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Category: military – Page 55

The Next Generation Of Space Leaders

At a time in history when too many things seem to be heading in the wrong direction, I believe there is still hope. Lots of it, actually.

Last week I was reminded that the best is still ahead of us, and the people who will lead this increasingly challenging space world are not just those from the Ivy League or historically elite coasts. While they may have extraordinary resources, they haven’t cornered all the best students and ideas to solve our most vexing space problems. Across the country, thousands of students are thinking about how to tackle tomorrow’s challenges – uninhibited by the confines of the traditional military-industrial acquisition process of the last generation and armed with the “why not” attitude propagated by new pioneers in commercial space.

To hone in on the pockets of creative genius found across the United States, this past year the SmallSat Alliance hosted its first annual Collegiate Space Competition. The design challenge, sponsored and staffed by the space companies that comprise the Alliance, is open to every college and university student in the U.S. – technical or non-technical, from junior colleges to traditional universities. The students are presented with real world space problems that could be partially solved with low cost, off the shelf space systems and components, specifically the new generation of commercially available small satellite technologies.

Visible infrared at room temperature achieved in a first

Rohit Chikkaraddy/ University of Birmingham.

Mid-infrared, as the name suggests, lies between the infrared spectrum’s near and far wavelengths, just outside those of visible light. The mid-infrared spectrum has gained particular importance as it has been useful for multiple applications ranging from military to environmental and medical treatments and studying celestial objects.

Could We Transform America Into a Science-Industrial Complex?

I’m excited to share my new opinion article for Newsweek. It advocates for transforming America from a military-industrial complex into a science-industrial complex! Give it a read!

America spends 45 percent of its discretionary federal spending on defense and wars, while around us, the world burns in ways that have nothing to do with fighting or the military. Global warming has escalated into an enormous crisis. A fifth of everyone we know will die from heart disease. And an opioid crisis is reducing the average lifespans of Americans for the first time in decades. There’s plenty of tragedy, fear, and hardship all around us, but it has nothing to do with the need to make more bombs. It does, however, have to do with science.

It seems obvious America should do something different than spend so much of its tax dollars on defense. We should consider halving that money, and directing it to science, transforming America from a military-industrial complex into a science-industrial complex. Despite science and technological progress being broadly responsible for raising the standard of living around the world over the last 50 years, America spends only 3 percent of its GDP ($205 billion) on science and medical research across the federal government. Notably, this is dramatically less than the $877 billion the U.S. will spend on defense this year.

The famous designation of the term military-industrial complex comes from former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address, where he warned America and its economy could descend into being a conflict-driven nation. Over 60 years after his speech, we have become just that. A Brown University study found that since 2001, the U.S. has spent $5.9 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia. For contrast, the 2023 budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a paltry $49 billion.

America and its military-industrial complex—including the Pentagon, CIA, foreign military services, Homeland Security, nuclear program, and many other U.S. Defense tentacles—promises to spread democracy and keep the world safe. However, a far more common enemy than a national security incident is getting cancer from the sun, being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and dying in a car accident. Given enough money and time for research and experimentation, science stands a good chance at fixing nearly anything, including all of the issues above.

MIT grad swaps lasers for cameras, enhances car vision

In its own tests, its proprietary camera system outperformed LiDARs in multiple conditions.

After getting his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Leaf Jiang spent more than a decade building laser ranging systems for the military for various 3D sensing applications. In his experience, Leaf found that laser-based detection systems were too expensive to be deployed on autonomous vehicles being developed for the future, and that’s how NoDar was born.

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems use laser beams to scan their surroundings and create 3D images from the data obtained when surfaces reflect the light. As companies look to make autonomous driving more mainstream,… More.

Scharfsinn86/iStock.

Plasma breakthrough could enable better hypersonic weapons, spacecraft

A potential new way to protect sensitive electronics from the extreme heat generated by flying at high speed could give the United States an edge in the race to deploy hypersonic missiles and new spacecraft.

A July research paper in the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano describes one potential solution that uses focused plasma, the photons and highly charged particles that make up the so-called fourth state of matter. If the method bears out in further research, it could usher in hypersonic weapons with much more advanced electronic guidance and could even enable on-the-ground weapons to evade heat sensors.

The breakthrough grew out of efforts to use a laser to measure the temperature of electronics in plasma-facing environments, work the Air Force is supporting through a grant at the University of Virginia, said professor Patrick Hopkins, one of the researchers on the paper.

Pacific islands warn US over Chinese threat and urge Biden to increase aid

Countering China and bolstering national security dominated the conversation in a Hilton hotel on Guam, 15 hours before and oceans away from the Milwaukee arena hosting the first Republican primary debate.

Nine members of the GOP-led House committee on natural resources convened in the US-governed Pacific island territory for a rare field hearing – during the summer recess – on countering China’s influence in the region.

At a time when Democrats and Republicans view China as an economic and global security threat, island nations who offer the US military proximity to China in exchange for aid emphasized they are especially vulnerable to Chinese cyber-attacks and economic exploitation as they struggle to recover from the pandemic.

Robotic dog runs independently on a treadmill with no support

The team conceptualized this robot based on real dogs’ motor control processes.

Robotic dogs are considered valuable future assets in various fields, including warfare, package delivery services, and search and rescue operations, to name a few. And the ones with the dexterity to navigate on extremely rough terrain could be game-changers for future space exploration.

A team of engineers has unveiled a dog-inspired quadruped robot adept at running without aid or even motors. This distinguishes this prototype from others that rely on control motors to maintain their running stride.

CU Boulder researchers develop arrays of tiny crystals that deliver efficient wireless energy

Imagine a person on the ground guiding an airborne drone that harnesses its energy from a laser beam, eliminating the need for carrying a bulky onboard battery.

That is the vision of a group of CU Boulder scientists from the Hayward Research Group. In a new study, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering researchers have developed a novel and resilient photomechanical material that can transform light energy into mechanical work without heat or electricity, offering innovative possibilities for energy-efficient, wireless and remotely controlled systems. Its wide-ranging potential spans across diverse industries, including robotics, aerospace and biomedical devices.

In a new study published in Nature Materials, the Hayward Research Group has developed a novel and resilient photomechanical material that can transform light energy into mechanical work without heat or electricity. The photomechanical materials offer a promising alternative to electrically-wired actuators, with the potential to wirelessly control or power robots or vehicles, such as powering a drone with a laser beam instead of a bulky on-board battery.

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