Lifeboat Foundation

TOWARDS a METAMATERIALLY-BASED ANALOGUE SENSOR FOR TELESCOPE EYEPIECES jeremy batterson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQWmWkbzkw.

(NB: Those familiar with photography or telescopy can skip over the “elements of a system,” since they will already know this.)

Continue reading “Navy engineer devises new way to enhance night vision for ground forces” »

Free conference covering the upcoming MOON ELEVATOR project: 9–11 March. Bringing together government, military, private industry, academia and others, this three day event is sure to be an eye opener on where we are and where we are going in the coming 5–10 years. Don’t miss out! Get your tickets free today.

- Gravitational Elevators (Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure)

- Centripetal Elevators (Space Elevators from Earth).

Continue reading “Elevators, Space Edition” »

Have you ever heard of “Allostatic Load” and “Operator Syndrome?”

I stumbled across the work of Christopher Frueh while doing some research on physiological, psychological and hormonal stress mitigation. Frueh, along with his team of researchers, psychologists and former SOF operators, has been exploring the human mind, defining PTSD and outlining Special Operator’s Syndrome. This is one of the only programs in the country specifically designed to help those suffering from this condition.

“Allostatic load” is the cost on your body of chronic stress and physical demands of a career with the military special forces, according to Science Direct. The military recipe for “burning the candle at both ends” includes high intensity physical fitness training, the high stress of operations and being away from home, the trauma of witnessing death, war or injury. Add in the inability to sleep or eat well, and the operator limits the two main recovery responses, which leads to chronic stress. This adds up to Allostatic Overload.

The system engaged when a pilot was just 2600 feet above ground level.

Hungry fungus recruits bacteria and their viruses to snag prey.

The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded SpaceX an $8.5 million contract to investigate manufacturing techniques for heat shields that protect hypersonic vehicles in flight.

WASHINGTON — The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded SpaceX an $8.5 million contract to investigate advanced materials and manufacturing techniques for heat shields that protect hypersonic vehicles in flight.

Heat protection is a critical technology to shield hypersonic vehicles from the intense heat experienced when flying at more than five times the speed of sound.

Continue reading “SpaceX wins Air Force manufacturing research contract for hypersonic vehicle thermal shields” »

The Defense Department is hungry for small drones that will track objects and fly into buildings, combat zones and other dangerous areas with little help from remote pilots. Self-piloting drones will become a key part of fighting and other military activities in the years to come, said Mike Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit, a Pentagon organization that aims to facilitate cooperation between the military and the tech industry.

While much has been made of tech’s unwillingness to work with the Pentagon, start-ups are still plumbing the industry’s decades-long ties to the military.

The unit has yet to actually send power directly back to Earth, but that technology has already been proven. If the project develops into huge kilometers-wide space solar antennae, it could beam microwaves that would then be converted into fuel-free electricity to any part of the planet at a moment’s notice.

Scientists working for the Pentagon have successfully tested a solar panel the size of a pizza box in space, designed as a prototype for a future system to send electricity from space back to any point on Earth.

Things are getting pretty heated in the South China Sea.

The United States and China are engaged in the first military back-and-forth of the new year, sending many ships and aircraft into the South China Sea over the past few days.

This latest round kicked off with the return of an American carrier battle group to the region, followed by an unprecedented flight of eight Chinese bombers into nearby Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). Both sides piled on more fighters, surveillance aircraft, and bombers, making this dance-off a considerable escalation over previous years.

Continue reading “The U.S. and China Are Annoying Each Other With a Ton of Warplanes” »