Northrop Builds Tower Assembly For NASA Webb Telescope

Northrop Grumman has finished building components for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, connecting the spacecraft to the optical telescope element.

The company said its Astro Aerospace business unit designed the deployable tower assembly, a telescoping tower that contains composite components developed by ATK.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. contracted Northrop to design and develop Webb’s sunshield, telescope and…

Army Calling For Proposals On Soldier Pain Measurement Tech

The Army hopes to develop technologies that would eliminate subjective pain evaluations and objectively assess injuries, Wired reports.

Through the objective method for pain detection and diagnosis program, the Army’s Medical Research and Material Command wants to develop a device or biomarker system that can monitor and measure the intensity of soldiers’ pain.

Doctors would get…

DARPA Seeking Tech For Navigating Intel Language Texts

Intelligence analysts’ jobs could get easier with software that can dissect texts for trends and information, Nextgov reports. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to issue a solicitation for organizations to develop and submit software that can identify and interpret explicit and implicit information in texts.

DARPA’s deep exploration and filtering of text program would…

NIST To Host, Give Cloud Effort Update At June Forum

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is set to host a three-day cloud computing forum in June to discuss how cloud can be more interoperable, portable and secure. 

NIST will host the Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop V at Commerce’s headquarters in June, GCN reports..

Government executives from Asia, Europe and North America…

Army To Replace Vietnam-Era Armed Aerial Scouts

The U.S. Army is looking for a new armed aerial scout to replace the aircraft it has used since the Vietnam War, the Army announced on Sunday.

On April 25, the Army issued a request for information to replace its OH-58D Kiowa Warrior aircraft and expects to demonstrate proposed systems this summer or fall. 

There…

Army Calling Researchers For Algorithm-Based ‘Smart’ Bullets

The Army wants to outfit one of its chain guns already in use with a system that would feed 300 rounds a minute of any type of round, Wired reports. 

MC230 chain guns are installed on Apache helicopters, but the Army wants technology that will give the machine gun operator the ability to…

NOAA Launches Numerical Weather Prediction System; Louis Uccellini Comments

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has started using a new weather forecast computer model that updates hourly every hour to see 18 hours ahead, NOAA announced Tuesday. 

Rapid Refresh was developed by the agency’s Boulder, Colo-based Earth system research lab and its National Centers for Environment Prediction in Camp Springs, Md.

Weather updates will…

Energy Dept. Builds Big Data R&D Team

The White House announced its plan to pursue research and development efforts in order to mine big data at the end of March.

Six agencies said they planned to invest in R&D initiatives, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Geological Survey, the White House’s Office and Science and Technology Policy, the Defense Department…

Thad Allen: Border Control Could Benefit From iGoogle-like Tech

Border authorities should have access to a portal similar to iGoogle that would provide officials with real-time imagery and intelligence, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told NextGov.

The Coast Guard’s 23rd commandant said an iGoogle-like page would offer authorities intelligence on drug cartels, potential terrorists and additional figures attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Part…

Army Seeking Wind-Detecting Tech for Snipers

The U.S. Army is seeking wind-detecting technologies that could be used to help snipers improve their accuracy, NextGov reports.

Currently, military snipers use handheld anemometers or other methods such as the movement of grass or trees in order to gauge wind speeds. 

To improve snipers’ ability to gauge wind speed, the Army wants electronic devices…