Periscope is an instrument and mission concept with the goal of investigating and mapping lunar skylights from an orbiting platform using photon time-of-flight imaging. This project has received phase 2 NASA NIAC funding. A spacecraft in a very low orbit would direct laser pulses into the lunar skylights, detect light returning to the spacecraft after …
China’s stock market has lost over $3.25 trillion in value in less than a month without creating a domino effect across the world. Chinese markets continued their plunge this week, wiping close to 37 percent off the market’s valuation from June 12 peak. The intensity of the loss can be judged from the fact that …
In 2014, the first high-speed railway project built by Chinese companies in a foreign country was completed in Turkey. The 533-kilometer railroad links Turkey’s capital of Ankara with the country’s most populous city of Istanbul. The operating speed is 250 km/h (160 mph) The China Railway Construction Corporation and the China National Machinery Import and …
This is the latest map of Pluto created from images taken from June 27 to July 3 by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons, combined with lower-resolution color data from the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument. The center of the map corresponds to the side of Pluto that will be seen close-up during New …
NASA NIAC has a phase 2 funding for a transformer lunar exploration robots. Imagine an oasis of warm sunlight surrounded by a desert of freezing cold darkness. Robots inside the oasis perform scientific lab analyses and process icy regolith brought from excavations in the neighboring darkness. This oasis, about the size of a football field, …
A little more than a decade ago, researchers discovered that all cells secrete tiny communications modules jammed with an entire work crew of messages for other cells. Today, a team of researchers, led by stem cell researcher Raj Kishore, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple …
Fifteen Cougar MRAP (Mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles) are being fitted with robotic arms and a 3-kilowatt laser, which the user aims and fires using a PlayStation 4-like controller. The program is called Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordnance (RADBO). They could be ready by early fiscal year 2017, program officials said. The vehicle, and its …
IBM Watson’s chief technology officer Rob High said there was a “very natural synergy” between cognitive computing and quantum computing, revealing he hoped to one day see Watson run on a quantum system. “I’d love to see a quantum Watson,” he said. “IBM Research is actually working on next generation computing. I can’t say exact …
Phase II of the Titan Submarine: Exploring the Kraken Mare effort will focus on advancing the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the concept by (1) retiring risks found in the Phase I design, (2) gathering new Kraken Sea observations by Cassini, and (3) further defining science goals and instruments to fulfill them; each of these …
Stored Chemical Energy Power Systems (SCEPS) have been used in U.S. Navy torpedoes for decades. NASA has given Michael Paul of Pennsylvania State University a phase 2 NIAC funding. SCEPS works by combustion, just like when you burn natural gas, says Michael Paul, except in this case the fuel is lithium. The technology is not …
After a nearly half-century quest, the U.S. military today is on the cusp finally fielding operationally relevant directed-energy weapons. While megawatt-class lasers to shoot down ballistic missiles remain, for now, a distant prospect, today’s tactical lasers are potentially useful, cost-effective approaches for countering threats such as low-cost drones and small boats. High-power microwaves open up …