SLIM, is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on Jan. 25, 2024.
Comeback kid: Japan’s moon lander resurrected by the sun
Now that Slim is no longer sun-deprived and is back in business, the lander will analyze rocks on the lunar surface in the hopes of learning more about the origin of the Moon. “Science observations were immediately started with the multi-band spectral camera,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a tweet.
It’s not clear precisely how long Slim will operate, but it’s not designed to survive a lunar night – and the next one kicks off on Thursday. Either way, the spacecraft has already managed to land itself in the history books.
Slim, which stands for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, made Japan the fifth nation to land on the Moon when it touched down on Jan. 20. Lessons learned from its mission – particularly the success of its precision landing technology – could prove useful in future exploration of the Moon.
The H-2A rocket launched at Tanagashima Space Center in Minamitane Town, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Sept. 7, 2023.
Japan is shooting for the moon, literally
This weekend, Japan will attempt to become the fifth country to successfully land on the moon. The spacecraft “Moon Sniper” begins its 20-minute descent at midnight Tokyo time on Friday, armed with a small robot rover designed by the same Japanese toy company that brought us Bayblades and Transformers.
A lot is riding on this attempt: Japan has already failed to land on the moon twice, which allowed India to cruise into the fourth spot in the moon-landing club earlier this summer.
But Japan seems pretty confident that the third time will be the charm. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency even released an online landing simulator video game ahead of the launch. Go Japan! Ganbatte!