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DARPA Celebrates 50 Years of Pushing the Envelope

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the big-envelopes dept.

holy_calamity writes "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was founded in 1958 after the Soviets shocked the world by launching Sputnik. New Scientist recounts the history of the agency charged with protecting the US from 'technological surprise' and lists some of its most spectacular successes and failures."

5 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. I'd never heard of Project Orion but... by DanWS6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The top cruise velocity that can be achieved by a thermonuclear Orion starship is about 8% to 10% of the speed of light (0.08â"0.1c). An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 3%â"5% of the speed of light.[citation needed] A nuclear pulse drive starship powered by matter-antimatter pulse units would be theoretically capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% to 80% of the speed of light.[citation needed] Missions that were designed for an Orion vehicle in the original project included single stage (i.e., directly from Earth's surface) to Mars and back, and a trip to one of the moons of Saturn. One possible modern mission for this near-term technology would be to deflect an asteroid that could collide with Earth. The extremely high performance would permit even a late launch to succeed, and the vehicle could effectively transfer a large amount of kinetic energy to the asteroid by simple impact. Also, an automated mission would eliminate the most problematic issues of the design: the shock absorbers. Interesting. I'm not sure about the efficiency claims but interesting nonetheless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
  2. DARPA and open source by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I worked on the DARPA COUGAAR distributed agent project they used lots of open source code and had no problems with donating code back. The whole PMD source code analysis tool started there and has lived on long after the sponsoring program ended... good stuff.

    --
    The Army reading list
  3. hear hear by WinPimp2K · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Really, just calling them failures shows a considerable failure on the part of the folks compiling the list. Lack of political will is not the same as lack of technical ability. And demonstration of negative results is also good for when the matter comes up again. The telepathic spies WILL come up again within 20 years as we get more and more unthinking morons in positions of budgetary power.(and the current crop of "consensus scientists" will need to find another scam when they hit middle age)

    And calling the exoskeleton a "current" project? There has been ongoing research into this before RAH ever dreamed of the Mobile Infantry.

    --

    You either believe in rational thought or you don't
    1. Re:hear hear by jank1887 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "current" project = project with "current" funding. It didn't say 'hot new project ideas'. The Army has a current project to develop Silicon Carbide power electronic devices. It's a decade or so old now. Significant progress has been made. There's still more to come. The idea is old. The project is current. See?

  4. Re:I wish this one wasn't killed.... by Hankapobe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some stuff is just unspeakably evil, or unspeakably dumb. A market for medical knowledge gained unethically, for example. This is one of those can/should discussions: the fact that an action is possible doesn't make it a bright idea:...

    Who would get hurt if there was a market of this type? If anything, it would save lives. I don't see anything unethical about it. If there was anything that was unethical it was the politicians killing this for political points.

    There's a huge industry that bets on when people will die. Is it unethical? It's kept many families from becoming destitute after the death of the bread winner. I'm talking about life insurance.