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Submission + - China confirms of new generation of ICBM (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: China's ownership of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United States is confirmed by state-run media

The DF-41 is designed to have a range of 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles), according to a report by Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems, putting it among the world's longest-range missiles

It is "possibly capable of carrying multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles", the US Defence Department said in a report in June, referring to a payload of several nuclear warheads. It also quoted a Chinese military analyst as saying: "As the US continues to strengthen its missile defence system, developing third generation nuclear weapons capable of carrying multiple warheads is the trend"

China's previous longest range missile was the DF-5A, which can carry a single warhead as far as 12,000 km, according to Jane's. The DF-5A had its first test flight in 1971, and has to be fuelled for around two hours prior to firing, limiting its effectiveness as a weapon, according to analysts

Submission + - New frontier of Arm Race - Hypersonic Vehicles (freebeacon.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: A new arm race has commenced.

The United States was first to develop near-space strike vehicles. Under the Prompt Global Strike program back when Bush was still the POTUS, the X-51, a scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle by Boeing, the HTV-2, a glide strike vehicle, and the X-37 space plane launched atop a rocket were developed

Now the Russian and the Chinese are getting into the act and are betting heavily on their own hypersonic weapons in an attempt to close the gap, and even trying to surpass what US has achieved so far

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said July 3 that Russian missile manufacturers must master the technology for both precision-guided and hypersonic weapons. Moscow has set a goal of 2020 to build its first hypersonic missile prototype

The Chinese military is working on a jet-powered hypersonic cruise missile in addition to an advanced high-speed glide warhead that was tested earlier this year

Large numbers of Chinese military writings in recent years have focused on hypersonic flight. The Chinese report outlines in technical detail how a scramjet-powered cruise vehicle operates at speeds greater than Mach 5 and discusses how to integrate airframe design with scramjet propulsion

The scramjet cruise vehicle was described in a technical military journal called Command Control & Simulation. The article was published by the 716 Research Institute of the state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., China’s largest maker of warships, submarines, and torpedoes. China’s hypersonic weapons are among the most secret programs within the Chinese military, along with anti-satellite weapons and cyber warfare tools

Larry Wortzel, a former China-based military intelligence officer, said Chinese hypersonic arms are what Beijing calls “assassins’ mace” weapons that will give China a strategic edge in any future conflict with the United States. “China is continuing with a number of programs to develop what Beijing considers to be ‘assassins’ mace’ weapons that defeat conventional defenses, including these hypersonic strike vehicles,”

Submission + - Was America's #1 Rocketeer a Communist Spy? The FBI thought so.

Submitted by IMissAlexChilton
IMissAlexChilton writes: Frank Malina masterfully led the World War II effort to build U.S. rockets for jet-assisted takeoff and guided missiles. As described in IEEE Spectrum, Malina’s motley crew of engineers and enthusiasts (including occultist Jack Parsons) founded the Jet Propulsion Lab and made critical breakthroughs in solid fuels, hypergolics, and high-altitude sounding rockets, laying the groundwork for NASA’s future successes. And yet, under suspicion by the Feds at the war’s end, Malina gave up his research career, and his team’s efforts sank into obscurity. Taking his place: the former Nazi Wernher von Braun. Read “Frank Malina: America’s Forgotten Rocketeer”. Includes cool vintage footage of early JPL rocket tests. Disclosure: I am a staff editor with IEEE Spectrum.

Submission + - NASA seeks private telecommunications provider for Mars missions. (gizmag.com)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.

Submission + - NASA seeks private telecommunications provider - to communicate with Mars (fbo.gov)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.

Now's your chance to contact your favorite VC to invest in this new adventure in the private space industry!

Comment Wrong date, should be 2084 (Score 1) 564

Clearly, he got the date wrong: Inspired for his never ending quest for progress, in 2084 man perfects the Robotrons, a robot species so advanced that man is inferior to his own creation. Guided by their ineffable logic, the Robotrons conclude: The human race is inefficient and therefore must be destroyed. Because of a genetic engineering error, you possess superhuman powers. Your mission is to stop the Robotrons and save the last human family.

Submission + - Can Computers Beat the Game of Go?

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Artificial intelligence programs seem to eventually beat humans at every game we've taught them to play: checkers, chess, Jeopardy, etc. But the ancient game of Go remains a challenge, and lately there's been a lot of attention paid to the AI researchers trying to master it. Wired recently described the tense man vs machine Go matches, and IEEE Spectrum explains the statistics-based algorithm that may soon allow Go programs to triumph over human grandmasters.

Submission + - 2600 Distributor Withholds Money, Magazine Future in Limbo (2600.com) 1

Submitted by themusicgod1
themusicgod1 writes: According to 2600, their distributor (Previously known as "Source Interlink", now recently renamed to "TEN: The Enthusiast Network") has decided to consolidate its resources and is keeping the money retailers paid for the last two issues of the quarterly magazine. 2600, in the meanwhile, is still busy trying to organize the upcoming HOPE X conference. However, according to the link: In the worst case scenario, being ripped off at this level would make it almost impossible for us to continue publishing. We would have to make a lot of painful choices and cut back on things for no reason other than some outside company's mismanagement. Our readers have supported both our print and digital publications and we've been doing quite well overall.

Submission + - National Science Foundation rejects proposal to teach undergrads how to code (software-carpentry.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Greg Wilson from Software Carpentry blogged about the NSF's rejection of their proposal to include software training for undergraduate students.
The reason for the rejection seems to be due to the perception that "most undergraduates only use GUIs and cannot navigate the terminal to save their lives."

Greg says, "The panel did not connect the results from years of Software Carpentry workshops and the expected impact of this effort. This indicates that the proposal did not effectively communicate how well our experience to date has laid the groundwork for efforts like this."

Submission + - HDMI 2.0 reaches the stores, delivers 4K UHD but not totally nor anything else. (technedigitale.com)

Submitted by tafinho
tafinho writes: Although HDMI 2.0 was released in September last year, first TVs with HDMI 2.0 have only reached the market over the last few weeks. This meant finally people can enjoy their 4K Ultra Super Hyper High Def content from something into a TV. Unfortunately, there aren't as many devices outputting 4K content. This article compares what HDMI 2.0 promised, what it really delivers, and what about that HDMI 1.4 cable compatibility, or not...

Submission + - Walkmouse is an Elegant, Motorised Omni-Directional Treadmill Built for VR (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Road to VR take a look at a new omni-direction treadmill with no harness that lets you move untethered through a virtual environment.

"The device houses 100s of motorised spirals which detect traction and respond by spinning under your feet to simulate the ground moving underneath them. At the same time, the unit reads input data from your actions which can be fed into an application or game experience."

Submission + - Should Billionaire-Backed Code.org Pay Its Interns?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Code.org's Corporate and Founding Donors page reads like a Who's Who of the world's wealthiest corporations and individuals. But a job posting entitled Marketing / Communications Intern (Seattle only, part-time, unpaid, Sept-Dec) (screenshot) makes it clear that no portion of the tax-deductible donations will trickle down to the successful candidate, who will be required to put in an unpaid 10-20 hours/week "under pressure" in a "fast-paced environment" for four months "assisting marketing efforts for December’s global Hour of Code campaign, coordinating prize packages, managing partner commitments and events in databases and researching media prospects." So, does this count as one of the "high-paying jobs" provided by the computing revolution that Code.org supporters told California Governor Jerry Brown about last May in a letter touting the Hour of Code? Perhaps Code.org is just trying to be frugal — after all, it's requiring K-12 teachers from school districts in Chicago, New York City, Boston, and Seattle to report to the presumably rent-free offices of Corporate Donors Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to be re-educated on how Computer Science should be taught.

Submission + - Crowdsourcing a Time Capsule to send to Mars (timecapsuletomars.com)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: In what is claimed to be (and probably is) the largest crowdsourced project ever, a group of students, advisors, and industry sponsors are planning to send a "time capsule" to Mars by charging 99 cents for each person that wants to upload a file, be it a photo, text, or what have you, to their website. They need to raise $25 million to pull this off (that's a lot of files!). The uploaded files will be loaded onto a small form factor satellite which will be launched to land on Mars and (hopefully) be found by explorers sometime in the future.

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