Armed with Science | Providing You Information on Military Science and Technology

Saturday Space Sight – Bridging Cities of Galaxies

Filed under Photos, Space by jtozer on December 8, 2012 at 7:41 am {no comments}

Planck has discovered a bridge of hot gas that connects galaxy clusters Abell 399 (lower center) and Abell 401 (top left). The galaxy pair is located about a billion light-years from Earth, and the gas bridge extends approximately 10 million light-years between them.

The image shows the two galaxy clusters as seen at optical wavelengths with ground-based telescopes and through the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (in orange) with the Planck satellite.

Image credits: Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect: ESA Planck Collaboration; optical image: STScI Digitized Sky Survey
From www.nasa.gov

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Army Biologist Developing NextGen Tools for Soldiers

Filed under Life Sciences, Technology by jtozer on December 7, 2012 at 7:09 am {no comments}

U.S. Army scientists are developing new technologies, including smartphones that detect and identify chemical and biological agents, to empower soldiers.

Dr. Calvin Chue, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, is focused on the next generation of devices to protect Soldiers and civilians against unknown chemical or biological threats. (Photo by Tom Faulkner (RDECOM PAO)

Dr. Calvin Chue, a research biologist with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, or RDECOM, is focused on the next generation of devices to protect soldiers and civilians against unknown chemical or biological threats.

“The biggest threat is always going to be the emerging pathogen, the things you hear about on the news where pools of disease pop up randomly,” Chue said.

“We have soldiers deployed around the world. Being able to develop tools and technologies to pick up those unknown hazards before [soldiers] are exposed to them is a large measure of what we do.”

“I’ve chosen to come to the government side because we’re able to make the most practical impact in developing tools that directly meet the needs of soldiers. The other nice thing about here at government labs is having direct interaction with warfighters. We can build tools that they tell us they need,” he said.

DETECTING HAZARDS WITH A SMARTPHONE

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To The Future And Beyond – Blue Horizons

Filed under Featured, Technology by jtozer on December 6, 2012 at 7:43 am {no comments}

You know the phrase “The future is now”?

I’m not a fan.

Aside from being a contradiction, it’s dangerous thinking. Assuming that what’s happening now is also what’s to come means that you’re not really looking forward, are you? Sort of like looking in a mirror and assuming you won’t age. Or something.

Let me just stop myself before I go too far down this philosophical road by saying that I’m glad a certain group of Air Force personnel don’t follow this mantra.

Quite the contrary, actually.

Plus check out this logo! It just *looks* like something you want to join, doesn’t it?

I’m talking about the Blue Horizons, an Air Force program designed to help better understand scientific and technological progress. It’s very much a “the future isn’t here yet so let’s explore the possibilities” concept (take that future = present thinkers).

So what does the future hold for our fine fighting force?

Are we going to be dealing with robot alien armies that fly around in jetpacks and shoot laser rockets?

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National Guard Joins Mars Rover Team on Airdrop Problems

Filed under Space by jtozer on December 5, 2012 at 7:10 am {no comments}

From left, Col. Edward Black, Dr. Don Erbschloe and Dr. Adam Steltzner of NASA share ideas Nov. 6, 2012, at the AATTC in St. Joseph, Mo. Steltzner joined with Air Mobility experts from across the Air Force to consider problems in airdrops. (Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Crane)

The phase lead and development manager for the Entry Descent and Landing on the Mars Science Laboratory Project met with Air Mobility experts from across the Air Force.

Dr. Adam Steltzner is among the top NASA engineers in the nation, and he was invited to the 139th Airlift Wing, Missouri Air National Guard Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC) on Rosecrans Air National Guard Base to speak about airdrop missions during their annual Mobility Air Force Tactics Review Board.

His knowledge and accomplishments in airdrop are renowned. In August, he headed the team that successfully landed the Curiosity Rover on Mars.

Although worlds apart, Air Mobility officials believe that problem solving with NASA may help improve their airdrop missions on Earth, and vice versa.

“We were invited to come out and speak with the airdrop guys about our precision airdrop … a little bit different, a different planet, but it has some opportunities,” Steltzner said.

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Soldiers Using Sunlight To Improve Combat Capability

Filed under Energy by jtozer on December 4, 2012 at 7:42 am {no comments}

A SunDial 28.2-kilowatt solar generator is in use in Afghanistan. In addition to being used by Special Forces Soldiers in Afghanistan, these systems have been deployed for oil companies, railroads, mining companies and a number of non-governmental organizations. (Photo used with permission of SunDial Capital Partners)

Soldiers are enlisting the sun’s power in Afghanistan.

Ten solar generators are now providing Special Forces soldiers in distant outposts the energy they need to accomplish their mission. And, these generators are allowing them precious more time to train Afghan forces and win the friendship of local Afghans.

The key benefit of solar is savings in fuel. Fuel makes up a significant portion of weight and volume that has to be transported great distances to remote locations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“During World War II, we used (an average of) one gallon of fuel per day, per soldier,” said Richard G. Kidd IV, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Energy & Sustainability, with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment. “We now use (an average of) 20 gallons per day, per soldier, and in Afghanistan, over 40 percent of that fuel is used to produce electricity.

“With solar power, we are cutting the supply of fuel needed in half, from 40 to 20 percent,” he added. That is the first of at least five benefits, he said.

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DARPA’s Pet-Proto Robot

Filed under Robots, Videos by jtozer on December 3, 2012 at 7:00 am {no comments}

In this video, the Pet-Proto, a predecessor to DARPA‘s Atlas robot, is confronted with obstacles similar to those robots might face in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).

To maneuver over and around the obstacles, the robot exercises capabilities including autonomous decision-making, dismounted mobility and dexterity. The DARPA Robotics Challenge will test these and other capabilities in a series of tasks that will simulate conditions in a dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environment.

Teams participating in Tracks B and C of the DRC will compete for access to a modified version of the Atlas robot for use in the 2013 and 2014 live disaster-response challenge events.

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DOD Funds Study of Omega 3 Benefit in Reducing Suicides

Filed under Featured by jtozer on December 2, 2012 at 7:44 am {no comments}

The Defense Department is funding a new study to determine if something as simple as drinking smoothies with high concentrations of the fatty acids found in fish oils can help to reduce suicides among veterans.

The study, to kick off in January, will assess the effect of Omega 3 fatty acids on 350 volunteer participants who have attempted suicide or are considered to be at risk of doing so, said Bernadette Marriott, a Medical University of South Carolina professor who is the study’s principal investigator.

The university is collaborating in the clinical trial with researchers from the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, S.C., and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. Ron Acierno, director of the post-traumatic stress disorder clinic at the Charleston VA center, will partner with Marriott as an onsite collaborator.

The Military Operational Medicine Joint Program Committee is funding the study, and the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Congressional Directed Medical Research Programs Office will manage it.

The test subjects, to be recruited over the next three years from the Charleston VA center and the local veteran population, will drink two child-size juice boxes of commercially available, smoothie-type drinks each day for six months, Marriott said.

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Saturday Space Sight: A Nearby Stellar Cradle

Filed under Photos, Space by jtozer on December 1, 2012 at 7:22 am {no comments}

The Milky Way and other galaxies in the universe harbor many young star clusters and associations that each contain hundreds to thousands of hot, massive, young stars known as O and B stars.

The star cluster Cygnus OB2 contains more than 60 O-type stars and about a thousand B-type stars. Deep observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have been used to detect the X-ray emission from the hot outer atmospheres, or coronas, of young stars in the cluster and to probe how these fascinating star factories form and evolve.

About 1,700 X-ray sources were detected, including about 1,450 thought to be stars in the cluster. In this image, X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and optical data from the Isaac Newton Telescope (orange).

Image provided by NASA

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