The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched an updated version of Regulations.gov, a federal shared service that allows the public to gain access to regulatory and deregulatory actions and submit comments on rulemakings.

“The new Regulations.gov re-envisions the public site, with enhanced search capabilities, a simplified commenting process, and mobile-friendly interface,” Krystal Brumfield, associate administrator of the office of government-wide policy, said in a statement published Wednesday.

The updated site, which has been in the testing phase since July 2019, comes with reCAPTCHA and a new comment application programming interface.

“The new commenting API coupled with reCAPTCHA will help the federal government to not only reduce fraudulent comments but also introduce transparency into the organizations who are submitting bulk automated comments,” said Virginia Huth, deputy associate administrator for regulation management at the office of government-wide policy. 

“GSA is providing a more secure, reliable, and stable way for submitting large volumes of comments while deterring real or perceived threats to the integrity of the rulemaking process,” Huth added.

The Department of Homeland Security and New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority have teamed up to explore how COVID-19 aerosol agents travel through public transit systems.

DHS said Tuesday its science and technology directorate freed an airborne coronavirus simulant into train cars and buses operated by MTA to examine how COVID-19 spreads through coughs and sneezes.

The team will incorporate airflow and dispersion models into a software tool to forecast the simulant's spread and determine where MTA can install sensor systems. DHS will also implement environmental data into the models to validate response efforts in the event of an airborne health hazard.

The partnership seeks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as well as other potential terrorist threats as part of DHS S&T's Urban Security Initiative.

"We are developing capabilities, tools and resources in New York City that other states, cities and localities can use to better prepare for, respond to and recover from the pandemic or other emergency," said Don Bansleben, a program manager at DHS S&T.

DHS plans to conduct a large-scale iteration of the study in various areas within New York to trace and observe the movement of a simulated coronavirus agent. 

NASA's Perseverance rover is on the way to Mars, as the space agency expects the vehicle to land on martian ground this Thursday, Space News reported Tuesday. NASA reported that the Mars 2020 spacecraft, which contains Perseverance, is operating as expected in transit to the Jezero Crater, SpaceNews reported on Tuesday. 

“Perseverance is operating perfectly right now, and all systems are go for landing,” Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager for the mission, said at the briefing. 

Perseverance is designed to collect rock samples and data on possible signs of life on the crater. The rover will utilize a landing system based on the one used by its predecessor, 2012's Curiosity rover.

“The targeting is on the bull’s-eye, and we are headed exactly where we want to be for Mars,” added Trosper. “If all goes well, we could potentially see some images by the end of the day. If not, it’s possible that something happened that maybe caused the vehicle to go into a safing mode after landing.”

Lt. Gen. James Slife, who leads Air Force Special Operations Command, said his group may push through with its planned purchase of a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in fiscal year 2022. 

The new Armed Overwatch aircraft would replace the existing U-28A Draco in FY 2022 if tests this 2021 go as planned, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

The command initially wanted to commence purchases of Armed Overwatch in the current fiscal year, but pushed the plan to a later date as a result of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

Slife said at a virtual event hosted by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that FY 2021 funds allow for the aircraft's continued research, development, test and evaluation, prior to the final procurement decision.

Tyto Athene has partnered with Tellabs, a leader in Passive Optical Network (PON) solutions, to launch Tyto Athene’s ACUITY LAN Solution. The company’s ACUITY Micro Data Center was created to provide mission-critical edge processing, analytics and unified communications in a turn-key solution. 

“We see a lot of potential for this secure, quickly deployable LAN solution. Whether it is being able to enable localized communication and running applications in DIL bandwidth environments, or empowering first responders to have maximum capabilities at their disposal, the ACUITY LAN is the right solution,” said Fabian Plath, VP of Sales and Business Development at Tyto Athene.

Under the partnership, Tyto Athene will add Tellabs’ Optical LAN (OLAN) to enable the ACUITY LAN Solution to scale its tactical transportable network. The ACUITY LAN is an edge solution that will utilize Tellabs OLAN to ensure network readiness in a two person carry form-factor. 

The solution will also enable remote powering of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and Power over Ethernet (PoE) in a reliable, secure, ruggedized system. ACUITY LAN includes Tellabs FlexSym Optical Line Terminal One (OLT1), Tellabs FlexSym Optical Network Terminal 248 (ONT248) and ONT Power/Splitter.

ACUITY LAN is ruggedized with harsh environment connectors and created in a custom Pelican transport case with backpack mounted fiber spool. The Tyto Athene-Tellabs partnership has ensured that ACUITY LAN can deliver compute, storage, security, communications, and networking power to support teams at the tactical edge. 

“Optical LAN has been deployed by all government agencies because it simplifies the network, eliminates security vulnerabilities and speeds IT productivity. Now through this partnership with Tyto Athene, we are excited to bring these same benefits into the tactical transportable networking,” said Tom Parisi, VP of Government Sales for Tellabs.

About Tyto Athene 

Tyto Athene, LLC is a full service systems integrator focused on helping clients accelerate their ability to make decisions by providing secure access to enterprise information throughout their operating environment. 

We use a wide range of technologies, innovative thinking, and proven processes to deliver successful outcomes for its clients worldwide, including a historically proven track record of success within the Federal marketplace providing turn-key voice, data, networking and UC systems. Tyto Athene is also the inventor and provider of the ACUITY® Micro Data Center product line.