The project, fully named Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated Free-flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange, was expected to go to the orbital testing phase in 2015. But this won’t happen, according to Brad Tousley, director of Tactical Technology Office of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who spoke this week to space.com.Tousley cited a number of factors, including the lack of an overall integrator for the experiment, explaining why he decided to scrap System F6 after taking over the office in January and reviewing its project portfolio.Since its launch in 2006, DARPA invested some $226 million System F6. Last year alone the agency spent $40 million on it, which is roughly a quarter of the agency’s entire space budget.What the researchers wanted was a system which would allow building several small satellites and would fly in a formation communicating wirelessly and sharing their resources. Such a cluster in theory could do as good a job as a traditional bigger integrated satellite. But they would have better survivability and adaptability as well as cheaper and simpler to produce.A cluster build with fractionated architecture would have better chances to live over an encounter with space debris (or an enemy attack), DARPA estimated. If one or two satellites in the group were taken out, the remaining would reconfigure and try to compensate for the loss. The testing plan also included a System F6 cluster scattering and re-gathering as part of an evasion maneuver.Among the final goals DARPA set was to produce an open-source developer’s kit, which would give third parties the tools like communication protocols and behavioral algorithms needed to create similar systems.The now-canceled program had a troubled history. In 2009 awarded Virginia-based Orbital Sciences a $75-million contract to oversee System F6 development, but soon terminated the deal. Instead it hired several smaller companies to distribute the work among them, but didn’t assign the lead integrator role, Tousley said, failing to explain the rationale behind the leaderless management.DARPA plans to run some parts of the program to its conclusion. Emergent Space Systems of Greenbelt will be completing its job on developing software for System F6 through January 2014, according to the company’s president and founder George Davis.Tousley pledged to feed technology developed for the project into DARPA’s other space initiatives. One such piece called Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) aims at demonstrating a low-cost satellite launcher, while another program called Phoenix seeks to salvage satellite in orbit and use the cannibalized parts in other spacecraft. He added the broader concept of disaggregation is currently explored by the US Air Force. … Read More
Hey Uncle Sam: Where’s our Red Square parade?
Ever since May 9, 2008, when Moscow brought back rumbling tanks and screeching jets to Red Square for the annual Victory Day celebrations, it has aroused accusations in Western capitals of “flaunting its military might.” The charges are loaded with irony for a glaringly obvious reason: The Russian military, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union – and aside from a five-day war with neighboring Georgia, who, it must be noted, attacked Russia first – has been parked at home. In the same period of time, however, the Western military junta, known affectionately as NATO, has been circling the planet like a pack of fat vultures looking for its next easy takeout. It seems to require little explanation as to why the Russians take their tanks for a spin around town every May 9th: Russia lost an estimated 26.6 million soldiers and civilians from mid-1941 to 1945, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Given the depths of this human tragedy, made more surreal by a simultaneous sense of triumph, Russia has certainly earned the right to hold a military parade once a year without arousing suspicions of gearing up for another shot at empire. Witnessing the Victory Day celebrations in central Moscow for many years, I began to ask myself a question: Why doesn’t America drive its tanks down Main Street each year, say, for Veterans Day? I posed this question to an American friend of mine, and I got the haughty response: “Because America is a democracy.”So according to this fuzzy, feel-good logic, good democracies don’t march their soldiers and showcase their latest missile systems around self-satisfied places like Washington, DC, or Brussels, Belgium, because that would smack of something faintly fascist. Instead, we drive our battle tanks down the main streets of Baghdad, Iraq, and Kabul, Afghanistan, and call this beneficent behavior “democracy building.” Do the denizens of Washington begrudge the residents of Baghdad the lack of an annual military parade? Somehow I doubt it, but Baghdad should begrudge Washington the stench of hypocrisy.Would shutting down Washington for a joyous day of military pomp and parades risk exposing some uncomfortable truths about the present state of our democracy? Would watching tanks and drones buzz through town be a bit like the vampire confronting its horrible reflection in the mirror at midnight? Would such a momentous event as a military parade, coming at a time when the US Military is overstretched across its global empire and the economy remains in tatters, expose the lie of American democracy?Although We the People are said to hold the reins of power, we have no collective control over how much Uncle Sam can spend on weapons, nor any say whatsoever as to where those pricey weapon systems will be used. The worldwide protests that greeted the blatantly illicit invasion of Iraq calmed any exaggerated expectations we may have held out for ‘people power.’ With the Pentagon’s annual price-tag for expenditures approaching the trillion-dollar mark, and military follies continuing at a Napoleonic clip, the loss of our democratic voice is no insignificant footnote.Ron Paul, the perennial presidential candidate the corporate media loves to ignore, summed up US foreign policy during the last debates as such: “We’re under great threat, because we occupy so many countries,” Paul stated bluntly. “We’re in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We’re going broke.”So isn’t it time for we Americans to be a bit more honest with ourselves? Isn’t it time to shelve the consumer-driven Macy Day parades and embrace our true colors, which is becoming anything but red, white and blue? Isn’t it time we got something more substantial than floats bobbing up and down Madison Avenue every Thanksgiving? Isn’t it time for a full-throttled, white knuckle display of American firepower straight down the throat of Main Street, USA.? Of course it is. The American taxpayer forks over a trillion dollars each year to feed the insatiable appetite of the military-industrial complex, so where’s our military parade? Why should Baghdad and Kabul get all the fireworks?Since confronting the extreme lethality of American democracy with a military parade would push the ship of state uncomfortably close to the rocks of truth, we must settle for candy-coating our consciences into oblivion with other less unsettling displays of American power.Behind the massive curtain in our Land of Oz, we must distract the ‘consumers’ with non-stop Hollywood entertainment, sporting events and a dazzling array of consumer goods to gloss over any discomfort that may come with questions regarding America’s foreign policy prerogatives. So long as Americans keep on shopping, as George W. Bush advised in those harrowing moments of shock and awe that followed the deadliest attacks on the US mainland, our enemies will continue to envy us.But supposing America did come out of the closet in true character with a military parade, we would be confronted with another problem: We don’t have any public space comparable to a Red Square, or even a Tiananmen. Why is that? After all, these massive public places are used for more than showcasing missiles and goose-stepping soldiers. In the off season, these open-air venues give the people a place to assemble, occasionally with purpose, a collective act that is not suffered lightly in America’s Time of Troubles.As long as the American people assemble peacefully in the mall, as opposed to The Mall, it will be business as usual in the United States.Robert Bridge is the author of the book, Midnight in the American Empire, which examines the dangerous consequences of extreme corporate power now prevalent in the US. … Read More
Tunisia – Government finally appoints Independent Broadcasting Authority
Reporters Without Borders hails President Moncef Marzouki’s long-overdue announcement on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, of the composition of the nine-member Independent Broadcasting Authority (HAICA). Nouri Lejmi, a teacher at the Institute for Press and Information Sciences (IPSI), is to be its president. “We can only welcome this announcement, which has been awaited for the past year and a half,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “The installation of this (…) … Read More
Scientists warn Chinese-made air-transmissible bybrid bird flu puts humanity at risk
Immunologists expressed concern Friday about the “dangerous” work of scientists in China who created a hybrid bird flu virus that can spread in the air between guinea pigs, and now lives in a lab freezer. The team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Gansu Agricultural…
Pakistani prosecutor in Bhutto assassination case killed in drive-by shooting
Zulfiqar had been driving to an anti-terrorism court to a hearing related to Bhutto’s death when the attack took place. The gunmen approached in a taxi and opened fire, hitting him in the head, shoulder and chest, police officer Mohammed Ishaq told AP. The injuries Zulfiqar sustained caused him to lose control of his vehicle, hitting a female passer-by and killing her in the process. Zulfiqar’s guard, Farman Ali, returned fire at the assailants, wounding one and sustaining injuries himself. Questions were subsequently raised as to why only one security guard was riding with Zulfiqar in the car. He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, and his remains have been taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in the city for further examination. A massive search is underway to track down the identities of the gunmen, who fled immediately following the incident. Bhutto was murdered in December 2007, after speaking as leader at a Pakistan People’s Party rally, when rounds of bullets were fired at her shortly before a suicide blast next to her vehicle. The attack took place two weeks before the 2008 Pakistani General Election, in which she was the leading opposition candidate. Zulfiqar acted as a public prosecutor in the high-profile case, and has repeatedly confirmed high court rulings and the issuance of arrest warrants to the press. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, currently under house arrest on the outskirts of Islamabad, stands accused of being complicit in the murder of Benazir Bhutto and not providing her with enough security after she expressed fear for her life. He is also being held over his detention of high court judges in 2007. Musharraf returned to Pakistan in March to contest the election on May 11, amid death threats from the Pakistani Taliban. In mid-April he was banned from standing as a candidate, crushing his ambition to re-enter public life. His arrest warrant was issued shortly afterwards. It was confirmed that the hearing for the Bhutto case that Zulfiqar was en route to also pertained to Musharraf. Musharraf maintains that the Pakistani Taliban were the sole group behind Bhutto’s death. Zulfiqar additionally headed the prosecution in a case relating to the 2008 bombings and shootings that rocked Mumbai, killing 166. Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker, confirmed that the 12 coordinated attacks across the city were carried out by a Pakistani militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, before he was hanged. India has criticized Pakistan for not doing more to crack down on the militant group as a whole. Seven men have been put on trial for their alleged assistance in the attacks, but little progress has been made and the head of the group remains free. … Read More
Americans flee to Canada for college education
Over the past decade, the number of Americans who enrolled in Canadian colleges has risen by 50 percent. About 10,000 Americans are currently enrolled at universities in Canada, the Institute for College Access & Success reports.“Undergraduate students that complete [school] in Canada have tremendous access to the best graduate programs right now in the world,” Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, told AP. “So, if you’re a student that wants to pursue graduate studies, a Canadian degree will serve you very well, indeed… They also are a passport to a good job.”And that passport comes at a much lower price: Undergraduates in Canada pay an average of about $5,000 in tuition fees during each undergraduate year, while undergraduates at a private university in the US pay an average of $32,000 each year, according to the Institute of Education Sciences.Some American universities charge nearly $50,000 per semester, which often forces students to take out hefty loans to afford a basic undergraduate degree. Eric Andreasen, a college student from Maine, told NBC News that he chose to attend Montreal’s McGill University because of the low tuition cost. A four-year undergraduate program at McGill cost him what it would have cost for just one year at George Washington University in the US capital.“When the financial packages came in, it was a no-brainer for me,” he said. McGill is ranked 18thon US News & World Report’s ranking of the world’s 400 best universities and some refer to the school as the “Harvard of the North”.“At McGill I believe I’m paying at most $20,000 with tuition and housing,” Jamie Berk, a fourth-year college student from Pennsylvania, told USA TODAY. “Which is pretty good, it’s about a little less than half of what a lot of Americans pay for private university.”Those who graduate from an American university carry an average of $26,000 debt, causing nine percent to default on their student loans within two years. And with low-skill jobs largely replacing high-paying ones, hundreds of thousands of college grads are finding themselves working minimum wage jobs post-graduation. “Money is definitely a factor,” 20-year-old Leah Ott, a physiology major from Houston, told NBC News. She and her two sisters all attend universities in Canada.And as Americans continue to discover the benefits of attaining a high-quality education in Canad, more students may choose to head north – especially since the cost of education continues to rise in the US.About six percent of undergraduates at McGill are Americans, and at the current rate, that number could double within the next twenty years. … Read More
Gut microbe makes diesel biofuel
Welding bits and pieces from various microbes and the camphor tree into the genetic code of Escherichia coli has allowed scientists to convince the stomach bug to produce hydrocarbons, rather than sickness or more E. coli. The gut microbe can now replicate the molecules, more commonly known as diesel, that burn predominantly in big trucks and other powerful moving machines.”We wanted to make biofuels that could be used directly with existing engines to completely replace fossil fuels,” explains biologist John Love of the University of Exeter in England, who led the research into fuels. “Our next step will be to try to develop a bacterium that could be deployed industrially.” Love’s work was published April 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Continue Reading… … Read More
