The DARPA RACER program’s goal is to develop and demonstrate autonomy technologies that enable unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to maneuver in unstructured off-road terrain at the limit of the vehicle’s mechanical systems and at, or beyond, human-driven speeds and efficiencies. “RACER is intended to disruptively advance the integration and fielding of autonomy for robotic combat …
A DARPA drone swarm program for squads of infantry had successful tests. DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program at the Cassidy Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF) in Fort Campbell, Tennessee. Since 2017, OFFSET has held six field experiments with objectives of increasing complexity and difficulty. The program envisions future small-unit infantry forces employing large-scale …
Launched in 2010, DARPA’s Living Foundries program aimed to enable adaptable, scalable, and on-demand production of critical, high-value molecules by programming the fundamental metabolic processes of biological systems to generate a vast number of complex molecules. These molecules were often prohibitively expensive, unable to be domestically sourced, and/or impossible to manufacture using traditional synthetic chemistry …
DARPA will use biological processes for resource limited environments with its Biomanufacturing: Survival, Utility, and Reliability beyond Earth (B-SURE) program. DARPA wants to be make fuel, replacement parts or tools, and a wide range of other products. They could use fermentation equipment, feedstocks, and a freezer full of microbes that convert the feedstock into products …
Dr. Sonny White has DARPA funding to explore tiny cavities that are built to create casimir force effects and White has proposed that building a one-micron sphere in the middle of a 4-micron cylinder will have nanoscale warp bubble effects. This could be buildable using a nanoscribe GT 3D printer that prints at the nanometer …
DARPA is funding a nuclear thermal orbital flight demonstration by 2025. The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system on orbit. NTP uses a nuclear reactor to heat propellant to extreme temperatures before expelling the hot propellant through a nozzle to produce thrust. Compared to …
DARPA will test jet packs and jet suit technology and see if they are military use case ready. The gear must fly a single operator at least 3.1 miles at low-to-medium altitudes. The setup should take no more than 10 minutes, with only minimal tools. UK based, Gravity Industries, will try to compete in the …
American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), a program of NY CREATES gave $19 million in research program awards for advanced integrated photonics under The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS) program. AIM Photonics is advancing technology for applications with self-driving vehicles, AR, 3D camera technology, quantum …
If we could have a space drive that did not use fuel then we could accelerate for decades using a nuclear power source. This would allow a spacecraft with a tiny amount of propulsion to accelerate to near light speed. DARPA has been funding the Nascent Light-Matter Interactions (NLM) project for about three years. This …
DARPA deployed a cubesat that has a new mini-space telescope. DARPA’s Deformable Mirror (DeMi) CubeSat deployed from the International Space Station July 13 and uses a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirror for the space telescope. The mirror changes shape to correct for the effects of temperature and mechanical changes on a space telescope which improves image …
DARPA Blackjack aims to demonstrate spy satellite sensors that are low in size, weight, and power, and that can be mass produced to fit on many different buses from many different providers, for less than $2 million per payload. They want Low Earth Orbit spy satellite network performance that is on par with current spy …