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NASA Eyes Commercial Partnerships for Next Space Station Development; Phil McAlister Quoted
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NASA Eyes Commercial Partnerships for Next Space Station Development; Phil McAlister Quoted

NASA plans to partner with commercial companies for the development of future space-based facilities as the International Space Station nears the end of service life, Nextgov reported Thursday.

Phil McAlister, the agency’s director of commercial spaceflight, said at Nextgov’s Emerging Tech Summit that they anticipate the ISS’s retirement within the decade’s latter part.

“We want that to be provided by the private sector so that we can just buy services from that destination, just like anybody else,” he said, noting that NASA does not want the next space station to be government-made.

McAlister said this commercial approach would allow NASA to apply more focus on deep space exploration efforts.

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Col. Joshe Raetz: Army Special Forces Seek More Frequent Integration With Conventional Units
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Col. Joshe Raetz: Army Special Forces Seek More Frequent Integration With Conventional Units

Col. Joshe Raetz, chief of staff for the U.S. Army's 1st Special Forces Command, said Tuesday at the TechNet Augusta event that his group wants to apply the service's information warfare capabilities to standard military units more frequently. 

Raetz said his team integrated with the service's I Corps as part of a special operations joint task force during the Army Defender Pacific exercise in July, C4ISRnet reported Thursday.

He noted that information warfare influenced the environment and allowed forces to articulate across both information and operational landscapes.

"This vital contribution allowed the joint force and Army to seize the initiative and dominate the information environment," he said.

The colonel said Army special forces now want to partner with conventional units more often, as the exercise demonstrated the success of testing information warfare with regionally aligned forces.

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Serco Named to WayUp’s Top 100 Internship Program List; Nicole Caliri Quoted
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Serco Named to WayUp’s Top 100 Internship Program List; Nicole Caliri Quoted

Serco Inc., a provider of professional, technology, and management services, has been named to WayUp’s list of the 2021 Top 100 Internship Program, the company announced on Friday.

WayUp’s Top 100 Internship Programs list identifies companies that demonstrate best practices around offering students professional experiences through internships that provide them with applicable skills for their future careers. The Serco Training & Experience Program (STEP) emerged as one of the stand-out programs following the formal review and judging.

“We are so proud for Serco’s Internship Program to receive this accolade. It is a direct reflection of the efforts made by our leadership team all the way through the managers and mentors who have supported our intern cohorts over the years,” said Nicole Caliri, manager of Talent & Organizational Development and leader of STEP at Serco.

Serco has welcomed business, technical, and engineering interns to support both internal and customer-facing teams for the last three years. The accredited 11-week summer internship program offers a three-tiered approach to learning and professional development: “Learn, Support and Lead.”

Serco submitted data and information showcasing key elements of accredited intern programs, along with hundreds of other companies to be considered for WayUp’s prestigious list, that were reviewed by a panel of judges.

“And it doesn’t stop here – we look forward to the program’s continued growth and innovation in the years to come,” Caliri added.

About Serco Inc.

Serco Inc. is a leading provider of professional, technology, and management services. We advise, design, integrate, and deliver solutions that transform how clients achieve their missions. Our customer-first approach, robust portfolio of services, and global experience enable us to respond with solutions that achieve outcomes with value.

DOE Awards $61M in Research Funding for Quantum Internet, Device Development; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE Awards $61M in Research Funding for Quantum Internet, Device Development; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy has set aside $61 million research funding for the development of quantum internet building blocks and quantum network testbeds, and for efforts to ensure U.S. competitiveness in quantum information science.

DOE said Thursday $30 million will go to five Nanoscale Science Research Centers to fund infrastructure and capability development in support of nanoscience-based research while $6 million will be provided to scientists working on continental-scale quantum internet and quantum network traffic devices.

The remaining $25 million will support activities focused on regional-scale quantum network testbeds. Research, design, development and demonstration efforts will be conducted as part of the funding.

“Harnessing the quantum world will create new forms of computers and accelerate our ability to process information and tackle complex problems like climate change,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The DOE Office of Science conducted a competitive peer review to select research projects under its Funding Opportunity Announcements.

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Brandi Vann: DOD Changes Approach to CBRN Defense
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Brandi Vann: DOD Changes Approach to CBRN Defense

Brandi Vann, deputy assistant secretary for chemical and biological defense programs at the Department of Defense, said DOD is reassessing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense amid emerging threats, National Defense reported Thursday.

“The department is changing our approach to CBRN,” Vann said Wednesday at a conference.

“The administration has directed us to do a number of things, including relooking at our legacy processes, our legacy systems and really reinvesting our focus and our funding into capabilities for the future,” she added.

Vann noted that there are new opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies for CBRN defense.

She said DOD should shift away from using traditional approaches to acquisition, research investment and requirements development in order to transform CBRN technology and use commercial tech platforms to maintain a competitive edge over adversaries.

“Bluntly, we need to not only embrace industry, but we need to start thinking like you,” she told event attendees.

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Army Eyes Intelligence Community Campus at Fort Belvoir North Area
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Army Eyes Intelligence Community Campus at Fort Belvoir North Area

The U.S. Army is considering constructing multiple buildings on the northern part of Fort Belvoir in Virginia, including a potential Intelligence Community campus near the headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday.

The service has come up with a draft master plan for the Fort Belvoir North Area, formerly the Army Engineer Proving Ground, that proposes three options on how to expand and further develop the site, ranging from minimal development to maximum expansion capacity.

The maximum capacity version includes the construction of several unidentified buildings and parking facilities for a possible IC campus.

All three versions of the draft master plan include the development of a potential Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters, Defense Logistics Operations Center, a fire station and an undisclosed tenant facility.

The draft development plans were presented to the National Capital Planning Commission, which is expected to assess the plans at its meeting on Sept. 2nd, according to the report.

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Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton: Army Cyber Center to Create Doctrine Publication
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Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton: Army Cyber Center to Create Doctrine Publication

The Army’s Cyber Center of Excellence aims to help the military service create a doctrine publication as part of efforts to gain an information advantage in the future battlefield, FCW reported Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton, commander of the Army CCoE, told reporters at an AFCEA-hosted event the branch is exploring methods to release data faster than the current field manual publication process.

Stanton said the branch is close to finishing its field manual revision work but he believes that a service-wide publication could educate maneuver warfighters about cyber operations in the classroom. The Army updated its “Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations” in 2017, according to the report.

AFCEA reports that Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Army’s Combined Arms Center, said the doctrine being developed “is forcing us to move into the future and part of that future is information advantage.”

Martin added that he expects the service to release a new version of the Army Field Manual 3-0 next summer, along with a new concept for information advantage that will reflect the branch’s past accomplishments.

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Oshkosh Tests Missile Firing From Unmanned Ground Vehicle
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Oshkosh Tests Missile Firing From Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Oshkosh Defense has tested the firing performance of a missile-launching system mounted on an unmanned vehicle designed for ground-based anti-ship missile operations.

The Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary or ROGUE Fires launched a naval strike missile to a sea target during the Sink at Sea Live Fire Training Exercises, Oshkosh said Wednesday.

ROGUE Fires used the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System or NMESIS to launch the missile. SINKEX took place in Hawaii as part of the Department of the Navy’s Large-Scale Exercise 2021, which tests various Navy and Marine operating concepts across the globe.

ROGUE Fires builds on Oshkosh’s existing Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and features similar payload capacity and off-road mobility. The new unmanned vehicle can switch between leader-follower and teleoperate modes.

Pat Williams, vice president and general manager for U.S. Army and Marine Corps programs at Oshkosh, said the demonstration verifies ROGUE Fires’ maturity as a weapons platform.

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NASA Announces Winners of Competition for Lunar Ice-Digging Tech
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NASA Announces Winners of Competition for Lunar Ice-Digging Tech

NASA has named the 13 winners of a $500,000 prize competition that sought technologies and ways to dig through the moon's icy regolith, in response to the need for water in future lunar exploration missions.

The space agency said Thursday its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge was championed by Florida-based Redwire Space, which won $125,000 for a two-rover ice-digging system. The competition began in November 2020 and aims to support future resource needs of NASA's Artemis exploration program.

Redwire's Lunar Transporter or L-Tran, a low-mass transportation rover, would deploy the Lunar Regolith Excavator or L-Rex, which is designed to dig through large amounts of lunar ice. L-Tran would then deliver the gathered ice and regolith.

Colorado School Of Mines and Austere Engineering won the competition's second and third places, respectively, for their own ice excavation systems.

“The system concepts developed as part of this challenge will enable sustainable lunar surface operations, paving the way for us to convert lunar ice to vital resources and decreasing our supply needs from Earth," said Monsi Roman, program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

NASA also awarded $25,000 each to the following runner-up teams:

  • AggISRU from Texas A&M University in College Station
  • Aurora Robotics from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks
  • Lunar Lions from the Columbia University Robotics Club
  • OffWorld Robotics
  • Oshkosh Corporation
  • Rocket M
  • Space Trajectory from South Dakota State University
  • Team AA-Star
  • Team LIQUID
  • Terra Engineering
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NAIRR Task Force Extends Deadline for Roadmap Public Comments; Erwin Gianchandani Quoted
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NAIRR Task Force Extends Deadline for Roadmap Public Comments; Erwin Gianchandani Quoted

The deadline for public comments on the implementation plans for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) has been extended for one month to take in more diverse perspectives, a task force official told FedScoop Wednesday. 

Erwin Gianchandani, cochair of the team responsible for creating the NAIRR roadmap and representative of the National Science Foundation (NSF), said the timeline will help them maximize the responses and discuss the ideas during the task force’s deliberations. 

The Congress, through the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, ordered the NAIRR task force to develop a blueprint for a shared AI research infrastructure. The facility is intended to support researchers and students in the AI field and enable them to access educational tools, data and computational resources. 

“Given that we want to hear from as many folks as possible—we’d really like a broad and diverse set of perspectives among the responses—we felt it best to extend the RFI response date by a month,” Gianchandani said. 

The task force will be accepting input from stakeholders on how the NAIRR can strengthen the principles and practices of AI research and development until Oct. 1, according to the Federal Register notice on request for information.

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