Technical (News/Activism)

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  • New analysis: "The Russians Are Coming: The T-50's Flight to the Future"

    02/10/2010 12:56:45 AM PST · by Primorsky · 4 replies · 193+ views
    Grande Strategy ^ | 8 February 2010 | Meinhaj Hussain
    Introduction In late January 2010, the PAK FA made its maiden flight, ushering in an end to an era of US dominance of stealth, fifth generation fighter aircraft. Military analysts of every shade and nation spent endless times speculating and awaited the first flight with sleepless nights and over bitter arguments about its final configuration, for the PAK FA was kept so secretive that none other than a very choice few knew what it would look like. Combat aircraft are the spear tip of any military power, and play a pivotal role in air warfare. And in today's day and...
  • X-51A WaveRider Gets First Ride Aboard B-52

    02/09/2010 9:43:06 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 8 replies · 491+ views
    Space War ^ | 1/10/2010 | Derek Kaufman/Air Base Wing Public Affairs
    In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...
  • Foam Replacing Wax In Aerospace Casting Foundries

    02/09/2010 9:38:34 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 3 replies · 140+ views
    Space War ^ | 1/10/2010 | Mr. Heyward Burnette/Air Force Office of Scientific Research
    Funded in part by Air Force Research Laboratory Manufacturing Technology Small Business Innovation Research contracts, FOPAT Production is producing breakthrough foam patterns for casting foundries and other manufacturers of aerospace components. The advanced patterns will improve casting processes by replacing wax, a known problematic material, with foam. Estimates indicate the development will generate $5 million in yearly energy savings, as well as $140 million in productivity, material savings, and scrap reduction. The work also supports goals of ManTech's Advanced Manufacturing Propulsion Initiative, which seeks to transform the Air Force propulsion supplier base in order both to assure industrial capability and...
  • Security chip that does encryption in PCs hacked

    02/09/2010 3:40:32 PM PST · by Neil E. Wright · 33 replies · 656+ views
    AP/Yahoo News ^ | Feburary 08, 2010 | JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer
    SAN FRANCISCO – Deep inside millions of computers is a digital Fort Knox, a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets, including classified government reports and confidential business plans. Now a former U.S. Army computer-security specialist has devised a way to break those locks.The attack can force heavily secured computers to spill documents that likely were presumed to be safe. This discovery shows one way that spies and other richly financed attackers can acquire military and trade secrets, and comes as worries about state-sponsored computer espionage intensify, underscored by recent hacking attacks on Google Inc.The new attack discovered...
  • Problem with Firefox

    02/09/2010 1:05:19 PM PST · by ProudFossil · 29 replies · 754+ views
    February 9, 2009 | vanity
    I recently switched from IE6 to Firefox and now have a glitch which is rather annoying. I enter a reply message on a thread and click preview. I then get an error message stating FireFox could not find the link I was connecting to (there is no link in the message) or I was not logged on. I back arrow to the screen with the message entry and click preview again. This time it works and I am able to post the message. Any suggestions or hints on how to correct this problem will be greatly appreciated. Mike
  • Russia starts building 4th nuclear sub to carry Bulava missile

    02/09/2010 5:37:08 AM PST · by Primorsky · 7 replies · 339+ views
    Russia has started the construction of the fourth Borey-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine designed to carry the Bulava missile, a shipyard spokesman said on Monday. "The work on the sub construction effectively started last year," he said. It was previously reported that construction of the Project 955 Svyatitel Nikolai (St. Nicholas) submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk was delayed from December 2009 until the first quarter of 2010. Russia's newest Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, which is expected to be armed with the new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), is currently undergoing sea...
  • Full Speed Ahead For Silicon Aviators

    02/09/2010 1:07:35 AM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 8 replies · 340+ views
    The Stategy Page ^ | 01/08/2010 | The Strategy Page
    The U.S. Navy has sped up its efforts to ready its X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial System), for carrier operations. This includes an additional $2 billion for development, in an attempt to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier, and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations, within five years. Senior admirals see this as a way to solve several problems. One is the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in UAV operations (with their fleet of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAVs). Then there is the growing cost of the new F-35, that is...
  • Air Force-Funded Research Is Shattering Traditional Notions Of Laser Limits

    02/09/2010 12:26:12 AM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 13 replies · 366+ views
    Space War ^ | 01/09/2010 | Maria Callier/Air Force Office of Scientific Research
    Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection. The semiconductor, called a plasmon, can focus light the size of a single protein in a space that is smaller than half its wavelength while maintaining laser-like qualities that allow it to not dissipate over time. "Proposed almost seven years ago, researchers had been unable to demonstrate a working plasmonic laser until our experiment," said Zhang. "It is an...
  • Lasers Creates New Forms of Metal and Enhances Aircraft Performance

    02/09/2010 12:19:31 AM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 7 replies · 367+ views
    Space War ^ | 02/09/2010 | Maria Callier/AFNS
    Dr. Chunlei Guo and his team of Air Force Research Laboratory-funded researchers from the University of Rochester are using laser light technology that will help the military create new forms of metal that may guide, attract, and repel liquids and cool small electronic devices. The researchers discovered a way to transform a shiny piece of metal into one that is pitch black, not by paint, but by using incredibly intense bursts of laser light. Dr. Guo and his team have been working on creating technology that may enable the Air Force to create an additional kind of metal. The black...
  • Ballistic Missile Threat Modeling

    02/08/2010 11:46:16 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 3 replies · 123+ views
    Aerospace Corporation ^ | unknown | John S. McLaughlin
    Development and operation of an effective missile defense system depends on a sound understanding of the threat—i.e., reliable models of how foreign missile systems look and operate. The most effective threat models are derived through close interaction between defense system designers and intelligence community experts. This interaction improves the designer's understanding of the intelligence driving the system requirements and the intelligence producer's understanding of which aspects of the missile threat are most important. The utility of a threat model may not depend on more degrees of freedom or decimals of precision, but rather, on a solid grasp of general target...
  • G’day Mate: Australian Defence Force Deploys Integrated RF Communication System

    02/08/2010 6:43:49 PM PST · by James C. Bennett · 2 replies · 106+ views
    Defense Industry Daily ^ | 07-Feb-2010 15:01 AEST | Defense Industry Daily
    To provide Australian armed forces with an integrated communications system, the Australian Defence Force contracted with Boeing Defence Australia, a subsidiary of US-based Boeing, to deploy an integrated HF communications system throughout the country, replacing the separate HF communications systems operated by each service. The A$628 million (US$547 million) system – called the Modernized High Frequency Communications System (MHFCS) – provides the ADF with a nation-wide secure command and control network for all of the armed forces. The project is divided into two phases [pdf] – the MHFCS core system and the final system. The core system was delivered in...
  • DOD Studying Rocket Motor Sustainment

    02/08/2010 4:43:09 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 11 replies · 267+ views
    Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 01/08/2010 | Amy Butler
    The Pentagon is participating in an interagency integrated team convened to explore how best to sustain the rocket motor industrial base — a mandate made all the more urgent given NASA’s planned cancellation of the Constellation program, according to Brett Lambert, the Defense Dept.’s industrial policy director. Each of NASA’s Ares V launchers would have required six RS-68 engines, which are common to the U.S. Air Force’s Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Already, Air Force officials are seeing an uptick in the per-unit price of each EELV because procurement has slowed to keep pace with delayed satellite programs....
  • Super Bowl Diesel (Audi TDI)

    02/08/2010 12:13:35 PM PST · by Red Badger · 21 replies · 1,132+ views
    Theenergycollective.com ^ | 02-08-2010 | Geoff Styles
    In addition to a pair of well-matched teams and a sufficient dose of fourth-quarter suspense concerning the outcome, yesterday's Super Bowl was the first in several years to feature an ad meriting comment in an energy blog. The subject of the ad was the new Audi A3 TDI clean diesel car, which was recently named "Green Car of the Year" for 2010. I was intrigued by the ad's tagline of "Green has never felt so right", positioning the car as painlessly green. Having had the opportunity to drive one at the recent Washington Auto Show, I can attest that the...
  • Welcome to Cyberairspace

    02/07/2010 11:06:21 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 2 replies · 204+ views
    Although I’m sitting in the living room of a second-floor condominium in Germantown, Maryland, what I see on the monitor of Dan Ward’s Dell computer invites me to imagine I’m in the cockpit of an Embraer 145 regional jet. Visible through a cockpit window is the jetway, which runs from the passenger door to a gate at Terminal 3 of Chicago O’Hare. The cockpit instruments are dark, but after Ward types in a few commands, the control panel lights up like a Christmas tree. Soon Ward, senior pilot for Delta Virtual Airlines, is keying flight data into the flight management...
  • Agni-III hits target, meets all objectives

    02/07/2010 8:50:39 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 5 replies · 304+ views
    The Economic Times ^ | 02/08/2010 | The Economic Times
    NEW DELHI: India on Sunday successfully test-fired its indigenous Agni-III ballistic missile, which has a range of over 3,500 km and can even strike targets deep inside China. This paves the way for induction of the nuclear-capable missile into the armed forces and consolidates India’s position among a select group of nations having intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) capability. The missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonne, is 17 metres tall and has a launch weight of 50 tonne with a two-metre diameter. It was tested on Sunday...
  • More Upgrades For Patriot Tactical Missile Defense System

    02/06/2010 10:12:21 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 154+ views
    Space War ^ | 02/05/2010 | SPX Via Space War
    Raytheon has been awarded a $58.2 million contract for Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical, or GEM-T, missiles. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AAMCOM), Redstone Arsenal, Ala., issued the contract to upgrade 124 Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles to the configuration. This is a follow-on contract issued as part of AAMCOM's Patriot missile continuous technology refreshment program initiated in 2000. "Patriot is combat proven and trusted by 12 nations around the globe, and the continuing upgrades speak to the critical role Patriot plays in those countries' air and missile defense capabilities," said Sanjay Kapoor, vice president for Patriot Programs at Raytheon...
  • Top British scientist says UN panel is losing credibility [UK Times]

    02/06/2010 5:18:09 PM PST · by PapaBear3625 · 47 replies · 1,234+ views
    The Times, UK ^ | February 7, 2010 | Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor
    A LEADING British government scientist has warned the United Nations’ climate panel to tackle its blunders or lose all credibility. Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming. The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the...
  • Chinese UAVs For Sale

    02/06/2010 5:00:42 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 7 replies · 477+ views
    The Strategy Page ^ | 01/05/2010 | The Strategy Page
    China is offering for export a 220 kg (484 pound) helicopter UAV. The U8E has a top speed of 150 kilometers an hour, endurance of four hours, range (from operator) of 150 kilometers and a payload of 40 kg (88 pounds). This is sufficient for day/night cameras, laser designators and the like. Police like these helicopter UAVs, soldiers less so. The U8E is not the first helicopter UAV, as American firms have fielded several. The smallest is the MAV (Micro Air Vehicle). This 7.7 kg (17 pound) vehicle can fly as high as 160 meters (500 feet), and carries day...
  • The Secret Submerged Service

    02/06/2010 4:53:06 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 1 replies · 481+ views
    The Strategy Page ^ | 02/06/2010 | The Strategy Page
    In a time of shrinking budgets, the U.S. Navy is making a big investment in intelligence. While plans to buy over a hundred P-8A maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and nearly as many EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft are obvious intel efforts, less obvious are the big buys of LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) class vessels and Virginia class attack subs (SSNs). These ships and subs are expected to do a lot of intel work. The LCS, mainly because it is optimized for coastal work, and quick changes in its mission equipment. Since the end of the Cold War, it's become more widely known...
  • The battery's dead: Scientists invent wafer-thin plastic that can store electricity

    02/06/2010 11:44:40 AM PST · by ruralvoter · 45 replies · 1,610+ views
    Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 2/6/10 | David Derbyshire
    The battery, which has powered our lives for generations, may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. British scientists say they have created a plastic that can store and release electricity, revolutionising the way we use phones, drive cars - and even wear clothes. It means the cases of mobiles and iPods could soon double up as their power source - leading to gadgets as thin as credit cards.
  • Sikorsky Venture to Build Unmanned Helicopters

    02/05/2010 9:45:59 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 9 replies · 385+ views
    Wharton Airspace ^ | 02/04/2010 | Wharton Airspace
    Light and small unmanned aerial vehicles, like the Blank's Predator, are increasingly common -- though rarely spotted in the sky. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. wants to bring that same technology to its much heavier Black Hawk helicopters. The company announced a billion-dollar venture, Sikorsky Innovations, to help transform the Black Hawk from mechanical workhorse to computerized aircraft, according to an article in the Houston Chronicle. The Black Hawk is a mainstay of the U.S. arsenal in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it is perfectly suited to traverse vast stretches of deserts and mountains. But its heavy use has also led to deadly...
  • The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop)

    02/05/2010 9:22:05 PM PST · by neverdem · 25 replies · 646+ views
    NY Times ^ | February 5, 2010 | JIM MOTAVALLI
    The electronic systems in modern cars and trucks — under new scrutiny as regulators continue to raise concerns about Toyota vehicles — are packed with up to 100 million lines of computer code, more than in some jet fighters. “It would be easy to say the modern car is a computer on wheels, but it’s more like 30 or more computers on wheels,” said Bruce Emaus, the chairman of SAE International’s embedded software standards committee. Even basic vehicles have at least 30 of these microprocessor-controlled devices, known as electronic control units, and some luxury cars have as many as 100....
  • Payton Slams Space Firms’ Quality

    02/05/2010 8:57:10 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 15 replies · 275+ views
    DoD Buzz ^ | 02/05/2010 | By Colin Clark
    The makers of America’s rockets and satellites “are still stumbling on fundamentals too often,” said Gary Payton, former astronaut and the top Air Force man on space acquisition. Payton’s comments seem to indicate a continuing trend of shoddy quality control among those whose toughest job is turning out top quality parts and software and making sure they work and fit well. The biggest problem lies with suppliers, who are selling equipment that is just not up to snuff, Payton said. However, the primes also must shoulder blame since they are not overseeing suppliers at the factory level as closely as...
  • When Windmills Don’t Spin, People Expect Some Answers

    02/05/2010 7:48:37 PM PST · by neverdem · 71 replies · 1,520+ views
    NY Times ^ | February 5, 2010 | MONICA DAVEY
    For those who suspect residents in places like Minnesota of embellishment when it comes to their tales of bitterly cold winter weather, consider this: even some wind turbines, it seems, cannot bear it. Turbines, more than 100 feet tall, were installed last year in 11 Minnesota cities to provide power, and also to serve as educational symbols in a state that has mandated that a quarter of its electricity come from renewable resources by 2025. One problem, though: The windmills, supposed to go online this winter, mostly just sat still, people in cities like North St. Paul and Chaska said,...
  • Raytheon introduces GPS-guided torpedo kit

    02/05/2010 5:50:03 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 9 replies · 413+ views
    Arizona Daily Star ^ | 02/05/2010 | David Wichner
    A wing kit that adds satellite guidance to torpedoes dropped from aircraft is among the latest technologies that Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is marketing to international customers. Raytheon's Fish Hawk wing kit - which the company is showing off this week at the Singapore Airshow - is designed to fit on Raytheon's MK-54 lightweight torpedo, which is dropped from anti-submarine warfare aircraft. The kit guides the torpedo to a target area with a GPS satellite and inertial navigation system and targeting information from an aircraft controller. Once the system descends to a specific location at lower altitude and speed, the...
  • U.S. Japan to Launch Talks on Cooperation in Nuke Forensics

    02/05/2010 5:16:46 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 94+ views
    The Seoul Times ^ | 02/05/2010 | The Seoul Times
    Japan and the United States will launch working-level talks in February aimed at promoting cooperation in the field of nuclear forensics, a sophisticated process to analyze the composition of nuclear materials, Kyodo News reported on Nan. 30 quoting sources of both governments as having said . Representatives of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, an organization under the Department of Energy, will attend the talks. It would be the first intergovernmental consultation on nuclear forensics between Japan and the United States. Nuclear forensics focuses on analyzing the nature, use and...
  • For the first time four Russian space vehicles have been attached to ISS at one time.

    02/05/2010 1:03:18 AM PST · by Primorsky · 19 replies · 503+ views
    Spaceflight Now ^ | February 4, 2010 | Justin Ray
    A Russian cargo freighter flying on autopilot performed a successful rendezvous and docking with the space station Thursday night, delivering two-and-a-half tons of supplies and equipment for the international outpost and its resident crew. While flying 212 miles over the extreme southwestern Atlantic, the Progress M-04M spacecraft linked up to the aft docking port of the station's Zvezda service module at 11:26 p.m. EST. "Docking confirmed. Contact and capture," NASA commentator Rob Navias announced from Houston's Mission Control Center. "Docking occurring almost to the second as had been planned by Russian flight controllers." Hooks and latches were engaged a few...
  • Save Constellation Video

    02/04/2010 11:15:14 PM PST · by anymouse · 6 replies · 289+ views
    The manned space program is important to everyone! Write your congressmen and tell them President Obama is wrong! We must push forward beyond low earth orbit, continue America's leadership in space, and not sacrifice thousands of jobs across the country! Save NASA's Constellation Program! 0:00 What are the political issues? 1:23 What is Constellation? 2:09 What has been built so far? 4:11 Has any rocket engine testing been done? 5:17 Has an actual rocket been built, tested or launched? 5:53 Who did all this work? 7:01 Whats at stake? 7:54 What can be done to help
  • Israel Defence Forces are prepared for Cyberwarfare

    02/04/2010 7:28:11 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 132+ views
    Defense Professionals ^ | 02/04/2010 | Arnon Ben-Dror
    In a paper published by the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Amos Yadlin of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), in the Intelligence Research Center Journal, described the development of cyberwarfare, computer attacks in the 21st century, and the capabilities required from armies to fight this medium successfully. According to Maj. Gen. Yadlin, cyberwarfare is divided into three areas: intelligence gathering, defense and attack. "Anyone who is able to hack (personal computers, cell phones and internet) ends up knowing quite a lot. If you catch my drift," warned the Military Intelligence chief in the article. "Just imagine the...
  • Wyle Aircrew Performs First In-flight Refueling of Joint Strike Fighter

    02/04/2010 7:20:34 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 6 replies · 297+ views
    Aviation Today ^ | 02/04/2010 | PR Newswire
    Wyle air crew personnel have become the first aviators to aerially refuel the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant (STOVL) of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) using a probe-and-drogue refueling system during a recent mission at Lockheed Martin's Ft. Worth, Tex. manufacturing facility. These first aerial refueling missions were performed by Wyle aircrew flying a Navy KC-130 tanker aircraft assigned to the U.S. Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Twenty (VX-20) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The refueled aircraft, designated the F-35BF-2, represents one of three variants of this fifth generation strike fighter, developed for the U.S. military and...
  • Lockheed says F-35s will replace USAF F-15s

    02/04/2010 7:03:57 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 25 replies · 498+ views
    Flightglobal.com ^ | 02/04/2010 | Stephen Trimble
    Lockheed Martin has added all variants of the Boeing F-15 to an internal analysis of US Air Force platforms the company believes will be replaced by the F-35A Lightning II. Lockheed now predicts the F-35A will replace the F-15C/D air superiority fighter and the F-15E Strike Eagle. The USAF officially lists the F-35's conventional takeoff and landing variant as a ground-attack fighter complementing the air superiority mission, replacing only the Lockheed F-16 and the A-10. The speculative and unofficial addition of the F-15C/D and F-15E fleets allows Lockheed to claim the USAF's requirement to buy 1,763 F-35As over the next...
  • Nature's hot green quantum computers revealed

    02/03/2010 4:47:15 PM PST · by neverdem · 20 replies · 466+ views
    New Scientist ^ | 03 February 2010 | Kate McAlpine
    WHILE physicists struggle to get quantum computers to function at cryogenic temperatures, other researchers are saying that humble algae and bacteria may have been performing quantum calculations at life-friendly temperatures for billions of years. The evidence comes from a study of how energy travels across the light-harvesting molecules involved in photosynthesis. The work has culminated this week in the extraordinary announcement that these molecules in a marine alga may exploit quantum processes at room temperature to transfer energy without loss. Physicists had previously ruled out quantum processes, arguing that they could not persist for long enough at such temperatures to...
  • Spies like us: NSA to build huge facility in Utah

    02/03/2010 12:04:15 PM PST · by LonePalm · 15 replies · 555+ views
    The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 2/3/2010 | Mathew D. LaPlante
    Hoping to protect its top-secret operations by decentralizing its massive computer hubs, the National Security Agency will build a 1-million-square-foot data center at Utah's Camp Williams. The years-in-the-making project, which may cost billions over time, got a $181 million start last week when President Obama signed a war spending bill in which Congress agreed to pay for primary construction, power access and security infrastructure. The enormous building, which will have a footprint about three times the size of the Utah State Capitol building, will be constructed on a 200-acre site near the Utah National Guard facility's runway. Congressional records show...
  • Apple's Wozniak: Toyota may have software trouble

    02/03/2010 6:23:27 AM PST · by TigerLikesRooster · 60 replies · 1,028+ views
    AFP ^ | 02/02/10
    Apple's Wozniak: Toyota may have software trouble Tue Feb 2, 10:22 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak suggested Tuesday in media interviews that Toyota's troubles with a defective accelerator pedal may have to do with software, after his Prius sped up while in cruise-control. "Since my foot never touches the pedal," Wozniak told ABC News, the problem "cannot be a sticky accelerator pedal.... There might be some bad software in there." He said the problem in his Prius might be related to the random acceleration issue that has forced Toyota into a massive recall of eight million...
  • Free PR2 Robots Offered to Open Source Robotics Researchers

    02/03/2010 6:22:18 AM PST · by ShadowAce · 3 replies · 130+ views
    Robot Reviews ^ | 25 January 2010 | eigenlance
    10 lucky research organizations will stand to benefit from Willow Garage's PR2 Beta Program, under which they will each be granted free use of one PR2 robot and earn the privilege to participate in the advancement of open source robotics development. Willow Garage, an organization dedicated to the development of robotics hardware and open source software, has put up the PR2 Beta Program to enable breakthroughs in personal robotics, expand the open source robotics community, develop reusable components and tools, and explore new applications for personal robots. These initiatives are aimed at eventually building safe personal robots that can aid...
  • Breaking the Global Oil Addiction

    02/03/2010 3:34:13 AM PST · by tedbel · 1 replies · 281+ views
    ISRAPUNDIT ^ | Feb 2/10 | James Woolsey
    This is a video of a panel discussion at the Herzliya Conference in Israel which informed that the US can be oil energy independent in 10 years. Really fascinating.
  • F-35B STOVL Jet is Fifth Lockheed Martin Lightning II to Enter Flight Testing

    02/03/2010 12:38:45 AM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 4 replies · 405+ views
    Defense Professionals ^ | 3/3/2010 | Defense Professionals
    A Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) stealth fighter today became the fifth F-35 to begin flight operations. The jet, known as BF-3, departed the runway near Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant at 4:02 p.m. CST for its first flight. During the one-hour sortie, F-35 Chief Test Pilot Jon Beesley tested the aircraft's handling qualities, engine functionality, landing gear operation and basic subsystem performance. BF-3 joins two other F-35Bs and one F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft currently undergoing active flight test. The first CTOL F-35, AA-1, is now preparing for live-fire testing. The F-35 program...
  • US Ballistic Missile Defense Review Links Strategy to Threats

    02/02/2010 9:34:04 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 1 replies · 134+ views
    Defense Professionals ^ | 2/2/2010 | Jim Garamone
    The Ballistic Missile Defense Review released today aligns U.S. missile defense posture with near-term regional missile threats, and sustains the ability to defend the homeland against limited long-range missile attack, said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy. Flournoy today described six major priorities that will shape U.S. missile defense at a Pentagon news conference. The first goes to the heart of defense and that is to defend the United States from a limited ballistic missile attack. The second is to defend against growing regional threats. A third priority is “to test new systems under realistic conditions before they’re deployed...
  • JSF Cost Pressures Remain For Lockheed

    02/02/2010 5:55:25 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 155+ views
    Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 2/2/2010 | Graham Warwick and Amy Butler
    Lockheed Martin expects to be held to aggressive cost and schedule targets for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite the U.S. Defense Dept.’s decision for development and production based on more conservative independent estimates. The Pentagon’s decision to reject the JSF program office’s estimates and budget for the higher costs projected by the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) group has reduced planned U.S. F-35 procurement to 43 from 52 in fiscal 2011 and to 45 from 62 in FY ‘12. But Lockheed remains convinced it can outperform the independent estimates and produce more aircraft for the procurement dollars...
  • Singapore first to order

    02/02/2010 12:56:35 AM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 2 replies · 340+ views
    Flight International ^ | Flight International
    Singapore has ordered 24 Boeing F-15SG multi-role fighters, making it the first South-East Asian country to order the type and ensuring its air force retains its edge as the region's most potent strike force. Republic of pilots began training with the F-15SGs at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, USA, last year. The air force will replace its McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks with the F-15s, but has not said when it would fly the aircraft from Singapore. It has also not released details about their configuration, apart from confirming that 29,000lb-thrust (130kN) General Electric F110-GE-129 engines will power them. A US...
  • Alternate Space Capsule Concept Passes Tests

    02/01/2010 11:53:40 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 8 replies · 301+ views
    Space Travel News ^ | 1/27/2010 | SPX via Space Travel
    A NASA team looking into design concepts for future space capsules has successfully demonstrated that an all-composite structure is a feasible alternative to traditional metal capsules for carrying astronauts into space and returning them safely to Earth. The composite materials that make up the structure are basically the same as the tough, lightweight laminates used today for race cars, business jets and high-end sports equipment. In combination with new space-age fabrication techniques, these advanced composite materials promise potential benefits over traditional metal structures. Among them is that they can easily be formed into complex shapes that may be more structurally...
  • How to build a Shuttle-derived heavy-lift program

    02/01/2010 11:29:48 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 16 replies · 429+ views
    The Space Review ^ | 2/01/2010 | Edward Ellegood
    Details are still sketchy and Congress must still weigh in, but it seems clear now that Ares 1 and Ares 5 are dead, the International Space Station will operate through 2020, and commercial rockets will be used to carry crew and cargo to the orbiting outpost. These outcomes are all within the Augustine Committee’s list of fixes for an exploration program that clearly was over budget, behind schedule, and demonstrably unsustainable. Without a Shuttle-class rocket, billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded infrastructure will go unused, and thousands of uniquely skilled workers will be forced to pursue other careers.
  • The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response (part 2)

    02/01/2010 11:23:59 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 52 replies · 788+ views
    The Space Review ^ | 2/1/2010 | Yousaf M. Butt
    What appears to be of particular concern to the EMP commission is the scepter of terrorist groups or so-called “rogue” nations carrying out such an attack. As outlined by Dr. Pry, one of the commissioners, before a 2005 Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, “[a] nuclear missile concealed in the hold of a freighter would give Iran, or terrorists, the capability to perform an EMP attack against the United States homeland, without developing an ICBM, and with some prospect of remaining anonymous. Iran’s Shahab-3 medium-range missile… is a mobile missile, and small enough to be transported in the...
  • Head Skunk

    02/01/2010 8:13:08 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 7 replies · 598+ views
    Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine ^ | 3/01/2010 | Peter Garrison
    The name of the super-secret project was Suntan. It was to be the ultimate reconnaissance airplane, flying so high and so fast—it was to cruise above 100,000 feet at Mach 2—that detection would be unlikely and interception impossible. But it also would have been a giant winged thermos bottle, with a fuel tank full of liquid hydrogen at –400 degrees Fahrenheit and its outer skin baking at 350 degrees or more. A proposed hydrogen liquefaction plant dedicated to producing fuel for several of the airplanes would have sucked up 10 percent of the natural gas supply of Los Angeles in...
  • Sea-Based Radar Blamed as GMD Test Ends in Failure

    02/01/2010 7:58:09 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 1 replies · 213+ views
    Space News ^ | 2/1/2010 | Warren Ferster
    A test of the U.S. territorial missile defense system ended in failure because the sea-based cuing radar for the interceptor did not perform as planned, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced Jan. 31. The Jan. 31 test was the first of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in which the Sea-Based X-band radar was the primary source of tracking and targeting information, MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said Feb. 1. “It was the only radar used in the test,” he said. Previous tests of the GMD system have relied primarily on other radar tracking assets, such as the very high...
  • Video Games Make You Smarter And Faster

    02/01/2010 7:50:44 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 21 replies · 451+ views
    The Strategy Page ^ | 2/1/2010 | The Strategy Page
    The U.S. military has long suspected that troops who have long experience with video console and computer games have made Americans better soldiers, at least when it comes to operating high-tech military equipment. But now a study (by the Office of Naval Research) has found that such experience also enables troops to solve problems faster, and act more quickly with those solutions. In technical terms, the computer game experience increases perceptual and cognitive ability 10-20 percent, over those with no computer game experience. The navy was interested in this because most sailors have technical jobs, and many of them involve...
  • Flaw to delay missile test for 7 months

    02/01/2010 5:36:43 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 3 replies · 223+ views
    The Santa Ynez Valley News ^ | 2/1/2010 | Janene Scully
    Vandenberg officials announced two days before the planned Nov. 18 launch that the missile test’s postponement would “allow for the completion of ground testing prior to launching.” However, in response to questions submitted this month, Air Force officials eventually confirmed that some of sort of problem with the weapon led to the postponement. “All that can be said at this time is that the problem was on-board the missile, and the problem is being actively analyzed,” officials said in a written statement. “Once the analysis is complete more information may be available. The analysis will focus on all aspects of...
  • Lockheed Martin Receives $59 Million U.S. Air Force Contract For Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods

    02/01/2010 3:53:23 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 6 replies · 393+ views
    Defense Professionals ^ | 2/1/2010 | Defense Professionals
    has received $59 million from the U.S. Air Force for additional Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP). This order represents the second increment on the U.S. Air Force’s Sniper ATP Lot 9 contract, originally awarded in September 2009, bringing the total value of the Lot 9 buy to $95 million. Delivering the highest resolution imagery for precision targeting and non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the Sniper ATP plays a major role in Air Force operations in theater, providing top cover for ground forces, as well as increasing the safety of civilian populations. “This Lot 9 increment brings total Sniper ATP sales...
  • Sukhoi’s Next Step Towards a Fifth-Generation Fighter

    02/01/2010 3:48:14 PM PST · by sonofstrangelove · 22 replies · 432+ views
    Defense Professionals ^ | 1/1/2010 | Nicolas von Kospoth
    On Friday morning, Sukhoi Company (JSC) and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) celebrated its latest success in the ambitious and prestigious fifth-generation fighter aircraft project, the PAK FA. The T-50 prototype aircraft left the ground at the KNAAPO factory aerodrome in Russia’s Far East and made its first basic manoeuvres during a 47 minute flight. Congratulating all participants of the project on the occasion of the maiden flight, Alexey Fedorov, President and Chairman of control board of UAC, said that it “opens a new horizon for the Russian aviation for the rest of the 21st century and, hopefully, even further....
  • Dipstick test for toxic lead

    02/01/2010 1:29:34 PM PST · by neverdem · 10 replies · 217+ views
    Highlights in Chemical Science ^ | 01 February 2010 | Victoria Steven
    Scientists in the United States have produced a simple dipstick test for detecting lead levels in paints. Easy-to-use biosensors are important for detection of highly toxic trace metal ions in the environment. Cross-linked gold nanoparticles modified with metal-specific DNAzymes have been used in solution to create highly sensitive and selective colorimetric metal sensors based on the colour change between aggregated (blue) and dispersed (red) gold nanoparticles. However, in solution the colour change can be difficult to distinguish and nanoparticle stability is poor, explains Yi Lu at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Lu and colleagues have developed a sensor that uses...