Une application iPhone pour le Salon du Bourget (Paris Air Show 2011)

Aviation Week viens de lancer en partenariat avec Airbus une application iPhone pour vivre d'ores et déjà le 49e Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace. L'application vous permettra de ne plus vous perdre dans les différents halls et de repérer vos entreprises préférées. Vous avez également accès à la liste préliminaire des avions en exhibition, à un guide de Paris et aux actualités aérospatiales. A noter aussi le petit lien vers la météo du jour dans l'onglet 'Site Map' pour les démonstrations en vol. 

Site officiel du Salon : http://www.salon-du-bourget.fr/fr
Link pour l'application : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/avweek-paris/id438193051?mt=8  (ou cherchez tout simplement 'Aviation Week' dans l'iTunes App Store).

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Black Hawk stealth helicopters seems to be used in Bin Laden's assault

At least one of the helicopters used for reaching the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad was a modified stealth version of the Black Hawk. Military and intelligence US agencies have refused to comment about the use of stealth aircraft in this mission. But the photographs of the helicopter that navy seals blew up (after it was damaged in a hard landing ?), indicates modifications on the tail section which could improve the stealth properties of the helicopter (click on image for enlarge).

All image credits : The New York Times and Sikorsky

More @ The New York Times

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The future of radar systems : Quantum illumination

Using entangled photons should be possible to improve considerably the data transmission. Raytheon BBN is studying new quantum concepts as quantum illumination for using in remote sensing applications. The development of such concepts would allow Radar, Laser Radar (LADAR), and other remote sensing systems to exceed the performance limits of today’s technology.

Actually traditional methods of data transmission, such as fibre optics or laser-based radar, require 100 photons to transmit a single bit of data. Using quantum illumination should be possible to sent 10 bits on a single photon. This discovery was announced theoretically by Seth Lloyd of the W.M. Keck Center for Extreme Quantum Information Processing (xQIT) 3 years ago. Here after the abstract of his paper Quantum Illumination :

Abstract: The use of entangled light to illuminate objects is shown to provide significant enhancements over unentangled light for detecting and imaging those objects in the presence of high levels of noise and loss. Each signal sent out is entangled with an ancilla, which is retained. Detection takes place via an entangling measurement on the returning signal together with the ancilla. Quantum illumination with e bits of entanglement increases the effective signal-to-noise ratio of detection and imaging by a factor of 2^e, an exponential improvement over unentangled illumination.

It's all about entanglement. In this phenomenon when you have a pair of photons the quantum state of one photon is linked to that of another, regardless of how far apart they are. Quantum illumination begins with researchers passing a laser through filters that thin the beam into photons. The filters create identical photons that are linked to each other. Then they split the entangled photons and release one at a target, while the other is keeping near the transmitter. When a photon hits the target, it bounces back towards the source in a process that alters the photon. When it returns to the detector, the altered photon is no longer strictly entangled with its pair, then scientists compare the released photon’s reflection to its unaltered twin. This process is not very different from classical radar, where electromagnetic waves rebound off targets in order to create an image. However the smaller photon delivers far more data far more quickly and efficiently.

As said by researchers at Raytheon BBN, quantum illumination could be used to create hyper-long-distance communications systems where large amounts of information could be sent more quickly (almost instantaneously) and clearly. Some enthusiastic researchers suggest that quantum illumination could lead towards teleportation devices. That's right, but only for information. Star Trek's teleportation of people and objects remains on Science Fiction for the moment...

A definition for quantum illumination which comes from paper Quantum Illumination by Seth Lloyd :

Quantum illumination is a potentially powerful technique for performing detection and imaging, in which signal is entangled with an ancilla, and entangling measurements are made at the detector. Entanglement enhances the effective signal to noise ratio because a noise photon has a d times harder time masquerading as an entangled signal photon, compared with a noise photon masquerading as an unentangled signal photon.

The enhancement of sensitivity and effective signal-to-noise ratio that quantum illumination provides is exponential in the number of bits of initial entanglement, and persists even in the presence of large amounts of noise and loss, when no entanglement survives at the receiver.

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X3 from Eurocopter : A new era for the hybrid helicopters

X3 (say "X cube") is a revolutionary and innovative hybrid helicopter able to performs long-range missions at high speeds with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. First flight test (under controlled and secure environment) tooke place September 6 in southern France (Istres). In following tests X3 will reach speeds of 180 knots and the goal for March 2011 is to exceed 220 knots. A little industrial fight is on the near horizon between X3 and X2 from Sikorsky, another high speed hybrid helicopter who achieves 250 knots last 16 September.

More @ Eurocopter for X3
More @ Sikorsky for X2

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Justifying the need for electric propulsion in interplanetary missions (Presentation)

Herafter the slides of my very first paper about electric propulsion that I made for the 1st Congreso Argentino de Tecnologia Espacial (Buenos Aires, october 2000).

Justifying the need for electric propulsion in interplanetary missions

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Analytical Model for Performance Evaluation of Ablative Plasma Pulsed Thruster

This analytical model was created for a future version of micro-satellite µsat (also known as Victor) which was developed and built by the Centro de Investigaciones Aplicadas (IUA) in Argentina. Victor was launched on 29 August 1996 by Molniya-M from Plesetsk.

The model allows to make a quick evaluation of Ablative Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (APPT) performances for preliminary design purposes. It works very well for capacitors delivering low energies and for APPT coaxial geometries.

The paper hereafter presents the very first results. An improved version of this paper giving better predictions was published on Journal of Propulsion of Power (year 2004, vol. 20, n°6, pages 970 to 977) available on http://www.aiaa.org.

Analytical Model for Performance Evaluation of Ablative Plasma Pulsed Thruster

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I, (Lego) Robot

At bottom, robotics is about us. It is the discipline of emulating our lives, of wondering how we work.

Rod GRUPEN, Discover Magazine, June 2008

Machines smart enough to do anything for us will probably also be able to do anything with us: go to dinner, own property, compete for sexual partners. They might even have passionate opinions about politics or, like the robots on Battlestar Galactica, even religious beliefs. Some have worried about robot rebellions, but with so many tort lawyers around to apply the brakes, the bigger question is this: Will humanoid machines enrich our social lives, or will they be a new kind of television, destroying our relationships with real humans?

Fred HAPGOOD, Discover Magazine, June 2008

Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer-generated robots will take over our world.

Stephen HAWKING

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The VASIMR propulsion: a serious potential candidate for future human interplanetary exploration

But while Obama would forego a headline destination in favour of having NASA develop exotic technologies to enable human exploration of deep space while the private sector takes on the low- Earth orbit transport challenge, Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz, one former NASA astronaut, thinks he can achieve both goals - and before any crew is carried aloft in a private rocket.

Source: FlightGlobal

The technological brick necessary to do this is the VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket). Thirty years ago the very first VASIMR experiment was conducted at MIT, today the VASIMR technology is almost ready to take-off. Indeed, Ad Astra Rocket (the company fouded by Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz) is actually making test campaigns to build the first flight unit of the VASIMR engine, the VF-200, based on VX-200 thruster (thrust = ~1 lbf, specific impulse = 5000 sec, lifetime = > years). It will mounted externally on ISS probably in late 2013 or early 2014 and it will be used for drag compensation missions. This project will serve as a "pathfinder" for the ISS National Laboratory by demonstrating a new class of larger, more complex science and technology payloads.
Reboosting ISS is just one of the missions planned by Ad Astra Rocket. The VF-200 should be able to thrust a "robotic freeflyer space tug" to perform satellite repositioning, refurbishing and disposal missions.
NASA is contracting Ad Astra Rocket also for a lunar tug concept study, to take cargo from LEO orbits to the Moon and back, and deliver equipment in preparation for a human landing.



Movie of the VASIMR lunar tug concept. Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company

This is only the beginning. Once the moon re-conquered the next step will be Mars... we just need 200 MegaWatt of electrical power (the VF-200 is a 200 kW thruster).

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So why are people afraid of technology?

Is it the time you need to put in to learn it? Is it the money you have to put into it? Or maybe is it the fear you won’t find it useful or will not be able to manage it?

Why are people scared of technology? Are they? It struck me some time ago that the problem is quite simple: most of us don’t like experimenting. We need some kind of authority – a friend, a newspaper article a review found on a website. We listen to the advice, we believe it and only then we act. We buy a new phone, a new gadget or invest in some more sophisticated technology. This is as true as it comes to the food we eat, the religion we believe, the politicians we vote for, the cars we buy.

We come to the edge, but if nobody pushes us we will never jump.

Posted by Jon Scirocco on "Into Technology" wordpress blog on December 4, 2006.

More info @ IntoTechnology.wordpress.com
Posted via web from Sotreta's Box

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Star Wars weapons are not so far... USAF Airborne Laser YAL-1A

On photo (US Air Force photo by Kellie Masters) : USAF Airborne Laser YAL-1A, a modified 747-400F, takes off from Edwards AFB. The aircraft's target illuminator laser fired for the first time.

With eight years of delay and billions of dollars over budget, finally the highly modified Boeing 747-400, designated YAL-1A, performed the feat on February 11at 8:44 PM Pacific time at the Point Mugu naval air warfare center sea range off California, shooting down a liquid-fueled, Scud-like target. The intercept sequence took place within two minutes of the target being fired.
In the same day, ABL also engaged a solid fuel missile, fired from San Nicolas Island. The target was engaged, but ABL stopped the lasing sequence before it was destroyed. None knows if there was a failure in the lasing sequence or if the interruption has been voluntary.

Technological keys :

• ABL uses a high-power chemical laser to project energy on the target. One of the key features is a deformable mirror, which modifies the laser wavefront when it exits the 747’s distinctive nose to assure the laser energy is deposited on the target most effectively.
• Target is detected using an infrared sensor.
• A lower-power laser tracking illuminator laser (TILL) and beacon illuminator laser (BILL) are used to create the firing solution for the high-power chemical oxygen iodine laser to engage.

More info @ AviationWeek.com
Posted via web from Sotreta's Box

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