Military & Aerospace
Iranian "stealth fighter" looks like a clown car
February 7, 2013 11:09 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsSo it turns out that the new Iranian stealth fighter may be as genuine as the Islamic Republic’s concern for human rights. The regime unveiled the jet, 'Qaher 313', on Saturday, and the blogosphere immediately went to work debunking what could be one of the laziest forgeries of all time.
Closest Earth-like planet 'stroll across park'
February 7, 2013 8:40 am | by MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsEarth-like worlds may be closer and more plentiful than anyone imagined. Astronomers reported Wednesday that the nearest Earth-like planet may be just 13 light-years away - or some 77 trillion miles. That planet hasn't been found yet, but should be there based on the team's study of red dwarf stars.
32-channel discrete-to-digital sensing IC includes built-in lightning protection
February 6, 2013 2:26 pm | Holt Integrated Circuits | Product Releases | CommentsHolt Integrated Circuits today announced the introduction of HI-8435, a new 3.3V, 32-channel, discrete-to-digital sensing IC with SPI interface and built-in lightning protection. The sense input thresholds and hysteresis are programmable via the 20MHz SPI bus and all 32 sense output states may be read with a single SPI command.
Jay Leno test drives Army vehicle
February 6, 2013 12:29 pm | by Cherish Washington, AMC Public Affairs | News | CommentsJay Leno's garage is known for some of the most impressive vehicles in the world, and parked inside was the Army Materiel Command's Fuel Efficient Demonstrator here, Feb. 4. Gen. Dennis L. Via, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, and Grace Bochenek, AMC's chief technology officer, showcased the Fuel Efficient Demonstrator, or FED, on Leno's Internet car show called Jay Leno's Garage.
Blimps to bolster Washington's air shield in test
February 6, 2013 9:02 am | by Jim Wolf, Reuters | News | CommentsA pair of big, blimp-like craft, moored to the ground and flying as high as 10,000 feet, are to be added to a high-tech shield designed to protect the Washington D.C. area from air attack, at least for a while.The bulbous, helium-filled "aerostats" - each more than three quarters the length of a football field at 243 feet
Ahmadinejad says he is ready to be first Iranian in space
February 6, 2013 8:59 am | by Reuters | News | CommentsPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he was ready to be the first human sent into orbit by Iran's fledgling space program, Iranian media reported. Iran declared last week that it had successfully launched a monkey into space and retrieved it alive, which officials hailed as a major step towards their goal of sending humans into space.
UK's space age Antarctic base can slide across ice
February 6, 2013 8:56 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsResearchers say that Britain's new Antarctic base will be movable - capable of sliding across the ice on ski-clad stilts. The innovation will enable researchers to keep one step ahead of the southern continent's shifting ice and pounding snows. The British Antarctic Survey says that the Halley VI Research Station
New waterjets could propel LCS to greater speeds
February 5, 2013 3:59 pm | by EurekAlert! | News | CommentsThe Navy's fifth Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Milwaukee, will be the first to benefit from new high-power density waterjets aimed at staving off rudder and propeller damage experienced on high-speed ships.
Mars or bust
February 5, 2013 9:10 am | by David Mantey, Executive Editor, PD&D | Blogs | CommentsCould you go to Mars? Sacrifice everything; friends, family, and (possibly) future in order to be one of the first colonists on the red planet? Maybe if you were the first to plant a boot print in the dusty red sand, you would have some sort of historical notoriety....
If space shuttle is doomed, do you tell the crew?
February 4, 2013 9:29 am | by SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer | News | CommentsA NASA top official wrestled with what he thought was a hypothetical question: What should you tell the astronauts of a doomed space shuttle Columbia? When the NASA official raised the question in 2003 just days before the accident that claimed seven astronauts' lives, managers thought - wrongly - that Columbia's heat shield was fine.
Top 10 posts for January
February 1, 2013 12:41 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsWe had a record-breaking January here at ECN online with our most trafficked month in the history of the website. So, without further delay, here’s a rundown of the most read, most popular, most awesome articles on the web. Take a look at what you missed the first time around or check up on an old favorite to see the conversation in the comments.
Space shuttle Columbia's second life - as a cautionary tale
February 1, 2013 10:09 am | by Irene Klotz, Reuters | News | CommentsSpace shuttle Columbia's flying days came to an abrupt and tragic end on February 1, 2003, when a broken wing gave way, dooming the seven astronauts aboard. Although Columbia now lies in pieces, its mission is not over.
Russian rocket falls into sea in failed launch: reports
February 1, 2013 10:08 am | News | CommentsA rocket carrying a communications satellite suffered engine trouble and plunged into the Pacific Ocean shortly after launch on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.
Enfeebled F-35 could impede military readiness
January 31, 2013 3:15 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsPicture a Swiss Army Knife with a blunted knife, rusty screwdriver, and a broken can opener. That’s what the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has become — a jack of all trades and master of none. The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has — over the course of a highly tumultuous development period that personifies the phrase "requirements creep" — become the poster child for bloated government programs.
Boeing’s 787 battery eggs: All in one lithium basket
January 31, 2013 11:13 am | by Karl Stephan, Consulting Engineer, Texas State University, San Marcos | Blogs | CommentsExcuse the tortured metaphor, but the old advice about not putting all your eggs in one basket applies to engineering as well as to other fields. The implication is that if the basket with all your eggs slips and falls, you’ve lost everything. Boeing hasn’t lost everything, but the battery troubles besetting its new 787 Dreamliner could not have come at a worse time.
NASA launches communication satellite
January 31, 2013 9:06 am | by MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsNASA launched a new communication satellite Wednesday to stay in touch with its space station astronauts and relay more Hubble telescope images. An unmanned Atlas V rocket blasted into the starry night sky carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. This is the 11th TDRS satellite to be launched by NASA.
Did the Justice Department cause Aaron Swartz’s suicide?
January 31, 2013 9:00 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Articles | CommentsAaron Swartz was a 26-year-old computer programmer and online activist who died of apparent suicide on January 11, ahead of a scheduled trial where he was charged with 13 felonies. Swartz, founder of Demand Progress, an online group actively working against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)...
High-tech airship under construction in California hangar could provide cargo solutions
January 30, 2013 8:55 am | by RAQUEL MARIA DILLON Associated Press | News | CommentsThe massive blimp-like aircraft flies but just barely, hovering only a dozen feet off a military hangar floor during flight testing south of Los Angeles. Still, the fact that the hulking Aeroscraft could fly for just a few minutes represents a step forward in aviation, according to the engineers who developed it.
VPX module targets sense-and-response apps requiring high bandwidth, minimal latency
January 29, 2013 11:11 am | Curtiss-Wright Controls | Product Releases | CommentsCurtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions (CWCDS) has introduced the CHAMP-WB (“WideBand”), said to be the Industry’s first Xilinx Virtex-7 OpenVPX COTS DSP Engine designed for sense-and-response applications that require high bandwidth and minimal latency. In addition, the company
Will a high-velocity, DNA-tagging police pellet gun deter protesters?
January 24, 2013 3:43 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsGun control is a hot button issue, so it makes sense that police and security firms would look towards expanding effective methods of nonviolent interaction. This becomes particularly important during riot situations with a lot of people and confusion, where police are often outnumbered and overwhelmed.
Into deep space: Second U.S. firm takes aim at mining asteroids
January 23, 2013 2:19 pm | by Irene Klotz, Reuters | News | CommentsA team of entrepreneurs and engineers unveiled plans on Tuesday for a space mining company that would tap nearby asteroids for raw materials to fuel satellites and manufacture components in orbit. Deep Space Industries, based in Santa Monica, California, said its inaugural mission is targeted for 2015....
Tantalum capacitor protects from short circuit conditions
January 23, 2013 11:02 am | Kemet Electronics Corporation | Product Releases | CommentsKEMET Corporation introduced its new T496 Hi-Rel Fused Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) MnO2 Series of tantalum surface mount capacitors. These devices are ideal for use in high reliability applications where a capacitor failing short will disrupt the overall performance of the system. The internal fuse in the capacitor results in a fail open condition.
Pentagon researches new life for dead satellites
January 23, 2013 9:01 am | by Alicia Chang AP Science Writer | News | CommentsCall it space grave robbery for a cause: Imagine scavenging defunct communication satellites for their valuable parts and recycling them to build brand new ones for cheap.It's the latest pet project from the Pentagon's research wing known for its quirky and sometimes out-there ideas. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Pressure switches available with two million life cycle rating, IP67 environmental sealing
January 22, 2013 12:00 pm | Honeywell Sensing And Control | Product Releases | CommentsHoneywell introduced its Pressure Switches, High Pressure Premium, HPS Series, the only pressure switches available in the industry with a two million life cycle rating, IP67 environmental sealing, and multiple port and termination options that improve equipment uptime,
“Smart pills” could save firefighters from injury or death
January 22, 2013 11:27 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsWhile the idea of “Smart Medication” didn’t go over very well with the ECN crowd, there is a group to which it could be the difference between life and death.Firefighters often battle in extreme environmental conditions that can be pretty tough on the body’s vitals.
