Transformative Materials

It sounds like an engineering fantasy, or maybe an episode from Mission Impossible: A flock of small, single-use, unpowered delivery vehicles dropped from an aircraft, each of which literally vanishes after landing and delivering food or medical supplies to an isolated village during an epidemic or disaster. And it would be nothing more than a fantasy, were it not that the principle behind disappearing materials has already been proven.

The objective of DARPA’s new ICARUS program is to create vanishing platforms for airborne delivery of small payloads. Supply and re-supply of small military and civilian teams in difficult-to-access territory currently requires large parachute-based delivery systems that must be packed out after receipt of the payload both for operational security and environmental concerns. Last-minute registration for the program’s Proposers Day is possible on-site and potential performers in the program who cannot attend can learn more by way of the registration web page, the Broad Agency Announcement posted on FedBizOpps, and a lay-language DARPA UPdate on the Agency’s web site.