NASA Challenges 350 Rocketeers Nationwide to Aim a Mile High

NASA has invited more than 350 student rocketeers from middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities -- 37 teams nationwide -- to take part in the 2009-2010 NASA Student Launch Projects.

Their challenge is to build powerful rockets of their own design, complete with a working science payload, and launch them to an altitude of 1 mile.

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Boeing Unveils New Visual Display for Simulation Applications

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] demonstrated its Constant Resolution Visual System (CRVS) for potential customers this week at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando. CRVS, the company's newest visual display, delivers an immersive environment by providing a high-resolution "out-the-window" view for training systems and for general visualization applications.


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Electromagnetic Pulse Cuts Through Steel In 200 Milliseconds

The Fraunhofer institute thinks electromagnetic pulses may work better than the other white heat. Case in point: their new electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device that cuts through steel faster than a laser, and cheaper than a machine tool.

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Swiss Team Achieves First-Ever Manned Solar Plane Flight

Folks over at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, have been working on a solar-powered plane since 2003. Now, after six years of testing, they have finally managed to get the plane off the ground.

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Tunable Terahertz Lasers Could Allow Airport Scanners to Chemically Analyze Substances

An MIT electrical engineer and colleagues have managed to tune a small but powerful laser capable of generating terahertz rays. That could someday lead to airport scanners capable of even better snooping than superheroes.

The laser in question is a quantum cascade laser, which came out of Bell Labs in 1994.

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Boeing's Laser Avenger destroys 50 IEDs in Army tests

Boeing and the U.S. Army completed tests in which a laser system on an Avenger combat vehicle destroyed 50 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) similar to those used by adversaries in war zones.

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A Single Phosphorus Atom in Silicon Used to Build a Transistor

Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor, whose active region composes only of a single phosphorus atom in silicon.

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New Study Calls for Cybersecurity Overhaul in U.S.

The U.S. government and private businesses need to overhaul the way they look at cybersecurity, with the government offering businesses new incentives to fix security problems, the Internet Security Alliance said.

The alliance, in a report released Thursday, also called for permanent international cybersecurity collaboration centers, new security standards for VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) communications and programs to educate corporate leaders about the benefits of enhanced cybersecurity efforts.

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Black Knight - Prototype unmanned combat vehicle

The Black Knight prototype combat vehicle was developed by BAE Systems. It is an early prototype, which demonstrates advanced robotic technologies. Vehicle is currently being tested and evaluated by the US Army.

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USAF Confirms Stealthy UAV Operations

he U.S. Air Force has confirmed to Aviation Week the existence of the so-called "Beast of Kandahar" UAV, a stealth-like remotely piloted jet seen flying out of Afghanistan in late 2007.
The RQ-170 Sentinel, believed to be a tailless flying wing design with sensor pods faired into the upper surface of each wing, was developed by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), better known as Skunk Works.

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Not Yet For Unmanned, Autonomous Aircraft

Although the U.S. military has fielded many new unmanned aircraft in recent years, the Pentagon is far from sending the last manned war plane into combat, Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula said Dec. 3.

As the defense community debates the future of combat tactical aviation, Deptula said during the taping that any possible fielding of a fleet of totally unmanned - and even totally autonomous - combat planes is many years away.

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Sensors Improving U.S. Army Logistics

The Army is headed toward increased use of sensors on vehicles and aircraft that predict and report impending system failures, said Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, speaking at a conference on military logistics.

Those devices are embedded in vehicles and aircraft with the purpose of alerting operators about the health of the vehicle or when a new part is likely to be needed before a failure happens

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