Armed with Science | Providing You Information on Military Science and Technology

And To All A Good Night

Filed under Featured by jtozer on December 25, 2012 at 7:32 am {no comments}

The holidays are a time to be thankful. A time when many people sit and reflect upon all the good times and good fortune experienced throughout the year. A time to celebrate joy and to be with the ones who matter most.

Armed with Science would like to express our gratitude to all of you who have joined in our journey to explore and understand the science and technology of today and beyond.

To those who share our passion for science – and in turn share our stories with others – this blog is here to serve you. Your continued support means a lot.

To every fan, friend, and follower of the Armed with Science verse: a resounding and heartfelt thank you.

This blog is for you. And it always will be.

Happy Holidays!

———-

Jessica L. Tozer is a blogger for DoDLive and Armed With Science. She is an Army veteran and an avid science fiction fan, both of which contribute to her enthusiasm for technology in the military.

Army Leaders Probe ‘Deep Future’

Filed under Featured by jtozer on December 24, 2012 at 7:50 am {no comments}

Water and alternative energies will become increasingly important in the year 2030 and beyond. Here, Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division, and local residents, install a solar-powered water filter in Chaka 1, Lutifiyah Nahia, Iraq. (Photo courtesy of the Department of the Army)

Trying to anticipate what the world might be like in 2030 would seem to be in the realm of science fiction writers, but the Army is interested too.

Helping the Army to get a better sight picture on the future are some of the world’s greatest minds, from the academic and scientific communities, as well as the Army and Defense Department. Many of them met here at the Bolger Center for a week of participation in Unified Quest break-out study groups on future trends.

And, incidentally, science fiction writers, many of whom have advanced degrees in science and whose future visions are sometimes on target, were part of the collaboration process of Unified Quest.

STRATEGIC TRENDS

The Army’s senior leaders think it is important for planning purposes to know where the service will be in 2030 and beyond, dates it terms the “deep future.”

The reason deep future is important is because plans often take decades to materialize into reality. First there are discussions and concepts leading to models and simulations; then to live experimentation, aka field exercises, to “battle-test” those plans with real soldiers; and, finally to put it in doctrine, from which real-world decisions are made in manning, materiel, tactics and strategy.

The process is dynamic, meaning these plans and concepts are continually revised based on new technologies and the ever-changing world.

Leading the future planning effort is the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, the organization which heads the Campaign of Learning, of which Unified Quest 2013, the deep future study portion, is part.

(more…)

Army Scientists Improve Garbage-to-energy Prototype

Filed under Energy, STEM by jtozer on December 23, 2012 at 7:25 am {no comments}

With a zero carbon footprint, the improved TGER 2.0 prototype reduces the volume of waste in 30 to one ratio. According to ECBC scientist James Valdes, 30 cubic yards of trash could be reduced to one cubic yard of ash.

The year was 2008 and the on-going war in Iraq was a dangerous landscape for soldiers on the ground. Especially for convoys traveling to and from base camps.

Roadside bombs and enemy ambushes were frequent occurrences for U.S. Armed Forces transporting fuel, a risk that may be reduced if camps are equipped with a Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery prototype.

“If you’re a forward-operating base, you don’t want a local contractor coming in to haul your garbage out because you don’t know if they’re good guys or bad guys,” said Dr. James Valdes, a senior technologist at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. “You also don’t want to be hauling fuel in because those convoys are targets and risk the lives of soldiers and contractors.”

For 90 days, Camp Victory in Baghdad was home to the first two TGER prototypes, a deployable machine tactically designed to convert military field waste into immediate usable energy for forward operating bases.

The biorefinery system is a trailer-mounted hybrid technology that can support a 550-person unit that generates about 2,500 pounds of trash per day, and converts roughly a ton of that garbage–paper, plastic, packaging and food waste—into electricity via a standard 60-kilowatt diesel generator.

(more…)

Saturday Space Sight: Rovin’ On The Moon

Filed under Photos, Space by jtozer on December 22, 2012 at 7:39 am {no comments}

Just over forty years ago (Dec. 11, 1972) astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander, makes a short checkout of the lunar rover during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site.

This view of the “stripped down” rover is prior to loading up. Equipment later loaded onto the rover included the ground-controlled television assembly, the lunar communications relay unit, hi-gain antenna, low-gain antenna, aft tool pallet, lunar tools and scientific gear.

This photograph was taken by scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot. The mountain in the right background is the east end of South Massif.

While astronauts Cernan and Schmitt descended in the Lunar Module “Challenger” to explore the moon, astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules “America” in lunar orbit.

Image Credit: NASA
From www.nasa.gov

———–

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.

Warfighters Getting a Second Skin

Filed under Technology by jtozer on December 21, 2012 at 7:11 am {no comments}

A new material could protect the nation’s warfighters from a chemical and biological attack without having to change into bulky, cumbersome additional garments.

Researchers at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department are working on a new material that could protect the nation’s warfighters from a chemical and biological attack without having to change into bulky, cumbersome additional garments. (Photo by Jason Bortz)

Researchers at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department are working on the dynamic multifunctional materials for a second skin, more commonly known as “Second Skin.”

The goal is to develop dynamic multifunctional materials that are fully integrated at the molecular level to provide protection against chemical and biological threats upon entering a contaminated environment.

What makes Second Skin novel isn’t that it provides protection, but how it provides protection.

Second Skin could be manufactured into a garment worn as an everyday uniform, similar to the combat uniform worn by today’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but it would have the unique ability to react to a chemical or biological threat almost instantly.

Current chem-bio protection measures require troops to add additional garments to their uniforms if threats are detected, which could take several minutes after the detection of the threat. Second Skin would sense the threat and respond in such a manner to specifically mitigate the threat at the appropriate level.

(more…)

Soldiers Train With Remote-controlled Mine-clearing System

Filed under STEM, Technology by jtozer on December 20, 2012 at 7:09 am {no comments}

Soldiers from First Army Division West’s 5th Armored Brigade “Task Force Rampant,” and the 321st Engineer Company (Route Clearance), from Conroe, Texas, receive instruction on the M160 MV4 remotely-controlled mine clearance vehicle, at McGregor Range, N.M. The M160 MV4 is currently used in Afghanistan by route clearance units.

Tripping improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance in a controlled way to avoid soldier injury has become an automated process now for soldiers here and at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Soldiers are now training on the M160 MV4 DOK-ING, a remote-controlled, tracked mine clearance system to trip hidden improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, unexploded ordnance, known as UXOs, and anti-personnel mines.

By sending the system out to look for explosive dangers, soldiers can clear a route without putting themselves in danger.

“Never send a man to do a machine’s job,” said Mark Decker, a technician trainer and instructor with the Robotics Systems Joint Project Office.

The M160 MV4 is the first of its kind here and is the latest addition to the Mobilization Training Center, the route clearance training program at Fort Bliss.

Several soldiers from First Army Division West’s 5th Armored Brigade’s “Task Force Rampant,” recently trained on the vehicle, along with joint warfighters who are training with Rampant in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan.

The M160 MV4 is currently used in Afghanistan by route clearance units.

(more…)

DARPA’s Life Saving InstaFoam

Filed under Physical Sciences, STEM, Videos by jtozer on December 19, 2012 at 7:55 am {no comments}

The foam-based product developed by Arsenal Medical for DARPA can be injected into a wounded servicemember on the battlefield to slow blood loss until the patient can be transported to an appropriate medical facility.

The Department of Defense’s medical system aspires to a standard known as the “Golden Hour” that dictates that troops wounded on the battlefield are moved to advanced-level treatment facilities within the first 60 minutes of being wounded.

In advance of transport, initial battlefield medical care administered by first responders is often critical to injured servicemembers’ survival.

In the case of internal abdominal injuries and resulting internal hemorrhaging, however, there is currently little that can be done to stanch bleeding before the patients reach necessary treatment facilities; internal wounds cannot be compressed the same way external wounds can, and tourniquets or hemostatic dressings are unsuitable because of the need to visualize the injury. The resulting blood loss often leads to death from what would otherwise be potentially survivable wounds.

DARPA launched its Wound Stasis System program in 2010 in the hopes of finding a technological solution that could mitigate damage from internal hemorrhaging. The program sought to identify a biological mechanism that could discriminate between wounded and healthy tissue, and bind to the wounded tissue.

As the program evolved, an even better solution emerged: Wound Stasis performer Arsenal Medical, Inc. developed a foam-based product that can control hemorrhaging in a patient’s intact abdominal cavity for at least one hour, based on swine injury model data.

The foam is designed to be administered on the battlefield by a combat medic, and is easily removable by doctors during surgical intervention at an appropriate facility, as demonstrated in testing.

(more…)

Popular Science

Filed under Education & Culture, Robots, STEM by jtozer on December 18, 2012 at 7:00 am {no comments}

Semester exams are looming, with an extended holiday break on their heels. But before Dr. Andrea Thomaz closes the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the season, the lab hosted a few more visitors last week for the final experiment of the semester.

The lab welcomes guests to interact with Simon, a humanoid robot developed with seed funds from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). These interactions allow student-researchers to adjust software models for Simon’s learning and behavior generation. And it all starts once Thomaz and her team wake the resting robot.

“Simon, can you hear me?” Thomaz asks

“Yes, can you hear me?” Simon responds in kind.

Standing nearly 5 feet tall, the robot is surrounded by an arc of desks where students design, refine and stabilize his software to demonstrate his range of skills. He’s alert and ready for interaction.

(more…)