Russia to deploy drones to Artic

Tass reports that the Russian Military will be deploying Orlan-10 drones to the Arctic for navigation security and conduct coastal air reconnaissance over Russian territorial waters.
The drone has thought to have a data range of 120km and an autonomous range of 1,000km and has a flight time of 16.5 hours and can fly at an altitude of 5 km.


Sources    Jamestown Foundation     Tass

Laser Guided Bullet

EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance) the bullet that can change trajectory and home in on its target. No not SIFI  DARPA is testing a laser guided.50 calibre bullet that can correct it self to hit the target from further afield accounting for wind and other factors. In phase 3 scientists will continue to improve the bullet and improve its accuracy

Source   DARPA

Taranis Stealth Drone

Taranis - The future of aviation technology 

Taranis named after the Celtic god of thunder is a joint venture between The UK MOD and 

 BAE Systems   costing £185 million 

 BAE System

About the size of a BAE Systems Hawk aircraft - Taranis has been designed and built by BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, the Systems division of GE Aviation (formerly Smiths Aerospace) and QinetiQ working alongside UK MOD military staff and scientists. In addition to prime contracting the project, BAE Systems led on many elements of the Taranis technology demonstrator, including the low observability, systems integration, control infrastructure and full autonomy elements (in partnership with QinetiQ).

Honeywell T-Hawk UAV

 

 I thought this worth a mention purely because it looks like something from Star Wars. The Honeywell T-Hawk is a Gasoline powered UAV in the MAV Family (micro aerial vehicle) and is .reported to weigh about 20lbs. With a ceiling of 3200 meters a radius of 11km and a speed of 130kmh this is a very useful  Reconnaissance tool.

References     Wikipedia     Honeywell

Lunar Elevator

The Liftport group  have announced it is throwing all of its weight behind the Lunar elevator known as Elsie to be completed by  December 31st, 2019.
The  elevator will be built from a point in space known as the Lagrange Point (the point equidistant from the Moon and the Earth’s gravitational field) and will be known as the PicoGravity Laboratory.
From this  point the anchor will be dropped down to the Anchor Station at Sinus Medii( the cross hairs at the centre of a full moon.
The lift could be used to ferry supplies and  minerals to and from the surface,


REF Liftport

Orion Test Flight Relaunch

The Orion  flight test has been put back to 07:05 EST after yesterdays postponement where there is a  2 hour 39 min window for launch.

More at  Press the Tech      NASA

NASA's new space ship launch

 

NASA's new manned  goes for its test drive today, the ship named Orion is a lot like the Apollo ships but is much larger and it is planned to use this for a manned mars mission. The capsule will eventual use its own new type of rocket that is not yet ready so for this launch it will use the Delta IV-Heavy rocket.  

This is a unmanned test flight and will reenter at the same sort of speed as the moon mission craft.

More on this story    BBC       Scientific American

Driver less car trials in Four towns

                                            


Four areas in the UK have been selected to test driver less cars. The areas Greenwich, in south-east London, and Bristol will have their own project whilst Coventry and Milton Keynes will co host one. The project has a 19 Million pound budget from the UK Government

Source    BBC

Laser Link Services via Satellite

          ESA (European Space Agency's) has successfully downloaded an image from a satellite to Earth using a laser beam.  The image was transmitted as a test  using a new 450 million Euro project to create a data highway. The project called European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) will allow faster more secure ways to transmit data from space to earth. The data will travel at 1.8Ghz per second and be able to route between satellites to avoid any black spots as with the present 4 radio receiving stations.

Source ESA

Video Here

AUV radar maps base of the ice

 

The sea ice in the Antarctic has been measured many ways in the passed now an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)  has been used in a proof of concept operation to map the base of the ice. The vehicle used upward facing radar to look at the underside of the ice. The vehicle moved backwards and forwards crisscrossing the area to get a radar image.

Source    BBC      Nature.com

Do you fly a drone do not fall foul of UK Law

The UAV debate rages on with the CAA issuing the following bulitin Today

Reference:IN-2014/190
Title:       Small Unmanned Aircraft Operations Within London and Other Towns and Cities

Description:     The purpose of this Information Notice is to provide guidance to operators of commercial and recreational Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA) and Small Unmanned Surveillance Aircraft (SUSA) who wish to operate within congested areas in relation to towns and cities. The latest generation of commercially-available SUA have very advanced capabilities in relation to their size and cost; this has led to a surge in their utilisation for a wide range of cinematographic and survey tasks and an increasing demand for their employment in urban areas. Operations in urban areas require an additional understanding of the complexities of the environment and of the safety and operational limitations that are suitable for London and other towns and cities.
This Information Notice supersedes IN 2014-081 as it now contains more up to date information


The full Notice can be read \ downloaded  here PDF

Further reading

Do you fly a drone do not fall foul of UK Law

Now we have the Drone Helicopter

 

Advance 'Quantum Teleportation'

This image shows crystals used for storing entangled photons, which behave as though they are part of the same whole. Scientists used these crystals in their process of teleporting the state of a photon across more than 15 miles (25 kilometers) of optical fiber. Credit: Félix Bussières/University of Geneva
› Larger image

 

 Below is a piece from JPL about Researchers Advance 'Quantum Teleportation' wow you may say that is way beyond us, but is it and what would we use it for.

Researchers succeeded in teleporting information about the quantum state of a photon, a particle of light, over 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) of optical fiber to a crystal "memory bank," setting a new record of distance traveled in this manner. The previous record in optical fiber was 3.7 miles (6 kilometers). This complex phenomenon is called "quantum teleportation."



Imagine  truly secure bank transfers, secure internet connections and faster communications. remote controlled vehicles free from being hijacked. This is the science of  SI FI  coming to a place near  you.

Spiderman Fantasy now you could climb walls

Researchers at Stanford University have come up with a glove that will allow you to climb a vertical glass wall. The gloves based on the Geckos  hands will hold a person up to 70KG, the gloves have been tested on a wall  3.6 meter high without any loss of adhesion.

Previously in February 2012 DARPA (America's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) had demonstrated the Z-man where a 218 pound man with a 50lb load climbed a 25 ft sheet of glass with just some Gecko inspired hand held paddles.


More on this @

BBC
DARPA

Drones Taking Over

It seems that drones are again in the news this week, from small helicopter type drones to remote control trucks.

        The BBC reported from Australia on giant remote drone trucks that run around a 628 mile quarry collecting and delivering or. Drones work out cheaper as there performance is optimized for economy.



 Channel 5s the gadget show did a whole show on Man vs the Gadget on of these being the autonomous car.

BBC Click reported on the K-max  a drone helicopter that offers a new dimension to the rescue services.
The K-Max can also be found oat  Lockheed Martian

Also on another note again the privacy issue of a topless sunbather in Australia being photographed by a drone 


Previously on Drones

Do Not fall foul of the Law

Now we have a drone Helicopter

US Navy Test Robotic Boats

Do you fly a drone do not fall foul of UK Law

Drone with Camera

So you have had a drone for your Birthday, Christmas or just for fun, has it got a camera then watch out for the law. Both the ICO (information commissioner's office) and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) have issued guidlines for there us and whether you need permission to fly one.

The ICO guidelines are based around the privacy issues involved with drones and cameras, the
 CAA 's   issue is with permission to fly the vehicle. Basically the ICO say that if you are libel to intrude on someones privacy then you can not fly the vehicle in that area. The CAA's  say

You must request permission from the CAA if you plan to:

• fly the aircraft on a commercial basis (i.e. conducting ‘aerial work’)
  or
• fly a camera/surveillance fitted aircraft within congested areas or closer (than the distances listed within Article 167) to people or properties (vehicles, vessels or structures) that are not under your control  

 Articale 167 taken from  Air Navigation: The Order and the Regulations CAp 393

167
(1)
The person in charge of a small unmanned surveillance aircraft must not fly the aircraft
in any of the circumstances described in paragraph (2) except in accordance with a
permission issued by the CAA.
(2)
The circumstances referred to in paragraph (1) are:
(a)
over or within 150 metres of any congested area;
(b)
over or within 150 metres of an organised open-air assembly of more than 1,000
persons;
(c)
within 50 metres of any vessel, vehicle or structure which is not under the control
of the person in charge of the aircraft; or
(d)
subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), within 50 metres of any person.
(3)
Subject to paragraph (4), during take-off or landing, a small unmanned surveillance
aircraft must not be flown within 30 metres of any person.
(4)
Paragraphs (2)(d) and (3) do not apply to the person in charge of the small unmanned
surveillance aircraft or a person under the control of the person in charge of the aircraft.
(5)
In this article ‘a small
unmanned surveillance aircraft’ means a small unmanned aircraft
which is equipped to undertake any form of surveillance or data acquisition


So as you can see contravene one of these and you could find yourself in trouble though I hope not.


Source
 CAA Do I need a Permission for an Unmanned Aircraft (UAS)?

ICO 

Supercavitating Very High Speed Stealth Surface Vessel

The Ghost a surface stealth vessel from Juliet Marine, the vessel has a surface hull length of 38 feet with under water pod of 68 feet.
    With a variety of uses from data collection just off sure to fleet protection  as we report here. This vessel and its technology  should usher in a new era of fast patrol vessels.


Source   Business Week   Juliet Marine   Wikipedia

OFCOM to auction off military airways in 2016

 


Some of the military band plan is to be auctioned of in 2016, the  2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz space is being given over to civilian use as part of the governments drive to free up space for civilian use and allocate new frequencies to the Military.

Read more  at the Telegraph.co.uk      OFCOM

Diagnosing prostate cancer a new device

Distinguishing between benign and malignant prostate tissue has now become easier with the development of a new machine by the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden. After taking a biopsy the sample is placed into the machine and within 1 and a half minutes a result is returned. The machine will tell you whether the sample is benign or malignant.

Source   Fraunhofer Institute  

 

 BEA Systems is now using virtual reality to design its products. the company has is installed 5 interlinked suites at Scotstoun shipyard, and one each at its Portsmouth and Filton bases. The system which can allow designs and engineers to see the "finished" product in the design stage,

The system is currently being used to develop offshore patrol vessels and  the Type 26 Destroyer


Source  BBC       Telegraph

Your Personal Hydrofoil

Well here it is your personal hydrofoil, Quadrofoil a Slovenia company has launched a two seat all electric hydrofoil. The craft a PRV Personal recreation vehicle comes in two models, the Q2S and the Q2A.
The Q2S has a range of up to 100KM and a speed of 21knots, Q2A has a range of  51 km and a range of  16 knots.
      Quadrofoil

Hotel group Starwood  are giving guest the opportunity  to by pass check in and go straight to their rooms with a new smart phone app. After registering the app and booking a room at one of the keyless hotels the client is offered a chance to use the smart phone system. Guests will receive an App update with his/her room number and Bluetooth key when the room is ready.

For full details check the company web site here