Six COSMIC-2 satellites will deploy aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon Heavy spacecraft on June 24 as part of a U.S. Air Force mission that aims to optimize space weather monitoring and forecast functions. The satellites will gather weather, atmospheric and electron density data in the ionosphere to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast climate and weather conditions as part of the Space Test Program-2 mission, the agency said Tuesday.

“COSMIC-2 will gather information about the vertical temperature and humidity of the atmosphere in the tropics, which holds most of the moisture that drives global weather patterns,” said Louis Uccellini, director at NOAA’s National Weather Service.

Additionally, the satellites will secure signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System to assist scientists in the validation of atmospheric pressure, moisture content and temperature. The initiative follows a previously conducted mission in 2006 which saw COSMIC satellites travel around Earth in near polar orbits.

NASA seeks to mine resources on the moon and Mars in support of the space agency’s wider exploration goals. The agency said Wednesday that it will deploy two robotic projects to support resource mining studies under Phase III of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. Teams from Carnegie Mellon University and TransAstra will each receive $2 million for respective two-year projects.

“We are pursuing new technologies across our development portfolio that could help make deep space exploration more Earth-independent by utilizing resources on the Moon and beyond,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. 

Carnegie Mellon University will pursue the Skylight mission to generate imagery-based 3D models of craters to determine viability for human on robotic missions. TransAstra will deploy its Mini Bee robot to demonstrate optical mining, an excavation method that stores substances in an inflatable bag. The company will apply this method to gather propellant in space.

The FBI has alerted the citizens on online users that the use of internet phishing to secure sensitive information. FBI noted that criminals are attempting to utilize public trust on secured hyperlinks through the imitation of company websites and actual contacts on email messages, the Internet Crime Complaint Center said Monday.

The emails contain URLs that will lure users to malicious websites and may cause theft of login information. The agency advised to check any spelling and grammar errors in emails and validate the legitimacy of received messages and websites. In addition, FBI called the public to report any suspicious activities to IC3 through its website.

The Department of Homeland Security held a large-scale experiment in Texas to see how emergency responders can utilize new government-developed and commercial technologies integrated into existing public safety systems. The Next Generation First Responder Program– Harris County Operational Experiment at the Port of Houston gathered Houston-based public safety agencies, industry partners, DHS components and the U.S. Coast Guard, DHS said Tuesday.

First responders and partners used new on-body sensors and situational awareness screens to respond to a simulated release of a volatile chemical on the Houston Ship Channel.

“In this experiment the key data points are how to get multi-jurisdictions responding to an event to share information and situational awareness through sensors and communication systems,” said Sridhar Kowdley, program manager and OpEx director at DHS Science and Technology Directorate. “We’re now looking at integrating and fusing these technologies and incident command on various situational awareness platforms or dashboards,” he added. 

DHS plans to release case studies, guides and an after action report on the lessons from the experiment in late summer. The agency will conduct the last NGFR experiment, Birmingham Shaken Fury OpEx, in August. 

Col. Stoney Trent, chief of operations at the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said that commercial entities are “poorly incentivized” to conduct AI development and testing during a recent C4ISRNET conference, C4ISRNET reported Sunday. Trent noted that the DoD needs to encourage private sector partners to develop better AI testing tools and methods that can be used in potential activities relevant to national security.

“Hopefully, the nation will be at peace long enough to not have a high bandwidth of experiences with weapons implementations, but when that happens, we need them to absolutely work. That’s a quality of commercial technology development,” he said.

Kara Frederick, associate fellow for the Center for a New American Security’s technology and national security program, said the Pentagon can also spur industry participation by providing a conducive environment for AI development. She cited better information technology environments, common data processing standards and uniform industry interaction procedures as factors to support this effort.