NSF VIDEO: Interstellar, meet Large Hadron Collider (SPOILER ALERT!)

NASA VIDEO: WHAT'S UP FOR MAY 2015

NASA'S SOIL MOISTURE ACTIVE PASSIVE OBSERVATORY WAITS

FROM:  NASA SPACE LAUNCH 

The sun sets behind Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) with the Delta II rocket and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory protected by the service structure on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

TECH AND NEW IDEAS SOUGHT BY DOD FOR RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PLAN

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
DoD Seeks Future Technology Via Development Plan
By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2014 – The Defense Department seeks technology and innovative ideas as part of its Long Range Research Development Plan within the Defense Innovation Initiative, a broad effort that examines future capabilities, dominance and strategy, a senior DoD official said Nov. 24.

The newly-released LRRDP Request for Information will provide a way for DoD technology scouts to collaborate with industry, academia, and the general public to explore topics and ideas to better identify the “art of the possible,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering Stephen P. Welby.

“We’re interested in getting the broadest set of folks, the brightest minds we can find, to come help us on this effort,” Welby said. “We’re hoping that by casting this wide net, we’ll be able to harness the creativity and innovation going on in the broader ecosystem and help us think about the future department in a new way.”

Domains of Interest

Specific military domains of interest, he said, include space, undersea technologies, affordable protective systems against precision-guided munitions threats, air dominance and strike capability possibilities, ecologically and biologically inspired ideas and human-computer interaction.

“We expect the topics and ideas that come back will inform our science and technology planning and we’re mining that whole space,” Welby said.

He described a “small, agile team” of bright government officials who’ve been charged to engage industry, academia, not-for-profits, small businesses and the general public to help the department explore future possibilities. Inputs will also be accepted from allies and international partners who may have unique perspectives or contributions to the effort.

Officials expect the seven-month study to yield results in time to brief the defense secretary by mid-2015 and influence future budget and offset technology decisions, Welby said.

DoD’s Future

“The key opportunity out of this whole effort is to start a discussion,” he said. “We’re asking questions about people, business practices, but particularly … about technology, what we need to drive the future of the department.”
Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work will oversee the program as part of the overall effort to explore how technology can be incorporated with future DoD strategy and capabilities.

Pentagon officials noted a justified urgency in reviewing the future systems and architectures to maintain dominance over competing investments around the globe.

“There is no better time to look at the long-range strategy we’re taking to invest in technologies that will make a difference,” Welby said.
Capability Breakthrough in the 1980s

During the 1980s, Welby said, DoD found itself facing the Soviets and recognized there was a better way to confront the issue rather than a “tank-versus-tank” military buildup.

“The big breakthrough in that time period was introduction of precision weapons … and technology that allowed us to replace quantity with very precise technology-driven capabilities,” Welby said.

That, he said, has been the key driver in the way the nation has conducted itself in the national security environment for more than 40 years.

“People have understood our playbook,” Welby said. “Adversaries are now building systems that look to blunt particular United States’ advantages and we’d like to revisit that.”

Efforts in 1973 included the original Long-Range Research and Development Plan, which ushered in nascent digital technologies, early iterations of global positioning systems and the beginnings of the future Internet.

Today, he said, DoD faces challenges posed by globalization and technologies driven by both the military and commercial sectors.

“We’re now asking broader questions like, ‘How does the United States maintain its … lead against the entire path of technology and innovation going on globally?’” Welby said.

Maintaining a compelling U.S. advantage in technology is critical, he said.
DoD’s long-range plan, Welby said, will focus on “near-peer competitors,” state actors and a broader scope of conventional deterrence, namely key technologies that will enable the protection of U.S. interests and freedom of movement, and deter future aggression into the 2025 timeframe.

NASA VIDEO: SPACE STATION LIVE: SETTING UP A MACHINE SHOP IN SPACE

NASA VIDEO: NASA TESTS MODEL OF POWERFUL NEW ROCKET

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: WHILE THE CREW SLEEPS

FROM:  NASA 

This view in the International Space Station, photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member, shows how it looks inside the space station while the crew is asleep. The dots near the hatch point to a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station in case the crew was to encounter an emergency. This view is looking into the Destiny Laboratory from Node 1 (Unity) with Node 2 (Harmony) in the background. Destiny is the primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads, supporting a wide range of experiments and studies. Image Credit: NASA.

DISPLAYED: SPACE STATION'S VEGETABLE PRODUCTION SYSTEM EXPERIMENT

FROM:  NASA INTERNATIONAL 

The International Space Station's Vegetable Production System ("Veggie") experiment is on display in the News Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Veggie is a new investigation with "edible results" heading to the space station. Veggie is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with appetizing, nutritious and safe fresh food and support crew relaxation and recreation. It will serve as a new space station facility as well and will provide a venue for future plant growth research. To the right of the Veggie experiment is a model of the Space Launch System (SLS), the nation's next heavy-lift launch vehicle. NASA is developing the SLS and Orion spacecraft to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, with the flexibility to launch spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, including to an asteroid and Mars. The Veggie experiment is aboard SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft, scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. at 4:58 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 14, 2014. The SpaceX-3 mission is carrying almost 2.5 tons of supplies, technology and science experiments and is the third of 12 flights contracted by NASA to resupply the orbiting laboratory. Read more about cargo launching to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX-3: > SpaceX’s Dragon Headed to Space Station to Create Astronaut Farmers > CASIS-Sponsored Research Heads to Space Station Aboard SpaceX-3 > International Space Station to Beam Video via Laser Back to Earth > NASA's Latest Smartphone Satellite Ready for Launch Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

MASA EXPLAINS MARS ROVER IMAGE OF WESTERN RIM OF ENDEAVOUR CRATER

FROM:  NASA 

This scene shows the "Murray Ridge" portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars. The ridge is the NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's work area for the rover's sixth Martian winter. The ridge rises about 130 feet (40 meters) above the surrounding plain, between "Solander Point" at the north end of the ridge and "Cape Tribulation," beyond Murray Ridge to the south. This view does not show the entire ridge. The visible ridge line is about 10 meters (33 feet) above the rover's location when the component images were taken. The scene sweeps from east to south. The planar rocks in the foreground at the base of the hill are part of a layer of rocks laid down around the margins of the crater rim. At this location, Opportunity is sitting at the contact between the Meridiani Planum sandstone plains and the rocks of the Endeavour Crater rim. On the upper left, the view is directed about 22 kilometers (14 miles) across the center of Endeavour crater to the eastern rim. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 and has been investigating parts of Endeavour's western rim since August 2011. The scene combines several images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 3,446th Martian day, or sol, of the mission's work on Mars (Oct. 3, 2013) and the following three sols. On Sol 3451 (Oct. 8, 2013), Opportunity began climbing the ridge. The slope offers outcrops that contain clay minerals detected from orbit and also gives the rover a northward tilt that provides a solar-energy advantage during the Martian southern hemisphere's autumn and winter. The rover team chose to call this feature Murray Ridge in tribute to Bruce Murray (1931-2013), an influential advocate for planetary exploration who was a member of the science teams for NASA's earliest missions to Mars and later served as director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena. This view is presented in approximately true color, merging exposures taken through three of the Pancam's color filters, centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU.

NSF AND THE SUN'S MYSTERIOUS CORONA

Right:  Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
It's hot...super hot
Finding answers around the sun

November 12, 2013

Astronomers have collectively puzzled over two working theories for a conundrum involving the sun that have been discussed in Astronomy 101 classes for decades: Why is the sun's corona (the atmosphere beyond the sun) so hot? The sun's core is a searing 15 million Kelvins, but by the time that heat reaches the sun's surface, it cools off to a mere 6,000 degrees, only to again heat up to more than a million degrees in the corona.

Two National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded researchers at Columbia University recently published what they believe is the solution, and it has to do with magnetic waves known as Alfven waves. The researchers present their findings today at the Hinode 7 Science Meeting in Japan.

Michael Hahn and Daniel Wolf Savin analyzed data from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer on the Japanese satellite Hinode over a polar coronal hole and found that, much like the vibrations of a plucked guitar string, the solar magnetic field lines also pulsate, and in doing so transfer energy from below the sun's surface into the corona. Hinode's spectrometer captured the waves penetrating the upper solar atmosphere.

"This is a fundamentally important finding," said Ilia Roussev, NSF program director for solar terrestrial research. "This issue is the holy grail of solar physics. If this allows us to better understand the mechanics, then it has tremendous consequences."

The coronal heating problem has been debated for 70 years with researchers essentially falling into two camps: one involving the Alfven waves and the other attributing the heating "problem" to magnetic field loops that stretch across the solar surface with the potential to "snap" and release energy. The important key to Hahn and Savin's findings comes with Hinode satellite observations. The team has been studying Hinode data since 2009 with funding since 2011 from the NSF Solar, Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) Program.

"This is the big, unanswered question in solar physics, and nearly everyone in the field is somehow working on trying to solve it," Savin said. "We really had no idea where the research would lead us, but we were hoping to at least be able to add another piece to the puzzle. We did not expect it to be such a big piece."

In fact, technology had to catch up to theory to make this happen. The Hinode satellite, a Japanese mission with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer developed as collaboration between Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, offered unique, previously unattainable observations.

"Until that time, we could only see the sun in white light; we didn't have UV observations. But, now we do," Roussev noted. With the UV capability, researchers can glean information on chemical makeup and physical conditions near the sun's surface that until the mid-1990s could not be observed. Hinode has been studying the sun since 2006.

"Some in the community have responded enthusiastically to our findings; others more cautiously, but that is to be expected," Savin said. "Others, including us, have pointed out that there may not be just one solution to the problem as there are different structures on the Sun. Our work is relevant for coronal holes, which are the source of the fast solar wind. A different mechanism or mechanisms may be operating in the quiet sun."

The "in's and out's" of Earth's atmosphere

While the sun is almost 93 million miles from earth, the electrons and protons from the sun move toward Earth via a wind of particles. This solar wind has impacts on the Earth's atmosphere in locations where satellites provide important imagery of our planet and allow technology like GPS and cell phones to operate.

"Ultimately, this kind of research does provide new perspective on space weather, which is known to affect the Earth" said Hahn, who was awarded a 2012 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists by the New York Academy of Sciences for his work on the coronal heating problem. "Understanding these fundamental processes improves our understanding, of not just the solar corona, but also of space weather."

Specifically, the high temperature of the sun's corona causes it to emit X-rays that can affect the conditions of Earth's atmosphere where satellites roam. "The sun is the biggest X-ray machine in the solar system," Roussev explained. "The upper layers of earth's atmosphere absorb those X-rays, but what they do is heat that upper atmosphere. It expands almost like the Earth breathing in and out. This has a direct impact on the lifetime of satellites. The more the atmosphere expands, the slower the satellites move. That shortens their lifetime as they slow to a point where they re-enter the atmosphere."

Puzzle solved. Now what?

The interesting thing about potentially solving a puzzle like this one is that the solution raises more questions.

"What causes Alfven waves to be damped at such surprisingly low heights in the corona?" Savin asked, who is now proposing a series of experiments in plasma physics to simulate conditions in a coronal hole and explore possible mechanisms that would cause the waves to lose their energy. "We are also analyzing Hinode observations of other solar structures in the corona to see what role waves play in heating those structures."

Other researchers will likely explore replication, especially involving observations elsewhere in the corona, rather than just polar coronal holes.

"People have been claiming to solve the coronal heating problem for decades," Hahn said. "We are reasonably confident in our results and wait now for others to reproduce our findings."

-- Ivy F. Kupec
Investigators
Michael Hahn
Daniel Wolf Savin
Related Institutions/Organizations
Columbia University
Locations
Columbia University , New York

MICROBIAL ASTRONAUTS

FROM:  NASA 
Spaceflight Alters Bacterial Social Networks

When astronauts launch into space, a microbial entourage follows. And the sheer number of these followers would give celebrities on Twitter a run for their money. The estimate is that normal, healthy adults have ten times as many microbial cells as human cells within their bodies; countless more populate the environment around us. Although invisible to the naked eye, microorganisms – some friend, some foe – are found practically everywhere.

Microorganisms like bacteria often are found attached to surfaces living in communities known as biofilms. Bacteria within biofilms are protected by a slimy matrix that they secrete. Skip brushing your teeth tomorrow morning and you may personally experience what a biofilm feels like.

One of NASA’s goals is to minimize the health risks associated with extended spaceflight, so it is critical that methods for preventing and treating spaceflight-induced illnesses be developed before astronauts embark upon long-duration space missions. It is important for NASA to learn how bacterial communities that play roles in human health and disease are affected by spaceflight.
In two NASA-funded studies – Micro-2 and Micro-2A – biofilms made by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa were cultured on Earth and aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 2010 and 2011 to determine the impact of microgravity on their behavior. P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that is commonly used for biofilm studies. The research team compared the biofilms grown aboard the International Space Station bound space shuttle with those grown on the ground. The study results show for the first time that spaceflight changes the behavior of bacterial communities.

Although most bacterial biofilms are harmless, some threaten human health and safety. Biofilms can exhibit increased resistance to the immune system’s defenses or treatment with antibiotics. They also can damage vital equipment aboard spacecraft by corroding surfaces or clogging air and water purification systems that provide life support for astronauts. Biofilms cause similar problems on Earth.
“Biofilms were rampant on the Mir space station and continue to be a challenge on the International Space Station, but we still don’t really know what role gravity plays in their growth and development,” said Cynthia Collins, Ph.D., principal investigator for the study and assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. “Before we start sending astronauts to Mars or embarking on other long-term spaceflight missions, we need to be as certain as possible that we have eliminated or significantly reduced the risk that biofilms pose to the human crew and their equipment.”
In 2010 and 2011, during the STS-132 and STS-135 missions aboard space shuttle Atlantis, astronauts in space and scientists on Earth performed nearly simultaneous parallel experiments; both teams cultured samples of P. aeruginosa bacteria using conditions that encouraged biofilm formation.

Identical hardware designed for growing cells during spaceflight were used for both the flight and ground studies. According to Collins, “artificial urine was chosen as a growth medium because it is a physiologically relevant environment for the study of biofilms formed both inside and outside the human body.”
Biofilms were cultured inside specialized fluid processing apparatus composed of glass tubes divided into chambers. The researchers loaded each tube with a membrane that provided a surface on which the bacteria could grow; the artificial urine was used for the bacteria’s nourishment. Samples of P. aeruginosa were loaded into separate chambers within each tube.

The prepared tubes were placed in groups of eight inside another specialized device called a group activation pack (GAP) – designed to activate all of the bacterial cultures at once. The research team prepared identical sets of GAPs for the concurrent spaceflight and ground experiments.

Astronauts aboard the shuttle initiated the flight experiments by operating the GAPs and introducing the bacteria to the artificial urine medium. Scientists on Earth performed the same operations with the control group of GAPs at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After activation, the GAPs were housed in incubators on Earth and aboard the shuttle to maintain temperatures appropriate for bacterial growth.

After the microgravity samples returned to Earth, the researchers determined the thickness of the biofilms, the number of living cells and the volume of biofilm per area on the membranes. Additionally, they used a microscopy technique that allowed them to capture high-resolution images at different depths within the biofilms, revealing details of their three-dimensional structures.

What the scientists found was that the P. aeruginosa biofilms grown in space contained more cells, more mass and were thicker than the control biofilms grown on Earth. When they viewed the microscopy images of the space-grown biofilms, the researchers saw a unique, previously unobserved structure consisting of a dense mat-like “canopy” structure supported above the membrane by “columns.” The Earth grown biofilms were uniformly dense, flat structures. These results provide the first evidence that spaceflight affects community-level behavior of bacteria.

Microbes experience “low shear” conditions in microgravity that resemble conditions inside the human body, but are difficult to study. According to Collins, “Beyond its importance for astronauts and future space explorers, this research also could lead to novel methods for preventing and treating human disease on Earth. Examining the effects of spaceflight on biofilm formation can provide new insights into how different factors, such as gravity, fluid dynamics and nutrient availability affect biofilm formation on Earth. Additionally, the research findings one day could help inform new, innovative approaches for curbing the spread of infections in hospitals.”

NASA’s Space Biology Program funded the Micro-2 and Micro-2A investigations. Related space biology research continues aboard the space station, including recently selected studies that are planned for future launch to the orbiting laboratory.

Wherever we go, microbial communities will faithfully follow, making this evidence of the effects of spaceflight on bacterial physiology relevant to human health. That bacterial biofilms exhibit different behavior in space versus on Earth is critical information as NASA strives to keep astronauts healthy and safe during future long-duration space missions.
by Gianine M. Figliozzi

LANL HONORED FOR INNOVATION AND UTILITY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
X-Ray Imaging, Spacecraft Nuclear Fission and Cosmic Ray Contraband Detection Score R&D 100 Awards

Los Alamos and partner technologies honored for innovation and utility

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 8, 2013—R&D Magazine today announced the winners of its annual “R&D 100” competition, commonly known as the “Oscars of Innovation,” and three technologies from Los Alamos National Laboratory and its partners are among the honorees.

“The innovation and creativity shown in this year’s awards is truly inspiring. It gives me great confidence in the Laboratory’s intellectual vitality and ongoing role in national security science. Congratulations to our researchers and their partners,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charles McMillan.

A Digital X-ray Imager for Field Use

 MiniMAX is a battery powered, digital x-ray imaging system that is completely self-contained, lightweight, compact and portable. Its applications include homeland security (postal inspection of suspicious packages and explosive ordnance disposal), nondestructive testing, weld inspection, disaster relief (to triage broken bones and confirm dental X-rays) and for field and veterinary medicine. (Joint entry with Los Alamos, Leica Camera AG, JDS Uniphase and JENOPTIK Optical Systems LLC.)
Nuclear Fission for Spacecraft

KiloPower uses a nuclear fission system as a heat source that transfers heat via a heat pipe to a small Stirling-engine-based power convertor to produce electricity from uranium. With KiloPower, it is possible for NASA and other government and industrial organizations to continue developing probes and spacecraft for the exploration of deep space. (Joint entry with Los Alamos, NASA Glenn Research Center and National Security Technologies, LLC.)
Cosmic Ray Muons for Contraband Detection

Multi-Mode Passive Detection System (MMPDS) is a scanning device using muon particles from cosmic rays for quickly detecting unshielded to heavily shielded nuclear and radiological threats as well as explosives and other contraband. (Joint entry with Los Alamos and Decision Sciences International Corporation.)
But wait, there’s more. . .

Los Alamos was also a joint winner with Sandia National Laboratories, which led the work, on

Mantevo Suite 1.0: This suite of software prototypes or small sections of code allows computational scientists to measure the performance of new computing environments and helps in the design of future computing applications. (Joint entry with Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories, the United Kingdom-based Atomic Weapons Establishment and Santa Clara-based NVIDIA Corp.)
A History of Success

Since 1978 when it first competed, Los Alamos has won 129 of the prestigious R&D100 awards that celebrate the top 100 proven technological advances of the year as judged by R&D Magazine. These technologies include innovative new materials, chemistry breakthroughs, biomedical products, consumer items, testing equipment, and high-energy physics.

In the years since 1995, winning innovations have returned more than $45 million in funding to Los Alamos in the form of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, Work for Others, User Facility Agreements and licenses. An estimated 80 patent awards have been associated with winners with many more patents pending. Some 25 percent of LANL's commercial licenses and 35 percent of noncommercial licenses can be attributed to R&D 100 winners.

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About Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and URS Corporation for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

PENTAGON OFFICIAL SAYS BUDGET CUTS LIMIT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT



Credit:  U.S. Air Force. Launch Of GPS Satellite.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Budget Reductions Limit Science, Tech Development, Official Says

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 - The Defense Department's research and engineering department faces the same challenges the rest of the department does due to limitations caused by sequestration spending cuts, a senior Pentagon official said today.

Alan R. Shaffer, acting assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, was joined by Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, before the Senate Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities to talk about their part of the fiscal year 2014 defense budget request.

Shaffer said he represents scientists and engineers from DOD, a group that "conceives, develops and matures systems" early in the acquisition process.

"They work with multiple partners to provide the unmatched operational advantage employed by our services' men and women," he said. "As we wind down in Afghanistan, the national security and budget environments are changing."

The president's fiscal 2014 budget request for science and technology is $12 billion -- a nominal increase from fiscal 2013's $11.9 billion, Shaffer said, noting that it isn't possible to discuss the budget without addressing the impact of sequestration, "which takes 9 percent from every single program" in research, development, testing and evaluation.

"This reduction will delay or terminate some efforts," he said. "We will reduce awards. For instance, we will reduce university grants by $200 million this year alone."

Potentially, he added, the number of new SMART Scholarships —an acronym that stands for science, mathematics and research for transformation -- could go down to zero, and sequestration cuts will cause other limitations for research and engineering departments.

"Because of the way the sequester was implemented, we will be very limited in hiring new scientists this year, and the [next] several years," he said.

Each of these actions, Shaffer said, will have a negative long-term impact on the department and to national security.

"The president and secretary of defense depend upon us to make key contributions to the defense of our nation," he said. "[Science and technology] should do three things for national security."

Shaffer said science and technology should mitigate current and emerging threats and that the budget should build affordability and affordably enable current and future weapons systems to operate.

Also necessary, he said, is developing "technology surprise" to prevent potential adversaries from threatening the United States.

"In summary, the department's research and engineering program is faced with the same challenges as the rest of the DOD and the nation," he said, "but our people are performing."

Prabhakar focused on DARPA's goals in her testimony.

"[Our] objective is a new generation of technology for national security, and to realize this new set of military capabilities and systems is going to take a lot of organizations and people," she said.

"But DARPA's role in that is to make the pivotal early investments that change what's possible," she added. "[This] really lets us take big steps forward in our capabilities for the future."

The director said DARPA is investing in a host of areas to include building a future where war fighters can have cyber as a tactical tool that's fully integrated into the kinetic fight.

"And we're building a new generation of electronic warfare that leapfrogs what others around the world are able to do with widely, globally available semiconductor technology," she said.

"It means we're investing in new technologies for position, navigation and timing, so that our people and our platforms are not critically reliant as they are today on GPS," Prabhakar said.

The director also noted DARPA is investing in a new generation of space and robotics, advanced weapon systems, new platforms, and a new "foundational" infrastructure of emerging technologies in different areas of software and electronics, and material science.

The aim, Prabhakar said, is to create real and powerful options for future commanders and leaders against whatever threats the nation faces in the years ahead.

"And that work is the driver behind all of our programs," she said. "It's the reason that the people at DARPA run to work every morning with their hair on fire. They know that they're part of a mission that really does matter for our future security as a country.

THE MISSILE AND SPACE INTELLIGENCE CENTER

GTR-18 surface-to-air missile simulators are fired at incoming aircraft during nighttime warfare training at the Yodaville close air support range near Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., April 11, 2011. The Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center helps to protect U.S. forces from similar real weapons. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Benjamin R. Reynolds

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Missile, Space Intelligence Center Saves Warfighter Lives
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2013 - Engineers, scientists and analysts of the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center provide high-confidence assessments of foreign missile and space systems and other critical intelligence products that help to keep warfighters from harm

Spread out over some of the 38,000 acres of the Army's Redstone Arsenal in the Appalachian highlands of northern Alabama are the laboratories, high-performance computing operations, test areas and hardware storage spaces that make up MSIC's vast engineering complex.

"The work itself is pretty detailed and geeky," MSIC Director Pamela McCue explained during an interview with American Forces Press Service. "We're a bunch of engineers and scientists, and by nature we love to figure out how things work."

McCue, an electrical engineer, said the work involves looking at all sources of intelligence and figuring out the characteristics, performance and operations of threat weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, ground-based anti-satellite systems and short-range ballistic missiles.

Service members who conduct operations anywhere in the world are likely to encounter a variety of weapons, McCue said.

"Our job is to understand the threat weapons and push intelligence to the military so they will be prepared," she added. "Hopefully, we can do it so our service [members] won't even encounter the threat weapons, but if they do, we want them always to come out on top."

MSIC engineers and scientists focus on how a weapon works, how well it works, and how it's vulnerable or how it can be defeated, she said. Air and missile defense is a key mission.

"These are surface-to-air missiles primarily that fire at our aircraft, ... so anywhere that we have an air operation going, we are likely to face these kinds of systems," McCue noted.

The missiles range from air defense systems that a person can carry and fire from the shoulder to long-range air defense systems that can engage targets over hundreds of miles. The director said millions of "man-portable" systems are in use around the world.

With the knowledge its scientists and engineers gain, MSIC works with those in the services who design air survivability equipment, the director said, "so if you're carrying that on an aircraft, it will detect that a missile has been launched against it, and it will take action so the missile, hopefully, will not hit the aircraft.

"It can do that either with some kind of countermeasure," she continued, "usually a laser-based countermeasure, or perhaps even [by] dropping flares, which are electro-optical infrared devices [designed to] distract the missile and pull it off course. These are techniques that we can equip our military aircraft with -- and especially our helicopters, which have to operate in harm's way -- so even if they are engaged, they won't be hit."

Another important area for MSIC includes ground-based weapons that fire missiles or directed energy at platforms in space. These include anti-satellite missiles and directed-energy weapons.

"We in the United States haven't had a lot of [directed-energy weapons] programs for a while, [but] others around the world are still developing directed-energy weapons -- Russia and China are the two big ones," she said.

Very-high-energy weapons include laser systems, she added, and such weapons either would damage sensors on airplanes or satellites, or as technology evolves, physically destroy a platform in air or space.

The other important mission area for MSIC involves short-range ballistic missiles -- those that can engage targets from tens of miles out to 600 miles out.

"These systems are important because they're the weapon of choice for a lot of [nations] to reach beyond their borders, ... and they can be fitted to carry weapons of mass destruction, so they're a big concern for us and our allies," McCue said. "They're certainly a big player in the Middle East and North Korea."

Today, MSIC helps to defend against ballistic missiles on the same ground where, in 1950, German rocket developer Wernher von Braun and his team of top rocket scientists began working with the Army to develop the Jupiter ballistic missile and others.

The work was done as part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which von Braun headed, and McCue said the organization had a small intelligence cell that was "taking a look at what was going on around the world in similar developments."

MISC began then as an Army research and development center, the director added, and in the 1990s, it became part of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"We've had some of our missions since the very first days, like looking at those threat missile developments to compare them to what we were doing on this side," McCue said. "We picked up additional missions as weapons evolved and new things came online, like the ground-based anti-satellite mission."

In the beginning, the weapons were pretty basic, she said. "For instance, a surface-to-air missile would be capable of tracking a single aircraft at a time," she explained. "It would have a very tightly controlled process for controlling the missile to the target, and it would be very straightforward."

Now, the director said, there's a lot more flexibility.

"On the surface-to-air missile side, you have systems that can track many targets at one time and send many missiles to different targets at the same time," she added, and on the ballistic-missile side, a simple ballistic trajectory may be replaced by extreme maneuvers and countermeasures.

"A lot more complexity in the weapons has come from having more capability, more technology and more computers," the director observed.

Computers have boosted capability on the analysis side, McCue said. "It makes the weapon systems harder to figure out," she said, "but it makes our analysis a little easier and more capable."

The center also has put more emphasis on command and control, as the processes and communications surrounding the launch of a rocket or missile become more computer-driven, she said.

MSIC now has fewer people than it did during the Cold War. But amid the geopolitical instability of much of the world today, MSIC's scientists, engineers and analysts have many more kinds of weapons to deal with. Computer power helps keep the pace, along with a good priority system, McCue said.

"We don't have more people, but we do what I like to call 'risk management,'" the director said. "Every weapon system out there in the world doesn't have an equally high probability of being in an engagement at any given time, so we're constantly assessing priorities and putting the resources we have on the most important weapons, knowing that we can't cover everything."

Over time, major developments in technology could drive changes in MSIC's work, but McCue said she believes being an engineering organization gives MSIC an advantage.

"We tend to keep up with technology, because we use it in our analysis techniques. The folks in the ... labs we work with and the national labs across the country also keep up with technologies, and we're well-linked there," she said. "So ... we have the right mindset, and we are following the technology as a matter of course. The trick is anticipating how that might play into threat weapons."

Technologically, she added, one game-changer could involve people who do unexpected things with weapons, driven by conflicts such as the unrest in Syria or North Korea's use of missiles.

Along with keeping up with evolving technology, working with partners is an important aspect of the work at MSIC these days.

"We are very integrated into the whole intelligence system," the director said, adding that MSIC also works closely with the services and with U.S. allies and partners.

Each service has aircraft they have to fly, she added, "so they have to worry about surface-to-air missiles, [and] they're all what we call customers of ours. We make sure we understand what they need [and] we understand what kind of intelligence they need to put the right things on their military systems, ... and we push intelligence to them in the right form."

Where international partners are concerned, McCue said, "with virtually every partner that the United States has, we work with our counterparts in those countries."

The budget problems plaguing the nation and the Defense Department present a challenge that McCue said the center's scientists and engineers will have to tackle.

"In my observation over the years," she said, "there's a lot of innovation that can come from tight times -- when you're really focused on getting the job done and you've got to figure out some way to do it. We're adaptive and we're flexible, and we're going to keep putting those priorities up there and making sure we get the important things done."

U.S. & INDIA COOPERATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Photo Credit NASA.
FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
U.S.-India Bilateral Cooperation on Science and Technology
Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
June 13, 2012
Science and technology cooperation strengthens the U.S.-India strategic partnership by promoting economic growth and enhancing the well being of our citizens. While government policies aim to create an enabling environment for joint research and the commercialization of that research, we also work to foster ties with the private sector and at the scientist-to-scientist and institution-to-institution level, which are critical to the long-term sustainability of our science and technology partnership. A number of recent developments highlight the strong momentum in our science, technology, and innovation cooperation:

Science and Technology
Second Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation: The United States hosted a second U.S.-India Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation in Washington on June 11, 2012. The U.S. and India Joint Commission for Science and Technology Cooperation is working to finalize a new 2012-2014 Action Plan to enhance cooperation over the next two years, and recently established three new standing expert working groups to implement activities in the following areas: basic and applied sciences, health and medical sciences, and atmospheric, environment, and earth sciences. The second Joint Commission meeting featured thematic discussions on policy initiatives to strengthen bilateral research cooperation and best practices for retaining and advancing women in science. The U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Board also reported its progress. The Endowment Board, established by Secretary Clinton and Minister Krishna in 2009, announced in May the Board’s first grant recipients for entrepreneurial projects that commercialize technologies to improve health and empower citizens. In preparation for this meeting, the United States and India also held several workshops June 8 to explore ways the United States and India can work together to build innovative capacity and technology commercialization and to foster science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) Project: India committed more than $100 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led consortium that is developing a 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, potentially one of the world’s most-powerful telescopes. The Indian consortium partners include the Indian Institute for Astrophysics, the Inter-University Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics and the Araybhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences. The Indian government’s latest step makes it a 10-percent shareholder in the consortium, providing it Partner status alongside institutions from Canada, Japan, and China. Then-Minister of Science and Technology Chavan announced India’s decision to join the TMT Project as an observer in June 2010.[1]

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fermilab “Project X”: DOE and India’s Department of Atomic Energy signed an Implementing Agreement on Discovery Science that would provide the framework for India’s participation at Fermilab in the research, development and construction of a next-generation, high-intensity superconducting radio frequency proton accelerator, also known as “Project X/HISPA.” The resulting facility will be used by U.S. and Indian scientists for research in particle physics and other related fields.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO): The United States’ LIGO Laboratory and India’s Indian Initiative in Gravitational Observations (IndIGO) are jointly working on a plan to create a world-class gravitational wave detector in India. India will contribute $250 million (with $150 million to be spent during India’s 12th five-year plan, commencing April 1, 2012) toward implementation of this project in India. The United States will provide the interferometer components to be placed in the host facility in India. The placement of this detector in India will greatly enhance a wide network of detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan to test fundamental physics in the form of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and to study some of the most unusual astronomical objects in our universe – black holes, neutron stars, and supernovas – and possibly shed light on the Big Bang.

Science and Engineering Research Board: The United States and India are eager to share science and technology knowledge and experience to enhance research capacity and infrastructure. The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) is receiving visitors from India’s Department of Science & Technology (DST) and the National Science and Engineering Research Board (NSERB) who are interested in learning more about NSF processes including merit review as DST develops an NSERB to be modeled after the NSF. Prime Minister Singh announced plans to establish the NSERB in December 2008.

The Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum: The Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) was endowed in 2000 with PL-480 funds to facilitate bilateral scientific cooperation by funding exchanges, workshops, and joint research projects. Over the past ten years the IUSSTF has facilitated travel of more than 11,000 scientists between the United States and India, established 24 virtual joint research centers and organized more than 30 training programs and 150 bilateral conferences, many of which have resulted in long-term partnerships. IUSSTF serves as a secretariat for U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy and U.S.-India S&T Endowment Board.

U.S.-India Dialogue on Women in Science (WIS) Issues: WIS is a priority area for engagement between the United States and India, and both countries discussed cooperation in this area at the U.S.-India Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation on June 11, 2012. The joint statement of the 2011 U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue prioritized WIS as an area for bilateral engagement. Embassy New Delhi’s annual workshops in 2009, 2010, and 2011 in association with India’s Department of Science & Technology identified areas for collaboration on WIS issues. The upcoming 2012 WIS workshop will focus on best-enabling practices for women in science. The United States, India, and Brazil co-sponsored an event focusing WIS on the sidelines of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 2011.

Innovation
U.S.-India S&T Endowment Board: In May 2012, Secretary Clinton and Minister Deshmukh announced the first grantee award of the U.S.-India S&T Endowment Board, which was established in 2009 with an annual budget of $2 to $3 million per year to promote commercialization of innovative technologies in part through grants of up to $500,000 for jointly-developed technology solutions with the potential to improve health and empower citizens in both countries. The first-round winner and runners up include a partnership to create a cold-chain storage solution to keep farmers’ produce fresh, the development of a shoe to help Parkinson’s sufferers to walk, and metabolic screening for newborns. The Board has established a biannual process to solicit proposals and has selected six finalists for the second round of awards.

Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development (GLORIAD): On June 9, 2012, the first direct U.S.-India advanced science and education network began supporting enormous data flows between the United States and the science center of India in Bangalore. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation—and as part of a public-private partnership featuring a $6M contribution by Tata Communications and housed by the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) of the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Bangalore—the new link is part of the NSF-funded advanced global GLORIAD network. GLORIAD is designed to support the most advanced big-data research today, as well as education and health-related research, and its Indian partners at the ICTS are also launching the first open, science-driven, science-managed network exchange in India.

Millennium Alliance: In May 2012, the Indian Government pledged $5 million toward the Millennium Alliance, a joint initiative announced in December 2011 by USAID and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that will identify, support, and scale innovative, game-changing, and cost-effective solutions to the base of the pyramid development challenges in India and around the world. USAID has contributed $7.7 million to the Alliance, which is being matched by FICCI, with the goal of raising $50 million in the coming year.

Open Government Platform: As part of the India-U.S. Dialogue on Open Government launched in November 2010, the two countries in March jointly launched an open-source web portal called the “Open Government Platform” (OGPL), which will be provided to third countries later this year, starting with Rwanda. Leveraging the ICT strengths and the democratic commitment to robust civic engagement of both India and the United States, this open-source platform will provide public access to government information via a user-friendly website. The open source code for OGPL was released into the public domain May 21, 2012.

U.S.-India Innovation Exchange: Then-U.S. Chief Technology Officer Chopra in November 2011 attended the Government of India’s “Global Innovation Roundtable,” which included participants from 15 governments and highlighted innovation’s role in addressing economic growth and development challenges. During the June 2010 U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Minister of External Affairs S. M. Krishna announced the U.S.-India Innovation Exchange. The first delegation under the Exchange traveled to India in September 2010. India plans to host a second Global Innovation Roundtable in November of this year.

Space
U.S.-India Joint Working Group on Civil Space Cooperation: Both countries are committed to using their space programs to expand the frontiers of scientific knowledge and produce tangible benefits for their populations. By exchanging and utilizing satellite-based scientific data about the Earth, its climate, weather, and geophysical features, the United States and India are working together to share information on ocean winds, tropical weather and monsoons, and climate change for a number of applications, including improved agricultural productivity. The bilateral Civil Space Working Group last met in July 2011, with a follow-up discussion on Earth Science in December 2011. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed an implementing agreement in March 2012 that formalized the exchange of data obtained from instruments onboard ISRO’s Oceansat 2 satellite. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and ISRO signed implementing agreements in March 2012 that formalized the exchange of data obtained from the Oceansat-2 and the Global Precipitation Measurement/Megha-Tropiques satellite missions

NORTHERN COMMAND OUTLINES PRIORITIES

The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:
Northcom Prioritizes Homeland Defense, Cyber, Partners
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 13, 2012 - Priorities for U.S. Northern Command include expanding partnerships, keeping eyes on air, space, cyberspace, land and sea domains, and outpacing all threats, the Northcom and the North American Aerospace Defense Command commander said today.

Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, Jr., testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2013 defense budget request for the first time as Northcom commander. Northcom was established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to defending the homeland and help civil authorities respond to natural and other disasters. Its area of responsibility includes Canada and Mexico.

Jacoby said his priorities include advancing and sustaining the U.S.-Canada partnership of NORAD, monitoring the unique and fast-changing domain of the Arctic, and taking care of the men and women of Northcom.

"This past year has been busy. We've synchronized our activities with many partners and done our part to realize efficiencies that we've worked through the budget process," Jacoby told the senators.

As part of the budget, he said, Northcom trimmed its workforce by 141 full-time positions this year, and for fiscal 2013 has requested reducing its operations and maintenance funding by about 6 percent.

"But with the resources and authorities at hand and maintaining our vigilance," the general added, "we'll be able to continue to defend and support the American people."
Outside its primary homeland defense mission, some of Northcom's most immediate concerns include cyber security, transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States from the border with Mexico, and security issues that arise from the predicted melting of Arctic sea ice, opening parts of the Arctic over the next decade to human activity.

Northcom's main responsibility in the cyber domain, Jacoby said, "is consequence management in the event of a catastrophic cyber attack on this country. Northcom could certainly be called upon to provide support to civil authorities in the recovery. But we think our role is broader than that."

Northcom has "some work to do in defining what [constitutes] an attack in the cyber domain," he said. "It's a very collaborative process we're doing as combatant commanders along with [the U.S. Strategic Command] and its ... Cyber Command. That's a work in progress."

Jacoby said he believes "it will be a matter of policy to clearly define what is an attack or what isn't an attack," and he hopes such a policy can be put in place over the next year.
Until then, Jacoby said, he continues to work closely with Cyber Command commander Army Gen. Keith Alexander "to ensure that we have ample warning to understand if there is a cyberattack or malicious cyber activity that ... could compromise the defense of the homeland."

To achieve that end, Jacoby said, Northcom has good cooperation across DOD and with partners in the Department of Homeland Security.

Some aspects of transnational organized crime are another priority for Northcom. President Barack Obama in July released a strategy for combating such crime, and Northcom and the U.S. Southern Command are the main entities through which the Defense Department engages in the Western Hemisphere.
The mandate increases as more nations ask their own militaries to take on internal security responsibilities, Jacoby said.

"What we do on the border [with Mexico] as the Department of Defense is to provide support to the lead agencies -- the Department of Homeland Security, primarily, and the Justice Department's organizations, as well," he said. "We're eager to provide that support."

Partnering with U.S. Customs and Border Protection gives soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines good training opportunities, he added.

"It is a great relationship that's grown stronger and stronger over time," Jacoby said. "Just this month, we've conducted Op[eration] Nimbus II in the Tucson sector, where 1st Armored Division soldiers feel they got better training than they've gotten prior to a deployment at any time in the past 10 years."

In that operation, more than 500 soldiers from Fort Bliss and Fort Hood in Texas supported the U.S. Border Patrol with intelligence and surveillance assistance.
"I think it's critical to continue to strengthen and expand our partnerships in the Northcom headquarters," Jacoby said. "We have over 32 agencies represented there and eight law enforcement agencies. We've never had better sharing of information across the interagency."

Thousands of miles north, the Arctic is becoming an emerging an area of interest for Northcom.

The Navy's Task Force Climate Change and U.S. science agencies have predicted that by 2020 or so, commercial ships may be able to transit the Arctic, where sea ice is in long-term decline.

The region's more than 1,000 miles of coastline and potential sovereign rights to several hundred thousand square miles of ocean gives the United States a strong national security and homeland defense interest there.

"We have an opportunity, while we watch the Arctic begin to open up, to get ahead of potential security requirements," Jacoby told the senators.

To that end, he added, Northcom's strategic framework is to work closely with the Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and other partners in the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and stay closely tied to partners in Canada.
Jacoby said the Defense Department supports the Convention of the Law of the Sea because it would give the United States a role in long-term negotiations that will involve the Arctic and its resources.

In 2004, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended U.S. accession to the treaty in a unanimous vote, but a vote of the entire Senate has not yet taken place. The United States has signed, but not ratified the treaty.