Boeing Awarded Contract to Develop Counter-Electronics HPM Aerial Demonstrator

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] was awarded a $38 million contract April 27 to develop and test a nonlethal, high power microwave (HPM) airborne demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Counter-electronics High power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP).

The CHAMP Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program will be the first to demonstrate a counter-electronics HPM aerial demonstrator.

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Wide Field Camera 3

After astronauts install the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) during SM4, it will continue the pioneering tradition of previous Hubble cameras, but with critical improvements to take the telescope on a new voyage of discovery. Together with the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), WFC3 will lead the way to many more exciting scientific discoveries.

Instrument Overview
WFC3 will study a diverse range of objects and phenomena, from young and extremely distant galaxies, to much more nearby stellar systems, to objects within our very own solar system. Its key feature is its ability to span the electromagnetic spectrum from the ultraviolet (UV, the kind of radiation that causes sunburn), through visible/ optical light (what our eyes can detect), and into the near infrared (NIR, the kind of radiation seen with night-vision goggles). WFC3 extends Hubble’s capability not only by seeing deeper into the universe but also by providing wide-field imagery in all three regions of the spectrum—UV-Visible-NIR. It is this wide-field “panchromatic” coverage of that makes WFC3 so unique. As an example, WFC3 will observe young, hot stars (glowing predominantly in UV) and older, cooler stars (glowing predominantly in the red and NIR) in the same galaxy.

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Future Helicopters Get SMART

Helicopters today are considered a loud, bumpy and inefficient mode for day-to-day domestic travel—best reserved for medical emergencies, traffic reporting and hovering over celebrity weddings.

But NASA research into rotor blades made with shape-changing materials could change that view.

Twenty years from now, large rotorcraft could be making short hops between cities such as New York and Washington, carrying as many as 100 passengers at a time in comfort and safety.

Routine transportation by rotorcraft could help ease air traffic congestion around the nation's airports. But noise and vibration must be reduced significantly before the public can embrace the idea.

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Cheap Plastic Could Improve Electronic Devices

Cheap plastic in CDs and DVDs could one day improve the integrity of electronics in aircraft, computers and handheld electronics, researchers said today.

Shay Curran, associate professor of physics at University of Houston , and his research team created ultra-high electrical conductive properties in plastics, called polycarbonates, by mixing them with carbon nanotubes.

Computer failure, for instance, results from the build up of thermal and electrical charges, so developing these polymer nanotube composites into an antistatic coating or to provide a shield against electromagnetic interference would increase the lifespan of computing devices, ranging from PCs to PDAs.

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Turning the Tide to Energy: New Concept Could Harness the Power of Ocean Waves

NASA researchers who developed a new way to power robotic underwater vehicles believe a spin-off technology could help convert ocean energy into electrical energy on a much larger scale. The researchers hope that clean, renewable energy produced from the motion of the ocean and rivers could potentially meet an important part of the world's demand for electricity.

Many different methods already exist for using moving water to create power. Hydroelectric plants, for example, are among the most established and least expensive sources of electricity. They benefit from the large hydrostatic pressure difference between the water surface behind the dam and the turbines that can be harnessed to produce power. But the power that can be produced in this manner is limited, because most of the suitable rivers already have hydroelectric dams.

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Ultimate Fridge Magnets Could Save Energy

Magnetic refrigeration technology could use 20-30 percent less energy than traditional gas-compression fridges and air conditioners used today. But the material needed to make them work hasn't been determined.

Now a step has been made toward figuring out what materials will work best.
A magnetic refrigeration system works by applying a magnetic field to a magnetic material — some of the most promising being metallic alloys — causing it to heat up. This excess heat is removed from the system by water, cooling the material back down to its original temperature. When the magnetic field is removed the material cools down even further, and it is this cooling property that researchers hope to harness for a wide variety of cooling applications.

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Patent reveals Google's book-scanning advantage

Sometimes overlooked in the Sturm und Drang about Google Book Search is any consideration of the mechanics of economically scanning the books in the first place, but a patent awarded to Google gives insight into how the search behemoth accomplishes the task.

In short, Google has come up with a system that uses two cameras and infrared light to automatically correct for the curvature of pages in a book. By constructing a 3D model of each page and then "de-warping" it afterward, Google can present flat-looking pages online without having to slice books up or mash them onto a flatbed scanner.

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RFID Laptop Security Application

Xterprise today announced the commercial availability of Clarity ITAM - Laptop Security System, available as a standalone application, or as a module within the Clarity IT Asset Management application suite. Already deployed at several sites of Fortune 100 companies in North America, the application is specifically designed to track and secure highly mobile sensitive enterprise assets and the information they contain. Built on the Clarity Application Framework, featuring Microsoft platform technology such as BizTalk Server and SQL Server, the application is a highly scalable, low total cost of ownership solution to laptop security that can be deployed within a few short weeks.

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IBM launches new real-time data analysis software

IBM Corp is set to begin selling a long-awaited software aimed at helping companies analyze real-time data, ranging from traffic data to manufacturing processes, to find more efficient ways to run their business.

IBM, which has shifted its focus from computers to higher-margin software and services over the past decade, said the new software, named IBM System S, will be available from Friday following six years of development.

The software is designed to analyze streams of real-time data and could help financial institutions monitor transactions and analyze risks, or help hospitals monitor patients to detect problems early, the company said.

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Photo-direct vehicle camouflage matches battlefield

While military camouflage patterns for vehicles have evolved, the application process has been stuck in the spray booth. Now, however, GI equivalents of Earl Scheib can apply a precut "wrap" of adhesive vinyl that will blend in on virtually any battlefield.

The process is similar to the advertising and decorative wraps commonly seen on cars and buses, except that this product from Military Wraps, called Photo Veil, is lightweight and incorporates images from cameras on drones, satellites, or lidar in the field and loops them back to be applied to vehicles or equipment as site-specific, high-resolution camouflage.

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Raytheon Secures $19.8 M for Production of Towed Decoys

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has received a $19.8 million contract for continued production of its ALE-50 line of towed decoys.

The award by the U.S. Air Force Warner Robins Air Logistics Center represents the 13th production lot of ALE-50 decoys, which are used by the Navy as well as the Air Force. The contract calls for 807 decoys for the Air Force to be delivered through April 2011.

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Future of military aviation lies with drones: US admiral

Unmanned aircraft likely represent the future for US military aviation with next generation bombers and fighter planes operating without pilots onboard, the top US military officer said on Thursday.

"We're at a real time of transition here in terms of the future of aviation, and the whole issue of what's going to be manned and what's going to be unmanned," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate hearing.

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KONGSBERG releases White Paper on Military and Civilian Port Security

Kongsberg Mesotech Ltd., is pleased to release a white paper outlining the most recent technological advances in sonar technologies and how these can protect military and civilian ports and visiting ships from attack by enemy divers. The white paper is entitled "New Advances in Sonar Diver Detection Systems: The Hidden Threat Facing Military and Civilian Ports."

This new Kongsberg white paper outlines the hidden threat presented by underwater diver incursion, as evidenced by groups such as the Tamil "Sea" Tigers having been able to mount successful underwater attacks in ports. It also reviews the latest technological improvements in underwater acoustical diver detection systems in these key areas: hardware, tracking software and data fusion/systems integration.

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Protonex to Extend Capabilities of UAV Propulsion Systems

Protonex Technology Corporation, a leading provider of advanced fuel cell power systems for portable, remote and mobile applications, today announced that it has received a $265,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for advanced development of high performance fuel cell systems for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This award expands upon a series of efforts by Protonex to miniaturize fuel cells for use in smaller UAVs.

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Honeywell Provides Satellite Precision Landing System for Bremen Airport

Honeywell announced today that installation is complete for its SmartPath(tm) Precision Landing System at Bremen Airport in Germany. Honeywell's technology is a ground-based augmentation system that supports precision approach and landings using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data and transmits digital guidance signals to aircraft systems.

"The flexibility of Honeywell's SmartPath system allows for multiple approach paths, enabling airports to increase capacity without expensive runway expansions," said TK Kallenbach, Honeywell Aerospace Vice President, Marketing and Program Management. "The precise approach path can allow airports to reduce noise in surrounding communities while operators save fuel and lower emissions."

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DARPA working on inertial-nav 'Smart Boot' tech

Elite Pentagon deathnerds have just awarded a contract for development of a highly accurate inertial navigation module which will fit in the heel of a shoe.

Massachusetts sensors'n'tracking company Intersense were chuffed to announce the deal this week, in which the firm will work with Case Western university to deliver tiny yet highly accurate inertial-nav units under a programme called Micro Inertial Navigation Technology (MINT).

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Growing Markets for Active Electronically-scanned Arrays

Airborne applications represent the main markets with 379 “free world” shipments in 2009 rising to 1,638 in 2015. These markets are typically two orders of magnitude above those applying to either the land-based or shipboard segments. Total “free world” market values are just over US$6 B in 2009 which more than doubles to exceed US$13 B for 2015. Throughout the report the geographic segmentations are: Europe, North America and the Rest of the “Free World” (RoW).

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AMD Breaks 1GHz GPU Barrier With Radeon HD 4890

Beginning now, however, users with a lust for raw horsepower can sink their teeth into a factory overclocked, air-cooled HD 4890 that hits the magical 1GHz barrier. There's been no formal announcement made about what partners will be selling the 1GHz variant, but AMD does note that Asus, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), ITC, Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and XFX are all estatic about the news.

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GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping in 2010

At the end of April 2009, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report expressing concern about the Air Force's modernization and maintenance of the GPS system. Constant replacement and upgrading of satellites is necessary, especially with hardware that's been operating in space for almost two decades.

The GAO's report draws attention to problems that the Air Force has had in working with contractors to build and launch GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals. Some of the problems stem from government acquisition methods that didn't provide for enough oversight, and added requirements that resulted in cost and schedule overruns.

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Reliable Acoustic Path Vertical Line Array

DESCRIPTION: In recent years the U.S. Navy has researched the utility of deep water (i.e., 6 km depth, 3 deg C temperature) acoustic sensing technologies that exploit the reliable acoustic path (RAP) [1] using vertical line arrays (VLAs) of vector sensors [2,3]. The first RAP VLA array was large and deployed over the side of a research vessel [3]. The sensing nodes consisted of a pressure hydrophone, a triaxial pressure-gradient hydrophone, and an electronics housing all contained within a free-flooding plastic frame having a diameter and length of 13-in x 41-in. The measured acoustic signals were routed to a central node that served as a data recorder. Future arrays will be smaller and deployed from tactical naval platforms using existing packaging modalities

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The Future Sneaks Up On You

The U.S. Army is caught in the middle of a debate over its future. Many politicians want to turn the army into a force specializing in irregular warfare (as seen in Iraq and Afghanistan). Many generals, and some politicians, warn that the army is still needed for conventional warfare, against a foe with lots of armor, aircraft and trained troops. While the army still contains many armored unit (about half the 45 brigades are equipped with tanks and other armored vehicles), many of the tank crews have gone to Iraq and served as infantry. In the last five years, very little mechanized warfare training has been done. The troops train for Iraq and Afghanistan, which means infantry fighting.

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Illusion Cloak Makes One Object Look like Another

Just when you thought invisibility cloaks couldn't get any weirder, researchers come up with this: a way to make one object look like any other.

Invisibility cloaks work by steering light around a region of space, making any object inside that region invisible. In effect, an invisibility cloak creates the illusion of free space. This is possible because of a new generation of artificial materials called metamaterials that can, in principle at least, steer light in any way imaginable. Indeed, various teams have built real invisibility cloaks that hide objects from view in both the microwave and optical bands.

Now Che Chan and pals from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology say that metamaterials could be used for an even more exotic effect: for cloaks that create the illusion that a different object is present.

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ThinGap Announces: Exhaust-Based Generator System for Mass-Produced Automobiles Set to Improve Fuel Economy

Designed to fit into engine compartment of passenger cars, SUVs, and pick-up trucks, Turbo Generator generates electrical energy from vehicle exhaust gases before being emitted into atmosphere. System supplies electric power to vehicle's electrical system and drives engine accessories that are currently crankshaft-driven. In addition, generator can directly drive flywheel motor of semi-hybrid vehicles and supplement energy supply to battery system of full hybrid vehicles.

ThinGap Automotive, a majority-owned subsidiary of ThinGap LLC, today announced the Turbo Generator, a subsystem for increasing fuel economy of mass-produced vehicles by generating electrical energy from vehicle exhaust gases before being emitted into the atmosphere. The company expects significant fuel savings in the US and European fuel economy test cycles and all other vehicle operating modes as well.

"Up to 40 percent of fuel energy for internal combustion engines is lost through exhaust gas, a large portion of which the Turbo Generator converts to electricity, which can help Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's) meet the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulation that requires a 40 percent increase in fuel economy," said Rean Pretorius, CEO of ThinGap Automotive.

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Better Place unveils robot battery swap station

Many have wondered what Better Place's vaunted automated battery changing stations might look like. So the company, a would-be pioneer in electric cars and their attendant infrastructure, has released a slick video showing how it’s done at a demonstration site in Yokohama, Japan.

Swapping out the discharged battery from an electric Nissan SUV for a fully charged one took slightly more than a minute, according to the video, or less time than it might take you to gas up your car. And you wouldn't even have to get out (talk about full service).

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New nanocrystal doesn't blink

Scientists at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) have created a nanocrystal that doesn't blink--in other words, after absorbing a photon, it will always radiate the energy away as another photon, rather than sometimes converting it to heat.

For more than a decade, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to create continuously emitting light sources from individual molecules because of an optical quirk called "blinking," but now scientists at the University of Rochester have uncovered the basic physics behind the phenomenon, and along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light.

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Engineers Evolve Transistors for Next-Gen Chips

Concepts gleaned from the study of evolution could help overcome manufacturing problems in future computer chips. That’s the hope, at least, of researchers in the Intelligent Systems Group at the University of York, in England, who will present their findings next week at the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, in Trondheim, Norway.

As key components of transistors shrink from 45 to 22 nanometers, tiny natural variations in manufacturing—which make no difference in larger devices—start to affect performance. For instance, there’s no way to control the exact arrangement of atoms of doping elements within a lattice of silicon, and different levels of dopant will alter electrical effects. At these tiny sizes, line edges and surfaces that define components also have a natural roughness that can’t be avoided and can trip up a transistor’s function.

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DARPA to Seek Underground Targets with Laser, Gravity Sensors

Raytheon is developing a new laser-assisted sensor system to demonstrate the detection and location buried land mines and tunnels. The system developed under a $19 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will utilize a laser radar vibration sensor, (also known as LADAR vibrometer) to detect underground targets by measuring the reverberation of the ground-surface in response to artificial stimulus (vibration), measuring the anomalies created by underground objects or activity.

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ABL Boosters Look to Kills for Survival

Boeing plans to bolster support for the hard-pressed 747-based Airborne Laser missile defense program by quickly following an upcoming first full-scale missile shoot-down demonstration with laser interceptions of everything from short-range tactical weapons to intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“The intent is to go out and shoot another missile very quickly and demonstrate it’s not a one-shot wonder,” says Boeing ABL program director Michael Rinn. A follow-on contract to the current flight tests will include test shots against a wide range of targets, he asserts. “I’d like to shoot down short-range, intermediate-range, and intercontinental ballistic-range missiles,” Rinn says.

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New Tissue Scaffold Regrows Cartilage And Bone

MIT engineers and colleagues have built a new tissue scaffold that can stimulate bone and cartilage growth when transplanted into the knees and other joints.

The scaffold could offer a potential new treatment for sports injuries and other cartilage damage, such as arthritis, says Lorna Gibson, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and co-leader of the research team with Professor William Bonfield of Cambridge University.

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USAF Developing New 3DELRR Long-Range Radar

The U.S. Air Force awarded firm-fixed-price contracts to 2 companies for radar engineering and design support during the technology development phase of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long Range Radar (3DELRR) Program. Lockheed Martin Corp. received a $24.9 million contract (FA8722-09-C-0003), and Sensis Corp. received a $21.9 million contract (FA8722-09-C-0001). The Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA, is managing the contracts.

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