Month: January 2017

Enlarge / STERLING HEIGHTS, MI - AUGUST 26: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne speaks at an event celebrating the start of production of three all-new stamping presses at the FCA Sterling Stamping Plant August 26, 2016 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) (credit: Bill Pugliano)

On Thursday the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Fiat Chrysler (FCA) diesel vehicles were found to have "at least eight" instances of undisclosed software that modified the emissions control systems of the cars. The vehicles implicated in the EPA's Notice of Violation (NOV) include 2014, 2015, and 2016 diesel Jeep Grand Cherokees, as well as Dodge Ram 1500 trucks with 3.0-liter diesel engines. The allegations involve 104,000 vehicles, the EPA said.

The EPA says it's still in talks with FCA and hasn't ordered the company to stop selling affected cars yet, nor is it officially calling the illegal software a "defeat device" just yet until FCA provides a more detailed explanation.

In a press conference, agency officials said that the undisclosed software was discovered after September 2015, when the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) began doing additional testing on vehicles in the wake of the Volkswagen Group scandal.

When drone swarms attack. (credit: Department of Defense DVIDS)

The Department of Defense has released video of a test of swarming drones conducted in the skies over the US Navy's test range at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California. In the October test, conducted by the Department of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office in collaboration with the Naval Air Systems Command, three FA-18 Hornet aircraft dispersed 104 Perdix micro-drones from onboard flare dispensers. The drones then communicated with each other, swarmed, and performed a series of designated "missions"—including finally swarming in a circle around a designated point on the ground.

The sound of the drone swarm, audible from the ground at the designated rendezvous point (at about 2 minutes into the video below), might be described as terrifying. But we'll leave that judgment to the reader. In the course of the test, the drones demonstrated advanced swarm behaviors, including self-healing communications, self-adapting formation flying, and collective decision-making.

The battery-powered Perdix drones were developed at MIT's Lincoln Labs, and can be largely produced with a 3-D printer. "Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” Strategic Capabilities Office Director William Roper explained in a statement about the test. “Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”

A Google Titan drone.

Alphabet's airborne broadband plans no longer include drones, as the company says balloons are a more promising delivery mechanism for bringing Internet access to remote and rural areas.

Google bought drone maker Titan Aerospace in 2014 and began testing drones that could eventually be used to bring Internet connections to remote places. But the company quietly scrapped those plans nearly a year ago, 9to5Google reported yesterday. More than 50 employees were moved to other Alphabet projects.

"The team from Titan was brought into X in early 2016," Alphabet told 9to5Google. "We ended our exploration of high-altitude UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for Internet access shortly after. By comparison, at this stage, the economics and technical feasibility of Project Loon present a much more promising way to connect rural and remote parts of the world. Many people from the Titan team are now using their expertise as part of other high-flying projects at X, including Loon and Project Wing."

Enlarge / The Falcon 9 first stage approaches Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean after successfully launching CRS-6 to the International Space Station, April 14, 2015. (credit: SpaceX)

NASA advisers are continuing to express concerns about a SpaceX fueling process known as “load and go,” in which chilled fuel is loaded onto the rocket just 30 minutes before a scheduled launch. This week the agency’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel strongly encouraged NASA top management to “scrutinize” this issue as part of an annual report on safety concerns in US spaceflight, which could have significant implications for the commercial crew program.

SpaceX has gained notoriety during the last 13 months for landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on land, and at sea aboard an autonomous drone ship. One critical component to this success has been the use of a new fueling process that chills liquid oxygen to below -200 degrees Celsius, allowing more of this denser oxidizer to fit within the rocket’s fuel tanks. The additional fuel has provided SpaceX the margin needed to fly its boosters back to Earth after they delivered their payloads into space, especially those bound for geostationary orbit.

Because this super-chilled oxygen can warm quickly after it is loaded onto the rocket, SpaceX has adopted the “load and go” strategy. After implementing the new fueling process in December, 2015, SpaceX had been working toward using the same fueling methods when beginning crew flights to the International Space Station next year.