The Download: our relationships with robots, and DOGE's AI plans

Since the 1970s, we've sent a lot of big things to Mars. But when NASA successfully sent twin Mars Cube One spacecraft, the size of cereal boxes, in November 2018, it was the first time we'd ever sent something so small. Just making it this far heralded a new age in space exploration. NASA and the community of planetary science researchers caught a glimpse of a future long sought: a pathway to much more affordable space exploration using smaller, cheaper spacecraft. RIP Roberta Flack, one of the realest to ever do it.