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The Coming Flood of Space Junk Can’t Be Stopped by Technology Alone | Defense One

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The number of manmade objects in orbit is set to triple in five years, a reflection of humanity’s growing dependence on ever-cheaper satellites for communication and imagery. Yet more spacecraft means more space debris to threaten them.

Technology can help. Sensors can track the larger pieces of orbiting junk, satellites can be built to dodge them, and giant nets may someday help collect cosmic litter, says Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, who directs the European Union Satellite Center. But what’s really needed, he said, are new international agreements governing how satellites are built and, eventually, degrade.

“This debris is already creating a huge problem because it’s hard to address,” Ducaru said in a conversation at the GLOBSEC security conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Source: The Coming Flood of Space Junk Can’t Be Stopped by Technology Alone – Defense One

Does the Connected Aircraft Need Electronically Steerable Antennas? | Via Satellite

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The future form, fit and function of commercial airplane antennas that enable high speed internet connectivity for passengers and pilots will be lower in profile with little to no moving parts, but whether or not those future antennas absolutely need to be electronically steerable is still up for debate.

Speaking on the “Satellite Tech Focus” panel at the 2019 Global Connected Aircraft Summit, JP Szczepanik, chief technology officer (CTO) of Phasor, said he believes that electronically steered antennas will be the disruptive technology that comes of age within the next generation of airplane in-flight connectivity antennas.

Source: Does the Connected Aircraft Need Electronically Steerable Antennas? – Via Satellite –

QinetiQ chooses ad-hoc networking from Persistent Systems for Army Common Robotic System-Individual UGVs | Military & Aerospace Electronics

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Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) experts at QinetiQ North America in Waltham, Mass., needed mobile ad-hoc networking capability for the company’s involvement in the U.S. Army Common Robotic System-Individual program. They found their solution from Persistent Systems LLC in New York.

QinetiQ is leading the Army’s team developing the Common Robotic System-Individual — better-known as CRS(I), which is a backpackable robot that weighs less than 25 pounds.

The CRS(I) UGV has an onboard sensor suite that enables infantry warfighters to detect threats and improve their situational awareness on the battlefield.

Source: unmanned ad-hoc networking situational awareness | Military & Aerospace Electronics

DARPA hires three companies for blended RF system to reduce size and ease technology insertion aboard UAVs | Military & Aerospace Electronics

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U.S. military researchers are involving three RF and microwave technology companies in $23.2 million effort to develop a blended RF system that combines radar, electronic warfare (EW), and communications components aboard medium-sized unmanned aircraft.

CONCERTO seeks to move away from collections of rigid and constrained RF systems to one converged approach that is scalable, agile, easily modified, facilitates technology insertion, and that makes the most of common RF apertures.

Source: blended RF system UAVs technology insertion | Military & Aerospace Electronics

House focuses on cybersecurity R&D in energy spending bill | FCW

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The House Appropriations Committee approved a series of cybersecurity-related research and development initiatives designed to tighten up protection to the electric grid and other energy systems as part of its annual spending bill for Energy and Water Development.

The bill, which passed committee on June 10, sets aside $150 million for Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency response services, $30 million higher than 2019-levels of spending. The measure is being teed up as one of four appropriations to be voted on by the full House in the first “minibus” of fiscal year 2020 funding bills.

Source: House focuses on cybersecurity R&D in energy spending bill — FCW

Lockheed Unveils Satellite Cloud Project | ExecutiveBiz

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Lockheed Martin considers implementing the cloud-based approach in space missions through its two satellite cloud platforms – SpaceCloud and HiveStar, GeekWire reported Wednesday.

Yvonne Hodge, vice president and chief information officer at Lockheed’s space business, unveiled the HiveStar project at Amazon’s re:MARS conference in Las Vegas.

“It’s not just about collecting the data and then sending it back to the ground for processing,” Hodge said of HiveStar. “It’s about analyzing the information in space … and then sending the knowledge, the intelligence back to Earth.”

Source: Lockheed Unveils Satellite Cloud Project; Yvonne Hodge Quoted | ExecutiveBiz

How can city governments protect themselves against ransomware attacks?

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Ransomware attacks have quickly become a preferred method of hacking with the emergence of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies that enable hackers to receive their ransom without being tracked and identified. The popularity of cryptocurrency has soared in the recent years with fluctuations in their value. As these currencies become more mainstream, so does the incentive of hackers to make a quick buck through ransomware attacks.

As I had warned before, we should expect ransomware attacks to become more frequent as cryptocurrency becomes more popular.

The bad news is that once a computer system is hacked with ransomware the options are very limited.

Source: How can city governments protect themselves against ransomware attacks?

Top U.S. Intelligence Official Says Cloud ‘One of Best Decisions We Made’ | Nextgov

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Sue Gordon, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, said the intelligence community’s $600 million bet on cloud computing in 2013 has more than paid off.

Speaking Tuesday in Washington at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit, Gordon said the decision to turn to a commercial cloud vendor to host an assortment of classified, sensitive data for intelligence agencies for analysis and other purposes was to “hedge our bets against” against a world of big data.

Gordon said the 17 agencies that comprise the intelligence community have kept pace with that world and singled out cloud computing as “one of the best decisions we made.”

Source: Top U.S. Intelligence Official Says Cloud ‘One of Best Decisions We Made’ – Nextgov

Bringing Open Standards for Safety Critical to the Automotive Industry | Design News

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Enhanced safety features are seen by many as the next major differentiator for vehicle manufactures looking to grow market share. At the same time, artificial intelligence is increasingly seen as a means to enable these advanced features and capabilities that were not previously considered possible or viable.

Advancing safety features by using sensor fusion in a vehicle to make tactical driving decisions is only seen as viable if using artificial intelligence, for instance.

The next-generation of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) support in vehicles needs to compute vast amounts of data using sensor fusion applications with decision-making capabilities in order to make sense of the environment in which vehicles operate and make safe tactical maneuvers and decisions.

This presents a growing need for neural network processing and multi-layer data compute stacks to receive and consume vast amounts of data from things like sensors, cameras, GPS, LiDAR 3D point data, ultrasonics, and V2X or V2V communication.

Moreover, there is a need for the layers in these systems to not only be technically efficient, but also compatible with existing automotive safety standards.

Source: Bringing Open Standards for Safety Critical to the Automotive Industry | Design News

Hollywood: Don’t Let 5G Madness Screw Up TV | Light Reading

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nullAmerica’s “race to 5G” is now running up against America’s love of television.

Specifically, some of the nation’s biggest content companies — including Disney, Discovery, CBS and Fox — are warning that the wireless industry’s latest 5G proposal could mess up video programming for up to 300 million people throughout the US.

“There ought to be at least as much time and thought devoted to protecting video downlinks [for TV] as there has been to the debate over private clearing vs. public auctions [for 5G spectrum],” wrote the content companies in a filing to the FCC.

Source: Hollywood: Don’t Let 5G Madness Screw Up TV | Light Reading