Energy form Soldier's Underware

Soldiers: Your underwear of the future will do more than prevent crotch rot. It'll protect you from injuries, monitor your vitals, and even "harvest" your energy. That is, if a new project from Darpa's Defense Sciences Office works out as planned. That's an illustration, above, of what Darpa thinks its "Warrior Web" onesie might look like.

So far, the project is still in the draw-a-cartoon-with-a-six-pack-in-tights stage -- a long way off from the "adaptive, compliant, nearly transparent, quasi-active joint support suit," which can "mitigate musculoskeletal injury caused by discrete dynamic events while maintaining soldier performance," dreamed up by Darpa. An introductory meeting of potential researchers is set for mid-October, 2011.

Musculoskeletal injuries (a blanket term for anything from pain caused by overuse to stress fractures and joint derangements) are a real problem in the military.

 According to a 2010 study, there were 743,547 injury-related musculoskeletal conditions amongst military personnel in 2006. In 2004, 44 percent of military fatalities resulted from unintentional injuries. These Achilles tendon strains, torn meniscuses, and sore labrums slow our soldiers down, rendering them less effective and placing them in more danger.

But protecting their knees is just the start of what Warrior Web aims to do. Darpa says it's looking for experts in the following fields for the Warrior Web:

• Joint support and musculoskeletal injury mitigation

• Dynamics of soldier action and external load

• Biomechanical and joint modeling and testing

• Efficient and compliant actuation

• Energy regeneration and harvesting

• Dynamic structural stiffness tuning

• Adaptive sensing and control for biomechatronics

• Materials, fabrics, and structures to enhance the human-to-equipment interface

Wait --- "musculoskeletal injury mitigation"? "Energy regeneration"? Is this glorified pair of long underwear supposed to reduce inflammation and heal stress fractures while it pumps B-12 (or maybe amphetamines) into the blood stream? Sounds, uh, ambitious. And if I were a soldier, I'd be wary of modeling any garment that is going to "harvest" anything from me.

This isn't the military's first  crazy-suit pipe dream. (In 2003, MIT bragged that they would soon show us  a nanotech-made muscle suit that can heal and deflect bullets. In 2010, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon each showed off hydraulic-powered  exoskeleton suits designed to help soldiers carry heavier loads while putting minimal strain on their joints and ligaments.

And of course, let us never forget the super-strength cyborg penguin suit  of 2008.) So Warrior Web may not be an entirely original concept, but it's certainly the most ambitious. After all, it's basically underwear with strengthening and healing powers.

by "environment clean generations"

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Posted in: cyborg,darpa,Energy form Soldier's Underware,military,soldiers,technology

Can I Buy Land On Moon?

For now at least, the moon is like the sea: everyone can use it, but no one can own it. In 1967 the U.S. and the Soviet Union negotiated the Outer Space Treaty, which states that no nation can own a piece of the moon or an asteroid. 

“You have a right to go up and take the lunar soil, but you don’t have any right to draw a square on the surface of the moon and say, ‘That square is mine,’” says Stephen E. Doyle, a retired lawyer who served as NASA’s Deputy Director of Internal Affairs. If the Space Settlement Institute—which lobbies for private industry to develop land on other planets—has its way, new laws will allow space colonists to stake moon claims and start a colony.

Alan Wasser, the Space Settlement Institute’s chairman, says that a private company should build a “spaceline,” similar to an airline, between the Earth and moon. And because a corporation is not a nation, the Outer Space Treaty would not apply. Corporations have settled new worlds before. The London Company was a joint stock enterprise that established the Jamestown Settlement in 1607,providing transportation to pioneers in return for seven years of labor in America, where they cultivated tobacco and other crops for the company’s profit. 

Wasser says that land ownership—and the promise of profits based on it—is a necessary incentive to invest in space settlement. He is lobbying for legislation that would commit the U.S. government to honor future moon claims. But anyone can buy a deed to land on the moon right now. The Lunar Registry (“Earth’s leading lunar real-estate agency”) sells such deeds on its website for about $20 an acre. Doyle says that some kind of lunar governing body is necessary to recognize and enforce property rights, but no such body exists. So as it stands, the claims are not much more than fancy pieces of paper. 

 

Doyle says that future moon settlers could look to the Antarctic Treaty, which designates the continent as a scientific preserve and prohibits military activity or mining; 28 countries maintain research stations subject to review by the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, which oversees best practices of scientific research on the continent. “Anybody who understands the implications of imposing a national law on celestial bodies,” Doyle says, “understands we are better to treat it like Antarctica and the high seas than we are to treat it like Manhattan.” If not, he says, we would “take all the problems and contests we’ve had on the surface of the Earth for 5,000 years and extend them to outer space.”

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Posted in: Can I Buy Land On Moon?,industry,military,planets

Boeing Launches Search for Crucial Rare Earth Elements

Boeing has signed a deal to deploy remote sensing technology to map out U.S. deposits of rare earth elements. The rare earth family of minerals is the real-life version of the precious element "unobtanium" in James Cameron's movie "Avatar." 

They are used to make everything from military hardware to humble cell phones, but could soon be in short supply as worldwide demand outstrips mining production in China.

The aerospace and defense giant announced today that it will confirm rare earth mining claims held by U.S. Rare Earths, Inc. at locations in Idaho and Montana and also aid in the search for new deposits.

They’re very interested in finding and validating domestic reserves," said Patrick Kennedy, public relations coordinator for U.S. Rare Earths.

This marks the latest step in a global race to hunt down rare earth deposits. China currently supplies as much as 97 percent of the world's rare earth oxides, but has recently taken steps to cut back on exports and feed the growing demands of its own industries.

New rare earth mines in the U.S., Australia, Canada and South Africa won't start up until at least 2014, based on industry estimates. But major corporations such as General Electric and Toyota have begun quietly moving to secure their own supplies in case of a shortfall.

Staking out the deposits

Early lab analyses by Boeing have confirmed "light" and scarcer "heavy" rare earth elements in samples from the U.S. Rare Earths holdings.

One of the highest concentrations of rare earth elements appeared in a previously unannounced deposit staked out at North Fork, Idaho. Surveys showed about 5.8 percent rare earth elements on average within the deposit's rocks, said Ed Cowle, CEO of U.S. Rare Earths.

"We have found the total rare earth percentage in the North Fork area is much higher than anything we’ve found before," Cowle told TechNewsDaily.

North Fork notably contains large quantities of the rare earth element neodymium – a very magnetic substance used in everything from computer hard drives to wind turbines and Toyota's Prius hybrid car. Airliners and fighter jets also make use of neodymium.

Some North Fork samples showed neodymium concentrations as high as 3.7 percent.

Boeing also plans to tour U.S. Rare Earths deposits at Lehmi Pass, on the border between Idaho and Montana, and at Diamond Creek, Idaho, in late September.

Between the Lehmi Pass and Diamond Creek reserves, U.S. Rare Earths holds most of the current known deposits of "heavies" in the U.S., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

High-tech prospecting

Boeing's remote sensing technology will "greatly enhance" U.S. Rare Earth's capabilities in searching for new deposits of rare earth elements, according to Cowle.

The technology – the details of which have not been revealed – can scan wide areas from airplanes or satellites, and then identify rare earth elements or other substances based upon their spectral fingerprints – electromagnetic emissions that reveal a substance's chemical nature.

Boeing's decision to bring its technology to bear in the hunt for rare earth elements is not surprising, given that it is a massive end user of the metals.

Rare earth elements remain crucial not only for current consumer products such as cell phones, PCs and TV displays, but also for military technologies.

Tank sights, lasers, radar, missile-guidance systems, satellites and aircraft electronics all use rare earth elements, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office in an April report.

Still, U.S. Rare Earths cautioned that the findings represent just the first step down a long road toward opening new U.S. mines and building new refineries. Rebuilding an independent U.S. supply chain could take up to 15 years, according to experts.

Just one U.S. company, Molycorp, is currently producing rare earth materials from its stockpiles.

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Posted in: boeing,earth,elements,military,rare

Antarctic In Military Plans

Australia is being urged to be ready to defend its claim to Antarctic territory in its military planning, given inevitable global competition for the continent's rich energy resources.

Antarctica is thought to have the world's third-largest oil reserves, locked away by an international treaty that preserves the territory from exploitation.

             However, a Lowy Institute report released today warns that other countries are eyeing the abundant energy reserves as technology makes it easier to access the frozen continent.

             The big oil companies are working on ways of extracting energy resources from polar regions. Last week US regulators approved plans by Royal Dutch Shell to explore in waters off Alaska.

Australia claims 42 per cent of Antarctica, a claim that is not recognised internationally. The Lowy report warns that the government must stop thinking of Antarctica as a scientific playground and treat it as a national security issue.

               It calls for military personnel to take part in ''peaceful and scientific roles'' in operations in Antarctica and to hand responsibility for the territory to the Attorney General's department, with a strong national security focus.

The international treaty covering the Antarctic expires in 2048 but the report warns Australia is lagging behind other countries that are already working to bolster their claims.

               ''China is investing in a new ice-breaker ship, ski-equipped planes and helicopters as well as extensive Antarctic astronomy and astrophysics, and is refurbishing its stations for year-round occupation,'' the report says.

             

                The report - written by an officer on leave from the Prime Minister's department, Ellie Fogarty - also criticises transport both to and from, and within, the continent.

 

                 The government's recent $46 million investment in an ice runway at Wilkins airfield was largely wasted because of a lack of aircraft equipped to land on ice, the report says, and it also recommends the purchase of a new ice-breaker.

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Posted in: antarctica,australia,military