Archive for the ‘military’ category: Page 188
May 6, 2019
The biggest comparison of sci-fi spaceships ever is complete at last
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: military, space travel
At last, it’s done. The biggest spaceship size chart ever created is now complete and fully operational. 4,268 × 5,690 pixels of technological terror that includes everything from the smaller Star War ships to EVE. According to its author, Dirk Loechel, this is the last update. It’s epic.
The last update
For real this time: This is the final major content update, though if there are issues I’ll still fix them. I also haven’t forgotten I wanted to vectorize the writing. It’s still on the radar. But content-wise, I think that is about all I can put in.
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May 5, 2019
Sigma Labs PrintRite3D technology validated by DARPA study
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: military
New Mexico additive manufacturing software developer Sigma Labs, has obtained third-party validation of its PrintRite3D platform in a study by U.S. defense agency DARPA.
The study discusses the validation process involved in producing complex metal parts of consistent quality. It was sponsored by DARPA’s Open Manufacturing Program and conducted in conjunction with aircraft engine manufacturer Honeywell Aerospace, which has been collaborating with Sigma labs since 2014.
As an agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), DARPA is responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. In line with this goal, it created the Open Manufacturing program to ‘lower the cost and speed the delivery of high-quality manufactured goods with predictable performance.’
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#MayTheFourthBeWithYou from the real-world Space Warfighters at Air Force Space Command! You will now watch this video we made—unless Jedi mind tricks don’t work on you. Either way, please share! #StarWarsDay
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May 4, 2019
The Air Force Just Shot Down Multiple Missiles With A Laser Destined For Fighter Aircraft
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: military
May 3, 2019
DARPA preparing to test fly two hypersonic weapons
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: materials, military
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is eyeing flight tests later this year for two hypersonic weapons, and it is teaming up with the US Army on developing such a ground-launched capability. However, at the same time, army leaders are drafting plans to consolidate duelling lines of effort within their hypersonic weapons’ portfolio.
During a 1 May Defense Writers’ Group breakfast with reporters, DARPA Director Dr Steven Walker fielded questions about ongoing projects inside the Pentagon’s research arm including the development of two hypersonic weapons with the US Air Force (USAF) — the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) and the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).
“[They are] two very different concepts but when you’re talking hypersonic [weapons], it is good to have what I consider intended redundancy because it’s a hard technology, making materials and propulsion systems that last in 3,000° Fahrenheit temperatures is not easy,” Walker said.
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Apr 30, 2019
How Big Tech is struggling with the ethics of AI
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: ethics, military, robotics/AI, surveillance
The companies that are leading research into AI in the US and China, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, SenseTime and Tencent, have taken very different approaches to AI and whether to develop technology that can ultimately be used for military and surveillance purposes.
Companies criticised for overruling and even dissolving ethics boards.
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Apr 29, 2019
DARPA: This Smart Contact Lens Could Give Soldiers Superpowers
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, military
“Smart” contact lenses sound like something from a sci fi movie — but they’re real, and they could help troops in the field.
French engineering school IMT Atlantique revealed what it calls “the first stand-alone contact lens with a flexible micro battery” earlier this month.
And, notably, it caught the attention of the U.S. military’s attention: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is reportedly interested in the contact lens to augment troops’ visual capabilities in the field, according to Task and Purpose — meaning the gadget could represent the augmented contact lens that DARPA has spent a decade searching for.
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Apr 28, 2019
North Korea’s 2017 bomb test set off later earthquakes, new analysis finds
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: existential risks, military, physics
Using newly refined analysis methods, scientists have discovered that a North Korean nuclear bomb test last fall set off aftershocks over a period of eight months. The shocks, which occurred on a previously unmapped nearby fault, are a window into both the physics of nuclear explosions, and how natural earthquakes can be triggered. The findings are described in two papers just published online in the journal Seismological Research Letters.
The September 3, 2017 underground test was North Korea’s sixth, and by far largest yet, yielding some 250 kilotons, or about 17 times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Many experts believe the device was a hydrogen bomb—if true, a significant advance from cruder atomic devices the regime previously exploded. The explosion itself produced a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. This was followed 8.5 minutes later by a magnitude 4 quake, apparently created when an area above the test site on the country’s Mt. Mantap collapsed into an underground cavity occupied by the bomb.
The test and collapse were picked up by seismometers around the world and widely reported at the time. But later, without fanfare, seismic stations run by China, South Korea and the United States picked up 10 smaller shocks, all apparently scattered within 5 or 10 kilometers around the test site. The first two came on Sept. 23, 2017; the most recent was April 22, 2018. Scientists assumed the bomb had shaken up the earth, and it was taking a while to settle back down. “It’s not likely that there would be so many events in that small area over a small period of time,” said the lead author of one of the studies, Won-Young Kim, a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “These are probably triggered due to the explosion.”
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