U.S. Army shelters perform well on land, but that just may be the tip of the iceberg, or rather the tip of the floating ice sheet. The Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center provided shelter support to the Navy during its biannual Ice Exercise in the Arctic Ocean. NSRDEC shelters were used as…
Photo of the Day: New Mission Studying Neutron Stars On Track for Launch
A view of the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray Timing Instrument without its protective blanketing shows a collection of 56 close-packed sunshades—the white and black cylinders in the foreground—that protect the X-ray optics, as well as some of the 56 X-ray detector enclosures, on the gold-colored plate, onto which X-rays from the sky are focused.…
Officials: Pentagon to Unveil Plan to Adjust Promotion Rules
U.S. military troops may be able to sidestep the Pentagon’s entrenched “up or out” promotion system under sweeping new proposals being unveiled Thursday, aimed at keeping high-tech experts or other specialists on the job, according to defense officials. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to roll out the plans Thursday, marking the third — and…
Teams to Compete for $1.5 Million in Fifth Year of NASA’s Sample Return Robot Competition
Twenty-one robotics teams are returning to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for a fifth year to compete in NASA’s $1.5 million Sample Return Robot Challenge. The autonomous robotic competition will take place in two stages, with Level 1 from June 7-11 and Level 2 from Sept. 3-7. The event, part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program,…
Ex-astronaut Charged with Murder in Car Wreck That Killed 2
Astronaut James Halsell Jr. seemed the very definition of someone with the right stuff. An Air Force Academy graduate and decorated test pilot, he commanded or piloted five space shuttle missions. NASA even turned to him for leadership as it was picking up the pieces after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Now, a decade after…
Joint Force Communication During Multicomponent Training Event
Communication has become a driving force for joint military forces to complete missions. This innovation has been showcased between joint forces of the Mississippi Army and Air National Guard while at Fort Hood during the Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training exercise. A MiBT is a multicomponent training event that sustains readiness of reserve and active components…
CODE Takes Next Steps toward More Sophisticated, Resilient, and Collaborative Unmanned Air Systems
DARPA’s Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program seeks to help the U.S. military’s unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) conduct dynamic, long-distance engagements of highly mobile ground and maritime targets in denied or contested electromagnetic airspace, all while reducing required communication bandwidth and cognitive burden on human supervisors. In an important step toward that goal, DARPA recently awarded…
Photo of the Day: Space Station View of Noctilucent Clouds
Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency photographed rare, high-altitude noctilucent or “night shining” clouds from the International Space Station on May 29, 2016. Noctilucent clouds form between 76 to 85 kilometers (47 to 53 miles) above the Earth’s surface, near the boundary of the mesosphere and thermosphere.
Universe’s First Life Might Have Been Born on Carbon Planets
Our Earth consists of silicate rocks and an iron core with a thin veneer of water and life. But the first potentially habitable worlds to form might have been very different. New research suggests that planet formation in the early universe might have created carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides, and diamond. Astronomers might find…
Origin of Extraordinary Supernovae
Using data obtained through the Optical and Infrared Synergetic Telescopes for Education and Research (OISTER) in Japan, Masayuki Yamanaka, a Taro Hirao Foundation Researcher at Konan University, demonstrated that the origin of extraordinary supernovae can be explained by the ‘accretion scenario.’ The researchers discovered an anomalously strong infrared emission from ‘the extraordinary supernova’ SN 2012dn,…
Scientists Use Frozen Gas to Boost Laser Light to New Extremes
To observe something as small and fast as an electron rushing to form a chemical bond, you need a bright light with an incredibly small wavelength that comes in very fast pulses — just a few attoseconds, or billionths of a billionth of a second, long. Scientists figured out more than a decade ago how…
Ericsson, Nokia, Intel Join Rivada Mercury Team for FirstNet Bid
It seems the major wireless carriers are not the only contenders for the FirstNet build out. Telecommunications giants Ericsson, Nokia and Intel Security have joined forces with Rivada Networks, defense and IT contractor Harris Corporation, backhaul provider Fujitsu Network Communications and telecom construction firm Black & Veatch in an effort to win the $6.5 billion…
Every Combat Vehicle in the U.S. Military, Pictured On One Intrepid Graphic
In case you needed wall art to spruce up your tactical-themed living room. A new infographic (available in poster form here) showcases, to scale, every active combat vehicle of the U.S. military. And what an impressive array of undaunted, armored fighting prowess it is. The graphic separates the 180 vehicles by air, land/amphibious, and sea, further…
Apache-Drone Combo Points to More Manned-Unmanned Teaming in the U.S. Military
The Textron Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has recently hit an operational milestone, becoming the first of the U.S. Army’s mid-range (or Group III) drones to fly one million hours. The aircraft have been clocking in some serious hours in Iraq, working in tandem with Apache attack helicopters in the fight against ISIS. So far,…
Algorithm Could Construct First Images of Black Holes
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Harvard University have developed a new algorithm that could help astronomers produce the first image of a black hole. The algorithm would stitch together data collected from radio telescopes scattered around the globe, under the auspices of an international collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope.…
‘Wasteful’ Galaxies Launch Heavy Elements into Surrounding Halos and Deep Space
Galaxies “waste” large amounts of heavy elements generated by star formation by ejecting them up to a million light years away into their surrounding halos and deep space, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The research, which was recently published online in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,…
Police: Missing NASA Scientist Found Dead
Authorities say a NASA research scientist who worked at the Wallops Flight Facility has been found dead a day after her family reported her missing. Police said the body of 48-year-old Tiffany Moisan of Princess Anne was found Sunday in a wooded area behind a Food Lion store. Moisan’s family reported her missing Saturday to…
Listening to the Relics of the Milky Way: Sounds from Oldest Stars in Our Galaxy
Astrophysicists from the University of Birmingham have captured the sounds of some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, according to research published today in the Royal Astronomical Society journal Monthly Notices. The research team, from the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, has reported the detection of resonant acoustic…
Titan Transtage Arrives at Johnson to be Studied by Orbital Debris Scientists
The Titan Transtage, an upper stage of the Titan III rocket family, arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center May 26, where it will be studied by scientists in the Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) to obtain information to complete forensics that will help us understand why things break up in space. Developed in the…
Next gen 3D printers tout industrial production capability
Increasingly, additive manufacturing developers are introducing systems for serialized production. The Renishaw RenAM 500M, for example, builds complex metallic components directly from CAD using metal powder bed fusion…
Lubricants in space – new literature for Nye
Nye Lubricants, Inc. announces that they will be revealing a new aerospace brochure at the 2016 Space Tech Expo. Lubricants for aerospace applications have been formulated at Nye for over 65 years. The new Lubricants in Space brochure is a demonstration of Nye’s space heritage. The brochure includes examples of lubricants designed specifically for applications…
Latest QorIQ-based 3U VPX SBC from Aitech Defense Handles High Bandwidth Data Processing Requirements
PowerPC AltiVec is back with Aitech Defense Systems newest SBC, the rugged 3U VPX-based C912. The new board combines NXP’s latest generation T4 series of QorIQ SoC multicore e6500 processors with AltiVec along with extensive on-board I/O features. Key Features 3U VPX SBC with QorIQ multicore SoC processors (4 or 8 cores) with AltiVec Rugged,…
Astronauts Enter World’s First Inflatable Space Habitat
Space station astronauts opened the world’s first inflatable space habitat Monday and floated inside. NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams swung open the door to the newly expanded chamber and was the first to enter. He said it was pristine but cold inside. The room — called the Bigelow Activity Activity Module, or BEAM — arrived at…
3D-Printed Weather Stations Fill Gaps in Developing World
Scientists have successfully installed the first wave of low-cost weather stations that are designed to provide critically needed information to farmers and other residents in developing countries. The stations are built largely with 3D-printed parts that can be easily replaced if they wear out in the field. They were created by weather experts at the…
Second Starliner Begins Assembly in Florida Factory
Another major hardware component for Boeing’s second Starliner spacecraft recently arrived at the company’s assembly facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The upper dome – basically one half of the Starliner pressure vessel – arrived at the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, closely following the arrival of the lower dome and docking…