The Pentagon wants to give future satellite constellations the self defense capabilities to avoid missiles or other satellite-based weapons during an attack in space, Defense One reported Friday. U.S. Air Force officials announced the plan during a recent event on Capitol Hill, saying the Department of Defense has begun introducing changes to satellite systems.

“We have to give our mission systems an opportunity to participate in their own defense, give them a fighting chance,” said Michael Dickey, head of the Enterprise Strategy and Architectures Office at Air Force Space Command. “We’ve begun to introduce changes.”

The announcement follows the Defense Intelligence Agency warned in early February that China and Russia started developing space-based weapons, such as lasers. Dickey said DoD wants to build satellites with improved maneuverability to dodge any attack from adversary systems in space.

“It’s not hard to imagine, if someone is shooting at you, you would maybe like to get out the line of fire and so creating some agility with our space systems becomes very important,” he said. “Maneuverability takes fuel and thrusters and all of that.”

Col. Russell Teehan, portfolio architect of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, said future satellites should also feature tools for expanded and faster situational awareness.

The National Institutes of Health is seeking a chief data science strategist to manage vast data and digital efforts for the agency, Federal News Network reported Friday. Andrea Norris, chief information officer at NIH, announced the effort at the recent AFCEA Bethesda Health IT day in Bethesda, Md. 

\n\n

“It’s an incredibly important position that will have significant impact of the direction of biomedical research over the next decade,” she said. The new data strategist will report directly to the director of NIH and lead the implementation of the agency’s data science strategic plan. “They will work very closely to help us build this sustainable platform for these incredibly large data sets that we are now generating through electronic health record data, imaging data and genome data,” Norris said. 

\n\n

The CIO noted that NIH hopes to hire an official immediately to begin efforts to manage its rapidly growing data. Norris also announced NIH is increasing transparency in its data as well as research projects.

The Department of Defense and a UI Labs-led consortium are entering into a possible $60M follow-on agreement to develop and integrate digital tools into manufacturing processes. DoD said Friday that it will provide $10M to the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute and may award an additional $20M over the next five years through a contract option.

“We are working together to develop cutting-edge digital technology and investing in a robust research and development infrastructure to promote global competitiveness on the part of U.S. manufacturers,” said Robert Gold, director of technology and manufacturing industrial base at DoD.

DMDII collaborates with the U.S. Army to evaluate weapons production methods at Rock Island Arsenal through the use of 3D models. The institute has invested $94M in 60 applied research projects nationwide since its inception in 2014.

NASA has identified 12 payload projects that would undergo experiments and demonstrations on the moon by the end of 2019.

The space agency said Friday its Science Mission Directorate sourced for proposals to support a number of experiment-reliant science and technology goals.

“The Moon has unique scientific value and the potential to yield resources such as water and oxygen,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator.

“Its proximity to Earth makes it especially valuable as a proving ground for deeper space exploration,” he added.

Participants for the effort include nine U.S. companies and various NASA facilities including Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center.

The space agency’s centers will work to build payloads, while the industry firms will build corresponding delivery landers.

The Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer, among selected projects, is designed to measure the moon’s radiation environment.

The Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System, an imaging instrument, would work to quantify the composition of the moon’s surface.

The effort would also include technology demonstrations such as the Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator that would generate a beacon to help orbiting spacecraft and landers navigate through the moon.

A Sandia National Laboratory-built robotic system is helping the U.S. Army deactivate submunitions of the Multiple Launch Rocket System.

The automated system consists of nine robots and has so far demilitarized over 700K submunition units, the laboratory said Thursday.

The system, located in Alabama, is part of an MLRS recycle facility that works to help the Army dismantle unused ammunition and rockets under the Department of Defense’s demilitarization program.

The service branch uses the system to recycle aluminum warhead skin, steel and copper at accelerated rates.

“We were able to remove people from a potentially very dangerous situation and created something that allowed products to be recycled and reused, which is what the DOD demilitarization program is about,” said Walt Wapman, a mechanical engineer who serves as project lead at Sandia.