BROAD STRATEGIC APPRAISALS

Thursday, October 22, 2009

SpaceX Successfully Completes 1st Stage 9-Engine Rocket Firing

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully conducted two static firings of the first stage, nine engine cluster for its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The firings took place at SpaceX's Texas Test Site, a 300-acre structural and propulsion testing facility just outside of Waco, Texas. With completion of these tests, the first stage has now passed both structural and propulsion acceptance testing and will ship to Cape Canaveral in preparation for the first flight of Falcon 9.

Laser microscope aims to uncover alien life

The hunt for signs of extraterrestrial life usually focuses on detecting molecules associated with living organisms. Direct observation through optical imaging would be more conclusive, so Hans Kreuzer and Manfred Jericho at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and their colleagues have taken a different approach. They have built a robust microscope that can be dunked into water to detect any microscopic life forms that may be swimming or floating there.

Army places new orders for standards-based RFID tags

Savi Technology Inc. will provide supply-tracking technology to the Defense Department under new contracts totaling $6.6 million. Savi will deliver standards-based active radio frequency identification tracking technologies and accompanying services under DOD’s RFID III procurement contract, company officials said today.

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Will GE's Handheld Ultrasound Become the Next Stethoscope?

As early as 2010, doctors will likely be able to perform ultrasound scans during a routine office exam or at the scene of an accident or in many other on-the-spot circumstances using a device no larger than a smartphone. The gadget could revolutionize patient care, but its use raises many thorny questions about costs, benefits and unforeseen consequences.

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Sharp Develops Solar Cell with World's Highest Conversion Efficiency of 35.8%

Sharp has now succeeded in forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its proprietary technology for forming layers. As a result, the amount of wasted current has been minimized, and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%.

"Smart grids are like a hacker's wet dream"

"Smart grids are like a hacker's wet dream," IRA Winkler, president of Internet Security Advisors Group, told a press briefing at RSA Conference Europe in London this week.The essential problem is that smart grid devices like intelligent power meters are PC-based and are thus subject to all the vulnerabilities of any computer system. "Smart grids are essentially computers that have a special purpose," Winkler said.

World’s Biggest Digital Brains Think in Teraflops, Model the Universe

Blue Brain Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
What it does - Simulates the interactions among neurons in the neocortex — the brain’s reasoning center — to learn how thinking works
Processors 8,192 Peak teraflops 22.4

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Huge CCD Could Give Real-Time View of Dark Energy Hunt

The world’s largest sky-survey telescope may deliver its 3,200-megapixel images of the universe to the public in near–real time.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, scheduled to capture its first light at the end of 2014, might be able to incorporate real-time image processing that would deliver the project’s photos to the web in minutes, not months.

Why Windows 7's Default UAC Is Insecure

When you run Windows 7 with the default UAC level, a technique using code injection and several components in Windows 7 that can auto-elevate can totally own your system. Microsoft gave several components in Windows 7 special privileges (like notepad.exe and calc.exe) in order to reduce the amount of UAC prompts in Windows. The end result, however, is that these components can be used to bypass UAC completely, and basically get full access to your machine. This works even on the RC.

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REX, an Infantry Friendly Robot

AI has unveiled today a compact unmanned ground robotic vehicle designed to support infantry units in combat. The platform, dubbed REX has a useful payload of 200 kg (450 lb), providing logistical sustainment for an infantry team or squad (3-10 soldiers) over a 72 hours mission.

NASA Picks Turbojet For TBCC Engine Test

NASA has selected a Williams International high-speed turbojet as the turbine element of its Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) engine test rig, which will be used to evaluate technologies for potential future two-stage to orbit launcher concepts.

NASA Should Consider Canceling Ares Rocket, Panel Says

In a 157-page report titled “Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation,” most of the options proposed by the 10-member panel turn to private companies to provide astronauts with the ride to low-Earth orbit and replace Moon landings with the “flexible path” approach — flybys of the Moon and Mars and visits to asteroids and deep-space locales that do not require development of complicated landers.

Northrop Grumman Begins Full Rate Production Of New B-2 Bomber Radar

The nation's fleet of B-2 stealth bombers will all receive a new Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)-developed radar system following the U.S. Air Force's decision to authorize full-rate production of the units by the company's Radar Modernization Program (RMP).

Israel, U.S. test air defense against Iran

Israel and the United States kicked off Wednesday a major air defense exercise that will simulate a missile attack on Israel.

Code-named Juniper Cobra, the two-week exercise is the largest drill ever between the two countries.

Next-Generation Land Mine Jammers Will Be Linked to Network

The next-generation devices, whether mounted, dismounted, or fixed, will be linked by wireless communication to ensure that IEDs are detected and disabled wherever they are. Currently, jammers work in either a mounted or dismounted role, which reduces their flexibility and interoperability.

Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense Modifications

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to take research on nitride-based electronic devices and integrated circuits – used in tactical radio systems, phased array radar, and satellite communication – to the next level.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

ZigBee low-power radio networking

ZigBee is a low-power radio networking technology. It can support thousands of nodes in dynamic star and mesh networks. This is in contrast to Wibree, or ULP Bluetooth, for example, which links a small number of nodes to a host device, such as computer or phone.

The main application focus for Zigbee devices is monitoring and control. Examples of use include: lighting controls, medical sensing and monitoring, heating controls, smoke detectors and even smart meters.

Weather “Shapes and forms our human clock”

Scientists have discovered, our internal body clocks are formed by the weather plus by the seasons. Researchers employed computers to model the functions of internal biological clocks.
They discovered that the system had to be so complex since it was capable to deal with changeable amounts of light from hour to hour, in addition to varying seasons.

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Frankencamera Could Herald a New Digital Photography Era

Developed by a team of Stanford scientists, the Frankencamerais an open source camera that could change photography by giving users the power to manipulate its features and capabilities in ways that might not yet have even been imagined.

Microsoft, Dell, Spectrum Bridge launch first public white spaces network

The first public white spaces network officially launched on Wednesday in Claudville, Virginia. It is uses sensing technology from Spectrum Bridge with software and Web cams supplied by Microsoft and PCs supplied by Dell. The project was funded the TDF Foundation.

Improved Electric Propulsion Could Boost Satellite Lifetimes

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have won a $6.5 million grant to develop improved components that will boost the efficiency of electric propulsion systems used to control the positions of satellites and planetary probes.

Roll Out of Ares I-X Marks Major Milestone for ATK and NASA

Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) and NASA made history today as the Ares I-X rocket rolled to the launch pad, marking the first time in more than 25 years a new vehicle has left the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

ITT Extends Leadership in C-IED Technology

ITT Corporation (NYSE:ITT) has been awarded a $16 million contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command to develop next-generation technologies that will defeat Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). This award, the Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Electronic Warfare (JCREW) 3.3, builds on ITT's clear leadership in counter-IED technology, with more than 20,000 JCREW systems designed and built by ITT currently in the field.

50 nuclear missiles deactivated at Malmstrom

Malmstrom Air Force Base officials say they have completed deactivation of 50 missile launch facilities for the 564th Missile Squadron after two years of work.

A maintenance group put in more than 29,000 hours to remove all the major equipment and components from the silos, as well as the five missile-alert facilities that controlled them.

Super-Sized Memory Could Fit Into Tiny Chips

North Carolina State University engineers have created a new material that could allow a fingernail-sized chip to store the equivalent of 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text — that’s 50 times the capacity of current memory chips.

Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations

Just 15 minutes of near-total sensory deprivation can bring on hallucinations in many otherwise sane individuals.

Psychologists stuck 19 healthy volunteers into a sensory-deprivation room, completely devoid of light and sound, for 15 minutes. Without the normal barrage of sensory information flooding their brains, many people reported experiencing visual hallucinations, paranoia and a depressed mood.

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Scientists Find A Precision Clock Logging the Milliseconds Inside Your Brain

Certain neurons in the striatum and prefrontal cortex fire at certain intervals, which MIT researchers have determined to be an internal clock time-stamping sensory experiences for memory just as a digital camera might time-stamp a photo file.

Consortium joins with China, Japan, and Korea to promote 3D technology

Representatives of the 3D@Home Consortium (San Jose, CA; www.3dathome.org), dedicated to speeding the commercialization of three-dimensional (3D) technology and content to the home, met with their counterparts from the 3D Fusion Industry Consortium (3DFIC; www.3dfic.org) of Korea, the China 3D Industry Association (C3D; www.c3dworld.org), and the 3D Consortium (3DC; www.3dc.gr.jp) of Japan, to discuss collaborative efforts to advance 3D technology and markets (see "3-D displays transcend consumer novelty").

Treaties Prompt Redesign Of Cluster Bombs

International pressure is driving militaries to adopt alternatives to cluster bombs. The weapons are controversial because they leave unexploded ordnance (UXO) on a battlefield, where it can injure or kill civilians. Treaties may limit their use, and suppliers are looking at ways of adapting weapons to new requirements. These could include a shift toward unitary warheads, enhanced fuzes and fail-safe measures that eliminate UXOs.

U.S.A.F. Launches Major Technology Review

In the midst of a deeply entrenched identity crisis, the U.S. Air Force is turning to technology as the potential answer to some of its problems.

Air Force Chief Scientist Werner Dahm is conducting a sweeping “Technology Horizons” study to lay out technological opportunities that could produce useful applications for the service.

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