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Mark Esper Announces Pentagon’s Plan for Troop Drawdown in Germany; Gen. John Hyten Quoted
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Mark Esper Announces Pentagon’s Plan for Troop Drawdown in Germany; Gen. John Hyten Quoted

Mark Esper, secretary of the Department of Defense (DoD) and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, announced that DoD intends to withdraw 11,900 troops from Germany in support of U.S. European Command’s plans to reposition those personnel to other locations in line with the implementation of the National Defense Strategy, DoD News reported Wednesday.

''Our aim is to implement these moves as expeditiously as possible consistent with the principles I set forth from the beginning, particularly being fair to, and taking care of our service members and their families,'' Esper said.

“As anyone can see, the repositioning of our forces in Europe constitutes a major strategic and positive shift, wholly in line with the NDS and consistent with other adjustments the United States has made within NATO in previous times.''

Esper said about 6,400 personnel will return to the U.S. and the other 5,600 service members will be relocated to other countries within Europe. He added the moves could start within weeks.

''This rebalance, consistent with the NDS, will align NATO and Eucom capabilities, better distribute forces across Europe and increase the use of rotational forces, thus bolstering our commitment to Europe,'' said Air Force Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and fellow two-time Wash100 Award recipient. ''It enhances deterrence and improves operational flexibility," he added.  

Germany is home to about 36,000 U.S. troops and the planned drawdown will bring that number to 24,000 warfighters.

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NASA, ESA Expect to Spend $7B on Mars Sample Return Campaign
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NASA, ESA Expect to Spend $7B on Mars Sample Return Campaign

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect the total cost of bringing back samples from Mars to Earth to reach at least $7 billion, SpaceNews reported Thursday. Those include three missions with Mars 2020 as the first.

A United Launch Alliance-built Atlas 5 rocket took off July 30th from Cape Canaveral, Florida as part of the Mars 2020 mission to bring a rover dubbed Perseverance to the surface of Mars to collect up to three dozen samples of rock.

The two other missions will return those collected samples to Earth. One of these two missions is expected to launch in 2026 and will use a NASA-built lander carrying a European “fetch rover” that will collect and load the sample tubes into a container, which will use a rocket called Mars Ascent Vehicle in order for it to launch into Mars orbit.

The Earth Return Orbit mission led by ESA will then pick up the container in Mars orbit using a NASA-provided containment system. A capsule with the sample container is expected to reach the Utah desert by 2031.

David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration at ESA, announced Tuesday at a NASA press conference that ESA intends to award Airbus’ defense and space business a contract to develop the Earth Return Orbiter. Airbus will work with Thales Alenia Space to build the spacecraft.

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Lawmakers Urge Senate Panel to Include Additional TMF Funding in Next COVID-19 Relief Package
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Lawmakers Urge Senate Panel to Include Additional TMF Funding in Next COVID-19 Relief Package

Six lawmakers have called on the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to allot an additional $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund in the upcoming COVID-19 relief measure to support updates to federal information technology systems.

The senators wrote a letter onWednesday to the Senate panel saying the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the failures of legacy IT systems and highlighted the need for agencies to advance their network modernization efforts.

“For example, in its June 2020 report, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee identified multiple agencies where IT systems struggle to accommodate large percentages of teleworking federal employees, causing system problems that slow the place of normal functions like claims processing, increasing security risk, and making telework inefficient and frustrating. In other cases, small business owners and citizens were deeply frustrated by poorly functioning claims systems,” the senators wrote in the July 29 letter.

The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and three-time Wash100 Award recipient, Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Several congressmen on Friday also urged the House leadership to include in the next supplemental spending bill an additional $1 billion for TMF.

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CISA Accepts Entries to President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition 2020
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CISA Accepts Entries to President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition 2020

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has opened applications for an annual cybersecurity competition intended for federal employees.

Those who serve with the Department of Defense and other components of the federal executive branch may enter the second President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition to demonstrate cyber skills, CISA said Tuesday.

Participants will work in five-person teams across two different tracks. One track will focus on exploitation and vulnerability assessment analysis, and the other one will tackle incident response and forensics.

The competition's pair of qualification rounds will happen virtually, then finalists will attend Virginia-based CISA facilities in-person for the last round.

Interested parties may send group applications through Aug. 14 and individual applications up to Aug. 28.

"CISA is proud and excited to lead the second annual President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition to measure the knowledge, skills and abilities of the diverse cybersecurity talent within government,” said Christopher Krebs, CISA director.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Cybersecurity's workforce framework will serve as the basis for the competition's challenge areas.

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DARPA Tests In-Space Deformable Mirror Telescope
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DARPA Tests In-Space Deformable Mirror Telescope

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has pursued an effort to demonstrate the capture of distant space images through CubeSat-based telescopes.

The International Space Station on July 13 deployed the agency's Deformable Mirror or DeMi CubeSat satellite that features a miniature telescope with microelectromechanical technology., DARPA said Tuesday.

DeMi's mirrors change in shape to filter out mechanical- and temperature-based effects that disrupt an image's quality. DARPA seeks to evaluate the deformable mirror's ability to improve image quality amid the radiation and thermal effects of space.

The CubeSat has so far demonstrated correct spacecraft pointing, temperature stability and solar array performance. Boeing's Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary, Blue Canyon Technologies and Massachusetts Institute of Technology contributed to the effort.

The multisector team will soon move on to DeMi's payload checkout.

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GSA Picks 4 Building Mgmt Concepts for Energy Efficiency Pilot
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GSA Picks 4 Building Mgmt Concepts for Energy Efficiency Pilot

The General Services Administration (GSA) has unveiled four building concepts to be tested as part of an initiative to promote efficiency at the agency’s facilities.

GSA said Tuesday the Grid-interactive Efficient Building (GEB) concepts will be tested at designated agency locations as part of its Proving Ground program, which seeks to implement new energy and technology services to drive cost efficiency.

Under the Proving Ground effort, GSA will work with independent evaluators to assess concepts such as kinetic buildings, which will utilize machine learning and the Department of Energy’s VOLTTRON open-source platform to automate building operations.

Other concepts include “data systems analysts”, which leverages an operational data warehouse framework based on software manufacturer OSIsoft’s technology; and “prescriptive data”, which will use a Nantum-developed energy management and information system.

Comcast and Livingston, N.J.-based startup Logical Buildings’ MachineQ platform will also be used to support the use of internet of things technology to drive building management systems.

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Navy Piloting Software to Support Rapid Unmanned Vessel Components Dev’t
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Navy Piloting Software to Support Rapid Unmanned Vessel Components Dev’t

The U.S. Navy is launching a modernization pilot for its unmanned surface and underwater vehicles ahead of plans to transition the project into an official program in fiscal year 2022, USNI News reported Tuesday.

Capt. Pete Small, head of the Navy's program office for unmanned maritime systems, told the publication that the Rapid Autonomy Integration Lab (RAIL) effort is aimed at streamlining the development of common combat and control systems to support all of the Navy’s USVs and UUVs.

The program office plans to run the RAPID cloud-based software code to support information assurance and cybersecurity functions through the U.S. Air Force’s Platform One environment.

According to the report, the autonomy software will undergo testing and in-water assessments using the Razorback UUV.

“When we have the RAIL up and running, we’ll be able to provide thousands of hours of operations in simulation, plus the full-scale on-water demonstrations, to really build credibility for our plans in rapidly deploying and developing these things,” Small said.

“So I think it will really quickly advance our ability to show progress, because right now we’re subject to getting the full-scale vehicles and running and operating them, and that just takes time and money to do,”

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NASA Unveils Crew for Second Operational Crew Dragon Mission
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NASA Unveils Crew for Second Operational Crew Dragon Mission

NASA has named the astronauts who will embark on the second operational mission with SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough will represent NASA in the Crew-2 mission that will send the spacecraft to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program, the space agency said Tuesday.

NASA plans to launch Crew-2 in spring next year, with Crew-1 scheduled for September this year.

McArthur, the mission's pilot, and Kimbrough, the spacecraft commander, will be accompanied by Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and the European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet. The astronauts will stay at ISS for half a year.

The two crewed operational missions follow the Demo-2 mission that served as a crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The Commercial Crew Program aims to provide the U.S. space industry with opportunities to launch NASA astronauts.

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DOE Partners with VA, HHS to Unveil COVID-19 Research Initiative
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DOE Partners with VA, HHS to Unveil COVID-19 Research Initiative

The Department of Energy (DOE) has partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch an effort to provide access to health data and COVID-19 research.

The COVID-19 Insights Partnership initiative seeks to develop a framework that will allow VA and HHS to analyze health data and perform COVID-19 research efforts through the use of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, DOE said Tuesday.

The partnership will utilize the results of the program to support COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic development. DOE noted the IBM-built Summit supercomputer currently runs large-scale analyses on huge volumes of health data in a bid to speed up research efforts on the virus.

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NIH Introduces $58M Health Research Program in Africa
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NIH Introduces $58M Health Research Program in Africa

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has unveiled a $58 million funding opportunity to drive data science and health research activities in Africa under a five-year effort.

NIH said Monday that it aims to develop approaches that could address Africa's clinical and public health gaps through the Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa program.

The initiative seeks to foster partnerships across various sectors and conduct collaborative efforts with computer scientists, engineers, biomedical researchers, clinicians and data specialists. Academic and non-profit organizations in Africa are encouraged to submit proposals for the effort.

Projects under DS-I Africa are scheduled to begin in September 2021. NIH will host a virtual symposium from July through November 2020 to explain the program's details and discuss the state of data science in Africa.

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