Why DARPA is Pursuing the Reusable Military XS-1 Spaceplane

SpaceX to Inspect Rockets – Plans to Re-Fly

Elon Musk, the optimistic and according to some a visionary, the founder of SpaceX has plans of colonizing Mars. Heading the considered technology office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Brad Tousley, had stated on May 15 that Elon wants to go beyond that. Musk, after landing three first stage rockets, had said that SpaceX would inspect the rockets with plans to re-fly most of them later. Tousley supervises DARPA’s space programs that tend to handle the Defense Department’s most complex expansion challenges.

He defined the landing of first stage rockets by SpaceX as well as Blue Origin as `a very impressive accomplishments’. The agency had added that DARPA had pointed out that the satellite launches on rockets need to be scheduled well in advance and tends to cost a lot of money. `DARPA developed its Experimental Spaceplane – XS-1 program in order to overcome challenges, creating a new model for more routine, responsive as well as affordable space operations. However, Tousley, during a speech at the GEOINT 2016 conference said that the XS-1 which was the experimental spaceplane of the agency, also had ambitious plans and he wants to launch again in 24 hours.

Launch 10 Times in Ten Days

DARPA’s XS-1 spaceplane preferably would launch 10 times in 10 days, carrying payloads that tend to weight as much as 1,369 kilograms in low earth orbit for $5 million. DARPA has been confirming a request for proposals for the second phase of the XS-1 progress program. That acquisition document could be released by the agency as early as this month, according to DARPA officials. As part of a public-private partnership, a contract award may come as early as 2017 with the first flight tests in 2020.

 Tousley has mentioned that DARPA would be contributing `a healthy fraction’ towards the growth of the spaceplane. The agency’s top funded space program has been XS-1, the last two years. White House had asked for $50 million for the program for fiscal year 2016, in its budget request. Three industry teams seemed to have worked on the first phase of the program, namely Boeing and Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems and XCOR Aerospace and Northrop Grumman and Virgin Galactic.

XS-1 – As Warning for Defense Department

During his speech, Tousley had emphasized on the importance of the quick turnaround for the spaceplane. He had stated that `one of the critical parameters coming out of the solicitation of the Phase 2, for XS-1, is the need that before the launch of this asset for the first time, vendors would be proving to DARPA through ground test of the propulsion system 10 times in 10 days and that they were going to burn a lot of risk down’. Tousley had also mentioned that XS-1 could also act as a warning for the Defense Department as threats to national security satellites have occurred in recent years.

He added that `if you have the ability to launch an asset in 24 hours, essentially on a moment’s notice, then it could cause an adversary to think twice about justwhat is it they want to do from a threatening standpoint. We think just having that competence as being of a preventive value’.

Brightest Laser Blows Up Water in Cinematic and Scientific First

Microscopic Movies of Water Vaporized by World’s Brightest X-ray Laser

The first tiny movies of water being vaporized by the world’s brightest X-ray laser have been recorded by the scientists who have captured dramatic video footage of what tends to take place when liquid droplets are hit with the beam of an X-ray laser. It is said that besides creating a sequence of enthralling videos, the data which has been gathered at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, in Menlo Park, California could provide some insight on X-ray lasers and how these tremendously bright, fast flashes of light tend to take atomic level snapshots of some of nature’s fastest progressions.

Claudiu Stan of Stanford PULSE Institute, which is a joint institute of Stanford University and SLAC, has commented in a statement, that `it could help in finding new ways of utilising explosions caused by X-rays to generate changes in samples and study matter under extreme conditions. These studies could be helpful in understanding better, an extensive range of phenomena in X-ray science as well as the other applications’. The team had inserted water in the path of the laser as successions of individual drops together with a continuous jet.

Explosive Interactions Unfolds/Delivers Clues

As each individual X-ray pulse hit the water, a single image had been recorded, timed from five billionths of a second to one ten-thousandth of a second after the pulse. Thereafter, these images were laced together creating the movies. Liquids have been usually utilised in putting scientific samples in the path of an X-ray beam for the purpose of analysis. The experiment provides in detail how the explosive interaction tends to unfold and delivers clues on how it could affect X-ray laser experiments.

 The study had been published recently in the journal Nature Physics. The video portrays the X-ray pulse ripping a drop of liquid apart that tends to create a cloud of smaller particles and vapour. When the X-ray pulse tends to hit a jet of liquid, it primarily tends to create a hole in the stream and as the gap seems to grow, the ends of the jet become like an umbrella-like shape, ultimately folding back to combine with the jet.

Mathematical Models to Describe Liquid Explosions

The researchers had developed mathematical models to describe the liquid explosions, from the data that had been collected during the experiments together with their resulting movies. These models could be helpful to researchers in tuning the lasers more accurately and would ultimately be utilised in experiments engaging very high powered X-ray lasers which could comprise the European XFEL. This laser is presently under manufacture in Germany which will fire thousands of time quicker than that of SLAC.

 Stan states that `the jets in the study took up to many millionths of a second to recover from each explosion, so if X-ray pulses come in faster than that, they may not be able to make use of every single pulse for an experiment. Fortunately, the data shows that they can tune the most commonly used jets in a way that they recover quickly and there are ways of making them recover even faster.

Bendable Smartphones are Going to be a Reality Soon

Moxi’s Bendable Phone – Style Statement – Rolled into a Bracelet

A Chinese start-up company, Moxi Group intends to roll out 100,000 of the devices to its home country at $1064 a pop. The bendable phone would serve as a style statement since they are intended to be rolled into a bracelet to be worn on the wrist, but their touchscreens would feature only a black and white display at the moment. The device tends to look like a long thin smartphone when it is unfolded, with a narrow screen and large battery towards the bottom.

Chongsheng Yu, Moxi executive vice president had informed Bloomberg that `black and white phone seems much easier to make and the colour model power usage seems much higher than the black and white unit. It would be sold in China and if there is demand overseas, the same would be looked into’.

The springy screens are based on `graphene’ technology wherein the carbon atom seems to be lined in a definite pattern, making them quite conductive as well as strong. The Chongqing-based company has overcrowded the battery, processor together with the other parts in one end of the gadget allowing the display to bend almost to a full circle.

The Only Flexible Technology

Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Canada, that had used the technology to produce a prototype five year ago, stated that `if they are using flexible e-ink then it is a real loser. He further added that it was the only flexible technology, they could get though the colours seems to be poor, the contrasts are poor and one can’t play videos on it.Mr Yu informed that the bendable phone was based on e-ink, which Amazon tends to use in its Kindle devices though is a progress since it utilises an improved touchscreen system.

The corporate name Moxi is Chongqing Graphene Tech Co,which hopes that there will be a demand for the devices to help increase sales as the market tends to take a downturn. According to Strategy Analytics, in the $423 billion industry smartphone sales fell for the first time in the first three months of the year. Moxi aims to surpass Samsung Electronics, the hi-tech behemoth which has started toying with flexible-screen technology. It is not known if the phones would be made available in the United States.

Low Resolution Black & White – Not Reliable

A graphene researcher at Manchester University, Aravind Vijayaraghavan, stated that `if one makes a working, bendable phone then it is a massive market. If they are going to release it commercially this year, he would be impressed. If one has a low resolution black and white screen which is not reliable, then that is not a commercial prospect’.

If the Moxi phone is not that impressive, its launch will still tend to be the first. For years Samsung had apparently been working on flexible screens, though the technology had not appeared in a consumer product. Moxi could be heading in the right direction, when the sales of the smartphone seems to be dropping with every tech company attempting to make a smartphone that is not just a glass-and-metal rectangle

WhatsApp Gold: Scammers Trick Mobile Phone Users Into Downloading Malware

WhatsApp Users Tricked in Downloading `WhatsApp Gold’

Unsuspecting WhatsApp users are tricked into downloading `WhatsApp Gold which is a high-class type of the app that tends to infect mobiles with malware. Several app’s users have informed that they have received messages advising them to sign up for the service through the WhatsApp Gold website that has been connected in the message. In the message the invitation link provided is goldenversiondotcom and clicking on it leads to an error 404 message. It is not known how many users have been affected due to this scam. It is said that the app is not available on Apple App store or Google Play store.

 The additional features of the apps which the scammers state had been earlier available to top celebritieswhich comprise of the capability of sending hundreds of pictures instantly, new emojis, enhanced security features, audio-visual calling and added customisation options. The whole thing is babble and downloading the program from the site would only infect the phone with malware probably permitting the cybercriminals to get hold of your data or track your activity and movements. Recently there has been an outbreak of WhatsApp Gold messages though the scam has prevailed in various forms for some time under the name of `WhatsApp Plus’.

Advise of Company – Not to Click Link

Users will essentially be banned if it detects this unauthorised software on their phone as mentioned in the FAQ section of the site that `WhatsApp Plus is an application that was not developed by WhatsApp, nor is it authorised by WhatsApp. WhatsApp Plus developers tend to have no relationship to WhatsApp and we do not support WhatsApp Plus. The company has also mentioned that they would never ask their users to download or upgrade another app over text messages.

 It has also mentioned that it would reach it users over official point of contact such as emails. The company has advised users not to click on the given link within the message. They have also cautioned them that the scam software could pass on private information `to the third parties without the `knowledge or authorisation’ of the user. It also advises the user to instantly uninstall the unauthorised app and urge them to wait 24 hours before they can utilise the real WhatsApp again. This is similar in some way to the Apple ID scam that had hit iPhone users last month.

Disregard/Delete Any Messages – Refrain from Installing

By plundering on the illiteracy of technology, the scammers utilised enticing or worrying grounds in urging individuals to download malware or hand over their delicate information. The best way as usual to evade the WhatsApp Gold scam is to disregard and delete any of the messages which tend to mention it. The only apps to be downloaded should come from the Google Play Store or the App Store.

Should there be any doubt regarding a too-good-to-be-true new app, one should refrain from installing the same.As per a recent report, WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging application in around 109 countries that is approximately 55.6% of the world and the firm tends to have more than a billion active users, monthly. Moreover the report also states that it has over 70 million users in India alone.

6 Big Changes Coming to Android Phones

Eric Risberg

Latest Version of Mobile Operating System – Android N

The important letter at Google’s concluded I/O conference after A, I, V and R, with regards to artificial and virtual reality, had to be N. Google presented the latest version of its mobile operating system, Android N and the company most probably would name it after a dessert starting with `n’ while keeping up with its habit of discerning with its sweet tooth while christening new releases of Android. While details are awaited from the Google officials, the following is the information coming from Android N when it will be shipped later this summer:

1. Split Screen Mode 

After many years when Samsung had added an option to a few of its Android devices with two apps to run alongside each other, Apple too had done the same thing in iOS 9 and now Google is catching up. Users would be capable of running two apps simultaneously, loaded one above the other or side by side.

2. Simpler Multitasking 

Changing from one app to another can get quite simple in N, wherein a tap of the latest app buttons will portray a seemingly endless list of every app one may have opened in recent history. Android N, instead tends to automatically sweep away app one has not used for some time. Google’s research displayed that most of the people tend to only flip through seven apps in the list and permit you to swipe the whole thing. In order to come back to the last app one had opened, you could just tap the latest app button twice.

3. More communicating notifications

Android N will be taking a standing option to respond to an app’s notification after it tends to appear over the screen by enabling you to carry on the complete conversations with the notification view. Where messaging app would now show only a performance of a message, with N, it would add a `Reply’ button.

4. Longer Battery life

The prevailing Android Marshmallow release tends to have an amazing feature known as Dose which suspends most of the app activity whenever the phone does not tend to be moving. N will expand this function to the extent when the phone could be moving though its screen is off, as in the case when a phone is not being utilised since it is in a pocket or purse.

5. Efficient Apps 

Reworked code needs o be cut down on the time apps need to install as well as trim their storage requirements. A new Data Saver choice will enable you to limit the appetite of the app for wireless data.

6. Security Tweaks

The Android mechanisms which tend to play media gets locked further down in N with more restricted access to the rest of the system and it’s a response to Stagefright susceptibility which last year could have been utilised to outbreak a phone by just sending a malicious multimedia message. Security updates of Android would also download and install in the background as they tend to do in Google’s Chrome OS. When the phone is restarted to complete the install, one will not have to wait for a long time while Android reinstalls each app. However, for an Android phone, in order to get these features, the manufacturer as well as the wireless carrier would have to ship the updates of an Android N to your phone.