Radar Anomalies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Falcon_Project
"The prototype Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) first flew on 22 April 2010; the second test flew 11 August 2011. Both flights ended prematurely."

Superfast Military Aircraft Crashed in Pacific Ocean, DARPA Says

An unmanned military plane billed as the "fastest aircraft ever built" crashed into the Pacific Ocean today (Aug. 11) after a malfunction caused it to stop sending signals while flying at more than 20 times the speed of sound, military officials said.

The flying prototype, called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), plunged into the ocean after shifting into a mode that allows it to fly Mach 20, or about 13,000 mph, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversaw the test flight.

The rocket-launched vehicle is part of an advanced weapons program, called Conventional Prompt Global Strike, which is working to develop systems of reaching an enemy target anywhere in the world within one hour. It blasted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:45 a.m. PDT (1445 GMT). [Photos: DARPA Hypersonic Glider's Mach 20 Test]

"More than nine minutes of data was collected before an anomaly caused loss of signal," DARPA officials explained in a statement. "Initial indications are that the aircraft impacted the Pacific Ocean along the planned flight path."

The update means that today's Falcon HTV-2 test flight, the second performed by DARPA, lasted longer than the project's first flight in April 2010. That first flight lasted nine minutes and ended when an earlier hypersonic vehicle detected an anomaly and also crashed itself into the ocean.

"Here's what we know," said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager, in a statement. "We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight." [10 Military Aircraft that Never Made it Past the Test Phase]

DARPA officials said that according to telemetry from today's HTV-2 flight, the hypersonic vehicle separated from its Minotaur 4 rocket booster as planned, then shifted into the proper configuration for Mach 20 flight — a major feat.

What happens next, though, is a mystery.

"We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight," Schulz said. "It's vexing; I'm confident there is a solution. We have to find it."

The Falcon HTV-2 aircraft is a wedge-shaped plane equipped with thrusters and aerosurfaces designed to provide control during hypersonic flight. It is built to withstand extreme heating since the flying at Mach 20 can subject it to temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, according to DARPA officials, who called it the fastest flying vehicle ever constructed.

"To address these obstacles, DARPA has assembled a team of experts that will analyze the flight data collected during today's test flight, expanding our technical understanding of this incredibly harsh flight regime," Schulz said. "As today's flight indicates, high-Mach flight in the atmosphere is virtually uncharted territory."

To reach hypersonic speeds, the HTV-2 launched into suborbital space atop a Minotaur rocket. The vehicle then popped free of the booster and re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

During today's test flight, DARPA scientists expected the HTV-2 aircraft to use small rocket thrusters to control its re-entry, then pitch itself up to increase altitude and control. After that, the vehicle was expected to enter a long glide phase in order to perform a set of preprogrammed maneuvering tests while flying at about 13,000 mph.

Once those tests were complete, the vehicle was expected to crash itself into the ocean to end the mission. But during the actual flight, ground stations lost contact with the HTV-2 vehicle earlier than planned.

An engineering review board to analyze that data in order to help shape future global strike programs, DARPA officials said.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

these pictures are WILD! They're so crazy they almost look Photoshopped, but I'm inclined to believe they're not. Is this all just a coincidence that the morphed composite anomalies also appear and DARPA's gem, the HTV-2, crashed itself into the ocean after 9 minutes of flight when it "detected an anomaly"?

Brain Computer Interfacing

DARPA: Human Trials Planned For Brain Computer Interface Mind Control « on: Today at 05:10:39 PM »

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http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/human-trials-planned-for-brain-computer-interface

It's time once more to check in on the pioneers of brain computer interface technology.

The last time the world heard from Andrew Schwartz and his colleagues at the Motorlab, he was teaching monkeys how to pluck marshmallow treats with a thought-driven robotic arm. This year, those lovable macaques will finally step aside and give the humans a try.

With funding from DARPA and the NIH, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, led by Dr. Schwartz, will soon begin clinical trials on two different techniques for plugging into human brain power—one which collects neural impulses with an array of electrodes placed on the surface of the brain, and another that implants the electrodes directly into the tissue.

The first approach (ECoG, or electrocorticography) records a signal from a large population of neurons, while the second (SUR, or single unit recording) listens in on single cells. Both data sets, however, will be filtered into usable information that can then drive complex tasks with computers and robotic limbs.

But this takes training on both the human and machine ends of the equation. The algorithms in the machine must first learn the patterns of brain activity that occur when the human is either imagining or physically carrying out a task. As the system becomes familiar with the neural commands, the patient's control over it becomes more seamless.

The researchers took a preliminary look at how this training works by temporarily implanting one of the arrays in a patient undergoing open brain surgery as treatment for severe epilepsy. A video of the results shows a woman trying to play a computer game by imagining the moves. When she loses control of the ball on the screen, the patient throws out a physical cue—raising her am—to help the computer refine its estimation of her intentions.

Michael Boninger, the lead physician on the UPMC trials, says that training happens very fast. "You can see some changes in a matter of a session or two," he says.

He hopes to recruit three people for each trail, all with spinal cord injuries—which shouldn't be terribly hard, given the enthusiasm Boninger has encountered from people with severe disabilities.

"We get a ton of excitement from people we talk to," he says. "It has the potential to be the single most enabling technology for people with disabilities."

You can look for the experiments to be up and running this summer.

The EXACT same symptoms shown by the guy who volunteered for this experiment are seen in the news reporters. None of the reporters, in followup medical exams, were found to have suffered stroke - which might otherwise explain such neurological malfunctions. But saying this is 'nervousness' is really ridiculous.



"It's not my finger anymore..."

IMMORTAL HYBRIDS

Pentagon Ignores the Warnings of Splice and Jurassic Park in Breeding Artificial « on: Today at 01:11:33 PM »

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I was prepared for a robot revolution. Now I fear a different kind of man-made monster, one more akin to the Chimera seen on The Island of Dr. Moreau and in this year's Sundance flick Splice. Why? Robots have fallen on hard times. While the military is scrapping plans for its own autonomous killing machines, guess what the Pentagon is up to? Trying to breed an army of synthetic organisms that can live forever.

In its 2011 budget, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has allocated $6 million for BioDesign, a project to create artificial life. The unclassified document doesn't say how the new life-forms will be used, but I'm guessing they won't be making biofuels or absorbing greenhouse gases. More likely, the agency is aiming for Moreau's ungodly brand of "divine human."

Here's what we know: they want to develop "a robust understanding of the collective mechanisms that contribute to cell death," so as to "enable a new generation of regenerative cells that could ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely." This could lead to one badass super-soldier.

The lab monsters will be made by inserting alien DNA into another organism's genome. No, wait: that's how they do it in sci-fi horror flicks like Species and Doom. We don't know what DNA they're using. Whatever it is, it will be traceable and "tamperproof" (presumably so the creatures can't be manipulated to aid the enemy). If you find yourself on the wrong end of this thing's hit list, Wired's Danger Room notes, there is a "self-destruct" option, to be implemented "upon nefarious removal of organism." In other words, think twice before you try to pull it off your face.

Should the creatures mutate, or try kill their creators or take over the world, there's a genetically coded kill switch. Of course, there were kill switchs in Jurassic Park, too: the dinos were bred without the ability to produce the amino acid lysine (so they would die if the park staff stopped feeding it to them), and they were all female (so they couldn't reproduce). But as their creator, John Hammond, learned, "Life will find a way."

Our best hope is that DARPA will decide to do its testing on a remote island or an abandoned space station. That way, the only victims will be the few poor souls who stumble upon it.

http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2010/02/pentagon-synthetic-organism-splice.php

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2684925/biodesign_a_project_established_by.html?cat=15

"BioDesign" is a project which goal is to create artificial life forms that will live forever, or until they are allowed to die.

U.S. Department of Defense's, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2011 financial year will support 6 million dollar project, which aims to create artificial life forms. It is believed that such organisms could live virtually forever.

The new DARPA project, ordered by the Pentagon, is called "BioDesign". According to DARPA representatives, it will use the most recent developments in biotechnology and will permit genetic engineering to create living, breathing organisms capable of offering certain biological characteristics.

The Agency shall not publish whether these artificial organisms will be multicellular, it only highlights the fact that their cells will be resistant to the aging process and death. For example, cancer cells have similar characteristics.

These new creations will be introduced with DNA markers which will help to identify them similar as firearms are identified by the serial numbers. It also seeks to protect them from the activities of the program change.

DARPA also wants to introduce them with a "switch", which will act at the level of lasting cells and its purpose will be immediate self-destruction.

It is reported that DARPA is also planning to allocate 20 million dollars for the new synthetic biology program. The agency is planning to invest another 7.5 million dollars in genome analysis and acceleration of the exchange program.

In New York University Biology Professor David Fitch's view, DARPA seeks to change the viewpoint of evolution as a random sequence of events. However, the objective to create immortal beings can be too difficult. Recent developments in gene therapy, which were achieved by inserted artificial genes into the bodies of mice to increase cell longevity, prolonged their life by only 20 percent.

"BioDesign" program description is represented in the DARPA 2011 draft budget in page 265. ...