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submission
savuporo writes:
Defensetech.org posted a story relaying a report from National Security Network titled "Thunder without Lightning: The High Costs and Limited Benefits of the F-35 Program". According to the story, F-35 is outperformed or showing only slight advantages in simulations and limited real-life tests by decades old 4th-generation fighters like F-16 and F18, but also MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker, that are of course made by Russia and latter also produced in China.
The story also refers back to earlier report last month of F-35 performing poorly in dogfights. In one simulation subcontracted by the RAND Corporation, the F-35 incurred a loss exchange ratio of 2.4–1 against Chinese Su-35s. That is, more than two F-35s were lost for each Su-35 shot down.
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savuporo writes:
John Carmack's ex-Armadillo Aerospace team has re-launched the suborbital rocket project now as Exos Aerospace through Kickstarter campaign. While original Armadillo efforts stopped just shy of actually getting to space, the team intends to pick up where they left off, rebuild and make this into a sustainable suborbital payload business.
There are multiple other small launcher startups springing up again across the globe, Rocket Labs recently unveiled their new engines, Firefly is making progress and Lin Industrial also announced their rocket recently.
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savuporo writes:
AutoBlogGreen reports: The $10,000 prize for successfully hacking a Tesla Model S has been claimed. A team from Zhejiang University in China claimed victory at the Symposium on Security for Asia Network (SyScan360) event in Beijing by exploiting a "flow design flaw," whatever that means, to gain access to vital systems including the door locks, horn and window controls, while the vehicle was moving.
Last year, potential security pitfalls of high-tech electric and hybrid cars came to light when the DARPA successfully hacked into hybrids from Ford and Toyota. For illustration about why this might become a big deal, here is a video report about Prius ECUs and internal CAN network being messed around with while driven.
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savuporo writes:
The Pentagon’s research arm unveiled a new drone built with secure software that "prevents the control and navigation of the aircraft from being hacked." “The software is designed to make sure a hacker cannot take over control of a UAS. The software is mathematically proven to be invulnerable to large classes of attack,” Fisher said.
This is currently being demoed on a quad-copter platform. It would be interesting to know the CPU architecture, chipset, programming language and the suite of communication protol this thing uses ..
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savuporo writes:
The two days of DARPA humanoid robotics challenge are now over. 16 teams entered in three categories — custom built humanoid, DARPA supplied Atlas platform and a non-humanoid form and competed in 8 different tasks. All Japanese SCHAFT team scored 27 out of 32 maximum points, folowed by IHMC Robotics and Tartan rescue following with 20 and 18 points. The tasks included challenges like driving a vehicle, climing ladders and walls, using handheld tools to cut through walls etc. All robots had a mix of autonomy with teleoperated controls to accomplish the tasks. Full details on scores can be found here
The 8 teams that scored highest will get continued funding from DARPA to compete in the final challenge in 2014. Two NASA teams also entered, and JPL build non-humanoid RoboSimian placed 5th, whereas JSC built and touted "Valkyire" came out of competition with zero points.
Team Shaft and Boston Dynamics building the Atlas platform were recently acquired by Google.
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savuporo writes:
The Chinese Chang'e-3 probe will be landing on the moon tomorrow, 13:40 UTC. CCTV is likely to carry the event life as they did for initial launch. According to technical overview of the mission scenario and instruments the landing will be fully autonomous with active landing hazard avoidance, which is the first time this has been attempted on any planetary landing. More real-time updates can be found on Twitter with ChangE3 hash tag and NASASpaceFlight forums live event section.
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savuporo writes:
The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy, blasted off on board an enhanced Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 1:30 a.m. (12.30 p.m. EDT).
Landing is expected on December 14, at a landing site called Sinus Iridium (the Bay of Rainbows), a relic of a huge crater 258 km in diameter.
Coverage of the launch was carried live on CCTV, with youtube copies available.
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savuporo writes:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Department of Transportation are considering technological solutions for people to stop using their cellphones while driving. Proximity detectors or requiring physical link with the car are the solutions under the scope. FTA: NHTSA wants automakers to make it impossible to enter text for messaging and internet browsing while the car is in motion, disable any kind of video functionality and prevent text-based information such as social media content or text messages from being displayed..
Obviously these regulations would need to go beyond cellphones, as laptop, tablet or any other gadget with a 3G data connection or even on a wifi hotspot made by your phone would be equally distracting.
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savuporo writes:
DC Area Drone User Group has posted an open letter in response to recent comments by Eric Schmidt about banning drones from private use. Closing section:
Personally owned flying robots today have the power to change the balance of power between individuals and large bureaucracies in much the same way the Internet did in the past. And just as the military researchers who developed GPS for guiding munitions could never have imagined their technology would be used in the future to help people conduct health surveys in the world’s poorest countries or help people find dates in the world’s richest, there is a whole world of socially positive and banal applications for drones that are yet to be discovered. We should embrace this chance that technology provides instead of strangling these opportunities in their infancy. Our hope is that you and the rest of Google’s leadership will embrace this pro-technology agenda in the future rather than seeking to stifle it. We would welcome the opportunity to speak further with you about this topic.
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savuporo writes:
Well known ( and spoofed ) Boston Dynamics BigDog prototype now has a bigger brother named "LS3" or Legged Squad Support System. It's intended to carry heavy loads for long treks and have enough autonomy to follow soldiers around, listen to voice commands and navigate autonomously. More at DARPA press release, and the obligatory Youtube clip. It's a tad noisier than a mule.
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savuporo writes:
"By crossing airships with airplanes, Solar Ship is planning to build a craft that can carry heavy loads long distances with a tiny carbon footprint. Filled with helium, they soak up rays from the sun to provide the energy for forward motion and fulfill its original design challenge – carry 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lbs) of payload 1,000 kilometers (621.4 miles)"
The craft is heavier than air, and uses a combination of helium filling its interior and its lifting body delta wing shape to stay airborne. Solar Ship shows plans for a range of different size craft for different duties.
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savuporo writes:
With the first battery electric vehicles becoming available on markets worldwide, there is an increased push to establish standards for fast charging plugs. Unfortunately, the story is far from simple. US hopes to establish its own DC fast charging standad by 2012, and Europe cannot come to an agreement about their version. Meanwhile, CHAdeMO fast charge standard developed and widely deployed in Japan, used on both Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi MiEV is gaining momentum with deployments underway both in US and Europe. CHAdeMO is limited to 62Kw charge rate, able to charge smaller battery packs to 80% SoC in 15-30 minutes.
