Funding for US-German airborne observatory cut

Posted on by

PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) NASA plans to mothball its infrared airborne observatory unless it can get some financial help from international partners.

President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2015 released Tuesday slashes funding for the U.S.-German project from $84 million to $12 million.

"Budgets are about making choices," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

NASA is the main backer of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA for short, which scans the skies for celestial objects that give off radiation in infrared wavelengths that are not visible to the human eye.

The high-flying observatory, which cost about $1.25 billion to develop, has a history of delays and cost overruns. It made its first observations in 2010 and reached full operational capability last month.

The two NASA centers in charge of the project, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Southern California and Ames Research Center in Northern California, learned about the proposed cut last week.

"It was a surprise to all of us," said David McBride, head of NASA Armstrong, formerly known as the Dryden Flight Research Center.

SOFIA consists of a 40,000-pound telescope that's mounted in the rear of a modified jumbo jet. During flight, a hatch opens to allow the 100-inch diameter telescope to see its targets.

Flying between 39,000 feet and 45,000 feet, SOFIA has an advantage over ground-based telescopes because it doesn't have to peer through the water vapor in the atmosphere.

NASA previously said SOFIA was expected to last at least 20 years. The observatory will continue flying through September. If there's no extra funding, then the space agency will have to put it in storage.

See the original post here:

Funding for US-German airborne observatory cut

SAGE acquires 2 leading Science History Journals

Posted on by

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Mar-2014

Contact: Katie Baker Katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk 020-732-48719 SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (March 04, 2014) SAGE a leading independent academic and professional publisher today announced the acquisition of two new Science History Journals. History of Science and Journal for the History of Astronomy, formerly published by Science History Publications Ltd, will be published by SAGE as of March 2014.

History of Science, edited by Iwan Rhys Morus, Aberystwyth University, is one of the forerunning journals publishing peer reviewed research on the History of Science, medicine and technology. Article topics cover discussions around methodology, and reviews of the current state of knowledge within the discipline. The Journal for the History of Astronomy, edited by Michael Hoskin, University of Cambridge, is the only journal devoted to the history of astronomy. Its articles focus on fields including the history of mathematics and physics and the use of historical records in the service of astronomy. SAGE will also be hosting the archives of both journals back to Volume 1.

"We are delighted to include these two leading titles in our growing portfolio of journals on the history and philosophy of science," said Karen Phillips, Editorial Director, SAGE. "Over many decades, both journals have published authoritative, high quality material to guide, support and inform researchers within both History of Science and astronomy. In an increasingly competitive journals environment, we will ensure the journals continue to grow their readership and impact.

"It is over fifty years since we first published History of Science, which was soon followed by Journal for the History of Astronomy. Science History Publication Ltd was set up as an independent publishing firm to be the home for both of these journals. The editorial teams at both are, however, delighted, to now be passing these journals to SAGE, a publisher whom we know will ensure their long term sustainability and impact within the market", commented Michael Hoskin, Founding Editor. "We believe that SAGE shares our commitment to promoting research of the highest quality and supporting access to a wide breadth of information. We look forward to seeing these journals grow and develop a successful future with SAGE."

###

The new websites for each journal can be accessed here (History of Science) and here (Journal for the History of Astronomy) respectively.

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com

Read the original post:

SAGE acquires 2 leading Science History Journals

ICCM 2013: Carlos Castillo (ChaTo), QCRI: Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR) – Video

Posted on by


ICCM 2013: Carlos Castillo (ChaTo), QCRI: Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR)
ChaTo Castillo from the Qatar Computing Research Institute discusses Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR). This talk will present the AIDR pl...

By: CrisisMappersNet

Read this article:

ICCM 2013: Carlos Castillo (ChaTo), QCRI: Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR) - Video

Apple shifts gears with CarPlay, its response to Google Now

Posted on by

With Apple's new integration into automobiles, the company wades into the complex waters of predictive services.

There is, of course, now a watered-down version of Google Now for iOS users. And there are some bifurcated iOS apps that try to replicate the experience, but so far, nothing officially from Apple.

Until now. And it doesn't come on a handset. At the Geneva International Motor Show on Monday, Apple unveiled CarPlay, an integration that ties Apple's mobile operating system into automobiles, allowing for voice-enabled and touch-screen control of things like maps, driving directions, and music. Previously dubbed "iOS in the Car," the service supports third party music apps like Spotify and iHeartRadio, and will be available in cars from manufacturers like Ferrari, Mercedes, and Volvo.

But perhaps the most interesting bit of the announcement was a few innocuous details about CarPlay's artificial intelligence capabilities. The software will be able to scan through a user's data, such as his or her calendar or e-mails, to try to pull up relevant destinations and driving directions. And with that, Apple has made its biggest push into predictive services. (The company, of course, already has had its personal assistant Siri since the release of the iPhone 4S, but thus far, the service hasn't had an emphasis on technology based on the user's context.)

Noting that other apps already do predictive services and do them well, Gartner analyst Thilo Koslowski said Apple's decision to introduce the technology on car dashboards rather than the iPhone was rooted in giving the technology a specific use.

"This type of intelligence and pro-activeness helps to address one of the key safety aspects: minimizing distracted driving," said Koslowski, who covers automotive technology.

The technology also adds another element to Apple Maps, which had a difficult start, mired with bugs and spotty navigation. If the service is so quick to offer up directions that a user thinks, "well, it's already on my screen, I might as well use it," then Apple wins goodwill from a user, and more importantly, a trove of driving data from another customer. That data also goes into making the Maps product better.

"My calendar knows where I am all the time. But when I get into my car, I still have to input a location into my GPS," said Thierry Donneau-Golencer, co-founder of Tempo, a personal assistant app focused specifically on the calendar. He said he thinks Apple's race to put predictive technology into automobiles is just one part of the puzzle in the company trying to make iOS prevalent at all times. (Donneau-Golencer said Tempo, for its part, also has been approached by three major auto manufacturers for car integrations since the company launched last year.)

Anytime a company is sifting through your data, there is always concern regarding security and privacy. The unique challenge here, Koslowski said, is in the way people think about their cars. He argues that unlike a phone, which is as personal a device as ever but is still impersonal enough to be subsidized by a cellular carrier, the car is still much more private. "It's like your cocoon," he said. "You close your door and turn up the music," he said, adding that people would be more outraged than normal to have their privacy invaded regarding their driving habits.

Still, getting a customer hooked on the technology in the car means that the company can eventually expand on it out of the vehicle, especially in the arenas of wearables and home appliances. Google beat Apple to the punch with Google Now, a stellar predictive product. "But the car is a good place to start," said Donneau-Golencer.

Read more here:

Apple shifts gears with CarPlay, its response to Google Now

Ohio State University, Dept of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering – Engineering Challenges – Video

Posted on by


Ohio State University, Dept of Mechanical Aerospace Engineering - Engineering Challenges
The mission of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is to educate the future leaders of mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering to ge...

By: WebsEdgeEducation

Continued here:

Ohio State University, Dept of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering - Engineering Challenges - Video

3-D Printing in the Aerospace Industry: How General Electric and United Technologies Are Using This

Posted on by

If you're following the 3-D printing space, you might know that aerospace companies are gung-ho about 3-D printing technology and are quickly embracing it. While General Electric (NYSE: GE) gets the lion's share of the press, its primary competitor,United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) , and other aerospace companies are also involved, to varying degrees, with 3-D printing technology.

We're going to explore a sampling -- it's by no means complete -- of how General Electric and United Technologies, which both have divisions that produce jet engines, are using or planning to use 3-D printing in their production processes. Both companies, like many large manufacturers, have been using 3-D printing for prototyping for many years.

Why should aerospace investors care? Aerospace companies that more quickly and successfully put to use 3-D printing throughout their operations will likely sport a competitive advantage over their slower-moving or less effective peers because of the considerable cost savings and innovative possibilities that this technology can unleash.

Why the aerospace industry is all-aboard the 3-D printing train (or plane)The aerospace industry is keen for 3-D printing for the same reasons many other industries are -- the technology can save time and costs, and it allows for increased innovation.

The cost savings are driven by a few factors, including less raw material use than in traditional manufacturing. This is because 3-D printing is additive, and builds a component up layer by layer, rather than subtractive like traditional manufacturing, which involves whittling away at a chunk of material -- a process that generates much waste. Increased innovation is made possible because 3-D printing allows for designing and producing some parts that can't be made using traditional manufacturing processes.

While raw material cost savings aren't a benefit unique to the aerospace industry, they're a bigger factor than in most other industries because aerospace-grade materials, such as titanium, are very pricey.

There is one big factor rather unique to the aerospace industry: weight. Weight is of critical concern for aerospace components, as small reductions in weight lead to huge savings in fuel costs. 3-D printing allows for some components to be constructed in a such a way as to make them considerably lighter than would be possible using traditional manufacturing techniques. Weight, of course, is a factor among automakers, too, but not to the same magnitude.

General Electric: $255 billion market capGeneral Electric's big push into 3-D printing started when it bought Morris Technologies in late 2012. This acquisition gave GE a full-scale 3-D production facility near its aviation division's Ohio headquarters, as Morris was then equipped with 35 3-D printers, mainly comprised of privately held EOS's direct metal laser sintering systems, along with at least one or two of Arcam's (NASDAQOTH: AMAVF) electron beam melting, or EBM, systems.

In mid-2013, General Electric announced it planned to use 3-D printing to produce the fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet-engine, each of which will contain 19 nozzles. This is a huge undertaking, as GE needs to fabricate 85,000 nozzles for the engine orders it has in hand, and expects its annual production to eventually require 45,000 nozzles, according to a Bloomberg article.

The company's massive nozzle production goals would require it to buy at least 60 very pricey 3-D printers, which isn't cost effective. So GE plans to use current technology to ramp up its production while also working with supply chain manufacturers to develop new higher-capacity systems.

Read the original here:

3-D Printing in the Aerospace Industry: How General Electric and United Technologies Are Using This

AIP Aerospace Welcomes The Addition Of Flow Aerospace Systems

Posted on by

AIP Aerospace, a world-leading provider of aircraft tooling systems and composite parts, welcomes Flow Aerospace Systems to its family. Previously a part of Flow International, Flow Aerospace Systems is the worlds leading provider of equipment for machining large, composite aerostructures, using both waterjet technology and conventional routing.

Located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, Flow Aerospace designs and manufactures efficient and advanced turn-key composite machining solutions for the aerospace industry. These composite machining solutions include multi-process machine tools that waterjet cut, drill, route and inspect large composite aerostructures, primarily wing and fuselage skins, for customers such as Boeing, Airbus, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Bombardier, Embraer, and COMAC.

To lead Flow Aerospace into its new home with AIP Aerospace, Simon Kenworthy has been appointed Vice President and General Manager. With more than 23 years experience in the waterjet industry, 14 of which have been spent exclusively in aerospace applications, Simon brings with him expertise in engineering, operations, project management, and sales and marketing.

Flow Aerospace will be an ideal fit within our existing customer base and aerostructure tooling business, stated Brian Williams, CEO of AIP Aerospace. Were happy to welcome the leading industry experts at Flow Aerospace and expand our service offering.

About AIP Aerospace

AIP Aerospace is one of the largest independent aerospace tooling group providers and suppliers of high temperature composite parts, critical components, aircraft structures, transparencies, and coating technologies. Our strategically aligned Tooling Group and Aerostructures and composites companies harness the unrivaled expertise of our dedicated industry professionals and state-of-the-art facilities across the US. Visitwww.aipaerospace.comfor more information.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

See more here:

AIP Aerospace Welcomes The Addition Of Flow Aerospace Systems

Ball Aerospace-built GMI Instrument Begins Operations Onboard NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Satellite

Posted on by

The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager started to spin at its normal rate today and collect science data on Earth's rain and snowfall.

Launched aboard NASA's GPM Core Observatory on February 27, GMI's electronics have been turned on and all seven launch restraints released, deploying the instrument. GMI, a multi-channel, conical-scanning microwave radiometer built for NASA, began spinning today collecting the first science data of the mission. The GMI will complete several additional check-out procedures during the commissioning process.

"GMI is on the way to setting a new standard for data accuracy that will provide more timely, detailed information forecasters need to track extreme weather events," said Ball Aerospace President Rob Strain. "Using GMI's data, the world's scientists will have a more accurate picture of the world's precipitation dataset."

The Ball Aerospace-built instrument will deliver more frequent and higher quality data collection than currently available. The eight-foot tall GMI radiometer rotates at 32 revolutions per minute and uses four extremely stable calibration points on each revolution to calibrate the data it scans. The instrument minimizes solar intrusion for added accuracy and features higher frequency channels to measure smaller particles of precipitation such as light rain and snow.

GMI is an essential part of an international satellite mission that will capture next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. The GPM Core Observatory will deliver unprecedented 3-D views of hurricanes and snowstorms and contribute to monitoring and forecasting weather events such as droughts, floods and landslides.

GMI is one example of Ball's long support of the country's weather and climate monitoring efforts. The GPM constellation includes the Ball Aerospace-built Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite which launched in 2011 and the first Joint Polar Satellite System, currently in development at Ball, both of which will enable faster, more accurate weather forecasting. GPM, along with these two satellites, will significantly enhance our nation's ability to prepare for severe weather events.

GMI's design is based on successful microwave sensors built previously by Ball Aerospace, including the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C), the GEOSAT Follow-On (GFO-2) and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS).

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information, visit http://www.ballaerospace.com/.

Ball Corporation (BLL) supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2013 sales of $8.5 billion. For more information, visit http://www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

More:

Ball Aerospace-built GMI Instrument Begins Operations Onboard NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Satellite

Comets' Leo Gibson Takes MISL Honors

Posted on by

March 3, 2014 - Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Missouri Comets INDEPENDENCE, Missouri (March 23, 2014) - The Major Indoor Soccer League announced the first round of the 2013-14 MISL Award Winners on Monday as the Missouri Comets' Leo Gibson took home two honors. Milwaukee Wave's Ian Bennett and Baltimore Blast's William Vanzela were also honored for their standout seasons.

In his first full season as a forward, Gibson led the league in both points and assists as he finished the season on top of the Individual points race with 76, nine points ahead of Syracuse's Kenardo Forbes. Gibson also took home the assists crown with a late surge that saw him record eight helpers in his final five games to give him 25 for the season, three ahead of Milwaukee's Marcio Leite.

Bennett took home the league's Golden Boot award as he recorded 27 goals for the Wave. Bennett's goals and points totals were both career bests, and he posted a second consecutive season with more than 60 points. Included in Bennett's haul this year were four games in which he scored three goals or better, including a five-goal game against Missouri in the Wave's opening game of the season.

Vanzela, meanwhile, had an outstanding season in goal for the Blast. The 2013 MISL Championship Series MVP set a record for the current era of the MISL with a 5.30 points-against average as he helped the Blast claim the MISL regular season championship. Vanzela's mark was almost half that of his nearest rival, the Milwaukee Wave's Marcel Feenstra (10.06) as he recorded a pair of shutouts in 15 appearances.

Vanzela and the defending MISL champion Blast kick off the 2014 MISL Playoffs on Friday night as they open their series against the Syracuse Silver Knights at The Oncenter War Memorial at 7:30 p.m. ET. The action then switches to Baltimore Arena next Tuesday, March 11 for Game 2 and a potential mini-game should the teams split the opening two games of the series.

Milwaukee and Missouri, and Bennett and Gibson, will face off in the other semifinal in a rematch of last season's thrilling playoff series with the Comets set to host Game 1 on Sunday afternoon at 3:10 p.m. CT at the Independence Events Center. The action then heads to Milwaukee on Monday night at 7 p.m. CT as the Wave host Game 2 and a potential mini-game at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

The remainder of the 2013-14 MISL Award Winners, including MVP, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, the All-Rookie Team and All-MISL Teams will be announced prior to the 2014 MISL Championship Series.

MISL 2013-14 Regular Season Honors

Scoring Champion

Leo Gibson, Missouri Comets

Go here to read the rest:

Comets' Leo Gibson Takes MISL Honors