License Plates for Drones Could Help Make Operators Accountable

As reported by MIT Technology Review: So far this year commercial pilots in the U.S. have reported 650 sightings of drones near their aircraft to the Federal Aviation Administration. In only a tiny fraction of those reports was the operator identified—and complaints of drones causing danger or invading privacy will surely grow as the small aircraft get cheaper and more capable.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are now testing a kind of license plate for drones they think could help make drone operators more accountable. The project, called Lightcense, involves a rectangular array of bright, multicolored LEDs attached to the underside of a craft. The LEDs blink a unique pattern that could be looked up in a database by law enforcement to identify a drone’s owner.

The LED license plate is designed to be decoded by a smartphone app, specialized camera equipment in the hands of law enforcement, or even memorized by someone who spies a drone that’s up to no good. That would provide an urgently needed public accountability mechanism lacking today, says Aislan Foina, director of the Cal Unmanned Aviation Research Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

The FAA is working to finalize rules for people and companies using drones commercially. Many U.S companies, including Amazon and Google, are making plans for services such as package delivery by drone, or drones for surveillance or crop inspection (see “10 Breakthrough Technologies 2014: Agricultural Drones”), but it is still unclear how safety and privacy will be enforced when flocks of drones surround us.

NASA is working on systems to track and manage drone air traffic (see “Air Traffic Control for Drones”). Some manufacturers program their craft with “no fly” zones, for example over central Washington, D.C. Others argue commercial drones should adopt radio locator beacons like those on conventional aircraft.

Foina says a license plate model would be more appropriate for the way drones are set to impinge on public space. “If a drone is bothering people, they’re going to call the police, not the Air Force or FAA,” he says. A visual tag also works better than a radio beacon in a situation where multiple drones are in the same area, Foina adds.

The Berkeley researchers first tested their idea by modifying a drone made by the manufacturer 3D Robotics with extra electronics and high-brightness LEDs (see image). In daylight, the license plate’s pattern could be identified by the naked eye from about 100 meters away, and at 150 meters using a custom app on a smartphone augmented with a cheap zoom lens.

The researchers are now working on a prototype of a special camera that could be used by police to read drone license plates. They are also finishing an improved license plate design, in the form of a tough box roughly the size and shape of a smartphone that packages together an LED license plate with a standard aircraft location beacon and a battery. This is intended as a standardized component that could be attached to any drone, and would keep operating even if it crashed. Foina says he has had talks with 3D Robotics about how it might modify its drone’s electronics to support the design, but the company has not committed to doing so.

Todd Humphreys, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, Austin, says the idea could help address what he calls the “urgent problem of tracking down the operators of misbehaving drones.” LED plates might be simple enough that drone manufacturers would accept them without fear of overburdening their customers, he says.

However, it would be relatively easy to tape over your license plate, remove the device, or build a drone without one, Humphreys notes. He thinks building always-on location beacon technology into the radio components used in the drone industry could be a more reliable way of ensuring that most drones, and their operators, are traceable.

Foina counters that the way car license plates work shows that it doesn’t necessarily matter if his LED plates are easily disabled. “If a drone’s not blinking you would know it’s not coӧperating with the system, and that’s suspicious,” he says.

Samsung Looks to Join the Satellite Internet Space Race

As reported by Wired: SAMSUNG IS THE latest company eyeing satellites as the best way to expand the reach of the internet to the billions of people without access. In a paper published this week, Farooq Khan, head of Samsung Research America, outlines an idea for using thousands of small low earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide high-speed internet all over the planet.

Traditional satellite internet providers use geostationary satellites positioned much further from the earth’s surface to provide access. The problem is that these services tend to be slow, expensive and have high latency. By using a large number of smaller and cheaper satellites floating closer to the planet, Khan and company hope to speed connections up significantly while also cutting costs.

Some analysts are skeptical that delivering internet by satellite can be profitable.

So far it’s just a research paper, but Samsung is far from alone in exploring this idea. A company called OneWeb has received funding from , as well as backing from Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Space X is working on a similar scheme as well, complete with backing from Google.

Some analysts are skeptical that delivering internet by satellite can be profitable without requiring monthly fees that few in the developing world will be able to afford. Wireless spectrum availability is another ongoing issue for new satellite providers.  Facebook and Google have both decided to forgo direct development of satellite based technology for interfacing to the Internet.

But Khan’s paper proposes that a new technology that uses the extremely high-frequencies known as the millimeter wave spectrum could overcome some of these limitations and reduce the cost. Telecommunications companies, including Samsung, are already considering millimeter wave technologies as the basis for 5G, the replacement for the modern 4G wireless standard. Khan writes that a 5G-based standard could simplify internet-by-satellite and reduce its cost.

Tesla Will Be a Leader in Self-Driving Technology: Morgan Stanley

As reported by MarketWatch: Telsa Motors Inc. shares surged about 5% in premarket trade Monday, after Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the shares by 66% to $465 from $280 and said the company is uniquely positioned to dominate in the emerging world of autonomous technology and driving.

The business model of human-driven, privately owned internal-combustion vehicles is fundamentally changing, analysts wrote in a note.

“Given the pace of technological development both within Tesla and at rival technology and mobility companies, we would be surprised if Tesla did not share formalized business plans on shared mobility within the next 12 to 18 months,” they wrote.

That could be followed by a commercial launch some time after the launch of the Model 3, and could form the basis for a Tesla Mobility 1.0 urban transport PODS (Position on Demand Service) in 2018, said the note.

“We view this business opportunity as potentially additive to Tesla’s existing model of selling human-driven cars to private owners and see potential for this model to conceivably more than triple the company’s potential revenues by 2029,” said the note. “That is, selling miles in addition to selling cars.”

Tesla’s current fleet of cars are electric, connected and able to “learn” through over-the-air updates at any time, placing the company far ahead of the established car makers and others attempting to develop self-driving technology.

In addition, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says his company would like to buy 500,000 self-driving Tesla cars by 2020 if Tesla can produce them.

The company is building unparalleled infrastructure for charging and other services, and can be quickly adjusted to a shared mobility model. The company is introducing sensor and software capabilities in the Model X next month that could set the standard for self-driving technology.

“These are early days, but it is the view of the Morgan Stanley global auto team that Tesla may be best positioned to advance the state of the art in shared autonomy,” said the note.

The price target of $465 represents the midpoint of Morgan Stanley’s new base of $319 and bull case $611 valuation, reflecting its expectation that a mobility app will be announced in the next 12 to 18 months. The target is about 81% above Tesla's current trading level.

Tesla shares have gained 9.3% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 is up 1.2%.

First Digital Map of Earth's Ocean Floor

As reported by EarthSky.org: Scientists have created a digital map of the global seafloor’s geology. It’s the first time the composition of our planet’s seafloor has been mapped in 40 years; the most recent map was hand drawn in the 1970s.

Published in the latest edition of Geology, the map will help scientists better understand how our oceans have responded, and will respond, to environmental change. It also reveals the deep ocean basins to be much more complex than previously thought. Adriana Dutkiewicz from the University of Sydney is the lead researcher. She said:

In order to understand environmental change in the oceans we need to better understand what is preserved in the geological record in the seabed.

The deep ocean floor is a graveyard with much of it made up of the remains of microscopic sea creatures called phytoplankton, which thrive in sunlit surface waters. The composition of these remains can help decipher how oceans have responded in the past to climate change.

A special group of phytoplankton called diatoms produce about a quarter of the oxygen we breathe and make a bigger contribution to fighting global warming than most plants on land. Their dead remains sink to the bottom of the ocean, locking away their carbon.

The new seafloor geology map demonstrates that diatom accumulations on the seafloor are nearly entirely independent of diatom blooms in surface waters in the Southern Ocean. Professor Dietmar Muller from the University of Sydney, is a study co-author. Muller said:

This disconnect demonstrates that we understand the carbon source, but not the sink.

Some of the most significant changes to the seafloor map are in the oceans surrounding Australia. Dutkiewicz said:

The old map suggests much of the Southern Ocean around Australia is mainly covered by clay blown off the continent, whereas our map shows this area is actually a complex patchwork of microfossil remains. Life in the Southern Ocean is much richer than previously thought.

The scientists analyzed and categorized around 15,000 seafloor samples – taken over half a century on research cruise ships to generate the data for the map. They teamed with the National ICT Australia (NICTA) big data experts to find the best way to use algorithms to turn this multitude of point observations into a continuous digital map. Simon O’Callaghan from NICTA is a study co-author. He said:

Recent images of Pluto’s icy plains are spectacular, but the process of unveiling the hidden geological secrets of the abyssal plains of our own planet was equally full of surprises!

The Underwater Cemetery Where Spaceships Go to Die

As reported by Mental Floss: For centuries, burial at sea has been a common practice across cultural lines. It can be done out of necessity, for religious reasons, or because humans feel that the best way to get rid of something is by dumping it in the ocean. And this isn’t just true for organic matter; we’ve been known to do it with 143-ton hunks of space junk as well.

In the South Pacific, 2500 miles off the New Zealand coast, lies a patch of sea that is home to decades worth of space history. The South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area, playfully known as the "Spacecraft Cemetery,” has become a favorite place for space programs to crash land their defunct satellites. Thousands of miles of open ocean separate the spot from any islands or human life. Its neighbor is the lonely Point Nemo—named for the Jules Verne character—that's farther from land than any other spot on Earth. 

There are 161 spacecrafts that have made this stretch of sea their final resting place. Among them are several resupply vehicles that serviced the International Space Station, four of Japan’s HTV cargo crafts, and Russia’s massive Mir space station. You may suspect the area’s ocean floor to look like an otherworldly Air & Space museum, but the spacecraft there are all but unrecognizable. The majority of a spacecraft's mass will burn up during reentry, meaning that all that’s left when it hits the ocean are some charred pieces of scrap metal.

In addition to the Spacecraft Cemetery, there’s an alternate destination for unwanted vehicles that’s even further removed from life on earth. By blasting a satellite away from the planet and into a more remote orbit, it becomes part of what’s called a “graveyard orbit.” This is often preferable as it requires less fuel than bringing it back to earth, but it's a temporary solution that adds to a growing problem. 

The space junk orbiting Earth accumulates with each passing year. And while dumping spacecraft in the ocean may not seem environmentally friendly, the atmosphere significantly reduces the junk matter before it ever reaches the ocean. So may the Spacecraft Cemetery live on, both in reality and in our cosmic nightmares.

The Future of Motorsports Sounds like a $20 RC Car

As reported by The Verge: Let's get this out the way first: Formula E is fantastic. The cars look good, the drama is still there, and the organizers aren't afraid to try crazy new concepts (like giving cars speed boosts based on fans' votes). However, we're still not sold on the sound of the vehicle. The high-pitched whine you get from most powerful EVs certainly strikes a futuristic note, but sometimes the engines sound a little off-key or even just plain weedy.

The video below demonstrates this pretty well, showing a compilation of manufacturers' cars ready for the second season of Formula E. Unlike the first season, this time teams have been allowed to customize their powertrains — fiddling with components like the motor, inverter, and gearboxes. This makes for a more varied competition, but also gives each vehicle a unique sound and, listening to the video above, it's clear that some are a little easier on the ear than others. Let's hope that in the future, teams pay a little attention to the noises they can achieve, as well as the speed.

NASA Conducts Sixth SLS RS-25 Static Rocket Test

As reported by NASA Spaceflight: NASA has conducted another static fire test firing of RS-25 engine number 0525 on Thursday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, continuing development and adaptation of the engine for use with the Space Launch System (SLS). The test was number six in the opening series of seven static fires tasked with gathering development and certification data.

RS-25 Test Six:

Engine number 0525, one of two development engines retained from the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) was fired from the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis in what was the penultimate test of the current series of objectives.

The test series is evaluating the performance of a new engine controller – a unit that controls engine valve settings to produce efficient combustion, and communicates with the vehicle to accept throttle settings and send sensor data.

The controllers on the RS-25Ds used during the Shuttle Program proved to be highly reliable. However, the new controller is utilizing updated hardware and software configured to operate with the new SLS avionics architecture.

“The objectives for this seven-test series have been – first of all – to get development and certification data for our new (engine) controller and software – (to) see how the new controller and software runs with the engine,” noted Steve Wofford, manager of the SLS Liquid Engines Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, in an interview with NASASpaceflight.com before the test.

“(We want to) get calibration data on that new controller to see if it controls the valves to the level of precision and interfaces with the sensors in the closed-loop control system the way we want it to – (to) put it through its paces.”

The Stennis team are also certifying the engine to the new SLS propellant inlet conditions “for both start and run”, and to anchor the analytical models in terms of loads and engine performance and thermal environment for the new SLS vehicle.

“We have analytical models and we have test data and this will help sync up those empirical and analytical models,” added Mr. Wofford.

The test objectives even include changes to the insulation used on the engine nozzle, as they prepare for life as a team of four on the aft of the SLS, compared to the three engines used on the Shuttle orbiters.

“We have some new ablative insulation that we’re putting on the nozzle to protect it from the different heating environment on SLS, so we’re getting durability data on how well it sticks and make sure it’s got the proper adhesion and will do its job in the environment,” Mr. Wofford noted.

“Those overall objectives get decomposed into individual test objectives for test-to-test purposes.”

One of the objectives for Thursday’s test is to see how test engine 0525 operates when subjected to a more extreme start condition than NASA would expect to see in an actual flight, exploring the engine “start box.”

Mr. Wofford said that NASA tests the engines on the ground to a larger box than they would expect to see during flight, providing operational margin.“A start box is basically a plot of what the engine can handle in terms of temperature versus pressure for the inlet conditions,” Mr. Wofford added. “So the propellant inlet conditions have to be inside that box before you can start the engine.”

“That margin is a big part of how we manage risk on the engines. If we throw bigger challenges to it in the ground (testing) than we ever expect to see in flight, then we know we can handle what we expect to see in flight.”

For test six, engineers intentionally introduced propellant inlet conditions to hit one of the corners of the start box – the “hot-fast start” on the LOX (liquid oxygen) side.

“That means the high-pressure oxidizer pump spools up faster than it normally would if you were in the center of the box,” Mr. Wofford explained. “We’re going to see what the engine does under those circumstances. The models show that it will be just fine, but we test it to make sure and to anchor those models.”

Other objectives for the test included testing a liquid hydrogen chill-cycle that is shorter for SLS than it was for Shuttle and for throttling the engine up to 109 percent shortly after it reaches main-stage at the start of the test. The plan is for the engine to fire for 535 seconds.

Ignition occurred on schedule at 4 pm local time (Central Daylight Time) or 2100 GMT on Thursday, but the test team were on station beginning many hours before that.

“We’re starting at 6 am,” Ronald Rigney, RS-25 project manager at Stennis explained before the test. “We’re actually starting some of the count early because (engine start) is set at a specific time, but we’re also starting at that time because of some of the chill requirements we have for this test.

“We’ll be starting with sensor setups at 6 am and then we’ll go through a standard set of procedures that we would for any test to make sure that our calibrations for our sensors are all set properly.”

In providing an overview of some of the pre-test timeline, the complexity of the path to ignition was explained by Mr. Rigney.

“We run (the engine test) off of facility liquid oxygen run tanks and fuel (liquid hydrogen) tanks, but we also have interconnected piping that allows us to back-feed those systems during a hot-fire from barge tanks.

“Early in the morning we top our run tanks off (to) get ourselves to a start level. (We will) prepare the engine for receiving its proper purges. Those will happen before noon and then we’ll go into LOX chilldown. (Liquid hydrogen) fuel (chilldown) will happen around one o’clock.

“Then we’ll be going through several different chill-type flow-rate conditions to demonstrate different environments for the folks with the vehicle to use for data to plan for their eventual chill procedures they will use. We’ll be going through that from about one o’clock all the way up to four (o’clock).”

Mr. Rigney noted that the test team doesn’t normally target a specific time of ignition, but some of the objectives for this test require more specific timing.

“We don’t normally operate on timed countdowns,” he explained, “we have a lot of freedom of time normally, so we’re working off of events primarily.

“For this test though, our chilldown procedure needs to hit as short of a duration as we can – close to the 90-minute mark – which is causing us to be more time-oriented. (That) happens to line up with somewhere around 4 o’clock.”

Mr. Rigney also explained that the shorter chilldown time requires a lot of choreography.

“Just hitting these timelines that we have to deal with.

“We’ve had to have our test team sit down and go through practice sessions to see if an individual could actually (make commands so) a valve opens and closes within so many seconds and the acceptance of that activity and the proper conditions can be conveyed to the next individual that has to make the next step occur within a limited time-frame.”

Mr. Rigney added that they might have forty or fifty steps that have be executed in a fifteen-minute time-frame where the test team may only have a total of sixty seconds of play to work with.

“There’s been a lot of practice…and debate over the last five tests preparing for this day.”

These procedures will be automated on the flight vehicle, but as Rigney said, “we’re having to demonstrate what they will eventually automate.”

Should all go to plan with the post firing review, the final test in this series will take place on August 27.