tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56930680164703828812024-03-18T03:47:36.976-06:00the good word groundswellA Tech Blog on Communications, Energy, Location, Transportation and Logistics.Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.comBlogger1707125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-2634511689893952282022-08-03T07:36:00.000-06:002022-08-03T07:36:06.284-06:00Did Russia Just Launch a Spacecraft to Stalk a US Spy Satellite?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-Btu3lNW-VWqmiPyBB_wQBs9HP9Q88-CGA5oYbHKZey301TXGhYb15-DprSAtvROY0t6_1UTcHUqMXVN2FdZ3_tC52KAUNYWYHeh1R_lfnjipPhzrRq2NRxg9Kj3Yq_IRdUBNPyHyUD1YLr6p0AhF1vEjML5tVBqVpY-22bNx4sGE2foHCr5DwLA/s970/Russia%20spy%20satellite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="970" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-Btu3lNW-VWqmiPyBB_wQBs9HP9Q88-CGA5oYbHKZey301TXGhYb15-DprSAtvROY0t6_1UTcHUqMXVN2FdZ3_tC52KAUNYWYHeh1R_lfnjipPhzrRq2NRxg9Kj3Yq_IRdUBNPyHyUD1YLr6p0AhF1vEjML5tVBqVpY-22bNx4sGE2foHCr5DwLA/w640-h378/Russia%20spy%20satellite.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p> As <a href="https://www.space.com/russia-spacecraft-stalk-us-spy-satellite" target="_blank">reported by Space.com</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A newly launched Russian spy satellite may be tasked with stalking one of its American counterparts.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Russian satellite, known as </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.roscosmos.ru/38045/" href="https://www.roscosmos.ru/38045/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kosmos 2558</u></a><span class="sr-only" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, was rumored to be an "inspector" craft even before it lifted off on Monday (Aug. 1), Netherlands-based satellite tracker Marco Langbroek noted in a </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2022/08/kosmos-2558-russian-inspector-satellite.html" href="https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2022/08/kosmos-2558-russian-inspector-satellite.html" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">blog post on Tuesday</u></a><span class="sr-only" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> (Aug. 2). And those rumors are unlikely to die down anytime soon.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kosmos 2558 launched into the same orbital plane as USA 326, an American spy satellite that </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/spacex-launches-nrol-87-spy-satellite-lands-rocket" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to orbit</u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> this past February, Langbroek noted. The two satellites are close in altitude as well, and they're scheduled to have a relatively close encounter soon, provided neither one performs any significant maneuvers over the next day or so.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"With the current orbit, Kosmos 2558 will make a relatively close approach to USA [326] at August 4 near 14:47 UTC [10:47 a.m. EDT]," Langbroek wrote. "The approach distance is ~75 km [47 miles]; almost all of that (73 km [45 miles]) is in altitude."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To be fair, USA 326 does seem to be pretty interesting. The classified American satellite ejected something recently — either a subsatellite or a piece of debris — </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1552775470198013953" href="https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1552775470198013953" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell</u></a><span class="sr-only" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, who's based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It wouldn't be shocking if Kosmos 2558 were a spysat stalker. After all, two Russian satellites maneuvered within about 100 miles (160 km) of the United States' USA 245 spacecraft </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/russian-spacecraft-stalking-us-spy-satellite-space-force.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in early 2020</u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, as Langbroek noted.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">American officials weren't pleased with that apparent orbital inspection.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"We view this behavior as unusual and disturbing," Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, chief of space operations for the U.S Space Force, </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://time.com/5779315/russian-spacecraft-spy-satellite-space-force/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-share-article" href="https://time.com/5779315/russian-spacecraft-spy-satellite-space-force/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-share-article" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">told Time magazine</u></a><span class="sr-only" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> at the time. "It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Is Kosmos 2558 up to the same sorts of tricks? "It will be interesting to follow both satellites [in] the coming weeks, to see what happens," Langbroek wrote.</span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-75772669921096129482022-06-17T11:01:00.000-06:002022-06-17T11:01:04.824-06:00Unjammable GPS System Successfully Tested on DeltaQuad VTOL UAV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHi-bce6I3COhf956HJcfQlVX-MFbfrSXgaddNtJT1sCd52_WV54fGqeTKogp2T23NO0FMwMS2vEuhdFY5Xwu-pHZ47QI8EQdJqh3wjgvSR644cChOQI9pQbZF-5OjkAnovrtJwRwG2BvZ8Qce2PRERcShIeQRLKM3MvrBvSzP64iSLL3eCg_PMOih/s1280/Unjammable%20GPS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHi-bce6I3COhf956HJcfQlVX-MFbfrSXgaddNtJT1sCd52_WV54fGqeTKogp2T23NO0FMwMS2vEuhdFY5Xwu-pHZ47QI8EQdJqh3wjgvSR644cChOQI9pQbZF-5OjkAnovrtJwRwG2BvZ8Qce2PRERcShIeQRLKM3MvrBvSzP64iSLL3eCg_PMOih/w640-h360/Unjammable%20GPS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p> As <a href="https://www.suasnews.com/2022/06/unjammable-gps-system-successfully-tested-on-deltaquad-vtol-uav/" target="_blank">reported by sUAS News</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With global tensions rising, the demand for aerial intelligence platforms has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, most commercial platforms are no match for the latest jamming technology, having their GPS and communication links jammed even before they are able to take off.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the last few months, the R&D team at DeltaQuad has successfully integrated one of the most advanced anti-jamming GPS systems on the market today. The solution was put to the test using one of the most powerful military jamming systems, and the DeltaQuad came through with a perfect score.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The DeltaQuad equipped with the new anti-jamming GPS solution was flown in autonomous mode at close range to an active military jamming system.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Even while being hit directly by a military-grade GPS jamming platform, the system </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">maintained a solid GPS lock and the vehicle managed to autonomously resume its mission without any interruption.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYH78VR4ake3-cnMX0B__BWWwr40rJTh7mFoaKbMb-9gcMb7zvLw75iKx1_ik8Xr9rgOl_PIqDeAYAIvvXlUTsMSD-rHapCy_cJsWDvxdbbO8noy33r_wOwMsrOKseCpAZ-e3q9Ybdb6ZpnaBVxlCIz3JPNPRgcWb2K8wxv2BztRoZuJEMWrSTHJ2/s1530/Unjammable%20GPS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="1530" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYH78VR4ake3-cnMX0B__BWWwr40rJTh7mFoaKbMb-9gcMb7zvLw75iKx1_ik8Xr9rgOl_PIqDeAYAIvvXlUTsMSD-rHapCy_cJsWDvxdbbO8noy33r_wOwMsrOKseCpAZ-e3q9Ybdb6ZpnaBVxlCIz3JPNPRgcWb2K8wxv2BztRoZuJEMWrSTHJ2/w640-h380/Unjammable%20GPS1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />For testing purposes, the ruggedized GPS system was installed together with the standard GPS system. As the vehicle came in range of the GPS jamming system, the standard solution quickly lost all positional awareness while the ruggedized system maintained an impressive amount of satellite locks, even while flying directly over the jammer at close range.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In addition to the ruggedized GPS solution, the DeltaQuad UAV is equipped to maintain live aerial intelligence, even in the toughest environments. Therefore the transmission system on the </span><a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://www.deltaquad.com/" rel="follow" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1151d3; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">DeltaQuad</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> uses Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum techniques (FHSS) to mitigate attempts to disrupt the communication links and also uses redundant video & communication links.</span></p><h4 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.05em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 1.4rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">About the DeltaQuad</span></h4><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">The DeltaQuad is an industrial-grade Vertical Takeoff and Landing Fixed-wing UAV that performs fully </span><a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://www.deltaquad.com/vtol-drones-for/security-and-defence/" rel="follow" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1151d3; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none;">autonomous surveillance missions</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "work sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">. The platform is extremely easy to deploy and control and offers a live video stream from a surveillance sensor for real-time reconnaissance missions. Organizations choose DeltaQuad because of its high endurance capabilities, extensive long-range connectivity options and the integration of smart technologies like object following.</span></span></div>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-24155040080705590512022-05-30T13:20:00.000-06:002022-05-30T13:20:55.829-06:00China vs. Elon Musk: Scientists Develop Plan to Destroy Starlink Satellites<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-tYoW7NiRSdHUB3bY9ZS6rkNTplKzn_jzqPUnyJa9DyzP2nsH2DkHTHGYSGEBm5z_K2-xbLrg9th7iEjky8k8dVJiD8IYTV2dc-kjMr3R5k6405fli21s7A97DXjseYAowi7c3ntOaaS38kGpL7a62G6G49LProhppp89aVemPQ89FQ0VwtzZebg/s590/China%20v%20Starlink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="590" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-tYoW7NiRSdHUB3bY9ZS6rkNTplKzn_jzqPUnyJa9DyzP2nsH2DkHTHGYSGEBm5z_K2-xbLrg9th7iEjky8k8dVJiD8IYTV2dc-kjMr3R5k6405fli21s7A97DXjseYAowi7c3ntOaaS38kGpL7a62G6G49LProhppp89aVemPQ89FQ0VwtzZebg/w640-h380/China%20v%20Starlink.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />As <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/china-elon-musk-scientists-plan-destroy-starlink-spacex-1710399" target="_blank">reported by Newsweek</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">A team of Chinese researchers has reportedly published a study calling for anti-satellite capabilities that could disable </span><a class="multivariate" data-sys="1" href="https://www.newsweek.com/topic/elon-musk" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Elon Musk</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">'s Starlink satellites if deemed necessary.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">The study was led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, and co-authored by scientists within China's defense industry according to the </span><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="multivariate" href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3178939/china-military-needs-defence-against-potential-starlink-threat" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">South China Morning Post</a></em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">, which has seen the publication.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">The study is said to call for "a combination of soft and hard kill methods" that could be used to stop some Starlink satellites from working.</span></p><p><a class="multivariate" href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-starlink-terminals-elon-musks-spacex-internet-ukraine-satellites-spacex-1683544" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Starlink is a satellite internet network</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"> developed by Musk's company </span><a class="multivariate" data-sys="1" href="https://www.newsweek.com/topic/spacex" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">SpaceX</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">. It involves thousands of small satellites in low-Earth orbit that beam down an internet connection to paying customers.</span></p><p><a class="multivariate" href="https://www.newsweek.com/starlink-spacex-military-use-us-air-force-china-elon-musk-1705282" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">One concern</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"> amongst the scientists was that the Starlink network could be used to vastly increase the data transmission speed of </span><a class="multivariate" data-sys="1" href="https://www.newsweek.com/topic/u.s.-military" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(247, 34, 16); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: none none solid; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. military</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"> vehicles like fighter jets.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">It's not clear exactly what methods could be used, though the study notes that the approach should be "low-cost, high-efficiency" and that the whole network is a problem rather than individual satellites, </span><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">South China Morning Post </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">reported.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">This could mean that a missile-based approach may be unlikely, considering Starlink is composed of thousands of small satellites, and using missiles to destroy them all would almost certainly not be low-cost or high-efficiency. Thus, lasers, microwave technology, or even smaller satellites could be used to defend Chinese interests.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPAhe4zNFGH1wGzO0jGrilJybCl_kh1Duqqn_zgaA77dVe1gVZixs_c-Yu3KsNgAiMKET5yAhmeh0FFqNrvDvC8Bc_vxwT3myh5_I3X0GWdckSmrVdc-lag2Cu2vjxA_EMAX7FDsuZXEpUpVSPBnehU-sa3BrP6rSj3ZCfdLm1ElhG2UDMSEW4S71/s2048/China%20v%20Starlink1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1456" data-original-width="2048" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPAhe4zNFGH1wGzO0jGrilJybCl_kh1Duqqn_zgaA77dVe1gVZixs_c-Yu3KsNgAiMKET5yAhmeh0FFqNrvDvC8Bc_vxwT3myh5_I3X0GWdckSmrVdc-lag2Cu2vjxA_EMAX7FDsuZXEpUpVSPBnehU-sa3BrP6rSj3ZCfdLm1ElhG2UDMSEW4S71/w640-h456/China%20v%20Starlink1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-33137261151451304362022-05-18T12:39:00.003-06:002022-05-18T12:39:36.723-06:00US Air Force Successfully Tests Hypersonic Missile<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9uksxgBA0d2imNj1_rnSeT2XvH46QTKZCgyVX8RQdkAXhTrn5v6_xZNZ3f9JWWwHIS01ojEUetvaEt0jr60Fa5jUapjSt8dZzEvn3G70apyAH42-JwtZ0q77kskdcWVdc2at9IQo1YcTKWOqrKQbxLDPEDK2nYO7RRLqHnX59eXTtHKy1wpyAZN_/s918/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="918" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9uksxgBA0d2imNj1_rnSeT2XvH46QTKZCgyVX8RQdkAXhTrn5v6_xZNZ3f9JWWwHIS01ojEUetvaEt0jr60Fa5jUapjSt8dZzEvn3G70apyAH42-JwtZ0q77kskdcWVdc2at9IQo1YcTKWOqrKQbxLDPEDK2nYO7RRLqHnX59eXTtHKy1wpyAZN_/w640-h352/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />As <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/05/17/air-force-tests-hypersonic-missile-amid-fears-about-russia-and-chinas-advances.html" target="_blank">reported by Military.com</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The </span><a href="http://www.military.com/air-force" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #00529b; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; touch-action: manipulation;">Air Force</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> announced Monday it has successfully tested a hypersonic missile off the California coast, marking the latest development in the U.S.' race to catch up to Russia and China in fielding its own weapon on the battlefield.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">A </span><a href="http://www.military.com/equipment/b-52-stratofortress" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #00529b; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; touch-action: manipulation;">B-52 Stratofortress</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> bomber out of </span><a href="http://www.military.com/base-guide/edwards-air-force-base" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #00529b; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; touch-action: manipulation;">Edwards Air Force Base</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> released an Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon -- otherwise known as an ARRW -- on Saturday, and the missile reached sound-shattering speed.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"Following separation from the aircraft, the ARRW's booster ignited and burned for expected duration, achieving hypersonic speeds five times greater than the speed of sound," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in a press release.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Hypersonic missiles' high speeds make them harder to track, trace and destroy before hitting a target, inspiring worry for years among U.S. officials and defense industry experts as some assess that adversaries like China and Russia have outpaced America in developing the weapons.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">News of the Air Force's hypersonic missile test follows weeks of scrutiny by Washington lawmakers, who have raised the alarm amid Russia's continued use of the fast-moving projectiles during its invasion of Ukraine.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Prior to Saturday, the service had three unsuccessful hypersonic missile launches. Just one day before the most recent test, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall stoked doubt about developing such a weapon.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj68yi9KLoHsKp0MlKqve8eNbrpOe4rGJB6OILsLCi5psoJI5cr_poWY3W1VFfFRQrdJgNA929kECCOWQLrkR5rJHWioP6foiF4F2kzmKbmMe9b-yNIskPF--Cxpg-hp_e6CszwTPBk4_RZvvKAz4W6ZMY3Bsx2hMTzGypWhsOOPUHV4R8XqTKIeKRY/s1440/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj68yi9KLoHsKp0MlKqve8eNbrpOe4rGJB6OILsLCi5psoJI5cr_poWY3W1VFfFRQrdJgNA929kECCOWQLrkR5rJHWioP6foiF4F2kzmKbmMe9b-yNIskPF--Cxpg-hp_e6CszwTPBk4_RZvvKAz4W6ZMY3Bsx2hMTzGypWhsOOPUHV4R8XqTKIeKRY/w640-h360/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><p>"The program has not been successful in research and development so far," Kendall told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on May 13. "We want to see proof of success before we make the decision about commitment to production, so we're going to wait and see."</p></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies who specializes in nonproliferation and arms control issues, told Military.com that research on this emerging technology is important but is likely motivated by political concerns from lawmakers worried about competition.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"The political pressure I think is real," Lewis said. "If China or Russia tests a capability, there's just enormous pressure in the United States to demonstrate the same capability even if it isn't applicable to what we want to do."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">In March, Russia's defense ministry claimed its military used hypersonic missiles against an underground ammunition warehouse as well as a fuel depot during the country's fighting in Ukraine. It was the first time a country had used such a weapon in combat.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Military officials at the time downplayed the threat. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that reported use of a hypersonic missile by Russian President Vladimir Putin's military was likely a distraction tactic to grow fear in the international community.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"I would not see it as a game changer," Austin told CBS. "I think the reason he is resorting to using these types of weapons is because he is trying to reestablish some momentum. And again, we've seen him attack towns and cities and civilians outright, [and] we expect to see that continue."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Since then, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Russia has used about 10 to 12 hypersonic weapons thus far in its campaign in Ukraine.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">More recently, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers during a House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing May 11 that Russia's use of the weapons was not "really significant."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJPNxUMuTCIHDR5itmktZYHNv23-j-ik5tGJ_JXMnd4b7BoHWK7ycPM24T8lnUw4MpweTmvD6uCdwgLPxiERr7aB2ePFeKicM0Pcrofi0fbu-Medx4gn7TxbRo1ahpehYPFDTuwRvX4sx6zWHGgLsokNgWz98qgeg27o6ehvGW_SBAZF577y_parox/s1200/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJPNxUMuTCIHDR5itmktZYHNv23-j-ik5tGJ_JXMnd4b7BoHWK7ycPM24T8lnUw4MpweTmvD6uCdwgLPxiERr7aB2ePFeKicM0Pcrofi0fbu-Medx4gn7TxbRo1ahpehYPFDTuwRvX4sx6zWHGgLsokNgWz98qgeg27o6ehvGW_SBAZF577y_parox/w640-h360/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Last year, military officials confirmed China had a successful hypersonic launch that had circumnavigated the globe.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"It went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China," Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the outgoing vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS News in November.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Saturday's launch in California makes history as the U.S.' first air-launched hypersonic weapon, according to the Air Force.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"This was a major accomplishment by the ARRW team, for the weapons enterprise, and our Air Force," Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Weapons, said in a press release. "We are ready to build on what we've learned and continue moving hypersonics forward."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">But it's not clear from the Air Force's press release how successful the weapons test was. The ARRW, developed by Lockheed Martin, uses a rocket booster to glide the missile toward an area at breakneck speed before a glider separates to hit a target.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Hypersonic missiles -- some of which have nuclear-carrying capabilities and can be fired from very far distances at sound-shattering speed -- has nearly the same effect on a ground target as conventional bombs, making the use of the prohibitively expensive weapons surprising.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNOxokzOsGenv9SP0YQV4RPI1_bDLPKAOlC7foW4ndXf5uA8ywMAwOFWa08wGEKLXxyTCOg7ApT4rvnrOYcFzLxufBKX8IMme2js-vu-LtFpbP4alAXPLy-DrCaveTicI1-aQ3pldjKEfuJBq_gfd7mdIs5oX2-uxF9hycuYrw3jIztQ-K0SVpshvP/s282/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNOxokzOsGenv9SP0YQV4RPI1_bDLPKAOlC7foW4ndXf5uA8ywMAwOFWa08wGEKLXxyTCOg7ApT4rvnrOYcFzLxufBKX8IMme2js-vu-LtFpbP4alAXPLy-DrCaveTicI1-aQ3pldjKEfuJBq_gfd7mdIs5oX2-uxF9hycuYrw3jIztQ-K0SVpshvP/s16000/US%20Hypersonic%20Missile3.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">But that hasn't stopped the U.S. from prioritizing research and development into the new class of weapons. In 2022, lawmakers approved $509 million for hypersonics. That number has grown to $577 million in the 2023 budget proposal.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">With a hefty price tag for creating, testing and eventually fielding those missiles, Lewis said they likely won't be used by the Air Force in battle anytime soon.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"This is a pretty exotic capability that's at the very beginning of development, which we may or may not ever find useful," Lewis said. "I suspect this will always be a niche capability, in part because it'll probably be pretty expensive."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292b2c; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-48387018870762403962022-04-21T16:32:00.001-06:002022-04-21T16:32:51.678-06:00Pentagon Impressed by Starlink's Fast Signal-Jamming Workaround in Ukraine<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZnquq9CautNiGV9ugAR9Yo-Ypjq1j6DKF9A4VcNXcZn2gYC3VGKLORrWfUsC38PGkP9wes3ULmlxTBHHvx0SS0RtYSVdF4uwqqN_JMzxbjkXA2CYHbWjHGPyvhbSNu5Ef0UxmSeSEXlj0AjSxfqn5I7qst79BCdGFWr5FT8iP27cLFor-QlTysAa/s300/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZnquq9CautNiGV9ugAR9Yo-Ypjq1j6DKF9A4VcNXcZn2gYC3VGKLORrWfUsC38PGkP9wes3ULmlxTBHHvx0SS0RtYSVdF4uwqqN_JMzxbjkXA2CYHbWjHGPyvhbSNu5Ef0UxmSeSEXlj0AjSxfqn5I7qst79BCdGFWr5FT8iP27cLFor-QlTysAa/w640-h358/download.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> As <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/pentagon-impressed-by-starlinks-fast-signal-jamming-workaround-in-ukraine" target="_blank">reported by PC Mag</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">SpaceX's </span><a href="https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-is-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-service-explained" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;">Starlink</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"> satellite internet service is attracting some attention from the Pentagon for its ability to quickly foil signal-jamming attacks that likely came from Russia. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">"In kind of the way Starlink was able to upgrade when a threat showed up, we need to be able to have that agility," Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, </span><a href="https://www.c4isrnet.com/video/2022/04/20/a-lot-of-learning-going-on-about-the-state-of-russian-electronic-warfare/" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">said</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"> during the C4ISRNET military conference on Wednesday.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">Few details have emerged about the signal-jamming attack Tremper referred to, or how it was stopped. But on March 4, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk </span><a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499972826828259328" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">tweeted</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"> about the incident, which affected Starlink dishes in Ukraine. Later, he added: "Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time. Our latest software update bypasses the jamming. Am curious to see what’s next." Three weeks later, he </span><a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507505633259630599" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">added</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">: "Starlink, at least so far, has resisted all hacking and jamming attempts."</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgPv8qedfdMKiioWvO8WC1Dsd7Fn_SbGaBB0Zwy6fPNj-3FnYOZbupIT9h2vDGIfwF9WR-DeL1B_d2FLxeDxsAYBlKE_HDnAkxSH3PPKeHk-fiZwn5bVrXWrSUAyDwZUJ8ZXzEEBW8mq4H5Vf39vI34FljLj0v3V9z7B57mqYgQlQIB-I10YDOXeQ/s1200/FMtcDMwWUAAg96F.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgPv8qedfdMKiioWvO8WC1Dsd7Fn_SbGaBB0Zwy6fPNj-3FnYOZbupIT9h2vDGIfwF9WR-DeL1B_d2FLxeDxsAYBlKE_HDnAkxSH3PPKeHk-fiZwn5bVrXWrSUAyDwZUJ8ZXzEEBW8mq4H5Vf39vI34FljLj0v3V9z7B57mqYgQlQIB-I10YDOXeQ/w640-h426/FMtcDMwWUAAg96F.0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"><p><br />Tremper brought up the incident when he was asked during the C4ISRNET conference whether the war in Ukraine is highlighting any "gaps" in the US’s electronic warfare capabilities.</p></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">"It was eye-watering to see the news report that the Russians were trying to jam Starlink, and that almost the next day—I think it was in fact the next day—Starlink had slung a line of code and had fixed it. And suddenly that was not effective anymore," Tremper said. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">He was especially impressed with how quickly Starlink was able to adapt and stop the signal jamming. In contrast, the US military would have needed to go through several steps, involving a "significant timeline" if it faced a similar jamming incident to its equipment.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">"There’s a really interesting case study to look at the agility that Starlink had in their ability to address that problem," he added. "And inevitably, what was the impact if they couldn’t address the problem?"</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">Since late February, SpaceX has been shipping Starlink dishes to Ukraine to help the country stay online in the face of the Russian invasion. Ukraine has already </span><a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/ukraine-now-using-over-10000-starlink-units-to-keep-country-online" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;">received</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"> over 10,000 Starlink dishes, which are being deployed in war-torn areas close to the fighting. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">“My personal experience is that the service has been great,” Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLDlSL1zbUc" style="--transition-duration: 250ms; --tw-border-opacity: 1; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(41 41 41/var(--tw-border-opacity)); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-bottom: 0.1rem; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">told</a><em style="--transition-duration: 250ms; background-color: white; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; padding-right: 2px;"> The Washington Post</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"> earlier this month.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgr7qaEArCDftopZeg9-p8zwjx37DtSEve41TG2uJu3BFFq3dN-xr4OlGz1wTo2MUoNq2g5L3SSdGp2xIR-WDqXxvJTDzHlRubRYtNDS6ke2ADVkPB6LwqEVsCkZtogYvTuTnActaTNZINMytwgDwU2YDCAwz82KHhOy5s2DphhU7G7svNol_Q4gDG/s300/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgr7qaEArCDftopZeg9-p8zwjx37DtSEve41TG2uJu3BFFq3dN-xr4OlGz1wTo2MUoNq2g5L3SSdGp2xIR-WDqXxvJTDzHlRubRYtNDS6ke2ADVkPB6LwqEVsCkZtogYvTuTnActaTNZINMytwgDwU2YDCAwz82KHhOy5s2DphhU7G7svNol_Q4gDG/w640-h358/download.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: tablet-gothic, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-22147643226615671602022-04-12T12:38:00.001-06:002022-04-12T12:41:33.724-06:00Russia is Jamming GPS Satellite Signals in Ukraine, US Space Force Says<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikKTK54BdgLDw9p-9yB9-W0n6WTnDW_W6oxFuw7AW1b3sPzuy39Xg8ICHkaY4PPmTFU5g8Le1rDEyYtoXNkoAVEgsn0Z3PyEUTfOroTZiMWFJPGmPG47e4xTGH50zAQVO0GplwV3bjrOn-mRL17FwnN_LJwVm2Rs69-PbTSVaM9-nY6sv9rA8C2Mm9/s879/Russia%20jamming%20GPS%20in%20Ukraine.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="879" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikKTK54BdgLDw9p-9yB9-W0n6WTnDW_W6oxFuw7AW1b3sPzuy39Xg8ICHkaY4PPmTFU5g8Le1rDEyYtoXNkoAVEgsn0Z3PyEUTfOroTZiMWFJPGmPG47e4xTGH50zAQVO0GplwV3bjrOn-mRL17FwnN_LJwVm2Rs69-PbTSVaM9-nY6sv9rA8C2Mm9/w640-h444/Russia%20jamming%20GPS%20in%20Ukraine.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /></p><p>As <a href="https://www.space.com/russia-jamming-gps-signals-ukraine" target="_blank">reported by Space.com</a>: <span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">Another piece of space infrastructure for Ukraine is under attack, according to an NBC report.</span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">Jammers from Russian forces besieging the country are targeting global positioning system (</span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/19794-navstar.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">GPS</a><span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">) satellites that are used for navigation, mapping and other purposes, the report said, quoting the </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/42089-space-force.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">U.S. Space Force</a><span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">.</span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">"Ukraine may not be able to use GPS because there are jammers around that prevent them from receiving any usable signal," David Thompson, the Space Force's vice chief of space operations, </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-nightly-news/video/russia-is-jamming-us-provided-gps-signals-in-ukraine-us-general-says/519685976" href="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-nightly-news/video/russia-is-jamming-us-provided-gps-signals-in-ukraine-us-general-says/519685976" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told NBC Nightly News<span class="sr-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span></a><span face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"> Monday (April 11).</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Certainly the Russians understand the value and importance of GPS and try to prevent others from using it," Thompson added. He noted that Russia has not directly attacked any satellites in orbit, but the Space Force is keeping an eye out for such possibilities.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Specifically, Russia is targeting the <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/19794-navstar.html" style="border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Navstar system</a> of satellites used by the United States and made available openly to many countries around the world, Thompson said. (Russia has its own independent system, called GLONASS, while the Europeans have one called Galileo and China has one called Beidou.)</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Navstar uses 24 main satellites that each orbit the Earth every 12 hours. The system works by sending synchronized signals to users on Earth. Because the satellites move in different directions, the user receives their signals at slightly different times. When four satellites are available, GPS receivers can use their signals to calculate the user's position, often to within just a few feet.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ukraine is also suffering from a lack of Internet connectivity as a result of the Russian attacks, which began Feb. 24 and are ongoing. SpaceX, at Ukraine's request, has <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/how-spacex-got-starlink-running-ukraine" style="border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">shipped thousands of Starlink</a> terminals to the country to provide an independent set of infrastructure. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In early March, SpaceX CEO <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/18849-elon-musk.html" style="border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Elon Musk</a> noted that <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-cyber-defense-ukraine-invasion" style="border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Starlink signals</a> have also been jammed, although his company is adapting. "Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time," Musk <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1500026380704178178" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1500026380704178178" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #3669c9; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">wrote via Twitter<span class="sr-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">(opens in new tab)</span></a> on March 1. "Our latest software update bypasses the jamming."</p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-73102930359855104502022-02-16T15:26:00.001-07:002022-02-16T15:29:27.092-07:00Delivery Robots Begin to Look Real<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBz3sTTiU5vcrua-wT34r-7E8_p_bRLpq-_gDky-4NI2NkNtCj6IpDF7UWM_PsLmnmVUj9nrIlHmxvWG4_QYIS8quwG3IaNuZ1SPASmmSm82zOO8qbglzIceE3uvIW21FvP4ziflH0ZRoE5aqQJE1WV1E8nyQXZPBL2qWiISVqAbmWANEuWdGoC1gR=s4608" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4608" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBz3sTTiU5vcrua-wT34r-7E8_p_bRLpq-_gDky-4NI2NkNtCj6IpDF7UWM_PsLmnmVUj9nrIlHmxvWG4_QYIS8quwG3IaNuZ1SPASmmSm82zOO8qbglzIceE3uvIW21FvP4ziflH0ZRoE5aqQJE1WV1E8nyQXZPBL2qWiISVqAbmWANEuWdGoC1gR=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><em>On university and business campuses, getting lunch and dinner is becoming a lot easier as robot delivery units hit the pathways.</em></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p> As <a href="https://www.gpsworld.com/delivery-robots-begin-to-look-real/?utm_source=Autonomous+Arena&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=NCMCD220210003&oly_enc_id=6901D4569689I3Z" target="_blank">reported by GPS World</a>: <span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">If you were a student or faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus (UW) during the 2020 COVID lockdown, you might have experienced </span><a href="https://www.housing.wisc.edu/2019/11/robot-delivery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">a novel way</a><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"> to reduce contact with others when ordering a meal. People on campus could avoid a trip to the store and interaction with a delivery person. They could place an order on a special app, and a </span><a href="https://www.starship.xyz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Starship Technologies</a><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"> robot would pick up and deliver their food.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">Of course, for a student, technology that saves a trip to the store, especially anytime of the day or night, would be popular.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">From demo to full production</h3><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">At first, the meal-delivery robots at UW and </span><a href="https://www.gpsworld.com/ole-miss-students-get-meals-delivered-by-robots/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">other campuses</a><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"> were a demonstration to showcase how useful the small bots could be.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">But after I soaked up robot-tech news from all over, I learned these little guys have found their way into towns, cities and campuses around the world: specifically, the United States, United Kingdom, Estonia, Germany and Denmark.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">With 1,500 bots working every day, the demonstration phase is long over, and Starship robots are full production. Starship, based in San Francisco, has been in operation since 2014. Its robots now make more than 1,000 deliveries each day. They have made more than 2.5 million deliveries to date, and make 100,000 road-crossings each day.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">In the United States alone, 16 states have approved delivery robots, including Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Texas. At UW, three Starship employees manage maintenance and recover units if they get stuck (while autonomous, the bots need help every now and then).</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0Apt7sZSiiXNx2Up0_RMptsmPsFF4uFPpkY_8fVMu8gS6HH1lGDydAT2YNLbdWwjubhnInY6DPjniqt1txxYLYwjqmUvSiqZ5Wtfn35f-Wgq1Zo3uml8vYSbqIZbSFC7XDhKbmDDRmgt4mustNqvikx7F603AbcEmaJSSx-skRd5y97UhyLCK8H5k=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0Apt7sZSiiXNx2Up0_RMptsmPsFF4uFPpkY_8fVMu8gS6HH1lGDydAT2YNLbdWwjubhnInY6DPjniqt1txxYLYwjqmUvSiqZ5Wtfn35f-Wgq1Zo3uml8vYSbqIZbSFC7XDhKbmDDRmgt4mustNqvikx7F603AbcEmaJSSx-skRd5y97UhyLCK8H5k=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></span></div><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"><br />To have a robot come to visit, UW users download the Starship Food Delivery app, select from a local store menu, pay and then indicate on a map exactly where the bot should deliver the order. The robot collects a minimal $2 delivery charge, which goes toward the $2,000 to $3,000 cost of the vehicle and its operation. (According to Starship, each unit costs the equivalent of a high-end laptop.)</span><p></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">The unit uses GNSS and computer vision to navigate detailed, stored maps. The on-site employees take the robots out on particular routes for their first test runs, and the bot learns each route. The on-board system also uses 12 cameras, ultrasonic sensors, radars and neural networks to form a collision-avoidance net around the vehicle. In this way, pedestrians, dogs and road vehicles (when the robots cross a road) can all be avoided.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">When waiting to cross a road, the robot’s safety systems might prevent it from moving. In this case, the device will “phone home” for a support person come out and fix the issue.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What could go wrong?</h3><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">So far, the robots have been welcomed on the university and industry campuses where they operate. People walk round them as they go about their business. Even better, students and other users have pulled the units out of snow mounds and other hang-ups, returning them to the sidewalk or making other small adjustments to send the bots on their way.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhm6jNB4zRPXl9liJWuA9ouu0lwV7yfNR2BZNHJ7hlBWabFW2S6KGAu0AJxpoCTJu5K9vXDgOGYOIWDp16EcMIDZtJf71w_dCxtWe54ox5eG3cAOw1olyFi5smrI4XX4VK-qGZ0loZ69RtAP2wVfhccVP0rIHIS9tQL_OnjJ0e8o4aRR8vPoPY0g0tc=s1535" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="1535" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhm6jNB4zRPXl9liJWuA9ouu0lwV7yfNR2BZNHJ7hlBWabFW2S6KGAu0AJxpoCTJu5K9vXDgOGYOIWDp16EcMIDZtJf71w_dCxtWe54ox5eG3cAOw1olyFi5smrI4XX4VK-qGZ0loZ69RtAP2wVfhccVP0rIHIS9tQL_OnjJ0e8o4aRR8vPoPY0g0tc=w640-h368" width="640" /></a></span></div><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"><br />And no one has stolen a unit. That could be because a loud siren erupts if they are picked up. Presumably the units are programmed to remain within the bounds of their rigorously mapped environments. In any event, the food compartment remains locked until the order is removed by the customer.</span><p></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Disrupting Doordash</h3><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">Will robots disrupt today’s car-based delivery services, such as UberEats, Grubhub or DoorDash? Only for the last-mile section of a delivery. In a pinch, Starship robots can travel as far as three miles from their base. As the bots take on more territory, the auto-based delivery companies may be pushed toward the longer routes.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">Deliveries such as time-sensitive medical materials could benefit from robotic short-distance, small-package carriers. Other robot delivery services, including Amazon Scout and Roxo, the FedEX SameDay Bot, are also making waves as testing progresses toward last-mile delivery automation from warehouse hubs to customer homes.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">Federal, state and local laws may need to be enhanced to allow these autonomous delivery robots to progress toward widespread deployment.</span></p><p><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;">One selling point: Fast robot deliveries lead to fewer delivery trucks, reducing traffic congestion and lowering exhaust pollution. We might have to wait awhile to realize these benefits.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xEfrnXhTl4U" width="600" youtube-src-id="xEfrnXhTl4U"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/peaKnkNX4vc" width="600" youtube-src-id="peaKnkNX4vc"></iframe></div><br /><span face="gotham, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-60709463642298381112022-02-14T09:50:00.000-07:002022-02-14T09:50:25.697-07:00Russia-Ukraine Conflict Prompted U.S. to Develop Autonomous Drone Swarms, 1,000-Mile Cannon<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGdycGc8QeIXFnose2aWCYeAVWc6E1Ga8P73JEKnSxwsFZa1OXCoRgAlrhBeKyd_3FumAxozsz5zgB-wD_NnD2YyRq1BJhzVvnJ0KBRk327gGQmOrOnqDxUmYred_WEcjwsW_eT1ZK9IN3aael3epkYcLpWmCKoeE56zx0LXmWIT87X0_DblcV6XqK=s1597" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1597" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGdycGc8QeIXFnose2aWCYeAVWc6E1Ga8P73JEKnSxwsFZa1OXCoRgAlrhBeKyd_3FumAxozsz5zgB-wD_NnD2YyRq1BJhzVvnJ0KBRk327gGQmOrOnqDxUmYred_WEcjwsW_eT1ZK9IN3aael3epkYcLpWmCKoeE56zx0LXmWIT87X0_DblcV6XqK=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p>As <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russia-ukraine-conflict-prompted-u-s-to-develop-autonomous-drone-swarms-1-000-mile-cannon/" target="_blank">reported by Scientific American</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">When Russia annexed Crimea and meddled in Ukraine’s Donets Basin, or Donbas, region in 2014, its military </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ambiguous-warfare-buys-upgrade-time-for-russia-s-military/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">revealed new technology</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">, organization and tactics—and upended much of the U.S. military’s thinking about modern warfare. Now, as Moscow </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cyberattack-misinformation-could-be-plan-for-ukraine-invasion/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">keeps U.S. and European leaders guessing</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> about whether it will invade Ukraine again, the Pentagon is pushing forward with projects that reflect priorities set after the onset of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Technologies currently in development include futuristic-sounding projects such as swarms of </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fully-autonomous-weapons-pose-unique-dangers-to-humankind/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">autonomous drones</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> and a supercannon that can fire a projectile to a distance of 1,000 miles. And perhaps the most staggeringly ambitious campaign aims to combine existing radar and communications with state-of-the-art cloud computing and artificial intelligence in order to create an automated system that coordinates operations across multiple combat areas.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Technologies currently in development include futuristic-sounding projects such as swarms of </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fully-autonomous-weapons-pose-unique-dangers-to-humankind/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">autonomous drones</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> and a supercannon that can fire a projectile to a distance of 1,000 miles. And perhaps the most staggeringly ambitious campaign aims to combine existing radar and communications with state-of-the-art cloud computing and artificial intelligence in order to create an automated system that coordinates operations across multiple combat areas.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">“We are at an inflection point, and we have strategic competitors that are out there that have large militaries,” says General James McConville, chief of staff of the U.S. Army. He notes that the U.S. military has focused on counterterror operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. But a potential fight against Russia—or China, which the Pentagon now regards as the U.S. military’s preeminent threat—would require it to shift focus to a different set of technologies. “In order to deter strategic competitors,” McConville says, “we need to be able to do large-scale combat operations.”</span></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.15em; line-height: 1.22222; margin: 30px 0px 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">MULTIDOMAIN OPERATIONS</h2><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">“We are at an inflection point, and we have strategic competitors that are out there that have large militaries,” says General James McConville, chief of staff of the U.S. Army. He notes that the U.S. military has focused on counterterror operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. But a potential fight against Russia—or China, which the Pentagon now regards as the U.S. military’s preeminent threat—would require it to shift focus to a different set of technologies. “In order to deter strategic competitors,” McConville says, “we need to be able to do large-scale combat operations.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">This technology project would quickly coordinate combat across multiple fronts. Much like the way a ride-sharing app combines data on location, distance and travel time to determine the best match for a specific driver and passenger, JADC2 aims to pool all U.S. military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in a data cloud and to use artificial intelligence and algorithms to match the best weapon against a given target. This coordination would ideally integrate the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines into a single fighting force, within which any sensor could connect with any shooter. For instance, if the radar equipment on an F-16 fighter jet spotted an enemy target, and JADC2 determined that a submarine was best positioned to take the shot with a land-attack cruise missile, then that calculus—which might currently take hours or days to coordinate across the air and maritime domains—could be executed in near real time.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">“This spring’s prospect of a major Russian attack on Ukraine may give us a case study of what high-end, multidomain attack looks like,” says Melanie Marlowe, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The combination of [uncrewed aerial vehicles], missiles, electronic attack and various ground forces will be a huge challenge.” The idea is that a capability such as JADC2 could tackle that challenge by helping U.S. forces and their allies simultaneously stage attacks across multiple domains, including land, maritime, air, space, cyberspace and electronic warfare. This would hopefully present a closely matched adversary, such as Russia or China, with new dilemmas at a pace it cannot match. “What we look for is speed, range and convergence in our systems so we will have overmatch,” McConville says, using a Pentagon term for dominance. “We are looking for an edge, looking for an advantage, and we’re doing it working together ... as a combined force with allies and partners.”</span></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.15em; line-height: 1.22222; margin: 30px 0px 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">SWARMING DRONES</h2><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Earlier this month </span><a href="https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/dod-expands-portfolio-critical-technology-areas-weapons-investment" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">the Pentagon unveiled new priorities</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> that aim to drive innovation in 14 “critical technology” areas. Among the key fields are artificial intelligence and autonomy because science and research in such categories are needed to support weapon systems for fighting over well-defended territory: swarms of drones.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">In order to penetrate highly defended and contested environments, such as those the U.S. military would face if fighting China or Russia, Washington, D.C., would need a specific set of technologies, says Heidi Shyu, U.S. undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Shyu says that when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asked her, in an initial meeting last year, what those technologies would be, she responded, “Make sure that we penetrate with attritable, low-cost unmanned systems.” (Attritable systems are designed to have a limited life: these drone swarms would be deployed with the assumption that they would not return.) “To be able to do that, I believe that we need trusted AI and trusted autonomy to be able to operate without GPS,” Shyu explains. She says she wants to combine artificial intelligence and engineering in order to automate fleets of robotic aircraft, ground vehicles, and both surface and underwater marine vessels. If all these can perform tasks with limited human intervention, even in an environment where satellite navigation tools no longer work, then they can carry out missions such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and target attack.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shyu’s new efforts will build on existing commercial and U.S. military work in this area. For instance, the Pentagon has already demonstrated the ability to </span><a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/1044811/department-of-defense-announces-successful-micro-drone-demonstration/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">deploy 3-D-printed swarming micro drones from planes</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">. This would help fighter pilots avoid taking the risk of loitering over hostile territory.</span></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.15em; line-height: 1.22222; margin: 30px 0px 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">DEEP STRIKE</h2><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">In early January </span><a href="https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/army-test-cannon-1180-mile-range-fy-24" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">the U.S. Army disclosed plans</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> to test-fire a prototype supercannon as soon as 2024. This “long-range cannon” is envisioned to be able to strike targets 1,000 miles away, a range that would utterly dwarf the </span><a href="https://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/ammo-excalibur-xm982-m982-and-m982a1-precision-guided-extended-range-projectile/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">25-mile reach of today’s artillery</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">One of the key lessons from Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine was a need for the U.S. Army to extend its long-range strike systems. Now the Army is on track to field a number of new long-range missiles by 2023. The long-range cannon is not yet part of the weapons roster. It is what senior leaders call a “big bet” in their science and technology plan because it shows promise but still must prove its maturity before it is built for real-world missions. The idea is that this weapon would be used in tandem with the Army’s new Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, a truck-launched system that fires missiles at hypersonic speeds. This combination could punch through dense, sophisticated enemy air defenses and create an opening for U.S. military forces to break through. Even on its own, the cannon would be a much cheaper alternative to the estimated $106-million-per-shot tab of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">In 2020 Congress, curious about the practicality of what lawmakers have called an “imaginative concept,” directed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct an </span><a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/assessing-the-feasibility-of-the-strategic-long-range-cannon" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">independent review</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> of the cannon project and report on its feasibility. That study’s findings have not yet been published, but the panel has briefed Army leaders—and key service officials say they are optimistic. “The expert bodies that we’ve had look at it come away saying, ‘Yeah, you can do this,’” says Brigadier General John Rafferty, Army Futures Command’s director of developing new long-range missiles and cannons. “There are certainly challenges associated with it.... But it’s about the only investment that’s looking at doing anything like this mission in a more affordable way.”</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4RIzkLJ5WchiZU6Pn9m0-jy7DzMrWlIEGDRj5IbLFSKpr3ed6-aLCOA-DDbO5dlRsBIWGaDLkjMXlvhPmGBjA2U_9R4GLU4X4mTHQAQhOOxDEcOOn_eHwovE0xWzhGGHoHm_7XJnvAGEYpklOhWLFX3os2UfbAFR6Fc9_n6OOlKcqduqh4f8fsR9x=s1620" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1620" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4RIzkLJ5WchiZU6Pn9m0-jy7DzMrWlIEGDRj5IbLFSKpr3ed6-aLCOA-DDbO5dlRsBIWGaDLkjMXlvhPmGBjA2U_9R4GLU4X4mTHQAQhOOxDEcOOn_eHwovE0xWzhGGHoHm_7XJnvAGEYpklOhWLFX3os2UfbAFR6Fc9_n6OOlKcqduqh4f8fsR9x=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: Benton, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.13px; text-align: start;">A rocket launcher shoots missiles during tactical and special exercises with scouts of the Guards Tank Army of the Western Military District at the Golovenki training ground in the Moscow region, Russia, on January 28, 2022.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-53857043113239366552022-02-10T08:23:00.001-07:002022-02-10T08:23:59.300-07:00SpaceX Loses up to 40 Satellites to Geomagnetic Storm after Starlink Launch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYuh21ie5TQtjSmjGy5IAi_ezvOJQvHHvowFQf1cHfhs7g2FOCM8eIg5AgTV4CtW0y8-roWt5FDThjc1qkKUwDGmqtu8QuRdj-5W76KBM-sF-wZnNtt9F57o0ZZFbS8R5uw5-qiP-r3bsJzaIRocd2QH3tmAfRIKGMwJLFky31ujAAX5PSnwbETp3m=s1920" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYuh21ie5TQtjSmjGy5IAi_ezvOJQvHHvowFQf1cHfhs7g2FOCM8eIg5AgTV4CtW0y8-roWt5FDThjc1qkKUwDGmqtu8QuRdj-5W76KBM-sF-wZnNtt9F57o0ZZFbS8R5uw5-qiP-r3bsJzaIRocd2QH3tmAfRIKGMwJLFky31ujAAX5PSnwbETp3m=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><p> SpaceX had to ditch most of its latest batch of Starlink satellites because they were disrupted by a geomagnetic storm after being launched from the Falcon 9 rocket. Up to 40 of the 49 satellites will re-enter the atmosphere or have already done so because they were unable to reach their intended orbits.</p><p>In an update posted yesterday, SpaceX said that on February 3, the Falcon 9's second stage deployed 49 "satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight." SpaceX initially deploys satellites into lower altitudes than they ultimately orbit in "so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts, it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag," the company said. SpaceX has licenses for altitudes of 540 km to 570 km and 335 km to 346 km.</p><p>Last week's geomagnetic storm hit a day after launch, SpaceX explained:</p><p>Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively "take cover from the storm"—and continued to work closely with the Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.</p><p>Preliminary analysis shows the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit-raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will re-enter or already have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric re-entry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground.</p><p>SpaceX touted its systems for minimizing space debris, saying last week's "unique situation demonstrates the great lengths [to which] the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation."</p><p>SpaceX has about 1,900 Starlink satellites in orbit. SpaceX has Federal Communications Commission permission to launch nearly 12,000 satellites and is seeking a license to launch an additional 30,000.</p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-61396002380674185532022-01-19T11:36:00.001-07:002022-01-19T11:36:46.493-07:00In a First, an ‘Atomic Fountain’ Has Measured the Curvature of Spacetime - Could provide an alternative to GPS in the future<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgh8-0HNlO1H121jqT3BqF1Ps2qvdNVMLTiHZcSi0PqCCWFRaBHzpqYJEZr5V_EBSyYRgw5H9F_rNw1eetoiskB-garXp6GbRxIAxjXBREQ_g3nMfAWfu62-5QrmzdSjo5Vr2KfOcet9ZNovd_Jz1Zty1S9zXOexTI2oNBn5v1Hj6Bx7QWUx3pPwbpL=s1033" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1033" height="610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgh8-0HNlO1H121jqT3BqF1Ps2qvdNVMLTiHZcSi0PqCCWFRaBHzpqYJEZr5V_EBSyYRgw5H9F_rNw1eetoiskB-garXp6GbRxIAxjXBREQ_g3nMfAWfu62-5QrmzdSjo5Vr2KfOcet9ZNovd_Jz1Zty1S9zXOexTI2oNBn5v1Hj6Bx7QWUx3pPwbpL=w640-h610" width="640" /></a><br /><br /></p><p>As <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-a-first-an-atomic-fountain-has-measured-the-curvature-of-spacetime/#:~:text=Particle%20Physics-,In%20a%20First%2C%20an%20'Atomic%20Fountain'%20Has,Measured%20the%20Curvature%20of%20Spacetime&text=In%201797%2C%20English%20scientist%20Henry,spheres%2C%20wooden%20rods%20and%20wire." target="_blank">reported by Scientific American</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">In 1797, English scientist Henry Cavendish measured the strength of </span><a data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/classical-gravity.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">gravity</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> with a contraption made of lead spheres, wooden rods and wire. In the 21st century, scientists are doing something very similar with rather more sophisticated tools: atoms.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Gravity might be an early subject in introductory physics classes, but that doesn’t mean scientists aren’t still trying to measure it with ever-increasing precision. Now, a group of physicists has done it using the effects of </span><a data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/36273-theory-special-relativity.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">time dilation</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">—the slowing of time caused by increased velocity or gravitational force—on atoms. In a paper published online today (Jan. 13) in the journal Science, the researchers announce that they’ve been able to measure the curvature of space-time.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">The experiment is part of an area of science called atom interferometry. It takes advantage of a principle of </span><a data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/do-we-live-in-quantum-world.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">quantum mechanics</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">: just as a light wave can be represented as a particle, a particle (such as an atom) can be represented as a “wave packet.” And just as light waves can overlap and create interference, so too can matter wave packets.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">In particular, if an atom’s wave packet is split in two, allowed to do something, and then recombined, the waves might not line up anymore—in other words, their phases have changed.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">“One tries to extract useful information from this phase shift,” Albert Roura, a physicist at the Institute of Quantum Technologies in Ulm, Germany, who was not involved in the new study, told Space.com. Roura </span><a data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm6854" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm6854" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wrote a “Perspectives” piece</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> about the new research, which was published online in the same issue of Science today.</span></p><p><a data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/25088-gravitational-waves.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOf314lJH1T5uFOI1y5vaAoyr5EZrY81t_z4a8e7lD4tOaXjIYVGVLcwIPl7HXeD8xnQs5Lr4w4QGWXeFFi8-LQBBlTx92IIyTKcMjyYZW3BbToiJLx34mKQkqZhPFXJ3KkFaK15GJ04uANIYHoinxFVLXB1_E_z7c1BraIa7Y0NtcD6OFC4rchTV3=s1168" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="688" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOf314lJH1T5uFOI1y5vaAoyr5EZrY81t_z4a8e7lD4tOaXjIYVGVLcwIPl7HXeD8xnQs5Lr4w4QGWXeFFi8-LQBBlTx92IIyTKcMjyYZW3BbToiJLx34mKQkqZhPFXJ3KkFaK15GJ04uANIYHoinxFVLXB1_E_z7c1BraIa7Y0NtcD6OFC4rchTV3=s320" width="188" /></a></div>Gravitational wave<span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> detectors work via a similar principle. By studying particles in this way, scientists can fine-tune the numbers behind some of the key workings of the universe, such as how electrons behave and how strong gravity really is—and how it subtly changes over even relatively small distances.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">It’s that last effect that Chris Overstreet of Stanford University and his colleagues measured in </span><a data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl7152" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl7152" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">the new study</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">. To do this, they created an “atomic fountain,” consisting of a vacuum tube 33 feet (10 meters) tall ornamented with a ring around the very top.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">The researchers controlled the atomic fountain by shooting laser pulses through it. With one pulse, they launched two atoms up from the bottom. The two atoms reached different heights before a second pulse shot them back down. A third pulse caught the atoms at the bottom, recombining the atoms’ wave packets.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">The researchers found that the two wave packets were out of phase—a sign that the gravitational field in the atomic fountain wasn’t completely uniform.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">“That … in </span><a data-component-tracked="1" href="https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">general relativity</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">, can be understood, actually, as the effect of space-time curvature,” Roura told Space.com, referring to one of Albert Einstein’s most famous theories.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Since the atom that went higher was closer to the ring, it experienced more acceleration thanks to the ring’s gravity. In a perfectly uniform gravitational field, such effects would cancel out. That isn’t what happened here; the atoms’ wave packets were out of phase instead, and thanks to the effects of time dilation, the atom that experienced more acceleration was ever so slightly out of time with its counterpart.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">The result is a minuscule change, but atom interferometry is sensitive enough to pick it up. And since the scientists can control the placement and the mass of the ring, Roura told Space.com, “they are able to measure and study these effects.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">Although the technology behind this discovery—atom interferometry—might seem arcane, atom interferometry may one day be used to </span><a data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ac0236" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ac0236" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">detect gravitational waves</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> and help us </span><a data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/space-physics/navigation-atom-%E2%80%93-coming-vehicle-near-you" href="https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/space-physics/navigation-atom-%E2%80%93-coming-vehicle-near-you" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(101, 101, 101); box-sizing: inherit; color: #656565; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">navigate better than GPS</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">, researchers have said. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmHPe85OIcyFpeva-gogrQPJhmG5eB1BPRW95SXOzc6J04pk7cT0geibJpej9o2pBg9XUNhduQ_AlGRfsnh-ZsaEiFUAF-nf9U6R8yU8OT84CSymojmVGYpYdebZGNAdbMrmJU9X2ghGaLMA5MRBLy5-68pkTPiK-_qYFYxkfjvOm38gKvJyd0CI6X=s590" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="590" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmHPe85OIcyFpeva-gogrQPJhmG5eB1BPRW95SXOzc6J04pk7cT0geibJpej9o2pBg9XUNhduQ_AlGRfsnh-ZsaEiFUAF-nf9U6R8yU8OT84CSymojmVGYpYdebZGNAdbMrmJU9X2ghGaLMA5MRBLy5-68pkTPiK-_qYFYxkfjvOm38gKvJyd0CI6X=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-34299370248620386202021-12-13T09:06:00.001-07:002021-12-13T09:06:58.299-07:00Tesla Semi in Limited Production<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoFtdTrAjtSzprN5pvgpxP-ozArRTxEpMigqQbGxEMsO5seYvT6ZsNXtLXUn-XfhDIkalpRq8jM9ME8217C1mDdhAOHbrWuShJ5nByBpoJv6cXpbW880Z8HOgethXLmvyhDkzHhbhWexMk1KooV0Uorbltslcoo9Mwb9gBTXobT7HVFKi1COtH5AFm=s960" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="960" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoFtdTrAjtSzprN5pvgpxP-ozArRTxEpMigqQbGxEMsO5seYvT6ZsNXtLXUn-XfhDIkalpRq8jM9ME8217C1mDdhAOHbrWuShJ5nByBpoJv6cXpbW880Z8HOgethXLmvyhDkzHhbhWexMk1KooV0Uorbltslcoo9Mwb9gBTXobT7HVFKi1COtH5AFm=w640-h376" width="640" /></a></div><br /> As <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-burnout-giga-nevada-video/" target="_blank">reported by Teslarati</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Back in November, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta remarked that his company was expecting its first Tesla Semi deliveries in the fourth quarter. This was a surprise to electric vehicle enthusiasts, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted during the </span><a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-tsla-2021-annual-shareholder-meeting-livestream-updates/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">2021 Annual Shareholder Meeting</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> that the Class 8 all-electric hauler would be hitting volume production in 2023. Yet if recent sightings at the Giga Nevada area are any indication, it appears that the Semi is now in limited production — and Tesla is doing some interesting tests with its freshly made trucks.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Semi’s new video, which was shared on YouTube by Tesla advocate </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGcO04zwMvk" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sawyer Merritt</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, was shot last Friday near Gigafactory Nevada. The truck in the footage was reportedly manufactured in a production facility that has been constructed near Tesla’s massive battery plant. While the Semi in the footage looked quite similar to the white painted, updated prototypes that have been spotted several times this year, the new truck reportedly did not have any stickers from the Department of Transportation, nor did it have manufacturer plates</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span></p><figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="border: 0px; display: flex; margin: 10px 0px; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 550px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1469689081361752073" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=Writer_01001101&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1469689081361752073&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.teslarati.com%2Ftesla-semi-burnout-giga-nevada-video%2F&sessionId=f870b9281d3f510aa98d0ff02071959afb918071&siteScreenName=teslarati&theme=light&widgetsVersion=9fd78d5%3A1638479056965&width=550px" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1; height: 801px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible; width: 550px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div></div></figure><div class="ntv-in-article ntv1074034-0-57200 ntvClickOut noskim" id="ntv1074034-0-57200" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow: hidden; padding: 15px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sightings of the Tesla Semi have been going on for some time, but what makes last Friday’s footage quite special was that it showcased a clear tire-shredding acceleration run from the <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-updated-giga-nevada-fleet-pictures/" style="border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Class 8 all-electric truck</a>. The footage was brief, lasting only two and a half minutes, but it was enough to show just how quick the Semi really is when it accelerates at full speed. Granted, the Semi was not pulling a trailer when it was captured on video, but it’s still remarkable to see such a large all-electric vehicle run like a sports car on the road. <br /><br />Also quite interesting was the Semi’s incredibly tight turning radius. After running the length of the production facility near Giga Nevada, the Semi simply took a U-turn to head back. The vehicle then proceeded to <a href="https://driveteslacanada.ca/semi/giga-nevada-starts-limited-production-of-the-tesla-semi/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">showcase its turning circle</a> several more times, and just like its acceleration, the Semi’s turning radius is pretty remarkable. This bodes well for the Semi’s maneuverability, which would likely help it stand apart from its more conventional, more traditional competitors. <br /><br />If recent reports are accurate and the Tesla Semi has indeed <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-new-megachargers-giga-nevada-photos/" style="border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">entered limited production</a>, it would suggest that the company might be working with some of its first customers as part of its efforts to refine and finalize the Class 8 hauler. Considering CEO Laguarta’s <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-deliveries-pepsico-ceo-update/" style="border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">statements last November</a>, PepsiCo could very well be one of these first customers. PepsiCo has been dropping hints about its upcoming Tesla Semi fleet as of late, after all. Earlier this year, the company noted that it was expecting to receive 15 units of the Semi by the end of 2021. PepsiCo has also <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/pepsico-tesla-megacharger-semi-installation-permit/" style="border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">received a permit</a> for a Tesla Megacharger at its Modesto, California facility. <br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pGcO04zwMvk" width="600" youtube-src-id="pGcO04zwMvk"></iframe></div><br />Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-45840645479335866932021-12-02T12:48:00.000-07:002021-12-02T12:48:06.303-07:00Russia issues threat to US GPS Satellites<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jlzlNvnBS5g/YakifagN3WI/AAAAAAAAczo/onYIvQ2Fb2s6W8MQAJfWm2Bf1Vcnn78ugCPcBGAsYHg/s620/Russia%2Bthreat%2Bto%2BGPS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="620" height="294" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jlzlNvnBS5g/YakifagN3WI/AAAAAAAAczo/onYIvQ2Fb2s6W8MQAJfWm2Bf1Vcnn78ugCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h294/Russia%2Bthreat%2Bto%2BGPS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p> As <a href="https://www.gpsworld.com/russia-issues-threat-to-gps-satellites/" target="_blank">reported by GPS World</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The Kremlin warned it could </span><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10233287/Russia-warns-destroy-NATO-satellites-White-House-says-concerns.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">blow up 32 GPS satellites</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> with its new anti-satellite technology, ASAT, which it </span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-administrator-statement-on-russian-asat-test" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">tested</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> Nov. 15 on a retired Soviet Tselina-D satellite, according to numerous news reports.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Russia then claimed on state television that its new ASAT missiles could obliterate NATO satellites and “blind all their missiles, planes and ships, not to mention the ground forces,” said Russian Channel One TV host Dmitry Kiselyov, rendering the West’s GPS-guided missiles useless. “It means that if NATO crosses our red line, it risks losing all 32 of its GPS satellites at once.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The International Space Station (ISS) Flight Control team was notified of indications of a satellite breakup, causing 1,500 pieces of debris to threaten the station. “Due to the debris generated by the destructive Russian Anti-Satellite (ASAT) test, ISS astronauts and cosmonauts undertook emergency procedures for safety,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">“With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts,” Nelson said. “Their actions are reckless and dangerous, threatening as well the Chinese space station and the taikonauts on board. All nations have a responsibility to prevent the purposeful creation of space debris from ASATs and to foster a safe, sustainable space environment.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">“Russia has demonstrated a deliberate disregard for the security, safety, stability and long-term sustainability of the space domain for all nations,” Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command, </span><a href="https://spacenews.com/russia-destroys-satellite-in-asat-test/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #c4161c; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">said</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: gotham, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">. “Russia’s tests of direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons clearly demonstrate that Russia continues to pursue counterspace weapon systems that undermine strategic stability and pose a threat to all nations.”</span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-9205486974119379652021-11-27T10:02:00.000-07:002021-11-27T10:02:37.847-07:00The Navy is Testing a GPS-like Device That Doesn’t Require Satellites<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5EOEyXFH0g/YaJicIoYiDI/AAAAAAAAcx8/kAP4ReQiL_gSphH_bppg_U-tXY905opXwCPcBGAsYHg/s1536/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1022" data-original-width="1536" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5EOEyXFH0g/YaJicIoYiDI/AAAAAAAAcx8/kAP4ReQiL_gSphH_bppg_U-tXY905opXwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h426/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking.jpg" title="Quartermasters plot navigation points in the bridge of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) during a night replenishment-at sea (RAS) with the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8) in 2015. Essex is the flagship of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and, with the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), is deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Liam Kennedy/Released)." width="640" /></a></div><br /> As <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-muon-navigation-arctic-circle/" target="_blank">reported by Task & Purpose</a>: T<span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;">he Navy is researching a new technology that could help sailors and Marines navigate in places where the Global Positioning System just doesn’t work.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;">Unlike GPS signals, cosmic ray muons are a natural source of radiation that can pass through rock, buildings and earth and can be used at high latitudes north of the Arctic Circle, where GPS satellites do not work well due to their orbital constraints, the Office of Naval Research wrote in a </span><a href="https://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/ONR-Global/Press-Releases/2021/GPS-Denied-Environments" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;">press release</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;"> on Tuesday.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;">In September, ONR and the U.S. Army Development Command co-funded a group of international researchers who want to show that muons can work as an alternative to GPS and still deliver the same level of precision. They have nine months to show their stuff, and if it works, it could be a game-changer for the military.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;">“The ability to navigate in polar regions will be of increasing importance in the coming decades as climate change is opening up Arctic waterways to commercial and military activities,” said Dr. Charles Eddy, the lead ONR Global science director for the muon project. “This project, which uses cosmic relativistic particles that continuously impinge on the Earth’s entire surface, offers an innovative approach to the challenge of navigation at high latitudes with little or no GPS service.”</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_K_mYR_ujAg/YaJjL3DuvsI/AAAAAAAAcyI/xT7mDmUqt_0LUTCnI7C1lf2CeHl5n3j8QCPcBGAsYHg/s1024/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_K_mYR_ujAg/YaJjL3DuvsI/AAAAAAAAcyI/xT7mDmUqt_0LUTCnI7C1lf2CeHl5n3j8QCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking1.jpg" title="Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jeremy Thornton holds signals on the flight deck of the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) during flight operations in the Arabian Sea, May 2, 2021 (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Chelsea Palmer)" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px;"><p>The question of how to preserve navigation capability is a big one these days, especially as countries like the U.S., Russia and China develop new ways of<a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/news/space-force-gps-satellite-protection/" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;"> disabling the satellites</a> that GPS is based on.</p><p>“The most important thing that the Space Force supports, from the perspective of a civilian, is the fact that we have GPS,” said Capt. Natalia Pinto, a space operations officer, in a<a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/news/space-force-gps-satellite-protection/" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;"> Space Force commercial</a> in August. “That is something that is leveraged by an individual, companies, banks, all sorts of financial institutions. So from the outside looking in, that’s probably the most important thing that we rely on.”</p><p>The military uses GPS every day for guiding ships, planes, bombs and so many other things where they need to go. But those signals are easily disrupted by jammers, which block GPS signals, and spoofers, which take them over and feed the user false information,<a href="https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/2/11/calls-grow-to-find-back-up-systems-for-gps" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;"> National Defense Magazine</a> wrote in February. Enter, spoof-proof muon technology.</p><p>If you’re like me and have never heard of muons before now, have no fear. Muons are one of the fundamental subatomic particles, kind of like electrons but much heavier, according to the<a href="https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsmuons" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;"> Department of Energy.</a> Muons on Earth result from particles in the Earth’s atmosphere colliding with cosmic rays, which are high-energy photons and atomic nuclei coming from the sun or other solar systems or galaxies. Muons exist for only 2.2 microseconds, but they are created constantly in the atmosphere, hitting every inch of the Earth’s surface and passing through nearly any substance at almost the speed of light. </p><p>Penetrate nearly any substance you say? Well that’s helpful in case you need to figure out where you are underground or underwater. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAmBnmJXCx4/YaJjll12-OI/AAAAAAAAcyU/-yf-e2qoAuMfsvdHy6t0A7PWuQ5XFktbQCPcBGAsYHg/s1024/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAmBnmJXCx4/YaJjll12-OI/AAAAAAAAcyU/-yf-e2qoAuMfsvdHy6t0A7PWuQ5XFktbQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h426/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking2.jpg" title="A U.S. Army Soldier assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment prepares to control the AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven unmanned aerial vehicle, to scout out the opposing force during Dragoon Ready 21 at the Hohenfels Training Area, April 15, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Zachary Bouvier)" width="640" /></a></div><p>“Cosmic-ray muons (or atmospheric muons) are ubiquitous and universal,” researchers wrote in a study of muons published <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75843-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;">in the journal Nature</a> in 2020. “[B]y utilizing this universality and relativistic nature, cosmic muons have a potential to be used for positioning the receiver detector located underwater or underground three dimensionally with a great accuracy.”</p><p>The same goes for navigating north of the Arctic Circle. The Navy-funded research into the use of muons for navigation is led by Dr. Chris Steer of the British company Geoptic Infrastructure Investigations Limited. Steer explained that “like echolocation, the timing difference between ‘pings’ — the signals from a crossing muon in our detectors — can allow the user to measure the distance from one detector to another with multiple detectors allowing location by triangulation.” </p><p>Researchers have already tested the system in a large water-immersion tank in the United Kingdom. Now the project will move to Finland, specifically into an Arctic lake covered with a meter of ice, the press release said. </p><p>“At these high latitudes, conventional GPS measurements are problematic due to their orbital constraints,” ONR wrote.</p><p>To make it work, researchers will need a set of highly-synchronized clocks that can work partially underwater in a freezing Arctic environment. But if it does work, it would be a big step up for military navigation.</p><p>“The sea is broadly transparent to cosmic ray muons, so we expect there to be a number of scientific subsea navigation opportunities,” Steer said. “Similarly, as cosmic ray muons are highly penetrating and able to pass through many tens to hundreds of meters of rock, it is possible to see that this technology also has strong opportunities in tunnels and other underground settings.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzbnAdY9_J4/YaJkEc_KJkI/AAAAAAAAcyg/KmDWl0mqKmcJ_sP1ldMNl8DpWII1Qk15gCPcBGAsYHg/s1024/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzbnAdY9_J4/YaJkEc_KJkI/AAAAAAAAcyg/KmDWl0mqKmcJ_sP1ldMNl8DpWII1Qk15gCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/Navy%2Bmuon%2Bdetector%2Btracking3.jpg" title="Using night-vision equipment soldiers clear a room in an underground facility during NIE 13.2, May 12, 2013 (Air Force photo / John Hamilton)" width="640" /></a></div><p>Muon tech is not the only alternative to GPS for figuring out where you are in the world. For example, the Navy has started teaching good ol’<a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/01/29/break-out-the-sextant-navy-teaching-celestial-navigation-again.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;"> celestial navigation</a> using a sextant and the stars again in recent years.</p><p>“That’s an oldie but goodie,” said Richard Mason, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation. The military could also automate systems to keep track of celestial navigation for service members, Mason suggested.</p><p>At a higher-tech level, the military may be close to using quantum science as a ‘hacker-proof’ alternative to GPS, <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2021/11/quantum-sensor-breakthrough-paves-way-gps-free-navigation/186578/" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--underline-link-color); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 4px; transition: color 0.2s ease-out 0s;">Defense One</a> reported earlier this month.</p><p>“These inertial sensors can be used wherever there is a need for position or navigational information, and where a GPS outage is unacceptable or GPS is unavailable,” Peter Schwindt, a scientist at Sandia National Labs, which is researching quantum navigation, told Defense One. “Civilian applications such as aviation and autonomous vehicles are areas where momentary outages of the GPS signal is not acceptable. GPS is decidedly not available underground or underwater so inertial navigation is very important for these operational environments.”</p><p>Between quantum science and muons, navigation in the military is becoming much more sci-fi than simply reading a map. But as complicated as it sounds, scientists are excited about what might happen next.</p><p>“The future is extremely bright for this line of research,” ONR wrote.</p></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-29700692551905946232021-08-20T07:30:00.002-06:002021-08-20T07:30:36.928-06:00‘Tesla Bot’ prototype to arrive in 2022<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6WEjs9BXFWs/YR-tbBsKKMI/AAAAAAAAcpk/vE8avtT8bRg45Dnrf9ug5odk3kvnPqWQwCPcBGAsYHg/s1920/tesla-bot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1920" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6WEjs9BXFWs/YR-tbBsKKMI/AAAAAAAAcpk/vE8avtT8bRg45Dnrf9ug5odk3kvnPqWQwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h358/tesla-bot.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />As <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-bot-robot-price-specs-2022/" target="_blank">reported by Teslarati</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tesla will launch the “Tesla Bot” prototype in 2022, Elon Musk announced during the </span><a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-ai-day-live-blog/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Artificial Intelligence Event</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> the company held today at its Palo Alto headquarters.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">After jokingly walking out a human in the Tesla Bot uniform, Musk said “Tesla Bot will be real.” Musk detailed some of the tasks that the robot will be able to complete, including grocery runs, picking up household objects, and other everyday commands.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--01YQyCo3E0/YR-t5bwsSAI/AAAAAAAAcpw/ONbYMK7y7F8ozCMp1piNZzVi6oDAMUdaACPcBGAsYHg/s2560/Tesla-bot-with-dojo-chip-scaled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="2560" height="352" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--01YQyCo3E0/YR-t5bwsSAI/AAAAAAAAcpw/ONbYMK7y7F8ozCMp1piNZzVi6oDAMUdaACPcBGAsYHg/w640-h352/Tesla-bot-with-dojo-chip-scaled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p>The robot will be 5 feet 8 inches tall and 125 pounds. It will include a screen on the face of the bot to display useful information. Additionally, it will have human-level hands. The extremities operate using 40 electromechanical actuators, with two feet, and force feedback sensing for balance and agility. Musk joked that it may be able to run up to 5 MPH.</p></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Tesla Bot will also utilize some of the company’s AI devices that are operational on the company’s vehicles. </span><a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-cybertruck-samsung-cameras-massive-400m-deal/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Autopilot cameras</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> will essentially act as the vision for the Tesla Bot, while a Full Self-Driving computer will function as the internal organs of the robot, helping it to operate and function as a productive member of the household. It will utilize mutli-camera video neural networks, identical to what was detailed during the company’s AI Event. Additionally, Neural Net planning, labeling, simulation and tools will also be used to help the Tesla Bot operate effectively and efficiently, while accurately performing tasks.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“For this robot, we’re trying to be as literal as possible: Can it do boring, dangerous, repetitive jobs that people don’t want to do. You know, once you have it do that, maybe it can do other things too…I mean, maybe it could be your buddy, too. I’m sure people will think of some very creative uses,” Musk joked.</span></p><p></p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XMggR6ffAeI/YR-uBafO7_I/AAAAAAAAcp0/47Kvsvlxsg4F3leLiwRn0TY69mJ--RZ0gCPcBGAsYHg/s680/Dojo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XMggR6ffAeI/YR-uBafO7_I/AAAAAAAAcp0/47Kvsvlxsg4F3leLiwRn0TY69mJ--RZ0gCPcBGAsYHg/s320/Dojo.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Tesla Bot won’t be available until next year, Musk said, especially as the robot will utilize the </span><a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-dojo-chip-images-dennis-hong/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0b86b5; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Dojo Supercomputer’s training mechanisms</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> to improve functionality. It seems that Tesla’s idea for the robot is to decrease the need to perform tasks by yourself. There will be “no shortage of labor,” Musk said about the future, but physical work will simply be a choice. The Tesla Bot’s purpose could eliminate the need to perform minimal, mindless tasks around the house. “For the Tesla bot it’s going to start with work that is boring and repetitive Basically work that a person would least like to do,” Musk added.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“Things that I think are very hard about having a useful humanoid robot is ‘Can it navigate through the world without being explicitly trained?’ Without explicit line-by-line instructions,” Musk said. “Can you talk to it and say ‘Pick up that bolt, attach it to the car with that wrench. It should be able to do that.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The development of the robot seems to be a responsibility of Musk’s, especially as the CEO has been critical of AI’s potential power in the past. On an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk once warned that AI could become increasingly dangerous if overdeveloped, especially as its mind and memory are terrifically powerful.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Don’t expect to see the Robot on Tesla’s production lines, either. Musk said the parts were there, and Tesla decided to make it. “If we don’t, someone else would, so I guess we should probably make it. And make it safe,” Musk said.</span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-15919404579189885272021-08-18T11:55:00.001-06:002021-08-18T11:55:46.743-06:00Iconic - SpaceX's Starship Booster Fitup<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFJ07brMC2s/YR1IC2hpNZI/AAAAAAAAcoo/mQut_NM1qNwppFzz7SUEIGk11gGWYvPOwCPcBGAsYHg/s2048/E9FohaxX0AMWW31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1151" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFJ07brMC2s/YR1IC2hpNZI/AAAAAAAAcoo/mQut_NM1qNwppFzz7SUEIGk11gGWYvPOwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/E9FohaxX0AMWW31.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.space.com/18853-spacex.html" href="https://www.space.com/18853-spacex.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #026ca2; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SpaceX's </u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">next </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html" href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #026ca2; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Starship </u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">prototype got the black-and-white treatment in a suave new photo shared by company founder Elon Musk.</span></p><p><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1423830326665650179" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1423830326665650179" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #026ca2; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The picture</u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> appears to show the Starship SN20 ("Serial No. 20") prototype during fit checks on Aug. 4 with the first-stage Super Heavy rocket, when the stacked rocket briefly became the </span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-booster-stacked-1st-time" href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-booster-stacked-1st-time" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #026ca2; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">tallest one in the world</u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The picture provides a close-up view of the mating procedure between Starship and Super Heavy, with engineers perched underneath. The picture is reminiscent of the famous black-and-white "</span><a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-component-tracked="1" data-url="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-photograph-the-story-behind-the-famous-shot-43931148/" href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-photograph-the-story-behind-the-famous-shot-43931148/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #026ca2; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lunch Atop a Skyscraper Photograph</u></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">" taken by Charles Clyde Ebbets on Sept. 20, 1932, during construction of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-86217379479050038472021-06-23T07:31:00.000-06:002021-06-23T07:31:22.142-06:00Watch as Tesla Model S Plaid Hits insane Speeds on Pikes Peak Hill Climb<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEMNoYtkgI0/YNM2N0PtWxI/AAAAAAAAcU8/XpUqb7uM2eYwC1foCq4kmbdQIdq5KiwSgCPcBGAsYHg/s1499/Tesla%2BPlaid%2BPikes%2BPeak.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1499" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEMNoYtkgI0/YNM2N0PtWxI/AAAAAAAAcU8/XpUqb7uM2eYwC1foCq4kmbdQIdq5KiwSgCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h288/Tesla%2BPlaid%2BPikes%2BPeak.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>As <a href="https://electrek.co/2021/06/23/tesla-model-s-plaid-hits-insane-speeds-on-pikes-peak-hill-climb-video/" target="_blank">reported by Electrek</a>: <span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">Unplugged Performance has brought its brand-new Tesla Model S Plaid to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, and the new top-performance electric vehicle is already impressing in the practice round.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">After </span><a href="https://electrek.co/2020/08/26/tuned-tesla-model-3-crashes-at-pikes-peak-driver-wants-to-race-sunday/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d4d7c; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16.8px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">famously crashing their Model 3</a><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;"> and building it back up in record time to compete last year, Unplugged Performance is back at Pikes Peak, but this time with a brand-new Model S Plaid.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">It’s going to be the first time Tesla’s new top performance vehicle is being put to the test, and it’s no easy test.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">Pikes Peak consists of a 12.4-mile route that starts at just above 9,000 feet and climbs to the summit at 14,115 feet above sea level.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">It’s not only extremely dangerous for the driver since the sharp turns mostly open up to the sides of cliffs, but it’s also extremely demanding on the vehicles competing.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">As we previously reported, Unplugged Performance, a Tesla tuner and aftermarket accessory maker, managed to get </span><a href="https://electrek.co/2021/06/14/tesla-model-s-plaid-modded-unplugged-performance-laguna-seca-racetrack/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d4d7c; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16.8px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">their hands on an early Tesla Model S Plaid,</a><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;"> which they modified with a new suspension, brakes, tires, roll cage, and a few aerodynamic changes.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">They released a video of the vehicle during the practice runs at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dpzkSKFcx50" width="600" youtube-src-id="dpzkSKFcx50"></iframe></div><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;"><p><span style="font-size: 16.8px;">It is leading its division (exhibition) by a decent margin, and it’s getting close to the times of some purpose-built vehicles in the open wheel category:</span></p></span><p></p><img alt="" class="wp-image-186578 jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-attachment-id="186578" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM" data-large-file="https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?quality=82&strip=all&w=1000" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-medium-file="https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?quality=82&strip=all&w=300" data-orig-file="https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?quality=82&strip=all" data-orig-size="2674,670" data-permalink="https://electrek.co/2021/06/23/tesla-model-s-plaid-hits-insane-speeds-on-pikes-peak-hill-climb-video/screen-shot-2021-06-23-at-5-52-25-am/" height="670" loading="eager" sizes="(max-width: 2674px) 100vw, 2674px" src="https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?quality=82&strip=all&w=1000" srcset="https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg 2674w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=150,38 150w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=300,75 300w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=768,192 768w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=1024,257 1024w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=1536,385 1536w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=2048,513 2048w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=350,88 350w, https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-23-at-5.52.25-AM.jpg?resize=1600,401 1600w" style="background-color: white; border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16.8px; height: auto; isolation: isolate; max-width: 100%; width: 1000px;" title="Watch Tesla Model S Plaid hits insane speeds on Pikes Peak Hill Climb" width="2674" /><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">Those times are only for one section of the route that is open for practice.</span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">While he wasn’t pushing it too hard, he was able to hit 130 mph in some stretches of the climb, which is simply insane:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u5rScZzNAbA" width="600" youtube-src-id="u5rScZzNAbA"></iframe></div><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.8px;">It’s going to be interesting to see what time Unplugged Performance can get with their modified Tesla Model S Plaid, which stock can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than two seconds.</span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-12120619135893784152021-05-21T10:43:00.000-06:002021-05-21T10:43:17.447-06:00ESA Pushes Ahead on Starlink-GPS Style Hybrid Network for the Moon<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P0A0sXQo22I/YKfhT21Ws0I/AAAAAAAAcQM/H4tOKlFadKIRBukcVlTt-9PgQYcq5aVxQCPcBGAsYHg/s1280/GPS%2Bon%2Bthe%2BMoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P0A0sXQo22I/YKfhT21Ws0I/AAAAAAAAcQM/H4tOKlFadKIRBukcVlTt-9PgQYcq5aVxQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/GPS%2Bon%2Bthe%2BMoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> As <a href="https://www.slashgear.com/esa-pushes-ahead-on-starlink-gps-style-hybrid-network-for-the-moon-20673779/" target="_blank">reported by SlashGear</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">An incredible network of lunar satellites, ringing the Moon and powering a telecoms and navigation system there, is another step closer to reality, the European Space Agency has announced today. The ESA’s Moonlight plan would address one of the growing areas of concern as humanity plans a crewed return to the lunar surface, delivering stable communications between teams and back with mission control on Earth.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Currently, communications between the Moon and Earth are fairly bottlenecked. The Moon itself blocks radio signals, which means that any probe, spacecraft, or crewed mission to the far-side of Earth’s satellite is cut off from direct transmissions to and from us.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">China’s Chang’e-4 lander, for example, relied upon a relay satellite in the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrangian point. That satellite, Queqiao, effectively acts as an intermediary, taking communications from the lander and then relaying them to Earth. What the ESA has in mind, though, is considerably more complex – and more powerful.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A series of satellites positioned around the Moon could blanket it in coverage, both for communications and for a GPS-style navigation system. It would avoid the need for lunar missions to establish a relay of their own, or use high-power transmitters capable of reaching Earth independently. As a result, the ESA suggests, future missions could be even more accessible.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slJ7Utz2vuQ/YKfisL6GWUI/AAAAAAAAcQg/qtDaBN1eYHAgpDh6DyRf3n6AFC2OM_eUQCPcBGAsYHg/s1500/GPS%2Bon%2Bthe%2BMoon%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slJ7Utz2vuQ/YKfisL6GWUI/AAAAAAAAcQg/qtDaBN1eYHAgpDh6DyRf3n6AFC2OM_eUQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h480/GPS%2Bon%2Bthe%2BMoon%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“Using a shared telecommunications and navigation service would reduce the design complexity of future individual missions and make them lighter, freeing space for more scientific instruments or other cargo, making each individual mission more cost-efficient,” the Agency points out.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“Lowering the ticket price to lunar exploration could empower a wider group of ESA member states to launch their own national lunar missions,” it’s suggested. “Even on a relatively low budget, an emerging space nation would be able to send a scientific CubeSat mission to the Moon, inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To begin with, the ESA plans to demonstrate the potential of such a system with the Lunar Pathfinder comsat. Set to launch by the end of 2023, it’ll establish an orbit around the Moon and deliver navigation and data relay information. The goal is positioning accuracy of around 100 meters, though future satellites could halve that or better.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The ESA is also providing NASA with the ESPRIT communications module for the upcoming Artemis program. Moonlight will tap technologies from both those projects, to build out a lasting network for the Moon.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It’ll take a while, unsurprisingly, for that to be realized. The ESA has just inked deals with two consortia – one led by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, working with Airbus and others; the other led by Telespazio, working with Inmarsat, Canada’s MDA, and others – to figure out the logistics and details.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“A robust, reliable and efficient telecommunications and navigation system will make the dozens of individual missions planned for the Moon more cost-efficient and enable smaller countries to become space-faring nations, inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers,” Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at the ESA, </span><a href="http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Corporate_news/ESA_advances_its_plan_for_satellites_around_the_Moon" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0170c7; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">said today</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> of the agreements.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">NASA’s Artemis mission aims to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon by 2024. It also intends to build a Lunar Gateway, a new space station positioned near the Moon, which would act as a staging post both for lunar descent and – in future – missions further afield to Mars and other planets in our solar system.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WhSdUMU1qI8" width="600" youtube-src-id="WhSdUMU1qI8"></iframe></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-10213716395772059622021-05-03T08:52:00.001-06:002021-05-03T09:04:54.717-06:00NASA's Parker Solar Probe Becomes Fastest Object Ever Built as it 'Touches the Sun'<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vZnZD3BSOfA/YJAEX712f3I/AAAAAAAAcMw/rCqbnHC_WZwLWmaMPWm3aRjzZ-7Cb8tqQCPcBGAsYHg/s940/Parker%2BSolar%2BProbe.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="940" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vZnZD3BSOfA/YJAEX712f3I/AAAAAAAAcMw/rCqbnHC_WZwLWmaMPWm3aRjzZ-7Cb8tqQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/Parker%2BSolar%2BProbe.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">The Parker Solar Probe was clocked at over 330,000 miles per hour as it zipped through the sun's outer atmosphere.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>As <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-solar-probe-becomes-fastest-object-ever-built-as-it-touches-the-sun/" target="_blank">reported by C/NET</a>: <span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">Nothing built by human hands has ever travelled faster than NASA's Parker Solar Probe, a diminutive, scorch-proof spacecraft about the size of a small car is </span><span class="link" face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" section="shortcodeLink" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"><a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-solar-probe-touches-the-sun-uncovers-solar-wind-mysteries/" style="box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0px 0px 0px inset, rgb(184, 0, 0) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease;">practically "touching the sun."</a></span><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"> In late April, it smashed two wild space records, dethroning the previous champion -- which also happened to be NASA's Parker Solar Probe -- and its journey is really just beginning.</span><p></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">The probe, </span><a data-component="externalLink" href="https://youtu.be/1g5wUEcTdbU" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="background-color: white; box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0px 0px 0px inset, rgb(184, 0, 0) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Proxima Nova", sans-serif; font-size: 19.8448px; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease;" target="_blank">which launched in August 2018 on a mission to study the sun</a><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">, has been flying ever closer to our solar system's furnace using the planet Venus as a slingshot. On April 29, during its closest approach to the sun (known as "perihelion"), Parker was traveling at an almost unfathomable speed -- enough to circle the Earth 13 times in a single hour.</span></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">Parker </span><span class="link" face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" section="shortcodeLink" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"><a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-solar-probe-smashes-two-wild-records-as-it-approaches-the-sun/" style="box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0px 0px 0px inset, rgb(184, 0, 0) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease;">set two new records</a></span><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"> back in February 2020:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face="Proxima Nova, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 19.8448px;">Fastest human-made object: 244,255 mph (393,044 km/h).</span></span></li><li><span face="Proxima Nova, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 19.8448px;">Closest spacecraft to the sun: 11.6 million miles (18.6 million kilometers).</span></span></li></ul><p></p><p></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">But those records have now been surpassed. The new records stand at:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face="Proxima Nova, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 19.8448px;">Fastest human-made object: 330,000 mph (532,000 km/h).</span></span></li><li><span face="Proxima Nova, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 19.8448px;">Closest spacecraft to the sun: 6.5 million miles (10.4 million kilometers).</span></span><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"> </span></li></ul><p></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">Those are some strong records to hold and this isn't the end, either. Parker should break its own record later in the year when it uses another Venus flyby to slingshot closer to the sun. Perihelion is expected to occur on Nov. 21.</span></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">Parker is already revealing some of the sun's great mysteries. In December 2019, </span><span class="link" face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" section="shortcodeLink" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"><a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-solar-probe-touches-the-sun-uncovers-solar-wind-mysteries/" style="box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0px 0px 0px inset, rgb(184, 0, 0) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease;">Parker's first batch of data was released in the prestigious journal Nature</a></span><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;">, pulling back the (incredibly bright) curtain on the charged particles and plasma dynamics in the sun's outer atmosphere.</span></p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.8448px;"><br /></span></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-59547658518458575432021-04-16T15:00:00.000-06:002021-04-16T15:00:07.027-06:00SpaceX Wins $2.9 Billion NASA Moon Landing Contract<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_1wIaJHtDz8/YHn6igK5YAI/AAAAAAAAcJY/kWEi_Q9_6PQ6rg5Dj5wYMFrn43YK7s7OwCPcBGAsYHg/s2148/SpaceX%2Bwins%2BNASA%2BLunar%2Bcontract1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1207" data-original-width="2148" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_1wIaJHtDz8/YHn6igK5YAI/AAAAAAAAcJY/kWEi_Q9_6PQ6rg5Dj5wYMFrn43YK7s7OwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/SpaceX%2Bwins%2BNASA%2BLunar%2Bcontract1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>As <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/finance/news/spacex-wins-nasa-contract-develop-201125695.html" target="_blank">reported by Yahoo!Finance</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">The winner of NASA's Human Landing System (HLS) contract award is SpaceX, which bid $2.9 billion for the privilege of developing the means by which NASA astronauts will return to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo program. SpaceX was in the running alongside Blue Origin and Dynetics, but reportedly undercut both those prospective suppliers considerably with its bid, according to </span><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" data-rapid_p="6" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="slk:The Washington Post" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/16/nasa-lunar-lander-contract-spacex/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #188fff; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><em>The Washington Post</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">SpaceX proposed using its Starship spacecraft, currently under development, as the landing vehicle for astronauts once they arrive at their lunar destination. The HLS is a key part of NASA's Artemis program, which will begin with uncrewed flights, followed by a Moon fly-by with a human crew, and eventually a human lunar landing at the South Pole of the Moon, during a mission which had been targeting 2024 as its fly date.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">NASA </span><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" data-rapid_p="7" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="slk:announced that SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics made up the entirety of its field of approved vendors for bidding on the HLS contracts back in April last year." href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/30/spacex-blue-origin-and-dynetics-will-build-human-lunar-landers-for-nasas-next-trip-back-to-the-moon/" style="background-color: white; color: #188fff; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px; text-decoration-line: none;">announced that SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics made up the entirety of its field of approved vendors for bidding on the HLS contracts back in April last year.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;"> Since then, both Blue Origin (which bid alongside a "national team" that included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper) and Dynetics have built full-scale models of their system and submitted proposals detailing their plans for the functional versions to NASA for consideration. Meanwhile, SpaceX has been actively testing functional prototypes of its Starship spacecraft in Texas, and is also in the process of developing the Super Heavy booster that will propel it to the Moon once it's ready.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">The plan here was for NASA to have chosen all three companies to build out initial versions in order to satisfy the early requirements of the contract, and then ultimately, it was generally thought that the agency would select a couple from the list of three to build human landers, in order to provide it with some flexibility when it comes to means of getting to the lunar surface. That's essentially how NASA operated with its Commercial Crew program for the International Space Station, which saw awards for both SpaceX and Boeing to build astronaut transport spacecraft. SpaceX has already qualified and begun to operate its vehicle, and Boeing hopes to bring its option online either late this year or early next.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">SpaceX has won a lot of trust at NASA by delivering on the Commercial Crew program with a reliable, reusable human-rated spacecraft in the Crew Dragon. </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">The Post</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;"> also says that in addition to its attractive pricing, NASA wasn't drawn to Starship's flexibility and cargo capacity, since it's aiming to be able to fly not just humans, but also large quantities of supplies and materials to the Moon, and eventually, beyond.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">Starship is a long way off from that goal at the moment, however; SpaceX has been quickly developing new iterations in a rapid prototyping approach to its test phase, but the most recent Starship high-altitude flight ended poorly with an explosion prior to landing. Other elements of the test program, however, including showing that Starship can successfully reorient itself in mid-air and slow its decent for landing, have been more successful on past tests. None of the tests so far have left Earth's atmosphere, however, nor have they involved any human flight testing, both of which will require a lot more development before the spacecraft is deemed mission-ready.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;">SpaceX was also the launch provider chosen to </span><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" data-rapid_p="10" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="slk:deliver components of the Lunar Gateway" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/09/nasa-picks-spacex-falcon-heavy-for-332m-mission-to-launch-lunar-gateway-components-in-2024/" style="background-color: white; color: #188fff; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px; text-decoration-line: none;">deliver components of the Lunar Gateway</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.005px;"> satellite in 2024, working with Maxar, which will produce the actual Power and Propulsion Element and Habitation and Logistics Outpost. These, however, will be delivered via Falcon Heavy, which has already had multiple successful launches.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V6-KCmU2uJk/YHn5RrIOajI/AAAAAAAAcJE/06eSiKSuRkkVRunm-tiEEzcaaT9-YwlpwCPcBGAsYHg/s640/SpaceX%2Bwins%2BNASA%2BLunar%2Bcontract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V6-KCmU2uJk/YHn5RrIOajI/AAAAAAAAcJE/06eSiKSuRkkVRunm-tiEEzcaaT9-YwlpwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/SpaceX%2Bwins%2BNASA%2BLunar%2Bcontract.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-45682300690201663902021-04-08T12:51:00.001-06:002021-04-08T12:51:57.473-06:00UPS Orders Electric Aircraft to Transport Cargo between its Facilities<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8anW376xJoo/YG9NxZsjAuI/AAAAAAAAcGU/fahJ8xjrp6ECslPxUJrPX4-l3ipZ4PSwgCPcBGAsYHg/s1536/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1536" height="334" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8anW376xJoo/YG9NxZsjAuI/AAAAAAAAcGU/fahJ8xjrp6ECslPxUJrPX4-l3ipZ4PSwgCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h334/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>As <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/ups-orders-electric-aircraft-to-transport-cargo-between-its-facilities/" target="_blank">reported by SeattleTimes</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">UPS is ordering 10 electric aircraft that are designed to take off and land like a helicopter, allowing it to fly cargo directly between its facilities in small markets and bypass airports.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">The electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft made by <a href="https://www.beta.team/" target="_blank">Beta Technologies</a> would be flown by an onboard pilot when UPS begins getting them in 2024, pending Federal Aviation Administration certification. Burlington, Vermont-based Beta Technologies is conducting flight testing on the aircraft at a test facility in Plattsburgh, N.Y.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">But the aircraft are designed to “someday operate autonomously” once the technology and regulations are developed, according to Sandy Springs, Georgia-based UPS, which did not disclose the purchase price.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">UPS has an option to purchase an additional 140 aircraft. It plans “to take delivery and see how they perform within the network, and then move from there,” said UPS spokesman Matthew O’Connor.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j05HWJX5IH0/YG9PFSS6dUI/AAAAAAAAcGo/6f9kLUSr7B0fQusqCn3fI_nLkSTTTh32ACPcBGAsYHg/s650/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="650" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j05HWJX5IH0/YG9PFSS6dUI/AAAAAAAAcGo/6f9kLUSr7B0fQusqCn3fI_nLkSTTTh32ACPcBGAsYHg/s320/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">After years of testing drone delivery technologies, UPS in 2019 got Federal Aviation Administration approval for a drone airline called UPS Flight Forward and has partnered with CVS for prescription drone deliveries. In recent years, UPS has also tested self-driving tractor-trailers and vans, ordered 10,000 electric delivery trucks and worked to develop electric vehicles capable of automated movement in UPS depots.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">The eVTOL aircraft would be used to supplement cargo shipments in UPS’s small feeder air network, currently served by contract operators that use Beechcraft and Cessna 208 Caravan planes to fly cargo between small and medium-sized markets.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">The Beta aircraft have a 1,400-pound cargo capacity, the Associated Press reported.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">Since the eVTOL aircraft would be able to take off and land at UPS facilities, the company would save the time and labor for loading and transferring at airports between planes and trucks that drive the packages to UPS facilities. That could speed urgent shipments such as pharmaceuticals and documents.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">“By utilizing vertical takeoffs and landings, we can turn relatively small spaces at existing UPS facilities into a micro air feeder network without the noise or operating emissions of traditional aircraft,” said Beta founder and CEO Kyle Clark in a written statement.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 19px;">The Beta Technologies eVTOL aircraft are designed to have a range of 250 miles on a single charge, and be able to charge in an hour or less at charging stations that could also be used for electric ground vehicles. They would have a cruising speed of up to 150 miles per hour, and produce zero emissions while operating.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ImTPurAiqc/YG9P1zue1pI/AAAAAAAAcHA/0O4xE0C3cVEw_sWE8W-fwkUQgIZljfwOgCPcBGAsYHg/s1400/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1400" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ImTPurAiqc/YG9P1zue1pI/AAAAAAAAcHA/0O4xE0C3cVEw_sWE8W-fwkUQgIZljfwOgCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h458/UPS%2BEVOL%2B2021-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-74925717460353042362021-03-16T10:11:00.000-06:002021-03-16T10:11:34.677-06:00Tesla's Decision to Transition Jerome Guillen to Tesla Heavy Trucking Role a 'significant strategic' Move<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KIF5dIo3afw/YFDXhgYBu8I/AAAAAAAAcC4/zU4IMpn6YHMC60VtVHUFgUPLXLLYvl9ZACPcBGAsYHg/s1000/Tesla%2Bheavy%2Btrucking1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KIF5dIo3afw/YFDXhgYBu8I/AAAAAAAAcC4/zU4IMpn6YHMC60VtVHUFgUPLXLLYvl9ZACPcBGAsYHg/w640-h480/Tesla%2Bheavy%2Btrucking1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>As <a href="https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/teslas-decision-to-transition-jerome-guillen-to-tesla-heavy-trucking-role-is-a-significant-strategic-move-believes-wedbush" target="_blank">reported by Tesmanian</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tesla's decision to move Jerome Guillen to the Tesla Heavy Trucking position is a significant strategic move that demonstrates the company's offensive into the truck industry in the coming years, Wedbush said. The new announcement comes amid active efforts to bring the Tesla Semi to market, which will happen this year.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In a research note released on March 15, Wedbush analysts commented on the changes that have occurred in the appointments of Tesla's positions, which became known early Monday morning. Analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Backe said that Tesla's decision to </span><a href="https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/president-automotive-at-tesla-jerome-guillen-to-take-on-new-role-tesla-heavy-trucking" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #04a22f; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: color 0.1s linear 0s;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">transfer Jerome Guillen</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, who until now was president of the Automotive unit, to its heavy trucking business is a "significant strategic" move to double down on the electric car maker's semi and trucking vision over the next few years.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Analysts wrote that Guillen played a critical role in Model 3's success and supply chain improvement in Fremont, USA, and Giga Shanghai, China. At this point, he has already changed his job title on Linkedin. Wedbush maintained a $950 price target and outperform rating on the stock.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The firm also commented on </span><a href="https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/elon-musk-and-zach-kirkhorn-are-now-titled-technoking-of-tesla-and-master-of-coin-respectively" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #04a22f; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: color 0.1s linear 0s;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">the new title</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He chose to add "Technoking of Tesla" to his role, which hints that he sees the company as more as a technology disruptor, especially with robotaxis and battery technology advancements.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The simultaneous expansion of Zack Kirkhorn's CFO title to "Coin Master" could hint that Tesla owns bitcoin, which is expected to expand next year, analysts said.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zKcjV978GUo/YFDYWPz-0qI/AAAAAAAAcDI/dQTfLrcoCQomCGsck5RMfdCtia-u8yLagCPcBGAsYHg/s2879/Tesla%2Bheavy%2Btrucking2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1439" data-original-width="2879" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zKcjV978GUo/YFDYWPz-0qI/AAAAAAAAcDI/dQTfLrcoCQomCGsck5RMfdCtia-u8yLagCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h320/Tesla%2Bheavy%2Btrucking2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Gotham Book", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-50145158158056904172021-02-06T11:47:00.000-07:002021-02-06T11:47:12.883-07:00New Quantum Receiver the First to Detect Entire Radio Frequency Spectrum<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dk-wgZTvy5s/YB7g4-9fRPI/AAAAAAAAb9k/enqQUdm5r9MlXg8FvKonacejPcwk1k6CwCPcBGAsYHg/s1440/newquantumreceiver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1440" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dk-wgZTvy5s/YB7g4-9fRPI/AAAAAAAAb9k/enqQUdm5r9MlXg8FvKonacejPcwk1k6CwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h426/newquantumreceiver.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.45); color: #eeeeee; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A Rydberg receiver and spectrum analyzer detects a wide range of real-world radio frequency signals above a microwave circuit including AM radio, FM radio, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Credit: U.S. Army illustration</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p> As <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-02-quantum-entire-radio-frequency-spectrum.html" target="_blank">reported by Phys.org</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">A new quantum sensor can analyze the full spectrum of radio frequency and real-world signals, unleashing new potentials for soldier communications, spectrum awareness and electronic warfare.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">Army researchers built the </span><a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/quantum+sensor/" rel="tag" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; text-decoration-line: none;">quantum sensor</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">, which can sample the radio-frequency </span><a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/spectrum/" rel="tag" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; text-decoration-line: none;">spectrum</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">—from zero frequency up to 20 GHz—and detect AM and FM radio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other communication signals.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">The Rydberg sensor uses laser beams to create highly-excited Rydberg atoms directly above a microwave circuit, to boost and hone in on the portion of the spectrum being measured. The Rydberg atoms are sensitive to the circuit's voltage, enabling the device to be used as a sensitive probe for the wide range of signals in the RF spectrum.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">"All previous demonstrations of Rydberg atomic </span><a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/sensors/" rel="tag" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; text-decoration-line: none;">sensors</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;"> have only been able to sense small and specific regions of the RF spectrum, but our sensor now operates continuously over a wide frequency range for the first time," said Dr. Kevin Cox, a researcher at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory. "This is a really important step toward proving that quantum sensors can provide a new, and dominant, set of capabilities for our Soldiers, who are operating in an increasingly complex electro-magnetic battlespace."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">The Rydberg spectrum analyzer has the potential to surpass fundamental limitations of traditional electronics in sensitivity, bandwidth and frequency range. Because of this, the lab's Rydberg spectrum analyzer and other quantum sensors have the potential to unlock a new frontier of Army sensors for spectrum awareness, electronic warfare, sensing and communications—part of the Army's modernization strategy.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">"Devices that are based on quantum constituents are one of the Army's top priorities to enable technical surprise in the competitive future battlespace," said Army researcher Dr. David Meyer. "Quantum sensors in general, including the one demonstrated here, offer unparalleled sensitivity and accuracy to detect a wide range of mission-critical signals."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">The peer-reviewed journal </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">Physical Review Applied</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;"> published the researchers' findings, Waveguide-coupled Rydberg spectrum analyzer from 0 to 20 GigaHerz, co-authored by Army researchers Drs. David Meyer, Paul Kunz, and Kevin Cox</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ym1wi0HfE4c/YB7iJxAskWI/AAAAAAAAb94/U3JrGGDR77cV3qx7NtfDxUw-CQxrQ4yPQCPcBGAsYHg/s600/2-newquantumre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="600" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ym1wi0HfE4c/YB7iJxAskWI/AAAAAAAAb94/U3JrGGDR77cV3qx7NtfDxUw-CQxrQ4yPQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h512/2-newquantumre.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.45); color: #eeeeee; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Researchers use a Rydberg spectrum analyzer experimental apparatus at the DEVCOM Army Research Lab. Credit: U.S. Army</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">The researchers plan additional development to improve the signal sensitivity of the Rydberg spectrum analyzer, aiming to outperform existing state-of-the-art technology. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">"Significant physics and engineering effort is still necessary before the Rydberg analyzer can integrate into a field-testable device," Cox said. "One of the first steps will be understanding how to retain and improve the device's performance as the sensor size is decreased. The Army has emerged as a leading developer of Rydberg sensors, and we expect more cutting-edge research to result as this futuristic technology concept quickly becomes a reality."</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #212438; font-family: Quicksand, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;"><br /></span></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-65020291064877925592021-01-26T10:02:00.000-07:002021-01-26T10:02:56.037-07:00Biden Wants to Replace Government Fleet with Electric Vehicles<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T_Y49Dn4cAM/YBBJDYlyR5I/AAAAAAAAb64/WFmEOUNTl_opXd3n8kSK3hbT7NjXeqeswCPcBGAsYHg/s920/Government%2BFleet%2BEV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="920" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T_Y49Dn4cAM/YBBJDYlyR5I/AAAAAAAAb64/WFmEOUNTl_opXd3n8kSK3hbT7NjXeqeswCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h426/Government%2BFleet%2BEV.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #6a6a6a; font-family: adelle-sans, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As of 2019, there were 645,000 vehicles in the federal government’s fleet</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>As <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/25/22249237/biden-electric-vehicle-government-fleet-ev" target="_blank">reported by The Verge</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">President Joe Biden will start the process of phasing out the federal government’s use of gas-powered vehicles and replacing them with ones that run on electricity. The announcement is the fulfillment of a promise Biden made on the campaign trail to swap government fleet vehicles with American-made EVs.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American workers,” Biden said during a briefing Monday announcing his “Buy American” executive order.</span></p><div id="nr3CGT" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 550px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; width: 550px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1353809013348171778" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1353809013348171778&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2021%2F1%2F25%2F22249237%2Fbiden-electric-vehicle-government-fleet-ev&siteScreenName=verge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; flex-grow: 1; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 794px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; visibility: visible; width: 550px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">This is great news for US-based EV makers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lordstown, as well as legacy automakers like Ford and General Motors that are in the midst of multibillion-dollar investments in electric vehicle production.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">As of 2019, there were nearly 650,000 vehicles in the federal government’s fleet, </span><a href="https://www.gsa.gov/policy-regulations/policy/vehicle-management-policy/federal-fleet-report" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">according to the General Services Administration</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">. This includes 245,000 civilian vehicles, 173,000 military vehicles, and 225,000 post office vehicles. Those vehicles traveled 4.5 billion miles in 2019.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Biden also promised to create a system that offers rebates or incentives for consumers to replace gas cars with electric vehicles — though there aren’t any more details about that plan at this moment.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The details of both plans are still being worked out, but taken together, they represent a huge win for the EV investments made by automakers over the last several years. Ford has said it will spend $11 billion introducing a raft of new EVs, including the Mustang Mach-E and an electric version of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck. GM has committed to spending $27 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Meanwhile, Tesla’s remarkable stock market rally throughout 2020 has made it the most valuable automaker in the world, and its CEO Elon Musk the richest man on the planet.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Biden’s order may not be a direct win for Tesla, though, which has mostly focused on luxury and performance vehicles. Automakers that could benefit include Ford, which recently unveiled an </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/12/21559954/ford-e-transit-electric-delivery-cargo-van-price-specs-range" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">electric version of its Transit vans</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, and GM, which just </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22225394/gm-brightdrop-electric-delivery-ep1-ev600-ces-2021" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">spun out a new company called BrightDrop</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> focused on electric delivery vehicles.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">One federal agency that could desperately use a new fleet of zero-emissions vehicles is the United States Postal Service. Hundreds of the agency’s mail trucks, which are manufactured by Northrop Grumman, have caught fire over the last several years, </span><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3ezx4/post-office-delivery-trucks-keep-catching-on-fire" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;">Vice</em> recently reported</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">. And the USPS’s deadline for official bids to make its next-generation mail truck was </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/14/21259037/usps-coronavirus-pandemic-next-generation-mail-truck-program-delay" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">delayed last year</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The program to replace the USPS’s current trucks was launched in 2015. But it has dragged on, forcing the postal service to keep its current trucks in service past their expected life span — despite the fact that they were introduced in the late 1980s and early ‘90s and lack features like air conditioning. Two of the original six companies have dropped out.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">One of </span><a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/#" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">Biden’s goals</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> is to create 1 million new jobs in the auto sector and to “position America to be the global leader in the manufacture of electric vehicles and their input materials and parts.” The president has said he will reach that goal by swapping out the government’s fleet for electric vehicles and through a </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/25/20931983/schumer-electric-car-trade-in-gas-discount-proposal-zero-emission" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">“cash-for-clunkers”-style plan</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> to ensure that every vehicle on the road is zero-emission by 2040. And he pledged to spend billions of dollars to add 550,000 EV charging stations in the US.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Biden has also said he supports the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles and would be open to considering new incentives to encourage car buyers to consider making the switch to electric. Former President Donald Trump </span><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2019-03-11-trump-budget-2020-electric-vehicle-tax-credit.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">tried to end the federal EV tax credit</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> in his 2020 budget proposal but was not successful. Also under Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency rolled back Obama-era emissions rules aimed at forcing the auto industry to manufacture less-polluting vehicles.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Biden has already taken steps to roll back </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/31/21201036/trump-epa-obama-fuel-economy-rule-rollback-emissions-consumer-cost" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">Trump’s rollback</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (roll forward?) of the Obama-era emissions rules. On the day of his inauguration, </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-biden-executive-actions-transportati/biden-to-order-agencies-to-revisit-vehicle-tailpipe-emissions-standards-idUSL1N2JV08I" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e2127a; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">Biden ordered</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> federal agencies to revisit fuel efficiency standards as well as rules governing emissions from airplanes and appliance and building energy efficiency standards.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-St6TdWk7Mcg/YBBK_nX4EeI/AAAAAAAAb7Q/yGI5iKleRe0RP_zd-PlWNr5N0uaTY4YCACPcBGAsYHg/s1600/Government%2BFleet%2BEV1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-St6TdWk7Mcg/YBBK_nX4EeI/AAAAAAAAb7Q/yGI5iKleRe0RP_zd-PlWNr5N0uaTY4YCACPcBGAsYHg/w640-h360/Government%2BFleet%2BEV1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-56784194334844713572021-01-22T12:12:00.002-07:002021-01-22T12:12:47.601-07:00AlphaDogfight Should Convince the Air Force into Scaling AI Efforts<p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1A-qZzpNrHo/YAsfoM60O6I/AAAAAAAAb5c/6j2xgZ8yDHkSjhyPzYZ4QzVP4Dt9soUsQCPcBGAsYHg/s1200/Alphadogfight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1200" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1A-qZzpNrHo/YAsfoM60O6I/AAAAAAAAb5c/6j2xgZ8yDHkSjhyPzYZ4QzVP4Dt9soUsQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h384/Alphadogfight.jpg" title="An AI pilot bested an elite U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, illustrating how humans are losing their edge over machines in more tasks." width="640" /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">As <a href="https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2021/01/21/alphadogfight-should-scare-the-air-force-straight-into-scaling-ai-efforts/" target="_blank">reported by C4ISRNET</a>: A few months ago, an AI pilot trounced an elite U.S. Air Force fighter pilot in a simulated dogfight. Sound like the stuff of sci-fi nightmares? If the Air Force continues on its current path, it is.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) concluded the AlphaDogfight </span><a href="https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2020-08-26" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">competition</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> in August, the Air Force experienced just how advanced AI systems have become.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">AlphaDogfight pitted AI companies against one another’s dogfighting algorithms in a tournament-style competition, with the winner earning the chance to face off against a human fighter pilot.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">The final tally: 5-0 in favor of the algorithmic “pilot.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">That result reinforces a trend in AI vs. human contests: Humans are losing their edge over machines in more and more tasks. And the trend is accelerating. It’s a question of </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14702436.2019.1676156" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">when</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">, not if, AI will change everything about the way the Air Force must do business.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">To make that transition, the Air Force must accelerate its efforts to ready itself for the AI revolution. Otherwise, as Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown </span><a href="https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/csaf/CSAF_22/CSAF_22_Strategic_Approach_Accelerate_Change_or_Lose_31_Aug_2020.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">put it</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> when calling for accelerating change: The service will lose.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">Senior leaders such as Brown are saying the right things. The </span><a href="https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">2018 National Defense Strategy</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> pushes for “an unmatched 21st century National Security Innovation Base.” The 2019 USAF </span><a href="https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/5/USAF-AI-Annex-to-DoD-AI-Strategy.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Annex to the DoD AI Strategy</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> and DoD </span><a href="https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/08/2002514180/-1/-1/0/DOD-DATA-STRATEGY.PDF" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Data Strategy</a> <span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">recognize that AI will shape the battlefield of the 21st century, and the Air Force must invest in a data-centric ecosystem to facilitate AI capability. The recent National Defense Authorization Act even </span><a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/policy/policy-resources/summary-ai-provisions-national-defense-authorization-act-2021" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">includes</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> measures to direct focus on AI development in critical areas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">This direction has produced initiatives like the </span><a href="https://aia.mit.edu/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Air Force/MIT AI Accelerator</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">, unit-level </span><a href="https://www.wpafb.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2030940/new-spark-cell-aims-to-inspire-innovation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Spark Cells</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">, the </span><a href="https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/9/11/advanced-battle-management" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">advanced battle management system (ABMS)</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> initiative, and software development organizations such as </span><a href="https://kesselrun.af.mil/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Kessel Run</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> and </span><a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a32466077/space-force-star-trek-kobayashi-maru/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Kobayashi Maru</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">These innovation hubs have incrementally proven out a series of best practices for changing the culture and practices</span><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> </b><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">of the service to prepare for the AI age.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIjyWrUrPCA/YAshx4qLU_I/AAAAAAAAb6A/4QRpPhS__H8N4c4uFm9oerBRdfOKbX4NgCPcBGAsYHg/s720/Alphadogfight1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="720" height="338" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIjyWrUrPCA/YAshx4qLU_I/AAAAAAAAb6A/4QRpPhS__H8N4c4uFm9oerBRdfOKbX4NgCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h338/Alphadogfight1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><br />Bold initiatives such as ABMS and </span><a href="https://www.airforcemag.com/giving-airmen-the-edge-the-promise-of-jadc2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">JADC2</a><span style="font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> proclaim an envisioned service that leverages advanced analytics and decision intelligence algorithms to build situational awareness and the ability to act on it quickly, but how does the Air Force take the next step on its journey toward true AI-enabled capability (and prepare for the myriad business process changes that AI will bring), at a pace that will ensure it isn’t left behind? The answer is multifaceted and complex, but the first step should be to scale validated practices from Air Force innovation units and adopt a few overdue changes. These steps should focus on the areas any organization needs to make change to ready itself for AI: </span><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">people, data and culture.</b><p></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">1. People: Reform talent management for digital skill sets.</b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2020, Kessel Run demonstrated effective ‘digital’ (referring to digital age skill sets critical to AI development like software development and data engineering) talent management by allowing an almost completely remote workforce, </span><a href="https://kesselrun.af.mil/news/KR-Hiring-Practices.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">moving</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to virtual hiring, and finding new ways to foster the skills of its people. These moves allowed the organization to pull from a much larger talent pool.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To scale recruiting success demonstrated in the innovation ecosystem, the Air Force needs to allow remote work wherever feasible and maximize its participation in virtual recruiting events, </span><a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/air-force/2020/01/air-force-wants-bug-bounties-to-tackle-cyber-threats-deep-in-its-supply-chain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">hackathons</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, career fairs and tech conferences to build more bridges to these communities.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To scale success in building organic Air Force talent already in the service, the assignment selection process should (</span><a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a23116594/air-force-coding-programming-language-mike-kanaan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">finally</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">) improve how it tracks, incentivizes and assigns digital talent to appropriate organizations and positions. Tagging skillsets and providing financial compensation will improve retention. The service must also expand continuous learning opportunities outside the professional military education and technical schools.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">2. Data: Set the stage for artificial intelligence by becoming data-centric</b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The service must accelerate its efforts to become more data-centric. The work and advocacy done by Kessel Run, Kobayashi Maru and the Air Force Chief Data Office’s VAULT program embody data-centric efforts. They emphasize data sharing and focus on enforcing healthy data management standards and practices.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/from-mad-hatter-to-torque-kessel-run-makes-software-for-f-22-cv-22/" target="_blank">Kessel Run’s ODIN effort</a>, the suite of applications replacing the F-35 ALIS maintenance system, demonstrates the importance of valuing data. The ALIS system was </span><a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/f-35-alis-open-deficiencies-grow-to-4700-over-two-years/137345.article" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">plagued </a><span style="font-weight: 400;">by insecurities, prone to error, and left much to be desired in the “user-friendly” category. Within a year of standing up a data team, which was empowered to make appropriate decisions about how to gather and utilize data, Kessel Run deployed a replacement suite of applications that strengthen the F-35 data ecosystem by enforcing standards, creating data stores for analytics, and optimizing maintenance schedules. The new system brings vast data improvements, leading to less maintenance time and more efficient scheduling.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The service faces big challenges to scaling data-driven systems across the Air Force, such as the </span><a href="https://www.executivegov.com/2020/10/gen-charles-brown-air-force-faces-data-challenge-as-it-works-on-abms/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">availability and sharing</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of data across silos, and archaic methods used to manage huge data sets. Leaders must require and enforce informed data sharing in every digital system, support good IT infrastructure to enable data movement, hire and support software development capabilities to collect and analyze the data, and demand security to protect it. Integrated and operational AI is a system of systems, requiring much more than just algorithms — the right people, data, infrastructure and tools are needed to establish and maintain it.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">3. Culture: Embrace and espouse an agile digital mindset</b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Air Force innovation ecosystem has </span><a href="https://mwi.usma.edu/software-wins-modern-wars-air-force-learned-kessel-run/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">demonstrated</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the value in challenging the status quo, failing fast and iterating continuously. These components, which collectively comprise an agile mindset, have driven these units’ ability to deliver capability to the war fighter. The Next-Generation Air Defense Program recently</span><a href="https://www.airforcemag.com/article/ropers-ngad-bombshell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;"> reported</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the world that 6th-gen fighters have been developed, simulated and flown on an incredibly condensed schedule, thanks to sophisticated digital engineering and modeling like that </span><a href="https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2358551/roper-joins-first-digital-campaign-virtual-industry-day/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">seen</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in modern Formula One racing design and engineering. These methods simulate real-world conditions with extraordinary fidelity and give designers and engineers the ability to run a huge number of experiments and simulations at an unprecedented pace. A mindset that combines the iterative power of the agile process and the transformational power of digital-first design and evaluation is </span><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/devsecops-vs-dataops-vs-mlops-93b49f0282b8" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">foundational</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to integrating AI algorithms.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To scale this across the Air Force, leaders need to publicly and consistently embrace this agile mindset. This means consistently communicating Brown’s “Accelerate Change or Lose” effort and acquisitions chief Will Roper’s call for disruptive agility and a new digital paradigm for Air Force spending. It means taking a cue from Space Force Chief John Raymond’s </span><a href="https://steveblank.com/2020/11/13/technology-innovation-and-modern-war-class-12-the-space-force-general-john-raymond/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">public</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> push for guardians to help him stand up a lean and agile service. It also means championing success stories like the innovation </span><a href="https://airman.dodlive.mil/2018/10/15/agile-99th/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">efforts</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale, which implemented radically new processes and demonstrated an ability to provide solutions at speed in the recent U-2 </span><a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37131/u-2-spy-plane-got-new-target-recognition-capabilities-in-first-ever-in-flight-software-update" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">mid-flight software update</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/12/16/artoo-take-the-wheel-the-u-2-flew-for-the-first-time-with-an-ai-copilot/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">AI co-pilot </a><span style="font-weight: 400;">demonstrations.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To recognize and reward these efforts, commanders must discover, then insist on metrics that demonstrate solving problems iteratively with digital solutions, and track speed and efficacy of capability delivery.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The service cannot lose this competition. In an era of renewed great power competition, when peer competitors </span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/china-ai-surveillance/614197/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">China </a><span style="font-weight: 400;">and </span><a href="https://futureoflife.org/ai-policy-russia/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;">Russia</a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are clearly prioritizing AI development, and the capabilities that come with it, that could be a fatal mistake.</span></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;">Capt. Jazmin Furtado is an Air Force acquisitions officer, and data science and artificial intelligence leader. She is the current portfolio lead for Wing C2 data at Kessel Run, and liaison to the Air Force and MIT partnership AI Accelerator.</i></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;">Capt. Chris Dylewski is a pilot and member of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, where he leads the ThunderBolt Spark Cell.</i></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;">The views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Air Force, DoD or U.S. Government. The authors would like to thank Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, Douglass Drakeley, Brett Darcey, and George Hellstern for their advice and counsel.</i></b></p><p><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YjANIy-924s/YAshjsnFzxI/AAAAAAAAb58/H452ZUmLByAl8fFi68LmTsq146590aMFQCPcBGAsYHg/s1500/Alphadogfight2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1500" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YjANIy-924s/YAshjsnFzxI/AAAAAAAAb58/H452ZUmLByAl8fFi68LmTsq146590aMFQCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h358/Alphadogfight2.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></div><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, serif, system-ui; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><br /><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><br /></i></b><p></p>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693068016470382881.post-35981709321248909272020-12-16T15:42:00.000-07:002020-12-16T15:42:08.596-07:00AI Just Controlled a Military Plane for the First Time Ever<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Grtb0w-Hj3M/X9qI5ERHM3I/AAAAAAAAbzk/2b-cGIxORsYaFhfztxlMb0FmMkkfHWLAwCPcBGAsYHg/s980/AI%2Bflys%2Ban%2Bairplane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="980" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Grtb0w-Hj3M/X9qI5ERHM3I/AAAAAAAAbzk/2b-cGIxORsYaFhfztxlMb0FmMkkfHWLAwCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h426/AI%2Bflys%2Ban%2Bairplane.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>As <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a34978872/artificial-intelligence-controls-u2-spy-plane-air-force-exclusive/" target="_blank">reported by Popular Mechanics</a>: <em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; outline: 0px;">On December 15, the United States Air Force successfully flew an AI copilot on a U-2 spy plane in California, marking the first time AI has controlled a U.S. military system. In this </em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px;">Popular Mechanics </span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; outline: 0px;">exclusive</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px;">, </span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; outline: 0px;"></em><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; outline: 0px;">Dr. Will Roper</span>, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, reveals how he and his team made history.</em></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">For Star Wars fans, an <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a32347131/x-wing-history/">X-Wing fighter</a> isn’t complete without R2-D2. Whether you need to fire up converters, increase power, or fix a broken stabilizer, that trusty droid, full of lively beeps and squeaks, is the ultimate copilot.<br /><br />Teaming artificial intelligence (AI) with pilots is no longer just a matter for science fiction or blockbuster movies. On Tuesday, December 15, the Air Force successfully flew an AI copilot on a <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a28872861/u-2-plane-history/">U-2 spy plane</a> in California: the first time AI has controlled a U.S. military system.<br /><br />Completing over a million training runs prior, the flight was a small step for the computerized copilot, but it’s a giant leap for “computerkind” in future military operations.<br /><br />The U.S. military has historically struggled developing digital capabilities. It’s hard to believe difficult-to-code computers and hard-to-access data—much less AI—held back the world’s most lethal hardware not so long ago in an Air Force not far, far away.<br /><br />But starting three years ago, the Air Force took its own giant leap toward the digital age. Finally cracking the code on military software, we built the Pentagon’s first commercially-inspired development teams, coding clouds, and even a combat internet that downed a cruise missile at blistering machine speeds. But our recent AI demo is one for military record books and science fiction fans alike.<br /><br />With call sign ARTUµ, we trained µZero—a world-leading computer program that dominates chess, Go, and even video games without prior knowledge of their rules—to operate a U-2 spy plane. Though lacking those lively beeps and squeaks, ARTUµ surpassed its motion picture namesake in one distinctive feature: it was the mission commander, the final decision authority on the human-machine team. And given the high stakes of global AI, surpassing science fiction must become our military norm.<br /><br />Our demo flew a reconnaissance mission during a simulated missile strike at Beale Air Force Base on Tuesday. ARTUµ searched for enemy launchers while our pilot searched for threatening aircraft, both sharing the U-2’s radar. With no pilot override, ARTUµ made final calls on devoting the radar to missile hunting versus self-protection. Luke Skywalker certainly never took such orders from his X-Wing sidekick!<br /><br />The fact ARTUµ was in command was less about any particular mission than how completely our military must embrace AI to maintain the battlefield decision advantage. Unlike Han Solo’s “never-tell-me-the-odds” snub of C-3PO’s asteroid field survival rate (approximately 3,720 to 1), our warfighters need to know the odds in dizzyingly-complex combat scenarios. Teaming with trusted AI across all facets of conflict—even occasionally putting it in charge—could tip those odds in our favor.<br /><br />But to trust AI, software design is key. Like a breaker box for code, the U-2 gave ARTUµ complete radar control while “switching off” access to other subsystems. Had the scenario been navigating an <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a28552286/asteroid-brushes-by-earth/">asteroid</a> field—or more likely field of enemy radars—those “on-off” switches could adjust. The design allows operators to choose what AI won’t do to accept the operational risk of what it will. Creating this software breaker box—instead of Pandora’s—has been an Air Force journey of more than a few parsecs.</span><div class="embed embed-composite" data-id="9046fad4-3149-4c64-92b0-69e6265dddb0" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: 100%; flex-wrap: wrap; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; margin-left: 47.5938px; outline: 0px;"><div class="composite-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: 50%; flex-direction: column; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding-right: 0.9375rem;"><div class="embed-inner crop-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"><div class="embed-image-wrap aspect-ratio-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 236.266px; position: relative;"><picture class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 236.266px; image-rendering: auto; left: 0px; outline: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 330.797px;"><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=768:*" media="(min-width: 61.25rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=768:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=980:*" media="(min-width: 48rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=980:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=640:*" media="(min-width: 30rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=640:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><img alt="dr jeannine abira, u 2 federal labratory director of advanced mathamatics and algorithim development left and dr jesse angle, u 2 federal laboratory technical director, work on a computer sep 21, 2020 at beale air force base, california the u 2 federal laboratory is a 15 usc compliant organization that promotes “edge development” a concept to develop new software integration on operational systems" class="lazyimage lazyloaded" data-src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=480:*" height="202" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/200921-f-wf370-1027-1608124477.jpeg?resize=480:*" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; image-rendering: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; transition: opacity 0.4s linear 0s; width: 330.797px;" title="" width="294" /></picture></div></div><div class="embed-image-info" style="border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; outline: 0px;">Dr. Jeannine Abira, U-2 Federal Labratory Director of Advanced Mathamatics and Algorithim Development (left) and Dr. Jesse Angle, U-2 Federal Laboratory Technical Director (right), work on a computer Sep. 21, 2020 at Beale Air Force Base, California. The U-2 Federal Laboratory is a 15 U.S.C. compliant organization that promotes “edge development” a concept to develop new software integration on operational systems.</figcaption><div class="image-credit embed-image-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0.3125rem; outline: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="image-photo-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">A1C LUIS A.RUIZ-VAZQUEZ</span></div></div></div><div class="composite-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: 50%; flex-direction: column; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding-right: 0.9375rem;"><div class="embed-inner crop-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"><div class="embed-image-wrap aspect-ratio-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 220.469px; position: relative;"><picture class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 220.469px; image-rendering: auto; left: 0px; outline: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 330.797px;"><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=768:*" media="(min-width: 61.25rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=768:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=980:*" media="(min-width: 48rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=980:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=640:*" media="(min-width: 30rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=640:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><img alt="us air force gen mark kelly, right, commander of air combat command, and us air force command chief master sgt david wade, air combat command, receive a brief from u 2 federal laboratory staff about the organization’s stand up and recent projects, dec 4, 2020, at beale air force base, california" class="lazyimage lazyloaded" data-src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=480:*" height="203" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201204-f-if848-0013-1608124561.jpg?resize=480:*" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; image-rendering: auto; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; transition: opacity 0.4s linear 0s; width: 330.797px;" title="" width="328" /></picture></div></div><div class="embed-image-info" style="border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; outline: 0px;">U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, right, commander of Air Combat Command, and U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. David Wade, Air Combat Command, receive a brief from U-2 Federal Laboratory staff about the organization’s stand-up and recent projects, Dec. 4, 2020, at Beale Air Force Base, California.</figcaption><div class="image-credit embed-image-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0.3125rem; outline: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="image-photo-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. COLVILLE MCFEE</span></div></div></div></div><p><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; outline: 0px;"></em></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The journey began early in 2018, when I approved a hoodie-wearing Air Force team (fittingly named Kessel Run for a Star Wars smuggling route) to “smuggle” commercial DevSecOps software practices into our Air Operations Center. By merging development, security, and operations using modern information technology, DevSecOps produced higher-quality code faster and more continuously. Sounds perfect for a digitally-challenged Pentagon, right?</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You’d think. Kessel Run bent all the rules and definitely “shot first” at the Pentagon’s fixation on five-year development plans with crippling baselines. As Han Solo advocated, keeping momentum sometimes required a good blaster at our side. Thankfully, Kessel Run’s results were game-changing, outpacing previous programs and inspiring a generation of Air Force and Space Force DevSecOps teams, including our U-2 FedLab.</span><div class="embed embed-pullquote embed-pullquote-align-center" data-align="center" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Placard W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.1875rem; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; margin-left: 47.5938px; margin-right: 0px; outline: 0px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; width: auto;"><div class="embed-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"><blockquote class="pullquote" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p aria-level="2" role="heading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0.9rem 1rem 1rem;">"GIVEN THE HIGH STAKES OF GLOBAL AI, SURPASSING SCIENCE FICTION MUST BECOME OUR MILITARY NORM."</p></blockquote></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But coding effectively is only one element of trusted AI design. A year later, I directed a Service-wide adoption of coding clouds using landmark technologies containerization and Kubernetes. Containers virtualize and isolate everything code needs to run for Kubernetes then to orchestrate, selectively powering disparate software like a dynamic-but-secure breaker box.</span></p><div><div class="embed embed-image embed-image-center embed-image-medium" data-align="center" data-size="medium" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; margin-left: 47.5938px; margin-right: auto; outline: 0px; text-align: center; width: 691.578px;"><div class="embed-inner crop-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; outline: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="embed-image-wrap aspect-ratio-original" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 461.141px; position: relative;"><picture class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 461.141px; image-rendering: auto; left: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 691.578px;"><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=768:*" media="(min-width: 61.25rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=768:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=980:*" media="(min-width: 48rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=980:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><source data-srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=640:*" media="(min-width: 30rem)" srcset="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=640:*" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"></source><img alt="us air force maj “vudu”, u 2 dragon lady pilot for the 9th reconnaissance wing, enters the cockpit while a 9th physiological support airman assists him at beale air force, california, dec 15, 2020" class="lazyimage lazyloaded" data-src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=480:*" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1010-1608124822.jpg?resize=480:*" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; image-rendering: auto; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0.0625rem; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; transition: opacity 0.4s linear 0s; width: 691.578px;" title="" /></picture></div></div><div class="embed-image-info" style="border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; outline: 0px; text-align: left;">U.S. Air Force Maj. “Vudu”, U-2 Dragon Lady pilot for the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, enters the cockpit while a 9th Physiological Support Airman assists him at Beale Air Force, California, Dec. 15, 2020.</figcaption><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; outline: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></figcaption></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Running ARTUµ containers in our FedLab cloud also proved they would run identically on the U-2—no lengthy safety or interference checks required! This is how we get evolving software—especially AI—out of our clouds and safely onto planes flying through them.<br /><br />Yet this trusted design didn’t create ARTUµ’s copilot abilities. You have to train for that. Like a digital Yoda, our small-but-mighty U-2 FedLab trained µZero’s gaming algorithms to operate a radar—reconstructing them to learn the good side of reconnaissance (enemies found) from the dark side (U-2s lost)—all while interacting with a pilot. Running over a million training simulations at their “digital Dagobah,” they had ARTUµ mission-ready in just over a month.<br /><br />So my recent U-2 AI pathfinder—and military AI more generally—was really a three-year journey to becoming a software-savvy Air Force. But why not skip computerized copilots and wingmen and create a purely autonomous Force? After all, a <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a33765952/ai-vs-human-fighter-pilot-simulated-dogfight-results/">computer won DARPA’s recent dogfight</a>, and we’re already developing autonomous mini-fighters in our Skyborg program.<br /><br />That autonomous future will happen eventually. But today’s AI can be easily fooled by adversary tactics, precisely what future warfare will throw at it.</span><br /><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="body-text" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; outline: 0px; text-align: left;"><img alt="us air force maj “vudu”, u 2 dragon lady pilot for the 9th reconnaissance wing, prepares to taxi after returning from a training sortie at beale air force, california, dec 15, 2020" class="lazyimage lazyloaded" data-src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1172-1608125200.jpg?resize=480:*" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/201215-f-wf370-1172-1608125200.jpg?resize=480:*" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; image-rendering: auto; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0.0625rem; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; text-align: center; transition: opacity 0.4s linear 0s; width: 691.578px;" title="" /></p><div class="embed embed-image embed-image-center embed-image-medium" data-align="center" data-size="medium" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; margin-left: 47.5938px; margin-right: auto; outline: 0px; text-align: center; width: 691.578px;"><div class="embed-image-info" style="border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.625rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; outline: 0px; text-align: left;">U.S. Air Force Maj. “Vudu”, U-2 Dragon Lady pilot for the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, prepares to taxi after returning from a training sortie at Beale Air Force, California, Dec. 15, 2020.</figcaption><div class="image-credit embed-image-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f; font-family: "Freight Sans Pro W01", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0.3125rem; outline: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="image-photo-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">A1C LUIS A.RUIZ-VAZQUEZ</span></div></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Like <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a34337260/game-and-toy-awards-2020/">board or video games</a>, human pilots could only try outperforming DARPA’s AI while obeying the rules of the dogfighting simulation, rules the AI had algorithmically learned and mastered. The loss is a wakeup call for new digital trickery to outfox machine learning principles themselves. Even R2-D2 confused computer terminals with harmful power sockets!<br /><br />As we complete our first generation of AI, we must also work on algorithmic stealth and countermeasures to defeat it. Though likely as invisible to human pilots as radar beams and jammer strobes, they’ll need similar instincts for them—as well as how to fly with and against first-generation AI—as we invent the next. Algorithmic warfare has begun.<br /><br />Now if only we could master those hyperdrives, too.</span></div></div>Thomas Groundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10984375996956026290noreply@blogger.com0