China announced that it will launch its first Mars mission probe in July this year, China Youth Daily reported Thursday, adding that this is the first time the country disclosed the launch month of its Mars exploration program.

The Mars probe will be sent by the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket, said the newspaper, citing sources from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

The Long March-5 Y4 rocket has recently completed a 100-second test for its high thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine, which is the last engine examination before the final assembly.

According to the CASC, China will send a probe to orbit and land and deploy a rover on Mars.

In 2020, the Long March-5 rocket will carry out several missions, including the Mars probe launch and the lunar sample return.

A total of 24 high thrust hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine tests will be conducted this year for these missions.

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has recently offered up to Tk 2,000 discounts on the procurement of its two smart phones- Vivo S1, Y19.

The smart phones feature four cameras- one in front and three rear cameras.

The company’s Y19 and S1 are available respectively at Tk 19,990 and Tk 21,990. The previous prices of the both phones were respectively Tk 20,990 and Tk 23,990.

The S1 has 32 megapixel camera with AI technology on the front. On the rear it packs a 16 megapixel primary camera, a second 8-megapixel super wide camera and a third 2-megapixel depth camera.

Y19 has 16 megapixel front camera and 16 MP, 8 MP and 2MP rear camera. Each of the phones houses 6GB RAM memory and 128GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 256GB via micro SD card.

Vivo Y19 is powered by a 5000 mAh and S1 has 4500 mAh big battery.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, having been exploring the universe in the infrared for over 16 years, will conclude its mission on Jan. 30, said NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Wednesday.

Launched in 2003, Spitzer revealed previously hidden features of known cosmic objects and led to discoveries and insights spanning from the solar system to nearly the edge of the universe, said the JPL in a press release.

"Spitzer taught us how important infrared light is to understanding our universe, both in our own cosmic neighborhood and as far away as the most distant galaxies," said Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA Headquarters.

"The advances we make across many areas in astrophysics in the future will be because of Spitzer's extraordinary legacy," Hertz said.

Spitzer was designed to study "the cold, the old and the dusty," three things astronomers can observe particularly well in infrared light. The telescope has studied some of the most distant galaxies ever detected.

Spitzer also has a keen eye for interstellar dust, which is prevalent throughout most galaxies, said the JPL, adding that some infrared wavelengths of light can penetrate dust when visible light cannot, allowing Spitzer to reveal regions that would otherwise remain obscured from view.

"It's quite amazing when you lay out everything that Spitzer has done in its lifetime, from detecting asteroids in our solar system no larger than a stretch limousine to learning about some of the most distant galaxies we know of," said Michael Werner, Spitzer's project scientist.

A pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up battery improvements outside the International Space Station on Monday, completing a job begun last fall.

NASA's Jessica Meir and Christina Koch installed the last new battery in a set of six launched to the orbiting lab in September. They also removed two old batteries in their second spacewalk in under a week to upgrade the station's solar power grid.

This marked the women's third spacewalk together. They conducted the world's first all-female spacewalk last October, replacing a failed charging device that bumped the battery replacements into this year.

The women had just completed the battery work when Koch inadvertently deployed the hand controller on her emergency jet pack, called a Safer. Meir hurried over to get the controller back in its proper place. Koch called her "my hero."

Mission Control cautioned that, given the current set-up, "we would not count on Christina's Safer" in an emergency. NASA's spacewalking astronauts always wear small Safer jet packs in case they become untethered from the station and float away. It's never been needed.

During last Wednesday's spacewalk, Koch's helmet lights and camera came loose. She later found a faulty latch in the helmet assembly and replaced it before floating out Monday.

Koch has been aboard the space station for more than 10 months, the longest single spaceflight by a woman. She returns to Earth in just over two weeks.

NASA gradually has been replacing the space station's 48 aging, original-style nickel-hydrogen batteries with new and more powerful lithium-ion batteries. Only half as many of the new batteries are needed. So far, 18 new batteries have been installed over the past three years and  36  old ones removed.

Another batch of six new batteries will be launched to the orbiting lab this spring to complete the power upgrade. The old batteries, meanwhile, will be discarded in a supply ship.

These oversized, boxy batteries keep all the space station's systems running when the outpost is on the night side of Earth, drawing power from the sprawling solar wings. They're not easy to handle: Each is about a yard, or a meter, tall and wide, with a mass of about 400 pounds (180 kilograms.)

"To our astro-sisters, we wish you the best of luck on this," astronaut Andrew Morgan radioed from inside Monday.

 In all, five spacewalks were needed to complete the battery work this time around.

Morgan and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will venture outside Saturday to complete repairs to a cosmic ray detector on the space station. The science instrument's cooling system had to be replaced, an intricate job requiring four spacewalks.

Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences."

Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used.

"There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank.

He noted that there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical. He did not provide specific proposals.

Pichai spoke on the same day he was scheduled to meet the EU's powerful competition regulator, Margrethe Vestager. She's also due to meet Microsoft President Brad Smith separately on Monday.

Vestager has in previous years hit the Silicon Valley giant with multibillion-dollar fines for allegedly abusing its market dominance to choke off competition. After being reappointed for a second term last autumn with expanded powers over digital technology policies, Vestager has now set her sights on artificial intelligence, and is drawing up rules on its ethical use.

Pichai's comments suggest the company may be hoping to head off a broad-based crackdown by the EU on the technology. Vestager and the EU have been the among the more aggressive regulators of big tech firms, an approach U.S. authorities have picked up with investigations into the dominance of companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.

"Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms with social opportunities," he said, adding that it could incorporate existing standards like Europe's tough General Data Protection Regulation rather than starting from scratch.

While it promises big benefits, he raised concerns about potential downsides of artificial intelligence, citing as one example its role in facial recognition technology, which can be used to find missing people but also for "nefarious reasons" which he didn't specify.

In 2018, Google pledged not to use AI in applications related to weapons, surveillance that violates international norms, or that works in ways that go against human rights.

Pichai was also due on Monday to meet Frans Timmermans, the EU commissioner overseeing the European Green Deal, the bloc's plan to fight climate change by making the continent carbon neutral by 2050, including through technology. He's then scheduled to head to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.