LaserMotive's Laser-Powered Helo New Scientist

An unmanned aerial surveillance drone is only as good as its power source, and as such many technologies are being considered that could drastically extend the duration of drone missions - for instance, DARPA's Vulture program has helped develop a giant solar plane that, theoretically, could fly for five years straight. But Seattle-based LaserMotive thinks laser power is the answer, and to prove it they recently kept a tiny 22-gram helicopter aloft for hours by beaming power to it via a laser. Read more »

Protecting Military Networks Thinking about WikiLeaking? Think again. U.S. Navy

The recent WikiLeaks exposure was a huge black eye for the U.S. Department of Defense, supposedly one of the more secure state organizations we have working for us. Its impact clearly wasn't lost on the Pentagon, whose blue sky research arm has launched a new project designed to ferret out malicious behavior on DoD networks. Named CINDER - Cyber INsiDER Threat - the project is designed not to sniff out people, but adversarial actions as they happen. Read more »

Wing Ejected A shrunken F/A-18 target drone equipped with a new, advanced fly-by-wire system was able to return home safely after losing up to 80% of one wing.

Rockwell Collins

An advanced fly-by-wire system capable of landing grossly damaged unmanned aircraft-demonstrated on video saving a plane missing 80 percent of one wing-is key to solving one of unmanned flight's biggest problems

Word spread last week that a rogue MQ-8B Fire Scout copter drone entered restricted airspace just 40 miles shy of Washington D.C. after losing contact with its operators. The revelation occurred smack in the middle of AVUSI 2010, the world's largest UAV tradeshow. And it served as a poignant reminder that all the game-changing technology on display here at the Denver Convention Center still has some innovating to do, especially when flight crews lose control of their unmanned craft.

But to lose control of a flying robot over a warzone is one thing; things get much more complicated in crowded domestic skies. One remarkable system, capable of bringing a plane missing most of one wing safely home, aims to make losing control a more palatable proposition. Read more »

The DM-2 Awaits Its Test Fire NASA

In Utah today, NASA completed a successful test of the world's largest, most powerful solid rocket motor, the DM-2. For two minutes, the motor, designed to provide up to 3.6 million pounds of thrust, roaringly fired a column of flame, while some 760 instruments monitored its every aspect. Best to turn down your speakers before the countdown in this video hits zero.

Before the motor was fired, the engineers chilled it to 40 degrees below zero, for additional stress testing. It reportedly passed every test. The motor is intended to be used in the heavy-lift rocket segment of the Constellation program that NASA has slated for 2015. Read more »

The Current Orbits of China's Six SJ-06 Series Satellites

Satellites may be docking together in orbit -- are they building Voltron?

Though the world found out about it through a Russian media outlet, China has been conducting complicated space maneuvers with two of its science satellites over the past few months, directing two of its "Shi Jian" (practice) satellites to rendezvous some 370 miles above the Earth, and possibly even touch. But the fact that China has been so hush-hush about the close encounter has some wondering what it plans to use such technology for. It could be used to build a peaceful space station, but also for interfering with other nations' satellites. Read more »