They literally turn the tide of battles and with the valuable intelligence and images they provide to command centres, have saved many soldiers, be it in the Middle East, Afghanistan or Eastern Europe.

Reconnaissance saves lives and in modern day war, going into an engagement without the intelligence from UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) drones, which are armed with sophisticated electronics for imagery and sensing, is like walking in blindfolded.

UAV drones and its impact would have taken on another dimension if the feasibility study done by Sandia National Laboratories and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation hadn’t been ended. Their project summary, which was obtained and published by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), indicates that scientists are checking out the possibility of nuclear-powered drones which will increase the operating time of drones by months.   Sandia however has since made the following statement: “Sandia is often asked to look at a wide range of solutions to the toughest technical challenges. The research on this topic was highly theoretical and very conceptual. The work only resulted in a preliminary feasibility study and no hardware was ever built or tested. The project has ended.”

Being a touchy area, the word “nuclear” was not mentioned in the project summary published by FAS.  But there are clear indications in the research summary that the researchers are working on power sources other than derived from petroleum products and that the primary source under investigation is nuclear.

The FAS points out at words used in the report such as “safeguards,” “decommissioning and disposal,” suggesting that the technology being considered is nuclear. Besides, Dr Steven B Dron, the lead investigator for the project at Sandia, is a nuclear propulsion expert, says FAS. Sandia hasn’t flatly denied FAS’s assumptions either.

The question was that in the quest for more surveillance time, is the army willing to take the nuclear risk, as there are possibilities of it becoming a “dirty bomb” if it happens to crash or be shot down over a rural area.

Then there is the possibility of the technology falling into the wrong hands. There have been instances when opposing forces have gotten their hands on drones and imagine if that drone happens to be one powered by nuclear technology. The consequences of such a technology falling into the hands of a rogue state could be disastrous.

The project would also likely to face opposition, both philosophical and political. So the likelihood of a nuclear-powered eye flying, rather permanently, over our heads will not happen in the near future.

Till thenThis project has ended, however others could surface, until then, the drones have to make pit-stops before going back to their peeping-tom duties.

The post Nuclear-Powered UAV Drones Not Happening Anytime Soon appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The new data/power cable is the handy work of inventors Titus Appel and Steve Sanderson (photo below).  At the moment PoF is currently limited to a fairly low capacity uses, so it won’t be bringing full power to your house while providing data, at least not any time soon. So what is PoF all about and what is aimed at? Imagine using it to power small devices like specialty sensors that could get both their power-source and data straight from the same cable line.

In the cable’s present incarnation, optical power goes through a single glass fiber, a laser diode at one end of that fiber emits light, while a miniaturized photovoltaic cell at the other end converts it into electricity. Power is only delivered on demand in order to save energy. PoF could change the way certain applications in fields involving security and safety get done, for example, they’ve already started testing it for uses such as low-energy detonator firing cables.

For now, the team is focusing on reducing the size, weight and costs associated with the technology while making it rugged enough for everyday use.

[ source via Sandia Labs ]

Fiber Optic Photo: wburris/flickr

The post Beaming Power and Data at the Speed of Light appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The technology that guides Tomahawks and big missiles to sharp hits is likely to arm the next generation sniper.

New Mexico-based Sandia National Laboratories is on its way towards perfecting a sniper bullet which incorporates the self-guiding capabilities which was so far reserved for big missiles. The prototype bullet has shown promising results according to Sandia and the lab is looking for private funding to complete its research and make a practical prototype that could be mass produced.

Snipers and sharpshooters, purists as they are, might say that the new technology will take away the romance of approximations and mental calculations normally associated with their profession.

Hollywood movies have immortalized snipers in action battlefields: wiping the sweat off their brows, controlling the heartbeat, checking and rechecking the scope, using mental math to visualize the trajectory to make minute adjustments, before letting it rip.

The new technology will definitely take away the sweat off a sniper’s brow and they are not likely to complain, after all they are in the business for accurate shots, not near misses.

The bullet is a technological marvel as it has managed to overcome the difficulties of using a guiding technology in a small projectile which is tough to control as it gets affected by the wind and other peripherals much more than a large missile.

Sandia’s four-inch-long bullet has an optical sensor in the nose to detect a laser beam on a target. The sensor sends information to guidance and control electronics that use an algorithm in an eight-bit CPU to command electromagnetic actuators which steer tiny fins on the bullet skin that guide it to the target.

Traditional bullets have grooves that make them spin when they leave the barrel to make it more accurate. Sandia’s bullet is different as it is designed not to spin so that its trajectory is easier to tweak during mid flight.

“To enable a bullet to turn in flight toward a target and to simplify the design, the spin had to go,” says Sandia researcher Red Jones.

“The bullet flies straight due to its aerodynamically stable design, which consists of a center of gravity that sits forward in the projectile and tiny fins that enable it to fly without spin, just as a dart does,” he adds.

Computer modeling shows the design would improve accuracy, said Jones. The company’s patent for the smart bullet says that simulations showed an unguided bullet under real-world conditions could miss a target more than half a mile away (1,000 meters away) by 9.8 yards (9 meters) while a guided bullet would get within 8 inches (0.2 meters).

Check out the bullet in trajectory in the video below.

The post Smart Bullet For Snipers Has Self-Guiding Technology appeared first on Mobile Magazine.