Given the amount of debris a single ASAT weapon can create, as this illustration of last year’s Chinese ASAT test shows,
imagine the debris created by the deliberate use of ASATs. (credit: CelesTrak)
As space technology spreads, the incentives for small and medium-sized states to seek space warfare capability increases. A dictator who does not want to end the way Saddam Hussein did may seek way to hurt US warfighting capability in such a way as to impose major costs and casualties on the US early on. The destruction of a major US satellite would be both a substantive and a symbolic victory over the US. Hitting a number of satellites would increase the effect.
Such an attack would result in a major increase in the amount of debris orbiting the Earth. This would be the equivalent of a “scorched earth” policy if enough deadly debris were created. One possibility that has not been publicly examined might be to build highly- or ultra-destructive ASAT weapons that would literally pulverize the target and leave nothing behind but bits of dust. Even small particles can do some damage, but paint flakes like those that sometimes hit space shuttles have not managed to destroy an orbiter.
A £4.6 million project to create swarms of hundreds of autonomous, Transformer-style robots has been launched. Scientists aim to create a prototype team of self-organising, shape-changing mini robots that work as a team by 2013. The self-healing robots will be able to dock with each other, share energy and co-operate to maximise their abilities to achieve different tasks.
Now, mechanical computers are back. Teams of scientists across the U.S. are building new versions, though they’re a bit smaller. In fact, the moving parts in these “nanomechanical” computers may eventually be smaller than the smallest silicon transistors.
The research is being funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which hopes to develop computers that can survive in hot spots where conventional semiconductors would fry, such as inside weapons. Researchers say that the tiny mechanical computers will be far more energy-efficient than traditional semiconductors, will produce less heat and will withstand big voltage spikes that can burn out ordinary processors.
For years, nanotechnology has held out the hope of molecular-scale contraptions that can manufacture custom-made drugs or revolutionize the way computer chips work.
Now researchers in Japan say they have taken a big step toward that nano goal by creating the first molecular machine that can do parallel processing.
David Baker and his colleagues at the University of Washington focused on a reaction that would break certain bonds between carbon atoms. The ability to design enzymes that can break and make carbon-carbon bonds could potentially enable scientists to break down environmental toxins, manufacture drugs, and create new fuels.
The Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) will soon be awarding a contract to develop an unmanned aircraft called the Vulture that’s capable of flying for five years at a time without stopping, according to the aviation magazine Flight. Essentially, the Vulture is a satellite released into the atmosphere and not into space. But unlike satellites, the Vulture will have to maintain enough power to overcome the Earth’s gravitation pull.
Specifications for the Vulture include the ability to remain in flight for over five years at a time, while performing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication missions. It must also be capable of carrying a 1,000-pound payload and withstand the heavy winds that occur at 60,000 to 90,000 feet - the altitude the Vulture is expected to remain in.
IF civilisation is wiped out on Earth, salvation may come from space. Plans are being drawn up for a “Doomsday ark” on the moon containing the essentials of life and civilisation, to be activated in the event of earth being devastated by a giant asteroid or nuclear war.
Construction of a lunar information bank, discussed at a conference in Strasbourg last month, would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race.
A basic version of the ark would contain hard discs holding information such as DNA sequences and instructions for metal smelting or planting crops. It would be buried in a vault just under the lunar surface and transmitters would send the data to heavily protected receivers on earth. If no receivers survived, the ark would continue transmitting the information until new ones could be built.
The vault could later be extended to include natural material including microbes, animal embryos and plant seeds and even cultural relics such as surplus items from museum stores.
As a first step to discovering whether living organisms could survive, European Space Agency scientists are hoping to experiment with growing tulips on the moon within the next decade.
According to Bernard Foing, chief scientist at the agency’s research department, the first flowers - tulips or arabidopsis, a plant widely used in research - could be grown in 2012 or 2015.
“Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah’s ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere,” said Foing.
Tulips are ideal because they can be frozen, transported long distances and grown with little nourishment. Combined with algae, an enclosed artificial atmosphere and chemically enhanced lunar soil, they could form the basis of an ecosystem.
Read the entire article at Times Online. See also “‘Lunar Ark’ Proposed in Case of Deadly Impact on Earth” on National Geographic.
Flies have evolved complex mechanisms to regulate their flight, including performing intricate flapping and twisting wing movements, which the robotic fly does 120 times a second. A clamp holds the robot in place to keep it from escaping the camera’s lens. Photos: Robert Wood
Insects are capable of executing stunning aerial feats, including flying upside down, hovering and landing on walls and ceilings. Perhaps for this reason alone, they have inspired a whole suite of flying machines that share key properties with their arthropod forebears. But these robotic fliers are just beginning to conquer flight on the scale of insects. In March 2007, Robert Wood’s microrobotic fly proved it could generate enough thrust to lift off the ground on its own, becoming the first insect-size robot to fly.
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