The Navy will shortly ward a development contract for the larger follow-on to USS Ponce laser system. The new laser gun will be 100 to 150 kw instead of 30 kw. That weapon will go out to sea for a demonstration by FY 2018, keeping in line with the goal of transitioning technology from the …
Elon Musk gave no detail when he announced plans in January to build a hyperloop test track, likely in Texas. Since then, another entrepreneur has secured agreements to break ground early next year on a five-mile stretch in California. This stretch, near the new town of Quay Valley along Interstate-5 midway between Los Angeles and …
NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are holding a new $2.25 million competition to design and build a 3-D printed habitat for deep space exploration, including the agency’s journey to Mars. The multi-phase 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge, part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, is designed to advance the additive …
The most detailed study to date showing how electrical stimulation accelerates wound healing has been carried out in 40 volunteers by University of Manchester scientists Skin wounds that are slow to heal are a clinical challenge to physicians all over the world. Every year, the NHS alone spends £1 billion on treating chronic wounds such …
In a boost to Beijing’s bid to improve connectivity with Russia and Europe, China Railway Group Limited announced on Wednesday that one of its subsidiaries has won the $390 million Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail contract together with two Russian companies. The China-led consortium will jointly conduct surveying, regional development planning and design for the project between …
Stephen Hsu at Information Processing reports on a paper where the authors use machine learning techniques to build sparse predictors based on grey/white matter volumes of specific regions. Correlations obtained are ~ 0.7 A separate UCLA paper show that brain size alone correlates 0.4 with IQ. Also, a notable genetic sequence, located within the HMGA2 …
DARPA wants to make sensors phenomenally more efficient in how they draw power when not actually sensing something of interest. The goal is to use less than 10 nanowatts (nW) during the sensor’s asleep-yet-aware phase—an energy drawdown roughly equivalent to the self-discharge (battery discharge during storage) of a typical watch battery, and at least 1,000 …
NASA has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites. Selected advanced electric propulsion projects will develop propulsion technology systems in the 50- to 300-kilowatt range to meet the needs of a variety of deep space …
DARPA has chosen two performers to work on new systems that would cost-effectively provide capabilities on par with land-based systems. DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 2 of Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). The goal of Tern is to give forward-deployed small ships the …
The cheapest, smallest reactors will emerge from the so-called magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) parameter space. This physics regime is a hybrid between the low density magnetic confinement and beyond solid density inertial confinement. Many of the smallest proposed fusion propulsion systems are in fact MIF systems, consistent with this recent study. (The Case and Development Path …
Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba Island and by various other names, is the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The island is elliptical in shape being 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) in length and 0.4 kilometres (0.25 mi) in width, with an area of 46 hectares (110 acres). …