#industry analysis

rob wasn't turned off by yasmin's behavior at the inn. rob thrives in complicity with cruelty. we see that again and again with him. he is an enabler. he sees yas clearly, and believes in the same hierarchies she does. rob looked the other way when nicole assaulted venetia and then cheated on venetia with nicole... rob hates henry but he follows henry around like a puppy. of course he understands yasmin choosing henry — he would too. rob has his limits, sure. he won't ever be the one dominating another person. but he sides with abusers. every single time.

when he says nicole reminds him of his own mother, that also mirrors yasmin's trauma with her father. he knows yasmin is incapable of intimacy if it isn't cruelty or a game, but he is also incapable of receiving affection if it isn't rooted in cruelty or a game. yas fucks rob over repeatedly, toys with him, uses him, blindsides him immediately after saying she loves him. and it's clear that man has no regrets. it was enough for him that yas would never love henry more.

the lottery ticket scene cemented that rob is extremely comfortable losing in life. he would never step up for himself or for yasmin. he's not a fighter or a challenger. rob submits to power. henry seizes it, and provides the life yas wants. of course yas made her decision in that moment.

honestly, if the writers go in the direction of henry dying, yasmin getting back together with rob, and/or having rob's baby — yes i'll groan with everyone else. but i wouldn't be surprised, because it was established that henry's father loves rob, that no one in the family is in line after henry, and honestly, that rob sees people like henry as means to an end. just like yas, and harper, and eric, and even henry. rob's 'ends' just seem more humble, because he prefers a subservient role to people more daring than him.

Introduction:

As humanity ventures further into space, the need for sustainable and efficient exploration has become increasingly apparent. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is a critical technology that addresses this need by enabling the extraction and use of local resources from celestial bodies.

This approach not only reduces the dependence on Earth-based supplies but also significantly impacts the development and application of Space Robotics and Autonomous System (Space RAS) Market.

This article delves into the influence of ISRU on space robotics, focusing on the mining and manufacturing processes that are transforming space exploration.

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Introduction to In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) involves utilizing resources found on celestial bodies—such as the Moon, Mars, or asteroids—rather than transporting all necessary materials from Earth. ISRU technologies include mining, processing, and manufacturing materials directly in space, which can drastically reduce mission costs and enhance the sustainability of long-term space operations.

The Role of Space Robotics in ISRU

Space robotics play a pivotal role in the implementation of ISRU technologies. Robotic systems are essential for conducting the complex and often hazardous tasks involved in resource extraction and processing. The impact of ISRU on space robotics can be categorized into several key areas:

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1. Development of Specialized Mining Robots

ISRU requires the development of specialized mining robots capable of operating in harsh extraterrestrial environments. These robots are designed to perform tasks such as drilling, excavation, and sample collection. Key considerations for these robots include:

Adaptability: Mining robots must be adaptable to various terrains and environmental conditions, from the rocky surface of Mars to the icy regolith of the Moon. Advanced mobility systems inspired by nature and robust design features are crucial for overcoming these challenges.

Autonomy: Given the communication delays between Earth and distant celestial bodies, mining robots must be highly autonomous. They need to operate independently, make real-time decisions, and adjust their operations based on environmental feedback.

2. Integration of Resource Processing Systems

In addition to mining, ISRU involves processing extracted materials to make them usable. Space robotics are essential for integrating and operating resource processing systems, including:

Resource Refinement: Robots are used to refine raw materials extracted from celestial bodies. This may involve crushing, heating, or chemical processing to obtain valuable resources such as water, oxygen, and metals.

Manufacturing Components: Processed materials can be used to manufacture components for space habitats, spacecraft, and other infrastructure. Robotic systems capable of 3D printing and assembling parts from in-situ resources are increasingly important for building sustainable space operations.

3. Enhancing Mission Sustainability and Efficiency

ISRU-driven space robotics contribute to mission sustainability and efficiency by:

Reducing Payload Mass: By utilizing resources on-site, the mass of payloads transported from Earth can be significantly reduced. This allows for more efficient use of spacecraft launch capacity and decreases mission costs.

Enabling Longer Missions: Access to local resources supports longer-duration missions by providing essential supplies such as water and oxygen, and by facilitating the construction of habitats and other infrastructure.

Technological Innovations in ISRU-Related Space Robotics

Several technological innovations are driving the development of space robotics for ISRU applications:

1. Advanced Drilling Technologies

Innovations in drilling technologies are crucial for efficient resource extraction. Developments include:

Drill Design: Space drills are designed to penetrate and extract materials from diverse substrates, including loose regolith and hard rock. Recent advancements focus on improving drill efficiency and reliability in low-gravity and vacuum environments.

Autonomous Operation: Advanced sensors and AI algorithms enable drilling robots to autonomously identify resource-rich areas and optimize drilling parameters, reducing the need for human intervention.

2. In-Situ Resource Processing Units

Processing units are essential for converting raw materials into usable forms. Innovations include:

Regolith Processing: Technologies for processing lunar and Martian regolith to extract valuable minerals and produce construction materials are under development. This includes methods for converting regolith into metal alloys and other useful compounds.

Water Extraction: Systems for extracting water from the lunar or Martian soil or ice deposits are being refined. This involves advanced techniques for sublimating and purifying water to make it suitable for consumption and other uses.

3. 3D Printing and Manufacturing Systems

3D printing technologies are transforming how components are manufactured in space:

Material Synthesis: 3D printers designed for space applications can use ISRU-derived materials to produce parts and tools. This capability reduces reliance on Earth-supplied materials and supports the construction of habitats and equipment in space.

On-Demand Production: The ability to print components on demand enables rapid adaptation to changing mission needs and repair of damaged equipment, enhancing mission flexibility and resilience.

Case Studies and Real-World Applications

1. NASA’s Regolith Excavation and Processing

NASA has been developing technologies for regolith excavation and processing for lunar missions. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and upcoming Artemis missions will use robotic systems to explore and extract lunar regolith, which can be processed to produce oxygen and construction materials.

2. Mars Rover Missions

The Mars rovers, such as Curiosity and Perseverance, are equipped with advanced instruments for analyzing Martian soil and rocks. Future missions will integrate ISRU technologies to test and demonstrate resource extraction and processing capabilities on Mars.

3. Asteroid Mining Projects

Private companies and space agencies are exploring asteroid mining as a potential source of valuable resources. Robotic spacecraft are being designed to land on asteroids, extract materials, and return samples to Earth or process them in space for future use.

Challenges and Future Directions

While ISRU holds great promise, several challenges need to be addressed:

1. Technological and Engineering Challenges

Developing reliable and efficient mining and processing robots for space requires overcoming significant engineering challenges. These include designing systems that can operate in extreme temperatures, low gravity, and high radiation environments.

2. Cost and Resource Allocation

Investing in ISRU technologies and space robotics requires substantial financial resources. Balancing the cost of development with the potential benefits is a critical consideration for space agencies and commercial entities.

3. Legal and Regulatory Considerations

The use of extraterrestrial resources raises legal and regulatory questions, including property rights and resource ownership. Addressing these issues is essential for ensuring that ISRU activities are conducted in a manner that is fair and sustainable.

Conclusion

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is transforming the landscape of space exploration by enabling the extraction and use of local resources. Space robotics play a crucial role in this transformation, driving advancements in mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies. By leveraging the power of ISRU, space missions can become more sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective.

This is probably all over your news feed today. It is certainly all over mine. Microsoft (stock ticker: $MSFT) is buying Activision-Blizzard (stock ticker: $ATVI) for approximately $68.7 billion. You probably have some questions. Let’s try to tackle some of them, shall we?

Why would MSFT want to buy ATVI?

ATVI has a lot of assets and is currently “on sale” - the stock price had dropped from a high of $104 per share last year to $65 per share as of yesterday before the announcement. MSFT is paying $95/share to acquire ATVI, which is still something of a bargain considering that buyouts usually come at a hefty premium. ATVI holds some of the most valuable gaming IP in the world (Call of Duty, Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, etc.) which is already valuable, but ATVI also holds a huge amount of institutional knowledge in several important fields like running massive live game services, running a massive network infrastructure that supports multiple games, and running and maintaining massive mobile games. Blizzard and King basically wrote the book on many of these topics - that kind of institutional knowledge is incredibly valuable.

What will this mean for the devs?

For those in the trenches, it won’t mean a huge change. Some of their practices  and administration bits will change but the people who work at the project level will still continue to create game content, write game system code, create game assets, and so on. The majority of changes will likely happen at the level above those projects - the overall direction of the games division, project budgets, target platforms, approval process of new projects, etc. will be affected significantly by this change in ownership. 

Currently, these kind of decisions are made with the goal gaining value for the shareholders directly. Because ATVI will become a part of a much larger organization like MSFT, such considerations will change. MSFT, for example, would be willing to take a hit in terms of sales and revenues for its ATVI subdivision by making the next round of Call of Duty games Xbox exclusive in order to serve the greater longer-term goal of strengthening its Xbox brand. This wouldn’t necessarily be as doable under the current org structure without MSFT giving ATVI a huge and hefty exclusivity contract, but would be very possible if MSFT owns ATVI. MSFT may want more games for its Gamepass. MSFT may want more mobile games. We can expect these kinds of large directional changes from an acquisition like this.

What will this mean for the non-devs?

Things get much more murky for the other initiatives that aren’t centered on game development. I don’t know how MSFT’s upper management feels about spending a lot of money on esports like Overwatch League. I don’t know how they feel about hosting a convention like Blizzcon. I do know that the previous decision-makers will now have people higher than them that they must answer to, and that may mean a significant change in direction.

Further, there’s now a lot of redundant systems and divisions between ATVI and MSFT. A lot of the internal infrastructure will need to be evaluated and possibly changed. For example, MSFT already has Azure, its own cloud computing services. If ATVI is not using Azure already, there will probably be a long-term initiative to migrate all of ATVI’s back end over to Azure in order to save money and align business goals. There will probably be merging/realigning of redundant business stuff like licensing, HR, legal, etc.

What will this mean for the ongoing discrimination and harassment lawsuits?

MSFT knows what they are buying. One of the reasons they are able to buy ATVI at the price they are is because of the past year of stock price drop. They must believe that these endemic issues are fixable. It also seems likely that those currently in the executive suite will probably exit the company with some kind of big payout. It may not feel good to know that Bobby Kotick and the rest of the current board will not get much punishment for their behavior in fostering a terrible environment, but he and those in the C-suite will likely no longer be making the big decisions on their own. They will be answering to Phil Spencer when the acquisition goes through, but it is much more likely that there is some kind of deal where they get some big stock payout that vests over time. They will probably step back from decision-making, collect their paychecks and stock options, and then quietly exit stage left.

What will this mean for the players?

I don’t think this will mean a huge change for players in terms of the games themselves. I think that the various esports initiatives and such may be affected, especially if MSFT leadership isn’t into esports. I think that this will likely mean a long term heavier emphasis on Gamepass and PC/Xbox gaming. I think PC gamers should feel good about the future. I think Playstation die-hards will feel a little bit sadder. 

When will these changes start happening?

In the mid to longer term future, it seems likely that there will be more games exclusive to PC/Xbox/Game Pass, but that likely won’t happen until whatever is in development when the handover occurs finishes development. Most sources seem to expect this deal to complete around June of 2023, so what is likely to happen is that whatever projects are still in development in June of 2023 will be allowed to finish out, and whatever is green lit after then will be the first wave of MSFT-approved projects.

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BL fan psyche & capacity for nostalgia

Do I think a show has to pull off the execution to be remembered for it or can the attempt at doing something help elevate it?

What an amazing question. And it kinda gets at the fan psyche and capacity for nostalgia. Which means to tackle it, I gotta go historical BL for a sec. 

Older BL 

I think maybe at the beginning (for Thailand 2014-2016) the attempt was good enough. Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion and it makes it nearly impossible to judge a pice of pop culture in hindsight, but it isn’t too much to say that both Love Sick and SOTUS were ground breaking, and that broken ground, while it makes for a rough journey, also made them particularly memorable. 

At the time, there was so little content, and certainly nothing like Thailand's style of BL. (Bright, cheerful, happy endings, less yaoi trope reliant.) Anyone who started watching early, or started watching in order, will remember these two shows differently (and probably with greater affection) than someone who watched them more recently after being immersed in the copious modern BL content. 

Post 2017 BL 

TharnType will always be remembered for the first example of Thailand giving us high heat and amazing chemistry in a way that HIStory Obsessed will not (although it did exactly the same thing for Taiwan, it's because Taiwan already had both chemistry and high heat on the table, so it wasn't as ground breaking).

Until We Meet Again will always have pride of place in Thai BL for its story structure and casting choices and solid pairings all treated with integrity, because it was the first Thai BL to do all this well. A Tale of Thousand Stars had many of the same qualities and while amazing, it will always be dimmer by comparison because it wasn’t first. (At least for those of us who didn’t see it first.) 

There is something about “doing it first” that equates with good and worthy in the human brain. Doing it best isn’t necessarily the same thing, although we struggle to separate them. I, for example, will never be able to think of UWMA without seriously rose tinted spectacles. Because, while it wasn’t my first BL, it was the first BL I truly LOVED. 

I think we as fans can be this way about any piece of pop culture we latch onto first, I could write a whole essay on BTOB’s WOW and how it’s a terrible representative of their discography, ghastly fashion, and objectively pretty terrible K-pop but I will never stop listening to it... And if you’re Melody your hackles are raised, but if you’re newer to K-pop go watch it and you’ll understand exactly what I mean. Harry Potter holds this place for many readers of fantasy because while it wasn’t the first portal fantasy, nor was it the first magical boarding school, and all its tropes and archetypes are seriously old school for the genre, it WAS the first of it’s kind that many younger readers encountered. And that’s what counts for them and made it stick. In the end, it kinda doesn’t matter whether it was objectively good or not. Quality is irrelevant to its retention power. (Twilight and 50 Shades also fall into this category.) 

Despite low viewer numbers and poor distribution, Manner of Death will probably be remembered (rather like HIStory 3: Trapped did for Taiwan) for pushing the boundaries of BL in Thailand and trying to elevate the genre into something more serious, compelling, and capable by inhabiting other genres (romantic success). Despite the fact that as a BL I thought it was ultimately not particularly successful (I did love it though).

Then again 3 Will Be Free was an an insanely interesting and ground breaking piece and I feel like it's utterly neglected and forgotten by all but the most devout fans. 

Grey Rainbow was the first Thai BL to go seriously dark (and also seriously domestic), and no one (quite rightly) remembers it. The Effect, was the first Thai BL to tackle the truly damaging nature of many of the tropes we all enjoy so much, and no one remembers it, either. (To be fair... RUN AWAY!) 

So clearly this tactic doesn't always work. 

Now?

I think if JaFirst's paring and LeoFiat's Don't Say No had really had the courage to go hard into their kink component, whether they were ultimate successful or not (and I suspect they would not have been), they would have been A LOT more memorable. 

They teased it a bit at the beginning, but seem to have lurched away from kinky and for that reason, ultimately, there's going to be very little about Don't Say No that remains in the collective zeitgeist. It's going to fall in with A Chance At Love as yet another MAME offering that was ultimate disappointing except amongst hardened fans. And most of us will just be sad because we all remember Love By Chance and what an odd kind of magic that once was and can never not make comparisons. Don’t Say No at least isn’t being directly compared to TharnType as much as it might have been (if that was the origin of their couple, as opposed to TharnType 2). 

All of which is to say, in this case, I don’t think the attempt is good enough because what’s being attempted isn’t unique enough to Thai BL. 

If it's unique and new to the genre I think the attempt, if genuine, can elevate the show. Or at least make it memorable. But that's because I am personally invested in seeing BL, particularly the stuff out of Thailand, branch out and break ground. 

So far as DSN is concerned I think it’s going to ultimately just fall in with the noise of the 34 (yes 34!!!!) Thai BLs we got in 2021 and fade away.

(source)