The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are not providing videos and pictures of the army entering and defeating the infamous Hamas tunnels. There have been reports of the use of drones (flying and ground), sponge bombs, explosives, dogs and bulldozers being used to counter the lengthy Hamas tunnels. There have been videos of Israeli bulldozers digging …
Rotating detonation engine could be up to 25% more efficient than traditional jet engines. This could make airplanes and missile faster or with longer range. Smaller weapons could reach the same speeds and ranges as today’s missiles. Rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs) use detonation as the primary means of energy conversion, producing more useful available …
What became DARPA helped create the Internet standards that become the commercial internet and ecommerce and now DARPA is coordinating standards and efforts to commercialize the moon. A robust lunar economy within the next decade is coming quickly into focus. It’s clear that many shareable, scalable commercial systems will be needed to support a future …
DARPA selected RTX Corporation, Draper, and BEAM Co to design prototype lop wireless optical power relays. The Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program, aimed at revolutionizing energy distribution through airborne wireless power transfer. The optical energy relays designed in POWER’s phase one will be demonstrated on the ground. In the second phase, they will …
DARPA and Aurora, subsidiary of Boeing, are making a breakthrough X-plane without regular flights controls. The Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program aims to design, build, and flight test a novel X-plane that incorporates Active Flow Control (AFC) as a primary design consideration. Crane seeks to optimize the benefits of active flow …
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has won a contract from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop and demonstrate a nuclear-powered spacecraft. The in-space flight demonstration of a nuclear thermal rocket engine vehicle will take place no later than 2027. The project is called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). DARPA partnered with NASA’s …
Boeing will develop and test technologies a hypersonic interceptor prototype for DARPA’s Glide Breaker program as part of a four-year effort. Boeing will perform computational fluid dynamics analysis, wind tunnel testing and evaluation of aerodynamic jet interaction effects during flight tests. Hypersonic interceptors will destroy a threat traveling at over five times the speed of …
Anticipating a burgeoning cislunar and lunar economy of scientific research and commercial development in the coming decade, DARPA is soliciting innovative and revolutionary technical approaches to chart a vision and path toward an optimized and integrated lunar infrastructure for peaceful U.S. and international use. “Just like DARPA’s foundational node of ARPANET grew into the sprawling …
DARPA and NASA are advancing toward the goal of the world’s first in-orbit demonstration of a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engine via DRACO, the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations. DARPA has finalized an agreement with Lockheed Martin for the company to begin work on the fabrication and design of the experimental NTR vehicle (X-NTRV) …
DARPA has selected 11 organizations to begin work on the Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) program. Selected teams are Applied Materials, Inc., Arizona State University, BRIDG, HRL Laboratories, Intel Federal, North Carolina State University, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, PseudolithIC, Raytheon Technologies, and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging. Development of 3DHI technologies creates the …
DARPA is trying to use new more powerful superconducting magnets to triple the efficiency of a Magnetohydrodynamic drive for ultra-quiet navy ships. The PUMP program will develop an electrode material system solution for an efficient and reliable magnetohydrodynamic drive. The program will have multiple components to achieve this goal, including a modeling and simulation design …