Archive | May 23, 2012 | Armed with Science

Time For An HIV Vaccine

Filed under Life Sciences, Social Sciences, STEM by jtozer on May 23, 2012 at 7:39 am {one comment}

Deployed U.S. forces have historically been exposed to diseases that are not prevalent in the U.S. such as malaria, leishmaniasis and dengue.

To combat these disease threats, the U.S. military has excelled at infectious disease research and spurred some of medicine’s greatest advances in disease prevention, diagnostics, and treatment.

When the HIV epidemic first emerged in the 1980s, the U.S. government immediately recognized the threat the disease could pose to service members.

In response, Congress established the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In this age of global deployments, HIV not only continues to pose a threat to service members, but it can also compromise the stability of a nation where the disease is prevalent and endanger worldwide security.

Early in the epidemic, the U.S. military emerged as a leader when MHRP developed the first HIV disease staging system, which was adopted by the Army in 1986.

(more…)

The Man Who Walked On The Moon

Filed under Education & Culture, Space by jtozer on May 22, 2012 at 7:24 am {no comments}

Lunar Salute: Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott salutes the American flag at the Hadley-Apennine lunar landing site. The Lunar Module "Falcon" is partially visible on the right. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

Former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force colonel David R. Scott will present “The Air Force in Space – and on the Moon: The Flights of Apollo 9 and Apollo 15″ during a special presentation TODAY, May 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Scott began his professional career after graduating fifth in his class at West Point in 1954.

After completing flying training, he served as an Air Force fighter pilot stationed in the Netherlands until 1960. He then earned two graduate degrees at MIT, followed by completing the Air Force Test Pilot School. In 1963 he was selected in the third group of NASA astronauts.

During the next eight years, he flew three space missions: Gemini VIII, the first docking in space, March 1966; Apollo 9, the first test flight of all spacecraft and flight operations for the Apollo lunar mission (except landing), March 1969; and Apollo 15, July 1971, for which, as commander, he received NASA’s highest award “for leading the most complex and carefully planned scientific expedition in the history of exploration.”

During 1997, Scott was the technical advisor to the director of the movie “Apollo 13,” Ron Howard. Subsequently, during 1998, he was technical advisor on all 10 episodes of the Emmy award winning HBO TV series, “From the Earth to the Moon,” produced by Tom Hanks.

During 2005, he was technical consultant on the 3D IMAX® film, “Magnificent Desolation,” depicting Apollo lunar surface activities, produced by Tom Hanks and the IMAX Corp.
(more…)

Solar Power for Soldiers

Filed under Energy, Videos by jtozer on May 21, 2012 at 7:14 am {no comments}

The U.S. Army Reserve officially opens it’s first fully functional solar powered training facility in Illinois. The new Joliet U.S. Army Reserve training center will be home to 600 quartermaster and transportation personnel. The $36 million, 60,000 square foot complex was built as a modernization effort and as a part of the Army Green Initiative.

Social Media and Suicide Prevention

Filed under Featured, Physical Sciences, STEM, Technology by jtozer on May 20, 2012 at 7:59 am {one comment}

What would you do if a Facebook friend updated that they were depressed and thinking of ending their life?

What would you do if you observed a group of individuals bullying another person on a social media site? Would your actions be the same if the person was a friend or a complete stranger?

Your answers to these questions may have important implications for how these scenarios turn out. Fortunately, there are resources in social media to help you reduce the risk for suicidal behavior and to get help.

Suicide is a serious but preventable public health problem. According to the World Health Organization, more than one million suicides occur in the world every year.

Social media, such as chat rooms, blogs, video sites like YouTube, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, have become important ways that many people communicate and share information about a variety of topics, including suicide.

(more…)

Naval Research Lab – The Makers Of The GPS

Filed under Space, STEM, Technology by jtozer on May 19, 2012 at 7:25 am {no comments}

Did you know that the GPS was invented by scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory?

Well now you do.

One of NRL’s greatest accomplishments has been the invention and development of the enabling technologies that became the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Like another towering NRL achievement in an earlier generation, radar, GPS has transformed warfare while also providing major benefits to navigation.

GPS is not only a global navigation aid, it is also the means for precision time and time transfer throughout the world, which has wide ranging and influential impact on communications and commerce; these features are a direct outcome of the technology envisioned and introduced by NRL scientists and engineers.

This bibliography is offered as an aid to those who are interested in better understanding the NRL role in the origins of GPS. Bibliographic citations, primarily of published works, are presented.

These are annotated with abstracts, photos, and figures to facilitate selecting which of the referenced papers to examine more closely. A timeline is provided to aid in setting the citations in their context of historical development.

Learn more about what made all our lives easier, or at the very least, a little less lost.

You have arrived.

Service Members Get A Sneak Peek Of “Battleship”

Filed under Videos by jtozer on May 18, 2012 at 7:20 am {no comments}

At Sharkey Theater, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, service members, families and their friends attended an advanced screening of the new SciFi action Naval war film “Battleship“, starring (amongst many others) Alexander Skarsgard and Rihanna!

Cast and crew were at the premier to show their appreciation for the troops:

The movie was released today in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Information for this post provided by the All Hands Update

———-

Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense of this website or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD website.

The Military Mission In Space

Filed under Space, Technology, Videos by jtozer on May 17, 2012 at 7:30 am {one comment}

Solar - B Spacecraft goes into orbit to begin looking at the sun. It is specifically looking at solar magnetic fields and the origins of the solar wind. (Photo concept from NASA)

The Air Force is constantly monitoring the skies, but that isn’t limited to our atmosphere. Keeping our military satellites up and running is tantamount to mission success, and working to improve that equipment and technology is a part of the ever-growing advancement of our military mission in space.

The Space Control Center in Cheyenne Mountain Air Station (NORAD) is the terminus for the SSN’s abundant and steady flow of information. The SCC houses large, powerful computers to process SSN information and accomplish the space surveillance and space control missions.

The NAVSPACECOM provides the site and personnel for the Alternate SCC (ASCC). The ASCC would take over all operations in the event the SCC could not function. This capability is exercised frequently.

The Orbital Space Debris

STRATCOM tracks over 20,000 man-made space objects, baseball-size and larger, orbiting Earth. The space objects consist of active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation. About seven percent are operational satellites, 15 percent are rocket bodies, and about 78 percent are fragmentation and inactive satellites.

Most debris (about 84 percent) is out approximately 800 kilometers – roughly twice the normal altitude of the space shuttle which orbits at about 300 kilometers.

Only a small amount of debris exists where the shuttle orbits.

The likelihood of a significant collision between a piece of debris (10 centimeters or larger) and the shuttle is extremely remote. The statistical estimate is one chance in 10,000 years, in the worst case. The probability is higher for objects smaller-than-baseball size which currently cannot be tracked with available sensors.

(more…)

Eyes On The Skies – Space Weather and Satellites

Filed under Space, STEM, Technology by jtozer on May 16, 2012 at 7:09 am {no comments}

This animation shows a magnetic reconnection event with proton aurora data from the IMAGE spacecraft. (Photo concept courtesy of NASA)

The Space Surveillance Network has been tracking space objects since 1957 when the Soviets opened the space age with the launch of Sputnik I. Since then, the SSN has tracked more than 24,500 space objects orbiting Earth.

Of that number, the SSN currently tracks more than 8,000 orbiting objects.

The rest have re-entered Earth’s turbulent atmosphere and disintegrated, or survived re-enty and impacted the Earth. The space objects now orbiting Earth range from satellites weighting several tons to pieces of spent rocket bodies weighing only 10 pounds.

About seven percent of the space objects are operational satellites, the rest are debris. STRATCOM is primarily interested in the active satellites, but also tracks space debris. They also track space objects which are 10 centimeters in diameter (baseball size) or larger.

SSN Sensors

The SSN uses a “predictive” technique to monitor space objects; it spot checks them rather than tracking them continually. This technique is used because of the limits of the SSN (number of sensors, geographic distribution, capability, and availability).

(more…)