The University of Maryland is five years into researching how living cells can be combined with computer chips to make detectors for everything from explosives to pathogens such as anthrax. “The idea of using living cells as sensors has been around for awhile,” says Benjamin Shapiro, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Systems Research, which is involved in the work. “We are not the first to work on this. But we are one of the first groups to develop technology that makes the idea practical.”
A temporary slowdown in production of space shuttle external tanks probably will have a domino effect on the first flight-test under NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle development program.
U.S. Navy officials say the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Ind., will serve as the Defense Department’s executive agent (EA) for printed circuit board (PrCB) technology. The May 15 announcement happened to come a day after House defense authorizers amended their fiscal 2009 policy bill with legislative language pushing DOD to get moving on doing as much.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will host a hearing May 21 on the Bush administration’s groundbreaking export license treaties with the United Kingdom and Australia, but industry and government representatives already expect the deals to be ratified before President Bush leaves office.
Rolls-Royce’s Highly Efficient Embedded Turbine Engine (HEETE) technology demonstration for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has passed its preliminary design review. The company’s LibertyWorks research unit was awarded the 34-month, $19.6 million HEETE contract in September 2007 to rig-test an ultra-high pressure ratio compressor and its integrated thermal management, with the goal of reducing the specific fuel consumption of embedded engines by 25 percent.
AIR FORCE ITT-AES of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a cost plus fixed fee contract for $50,168,645. The objective of this Technical Area Task is to research and develop to provide anti-insurgency analysis capabilities and methods for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization in ways that benefits the warfighter and counter evolving insurgency threats. At this time $0 has been obligated (will advise). Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SPO700-98-D-4000, DO 0063). ARMY
LASER BLAST: Boeing has fired the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) technology demonstrator for the first time aboard its C-130H testbed. The ground firing on May 13 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., marked the beginning of a series of tests leading up to in-flight firings at “mission-representative ground targets” later this year to evaluate the high-energy chemical laser’s military utility. U.S.
Demand from commanders in Iraq is driving an evaluation of Class I unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and small unmanned ground vehicles (SUGV) that may result in earlier fielding of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) components, U.S. Army officials say. Paul Mehney, the Army’s FCS communicator, said there are advantages to fielding the systems earlier than planned. “The Class I UAV provides a hover-and-stare capability we don’t have on the battlefield,” he said. “And the SUGV provides enhanced sensing capabilities.”
House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members are “pleased” that the U.S. Navy expects to choose a winner for its Threat D-like Multi-Stage Supersonic Target development program this summer, but lawmakers say it isn’t coming fast enough.
TSAT EXTENDED: The U.S. Air Force is extending until December pre-development work for Boeing and Lockheed Martin teams on their designs for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program, according to sources familiar with the program. The Air Force had already extended the companies’ work until the summer, with the expectation of a contract announcement then. However, senior Pentagon leaders are reviewing the future architecture for secure satellite communications, opening the door to changes in TSAT or, possibly, a program termination. The Defense Dept.
HOLD THAT SHIP: The U.S. Coast Guard will have to answer Congressional concerns over the National Security Cutter (NSC), the Bertholf, fast on the heels of having triumphantly announced the ship’s acceptance May 8. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), along with Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), wrote a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen the day after the Bertholf’s acceptance, expressing doubts about deficiencies noted in a U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) assessment of the ship.
BAMS-BOOZLED?: A major price difference in the winning proposal by Northrop Grumman and the competing bid by Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the U.S. Navy’s Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program is key to the protest of the contract award. Lockheed Martin’s Predator-based design was estimated to cost more than $5 billion less than Northrop Grumman’s, which was based on the Global Hawk. Lockheed cited cost difference in a public statement last week, but the company has not publicly released the figure.
JOINING FORCES: European weapons manufacturer MBDA and French aerospace company Safran are expected to announce a partnership agreement this week. Safran’s Sagem unit builds the AASM air-to-ground powered bomb, which was recently used for the first time by French forces in Afghanistan. There has been expectation for some time that Sagem may partner with MBDA to help market AASM to expand the customer base, given the latter’s far-reaching international ties in the weapons market.
Science teams have gained access to a new platform for long-endurance, high-altitude missions now that a pair of RQ-4 Global Hawks have joined the inventory at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif. Working in cooperation with Global Hawk maker Northrop Grumman, the Dryden flight team’s first mission is expected in April or May 2009 for the Airborne Science Program headed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
POWER EXCHANGE: Russia and Canada are to develop a turbo-shaft variant of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127 to power the Mil Mi-38 medium-lift helicopter. A memorandum of understanding covering development and production of the PW127TS was signed May 15 between Russian Helicopters Corp., the Ufa-based engine manufacturer UMPO, the Central Institute of Aero Engines and Pratt & Whitney Canada. Russian certification of the PW127TS engine is planned for 2011, with the Mi-38 to enter service in 2012.
SKYNET: Arianespace has pushed back the launch of the U.K. military communications satellite Skynet 5C to the night of May 30-31 to run unspecified launch vehicle checks. The launch, which also will orbit the Turksat 3A telecom satellite, had been scheduled for May 23.
SHARED SUPPORT: The British Defense Ministry is considering purchasing 200 common mission support systems for its AgustaWestland Future Lynx and WAH-64 Apache helicopters. The terminal would be used to provide the aircrew with a mission rehearsal tool, with the ability to upload and download data from the terminal to the helicopter. If procured, the mission support system will enter service with the Apache by the end of 2010.
Lockheed Martin’s GPS IIIA win, announced May 15, could lock the company into a long-term relationship with the U.S. Air Force, potentially edging Boeing out of the precision timing and navigation market. GPS III consists, potentially, of three blocks of satellites. Col. Dave Madden, director of the GPS program office at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, says the Air Force’s intent is to “have a long-term relationship with one partner,” though the service can reopen bidding at any time in the future.
If it is selected by the U.S. Army, Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh’s version of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) will be the first Army vehicle to be powered by diesel-electric drive.
SHORT FUZE: Boeing will have 33 months to demonstrate the effectiveness of Guidance Integrated Fuzing (GIF) technology developed under the Seeker Integrated Target Endgame Sensor (SITES) program. The $5.2 million U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Task 2 contract is designed to help Boeing develop fuzing capability for SITES that will reduce weight on the Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM).
The NASA Phoenix Mars lander, carrying the most complex laboratory hardware ever sent to the surface of another planet, is receiving final commands prior to its May 25 powered descent to the Martian surface. Two final maneuvers are possible to tweak the trajectory toward a 60-mile long landing ellipse on a north polar plane just south of the planet’s permanent polar ice cap.
MASER: Researchers backed by the European Space Agency will begin evaluating results of four microgravity experiments in fluid physics and metallurgy following a successful sounding rocket mission from the Esrange Space Center in the Swedish Arctic. The Maser 11 mission on a two-stage solid-fuel rocket based on the Brazilian VSB 30 first stage reached 252 kilometers (157 miles) in altitude May 15, providing 6 minutes, 26 seconds of microgravity for the experiment package in its suborbital trajectory.
