Archive | Education & Culture | Armed with Science

Melting Arctic Ice Will Present New Challenges

Filed under Earth Sciences, STEM by jtozer on November 19, 2012 at 7:45 am {no comments}

Bright white ice reflects sunlight from the Earth’s surface. In contrast, open water is very dark, and absorbs sunlight. As sea ice melts more water is exposed, which tends to increase warming. (Photograph courtesy NOAA Photo Library)

With ice melting in the Arctic Ocean, which is bordered by countries including Canada, Russia and the United States, more sea-faring traffic will appear there and more nations with economic interest in the region will arrive to exploit the resources there, said a panel of security experts during a forum.

“[Our] area of responsibility is evolving and changing,” said Maj. Gen. Francis G. Mahon, J5, U.S. Northern Command. “The Arctic is receding … the northern coast is about to become a real coast; maybe not today, maybe not this year, but in a short time. We need to start thinking about that.”

Mahon was featured during a panel discussion regarding North American security, during the 2012 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

Mahon said development in the Arctic “is going to happen.”

Shell Oil, for instance, has been there conducting test drilling operations, and Conoco, he said, will be there next summer.

Increased economic interest in the region, which is bordered by Alaska, means more security concerns, potential conflict over rights to resources there, such as fishing and mineral rights, and more opportunity for the kinds of disasters that the United States might be called on to assist with.

John Stanton, director, Joint Operations Directorate, Customs and Border Protection, also sat on the panel. He said that the northern ice cap has been receding more on the Russian side than on the Canadian side.

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ARCYBER Working To Build Joint-Info Environment

Filed under Cyber Security, STEM by jtozer on November 18, 2012 at 7:56 am {no comments}

Lt. Gen. Rhett A. Hernandez, commanding general for the Army Cyber Command, discusses the Army’s transformation to a joint-information environment during a Cyber and LandWarNet panel at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting.

The opportunities and challenges cyberspace presents have changed not only the way the world operates, but also the Army, service officials said Tuesday.

Army leaders addressed the growing arena of cyberspace and the threats it presents during the “Cyber Domain and LandWarNet: Powering the Army” panel at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting.

“(Cyber) threats are real, growing, sophisticated and evolving,” said Lt. Gen. Rhett A. Hernandez, commanding general for the Army Cyber Command. He led the panel, which discussed the Army’s transformation to a joint-information environment.

Collectively, the cyber threats facing the Army create a “dynamic and dangerous” environment, Hernandez said. The force has had to change the way it thinks about cyberspace to continue to guarantee versatility, agility and depth to “prevent, shape and win,” he explained.

To prevent conflict, the Army needs to deter and influence potential enemies through a modernized force ready to conduct a full range of cyberspace operations, Hernandez continued. If prevention fails, the Army needs to be ready to rapidly apply its combined arms capabilities to win.

“In cyberspace, the significant advantage will go to the side that can protect and secure critical information as well as gain and exploit advantages,” he said.

Chief Information Officer and G-6 Lt. Gen. Susan S. Lawrence agreed, stating that the current cyber operational environment is disjointed and difficult to mobilize or integrate, and the Army cannot afford to continue to operate in that environment.

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The Human Ejection Tower

Filed under STEM, Videos by jtozer on November 15, 2012 at 7:52 am {no comments}

So this is the HSET, which stands for Human Systems Ejection Tower. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. This is a video of people shooting people-shaped things (like mannequins) into the air. I presume that they intend for them to come down? Or maybe not? Either way, I’m super excited this thing exists in our military.

Hey can we sign up for a free ride?

Video provided by the Naval Air Systems Command YouTube Channel

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Five Targets, One Missile

Filed under Featured, STEM by jtozer on November 14, 2012 at 7:16 am {no comments}

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched from Meck Island on its way to intercept of a ballistic missile target during MDA’s historic flight test on Oct. 24, 2012. (Photo by Andrew Hall)

The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Army soldiers from the 94th and 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command; U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS FITZGERALD (DDG 62); and airmen from the 613th Air and Space Operations Center successfully conducted the largest, most complex missile defense flight test ever attempted resulting in the simultaneous engagement of five ballistic missile and cruise missile targets.

An integrated air and ballistic missile defense architecture used multiple sensors and missile defense systems to engage multiple targets at the same time.

All targets were successfully launched and initial indications are that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system successfully intercepted its first medium-range ballistic target in history, and PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) near simultaneously destroyed a Short Range Ballistic Missile and a low flying cruise missile target over water.

The live-fire demonstration, conducted at U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll/Reagan Test Site, Hickam Air Force Base and surrounding areas in the western Pacific, stressed the performance of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, THAAD and PATRIOT weapon systems.

An Extended Long Range Air Launch Target (E-LRALT) missile was airdropped over the broad ocean area north of Wake Island from a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, staged from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. The AN/TPY-2 X-band radar, located with the THAAD system on Meck Island, tracked the E-LRALT, and a THAAD interceptor successfully intercepted the medium-range ballistic missile. THAAD was operated by soldiers from the 32nd AAMDC.

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Think About It

Filed under Education & Culture, Videos by jtozer on November 9, 2012 at 7:50 am {no comments}

Do you know what happens to a glass of water in a vacuum like space? Would you believe one of the reactions is to boil? No, seriously. Think about it:

Think About is an ongoing series of short video episodes for air overseas on the American Forces Network (AFN) Family Channel and will be available for use domestically, online and in classrooms and other educational venues.

The goal of Think About is to inspire and educate young viewers about the wonders of the natural world and to plant the seed for further investigation and thought.

For example, this one titled “What is Color?” is one of those questions you think would be asked by philosophy majors at a liberal arts college. Here we answer it with science:

Think About was created and produced by the Defense Media Activity‘s Radio and Television Production Office (RTPO). The episodes were filmed in studio at the Defense Media Activity’s production facility at Ft. Meade, Maryland and also on location at a variety of interesting placing, including the Smithsonian National Zoo, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and The National Aquarium.

Can’t get enough? Watch the whole series here!

Videos provided by the RTPO YouTube Channel

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ARL Working Toward Super Engine Development

Filed under Energy, STEM by jtozer on November 7, 2012 at 7:33 am {no comments}

Two international contractors inspect a sample of JP8 at the Truck Fill Stand near Camp Arifjan, Kuwait in 2010. Fuel trucks had been daily distributing millions of gallons of fuel to warfighters in the Central Command area of operations. (Photo by Army Sgt. David Reardon, 1st Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs)

Studies are underway at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to create a ‘super engine’ that could allow military ground vehicles, stationary power generators, and small unmanned air vehicles, for example, to operate with the same kind of fuel.

In the late 1980s, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued its “Single Fuel Forward” policy calling for use of the kerosene-based JP-8 fuel to reduce the significant logistic burden associated with managing and transporting multiple fuels on the battlefield.

But using a single fuel exposes a host of incompatibility issues, namely in lubrication, large variation in Cetane numbers which measure the time period between the start of fuel injection and the start of engine ignition or combustion, and the fact that none of the engines that use JP-8 are designed – including their fuel systems – and calibrated for JP-8, said Dr. Chol-Bum “Mike” Kweon, acting team lead of the Engines Team of ARL’s Vehicle Technology Directorate at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md.

He said this design gap is namely due to the fact that not enough information exists in industry and government on the specific combustion characteristics associated with JP-8′s use in intermittent combustion engines.

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NRL First In History To Remotely Fly Pilotless Aircraft

Filed under Scientific Military History, STEM by jtozer on November 1, 2012 at 7:03 am {no comments}

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are becoming a greater force in today’s military arsenal of reconnaissance and weaponry.

This U.S. Navy Curtiss N-9H floatplane was used in the first radio-controlled flight experiments at Dahlgren, Virginia, 1924.

Although the concept of using manned aerial platforms as a device of military strategy is many centuries old, the ability to fly an unmanned, full-size, powered aircraft remotely from the ground and return it safely to its departure point has been possible only since the 20th century.

As early as World War I (1914–1918), the U.S. military began to experiment with unmanned aircraft. Merely 10 years after the Wright brothers first flew in 1903, aviation entrepreneur and inventor Lawrence B. Sperry, building on the gyro-compass developed by his father Elmer Sperry, stunned civilian and military spectators at the 1914 Airplane Safety Competition (Concours de la Securité en Aéroplane) held in France.

During a low-altitude pass, Sperry and his assistant, Emil Cachin, climbed onto the wings of the aircraft to demonstrate the enormously safe and stable operation of what became the modern autopilot.

Several years after this perilous display, Sperry continued to work with the U.S. Army Air Service toward the development of a pilotless, gyro-stabilized aircraft capable of fully unmanned flight for the purpose of delivering explosive ordnance over enemy lines without imperiling military aviators. In 1920, the Army, also working with inventor Charles Kettering on a similar vehicle called the “Kettering Bug,” contracted with Sperry to build a small number of his lightweight Sperry aircraft, known as Sperry Messengers, solely for this purpose.

The Army named this aircraft the Messenger Aerial Torpedo (MAT), a crude precursor to the cruise missile, and began field test trials to determine the accuracy and feasibility of this novel machine.

Flying with a safety pilot onboard for observation, the “drone” aircraft proved capable of short distance accuracy, but failed the Army requirements for greater distance navigation and accuracy due to the inability to correct for unpredictable wind direction and velocity. Sperry devised a solution that included adding radio-operated controls to the aircraft and began working with engineers at the Army Air Service’s Radio Section.

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NRL Makes The Electric Dog…90 YEARS Ago

Filed under Robots, Scientific Military History, STEM by jtozer on October 30, 2012 at 7:51 am {no comments}

The Naval Research Laboratory turned 89 this year, but its first unmanned system got its start 90 years ago.

Long before K-9 ever met Sarah Jane Smith, this guy was roaming the streets.

In 1922, at the Anacostia Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, engineer Carlos B. Mirick was developing a system for radio remote control of aircraft.

When NRL opened in 1923, Mirick and the others at Anacostia transferred to become part of the new NRL Radio Division. Mirick continued his work and built the “electric dog” unmanned ground vehicle to test his remote-control system.

A. Hoyt Taylor, who had been head of the Anacostia laboratory and became the first superintendent of the NRL Radio Division, recalled, “In 1922 Mr. C. B. Mirick started work on pilotless target planes, known as ‘drones’. To those who know anything about honey bees, the significance of the term will be clear. The drone has one happy flight and then dies. I believe I am responsible for this name for pilotless target planes.”

“The work on radio controlled pilotless airplanes [that] started at Anacostia was continued, under Mr. C. B. Mirick, at the Naval Research Laboratory. In the winter of 1923-1924, Mirick tested his various radio control devices by the use of a small three-wheeled cart which came to be dubbed the ‘electric dog’.”

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