HOUSTON — The Moon, nudged aside by U.S. policymakers in favor of a near-Earth asteroid as the next destination for human explorers, remains a focus for internationally sponsored missions and commercial entrepreneurs drawn to a deeper understanding of the celestial neighborhood as well as the prospect of profits from resources mined from the lunar surface. However, money from investors to nurture the latter, and politics to enable the former, remain significant near-term obstacles.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is looking for a contractor to develop an advanced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), one that need not have the experience, expertise or infrastructure to design, build and test such a beast. Darpa’s Future Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG) program aims to emulate the information technology industry by using “crowdsourcing” to design an infantry vehicle and microchip-manufacture-inspired programmable foundries to build the vehicle.
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LONDON — The Czech Republic is examining what infrared sensor it should put on its Gripen fighters to improve visual identification. Several systems are being looked at, including the Litening targeting pod, says Maj. Martin Pelda, flight safety officer for the Czech air force’s 21st air base and a Gripen pilot. The Czech air force uses the Gripen only for air-to-air roles. Still uncertain is when a type selection may be made.
A propulsion system glitch plaguing an ambitious Russian Mars sample-return mission has left the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft circling in low Earth orbit. Launched Nov. 9 atop a Russian Zenit-2SB from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Phobos-Grunt was successfully delivered to a parking orbit from which its onboard engines were expected to raise it to a hyperbolic escape orbit. Following separation from the rocket, initial communications with the spacecraft indicated Phobos-Grunt was operating normally.
MESSENGER EXTENDED: NASA’s Messenger mission to Mercury has received a one-year mission extension, the agency announced via social media. The probe, managed by the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, has been producing continuous global maps of Mercury since April of this year. Messenger is the first spacecraft ever to orbit the closest planet to the Sun. Its name is short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging.
LONDON — The first two U.S. Air Force F-22s upgraded to Increment 3.1 have been delivered to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, kicking off a retrofit program running through 2016 to enhance the stealth fighter’s combat capability. The main features of the hardware and software modification are the ability to drop eight Small-Diameter Bombs, take synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and provide precision-location and electronic-attack capabilities.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — It is an old maxim that the best way to fight a submarine is with another submarine, but the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter has U.S. Navy officials rethinking their antisubmarine warfare (ASW) strategies. “The MH-60R shifts the advantage from the submarine to the helicopter,” says Robert Kimble, the Navy H-60 deputy program manager. What makes the upgraded Seahawk effective against submarines, he says, is its enhanced sonar — the AN/AQS-22 airborne low-frequency sonar, which serves as its primary undersea warfare sensor.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — As Lockheed Martin builds more Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy, the contractor team will likely be able to produce the ships more efficiently thanks to improvements made at the Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard, according to Joe North, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Ship Systems business.
BRUSSELS — The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) says he plans to cut 25% of the agency’s internal spending by 2015 in response to the ongoing financial turmoil in Europe. “We are taking into account the economic crisis,” ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said of the 19-member intergovernmental agency during an annual space policy meeting here.
NASA scientists are studying a laser technique called optical trapping to see if it could be developed to produce “tractor beams” that would allow a spacecraft or lander to remotely capture particles for analysis. The technique is used in optical tweezers, scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to manipulate microscopic objects and are employed in biology and nanotechnology to study single molecules, viruses and even cells.
AGENCY ADVOCATE: Cornell University professor Mason Peck will be NASA’s chief technologist come January, the space and aeronautics agency said Nov. 8. According to NASA’s description, Peck will serve as the agency’s principal advisor and advocate on matters concerning technology policy and programs. Peck — currently the principal investigator on the CUSat in-orbit inspection technology demonstration — succeeds Robert Braun, who returns to teaching and research positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
NEW DELHI — India’s top defense and military research institute will soon develop an electromagnetic bomb, or “e-bomb,” to help strengthen the country’s defense, space and internal security system.
FIRED UP: Northrop Grumman says MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV operations in Afghanistan have surpassed 1,500 hr. with more than 400 flights in the first five months. The unmanned vertical-takeoff-and-landing system’s deployment there, which began in May with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, will be extended through October 2012 under an $18.65 million contract awarded to the company Sept. 28 by Naval Air Systems Command.
The Obama administration is proposing export control changes that would allow aircraft components to be more freely traded on the global market, while continuing to protect parts designed specifically for the military’s most stealthy aircraft.
TANKER LANDED: Australian Defense Materiel chief Jason Clare announced Nov. 8 that the Royal Australian Air Force has accepted its third of five KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft. The aircraft was the third of four to be converted from a commercial A330 airliner to a military tanker by Qantas Defence Services at Brisbane Airport.
LONDON — Following its first operational deployment of Gripen fighters as part of the NATO-led Libya campaign, the Swedish military is assessing what improvements in equipment and processes need to be made for future deployments of the fighter.
BRAZILIAN FIGHTER: Brazil is likely to make its F-X2 fighter decision in the first quarter of 2012, Boeing officials believe. The aircraft type selection was expected this year, but has slipped because of a change in defense ministers. There also has been speculation that President Dirma Rousseff may scrap the program. But Boeing officials believe the program is still on, with the timing having merely changed. The contract for the program would follow some time later. A Saab official agrees, but notes that the decision could slip beyond the first quarter.
NASA is adding an unmanned test flight of the Orion spacecraft in 2014 in an effort to reduce risk and support development of the congressionally mandated Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket.
Under the guise of a fictitious company the agency created, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) purchased military-grade counterfeit electronics parts from China through the Internet, GAO tells lawmakers.
BEIJING — The South Korean government is negotiating export sales of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Surion utility helicopter with two foreign governments, industry officials say. One of those governments is quite possibly that of Indonesia, a country with which South Korea has a rapidly deepening military-industrial relationship. The prospective deals appear to be entirely political. One industry source says no competitors are involved. The number of aircraft that would be covered by the orders is unknown.
With overwhelming evidence of massive interference, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should promptly rule that LightSquared can never use its frequencies closest to the Global Positioning System (GPS), says a coalition opposed to the company’s plans to use satellite communications spectrum for a terrestrial broadband wireless network.
