BROAD STRATEGIC APPRAISALS

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Space junk piles up into threat to future launches

A BURGEONING blizzard of space debris is going to have a major impact on the future economics of space flight.

That was the prediction made this week by Hugh Lewis of the University of Southampton, UK, at the European Air and Space Conference in Manchester. His projections indicate that the number of close encounters between objects in orbit will rise 50 per cent in the next decade, and quadruple by 2059. Countermeasures will add greatly to the cost of future missions.

Navy to increase broadband speed tenfold

The Navy is about to install new satellite technology that will increase bandwidth by up to 10 times what is currently available on board ships.

The new terminals will provide frigates, cruisers and destroyers with access to high-speed Internet, video and other broadband services. The terminals are part of the Commercial Broadband Satellite Program's Unit Level Variant program.

Stealthy Nanoparticles Attack Cancer Cells

Scientists at BIND have shown that their nanoparticles--which are not only infused with drugs but also enrobed in cancer-targeting proteins--can better stop the growth of prostate, breast and lung tumors in rodents.

Cryptographic Voting System

Scantegrity is an open source election verification technology for optical scan voting systems. It uses privacy preserving confirmation numbers to allow each voter to verify her vote is counted. The confirmation numbers also allow anyone to verify that all the votes were counted correctly.

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Portable 3-D laser technology

Z Corporation introduced the world’s most affordable portable 3D laser scanner, providing high-resolution 3D data capture to a broad base of users at an economical price.

Spacesuits with artificial intelligence may look for life on Mars

Astronauts may in future be wearing spacesuits equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital eyes, turning them into what the researchers call cyborg astrobiologists.

Tiny injector to speed development of new, safer, cheaper drugs

It's no bigger than a stamp packet but it has the potential to allow rapid development of a new generation of drugs and genetic engineering organisms, and to better control in-vitro fertilization.

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Boeing Delivers Upgrades for USAF ICBM Security System

The Boeing Company today announced that it has delivered upgraded cryptography devices to Northrop Grumman Corporation and the U.S. Air Force for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. The devices provide additional communications security between the missile system's launch control centers and launch facilities.

Obama Announces Winners of Smart-Grid Stimulus

President Barack Obama spoke at Florida Power and Light’s new DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center about $3.4 billion in stimulus money going to smart-grid projects that will help link renewables to consumers.

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Silk-Silicon Implantable Electronics Conform to Tissues, Then Melt Away

In the quest to make our bodies ever more bionic, researchers have now developed implantable silicon-silk electronics that almost dissolve completely inside the body, leaving behind nanocircuitry that could be used for improved electrical interfaces for nervous system tissues or photonic tattoos that display blood-sugar readouts on the skin’s surface.

US Navy chief favors speeding up unmanned programs

Wants to speed up autonomous underwater systems

Navy unmanned combat plane could move out sooner

The U.S. Navy's top admiral said on Monday he hoped to speed up work on unmanned weapons systems, including underwater vehicles and an unmanned combat plane being developed by Northrop Grumman Corp.

Laser-Powered Elevator to Space Hits Some Snags

A laser-powered robot failed to complete its climb up a long cable dangling from a helicopter Wednesday in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators.

Chilton: U.S. Needs More Ready-to-Launch Satellites

U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton said Nov. 3 he would give up new, state-of-the-art space systems to swell the number of satellites the military could launch as needs arise.

The U.S military's space community has become focused on managing programs and budgets "to capability gaps" rather than ensuring there are ample space systems "in the barn" ready to be placed on orbit.

BAE Systems to Support US Air Force Nuclear Treaty Monitoring

BAE Systems received a contract worth up to $20 million to support the US Air Force global monitoring for nuclear treaty compliance.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Compressing photonic signals for greater bandwidth

Cornell researchers have developed an ingenious method to time-compress optical signals. The process could enable optical communication systems to carry many more bits per second or could also be used to generate short bursts of light with complex waveforms needed to control chemistry and physics experiments where changes are induced by light.

NASA: 2 companies win $1.65M moon lander prize

NASA said it will this week award $1.65 million in prize money to a pair of aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again.

Large Hadron Collider to start up in three weeks

A piece of cable was responsible last year for the world's most expensive short circuit.

More than $50 million-worth of damage was done to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most advanced particle accelerator ever built, a few days after its ceremonial opening.

China commander says space weapons inevitable

A top China air force commander has called the militarization of space an "historical inevitability", state media said Monday, marking an apparent shift in Beijing's opposition to weaponising outer space.

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Turning Twitter into an application server

As much as Twitter is a powerful communication and social application, it's a relatively simple Web app. As part of a new contest sponsored by Engine Yard, Ruby on Rails developers are going to turn Twitter into their own application server.

Zinc air battery maker looks beyond lithium

Start-up ReVolt Technology is developing rechargeable zinc air batteries, a technology it says promises longer runtime for consumer electronics and plug-in vehicles.

The Switzerland-based company, which was spun out of a Norwegian research institute five years ago, anticipates commercializing a rechargeable coin-size batteries next year. But the technology has the potential to be a cheaper and more energy-dense alternative to lithium ion batteries in consumer electronics, grid storage, and transportation.

Northrop Grumman Corporation to Provide Precision Pointing Concept

Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) milli-Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscope (mHRG)-based precision pointing concept has been selected by the U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) for exploration under the Far Target Location Improvement Program Broad Agency Announcement.

GD to Develop New High-Speed Encryptor

General Dynamics C4 Systems has been awarded a $7.6 million contract to develop the new KG-530 SONET OC-768C in-line encryptor in support of an NSA initiative to secure and distribute data, at a full 40 gigabits per second line rate, used for government and military missions.

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Russia Leads Nuclear Space Race After U.S. Drops Out

The Russian space agency may build a nuclear-powered spacecraft with the blessing of the country’s leader, Russian and international media reported Thursday.

The craft would cost $600 million and Russian scientists claim it could be ready as early as 2012.

Three-dimensional solar cells

Using zinc-oxide nanostructures grown on optical fibres and coated with dye-sensitised solar-cell materials, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of three-dimensional photovoltaic (PV) system.

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Cheap, Printed Solar LEDs To Light Up Off-Grid African Villages

Danish researcher Frederik Krebs has created an LED lamp embedded within a flexible, printable solar panel that could replace the kerosene lamps still used around the developing world.

While sheets of photovoltaics aren't that new, Krebs is the first person to embed LEDs inside those solar panels.

Trident laser accelerates protons to record energies

An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can now accelerate particles to extremely high velocities that would otherwise only be possible using large accelerator facilities.

New System-on-a-Chip Boosts the Appeal of E-Ink

Marvell’s Armada 166e builds an E-Ink graphics controller right into the processor, allowing for e-readers that cost less — with displays that refresh more quickly.

Power-beamers rise again

Like the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, the Power Beaming Challenge is part of the NASA-backed Centennial Challenges, a program aimed at encouraging new technologies that could be adopted by the space agency for future exploration.

US Navy LockMart Contract For Design Of New Surface Ship Electronic Warfare System

The U.S. Navy recently selected Lockheed Martin to provide its next-generation of electronic warfare (EW) systems for surface ships, which will significantly improve the Navy's ability to detect threats to the fleet.

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Pentagon Touts New, Lighter Vehicle for Afghanistan

The Pentagon on Monday showed off a new, lighter armored vehicle built for the rugged roads of Afghanistan, saying it was rushing to ship the "life-savers" to U.S. troops.

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