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NASA Requests Proposals for Lunar Logistics, Mobility Enhancement
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NASA Requests Proposals for Lunar Logistics, Mobility Enhancement

NASA has issued a request for proposal for technologies meant to help with future Artemis missions’ lunar logistics and mobility.

The agency said Tuesday the RFP, published in September, intends to address the possible issues in landing and moving cargo on the lunar surface identified in two white papers the agency previously published as part of its Moon to Mars objectives.

The Lunar Logistics Drivers, Needs white paper focused on the accurate prediction of logistics resupply needs involving items such as food, water, air and spare parts. The design of future lunar missions will depend on these logistics items since they will take up a large part of the cargo.

The Lunar Mobility Drivers, Needs white paper, meanwhile, tackles the transportation of cargo and exploration assets from the landing site to other locations on the surface of the moon.

NASA’s planned lunar terrain vehicle and pressurized rover can theoretically carry around 1,760 pounds of cargo and will be mainly used by astronauts to move around the moon’s surface. The agency is seeking proposals that will enable the transportation of 4,400 to 13,000 pounds of cargo.

According to the Lunar Surface Cargo white paper, existing cargo delivery capabilities like the commercial lunar payload services and human-class delivery landers will meet near-term needs. However, they are not designed for future missions with larger cargo.

NASA is soliciting proposals providing a comprehensive assessment of logistics with the possible inclusion of different transportation systems.

Nujoud Merancy, deputy associate administrator for strategy and architecture stressed that the agency collaborates with various partners to develop its exploration architecture.

“Studies like this allow the agency to leverage the incredible expertise in the commercial aerospace community,” Merancy said.

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DHS Taps Startups to Develop Synthetic Data Generation Systems
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DHS Taps Startups to Develop Synthetic Data Generation Systems

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has selected four startups to develop synthetic data generation capabilities for protecting privacy and mitigating security threats.

Betterdata, DataCebo, MOSTLY AI and Rockfish Data are expected to deliver synthetic data capabilities that replicate real data’s shape and patterns, DHS said Tuesday.

According to Melissa Oh, managing director of S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, the selected startups can provide agile and creative approaches to help the government address complex challenges like data privacy and security.

DHS awarded the contracts following the release of SVIP’s solicitation in collaboration with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the DHS Privacy Office.

The request for proposals seeks to acquire synthetic data generation capabilities that would enable DHS to train machine learning models in scenarios where real data is either unavailable or poses security risks.

Commenting on the effort’s progress, CISA Associate Chief of Strategic Technology Garfield Jones said investing in privacy-enhancing technologies and collaborating with industry partners will advance the overall privacy ecosystem and its stakeholders.

The selected awardees could potentially access up to $1.7 million in funding across the four stages of the SVIP project.

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On Nov. 13, join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit to learn more about the most significant threats against the United States and the measures being implemented to address them. Register now to attend this important event!

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NIST Issues RFI for USG NSSCET Implementation
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NIST Issues RFI for USG NSSCET Implementation

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, under the Department of Commerce, is seeking information to support the implementation of the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology, an initiative launched in May 2023 to enhance existing private sector-led activities and plans focused on critical and emerging technology—or CET—by adhering to standards of transparency, impartiality, consensus and coherence.

According to a request for information issued on Tuesday, NIST is calling for feedback to enhance the education and empowerment of the standards workforce and decision-makers within the business and technology sectors.

NIST is also gathering information regarding existing awards and recognition programs that can help encourage standards participation and leadership in CET areas.

In addition, the notice seeks to maintain open communication within the U.S. CET and standards communities about the USG NSSCET Implementation Roadmap.

Interested parties have until Dec. 9 to send in their comments.

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HBCUs & MIs Receive $50M in DOD Grants for Research Equipment
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HBCUs & MIs Receive $50M in DOD Grants for Research Equipment

The Department of Defense has selected 98 historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions to receive a total of $50.1 million in grants for the purchase of research and scientific equipment.

The DOD said Monday researchers from 21 HBCUs and 49 MIs, including one tribal college, across 26 states and the District of Colombia will benefit from grants worth up to $800,000 each.

The initiative is part of the DOD HBCU/MI Research and Education Program, which aims to boost transformative research in crucial defense technology areas.

The competition, managed by the Army Research Office with input from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, received 152 proposals totaling $82 million. The ARO, alongside the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, evaluated the proposals and selected the 98 awardees.

Evelyn Kent, director of the DOD HBCU/MI Program and Outreach, said, “Equipping universities with relevant instrumentation and other equipment is imperative for advancing novel research aligned with defense science and technology priorities while fostering innovation at the institutions. These awards help enrich the curricula offered to scholars pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees and support the training of the next-generation workforce.”

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DOD Cloud Financial Operations Strategy Made Publicly Available
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DOD Cloud Financial Operations Strategy Made Publicly Available

The Department of Defense has made its Cloud Financial Operations Strategy publicly available.

The purpose of the DOD Cloud FinOps strategy is to provide the agency a framework to better manage and optimize cloud costs to, in turn, improve architectural, budgetary and investment decision-making, Leslie Beavers, acting DOD chief information officer and 2024 Wash100 Award winner, said in a memorandum.

“It establishes a way ahead that will allow the Department to be a better user and buyer of cloud services,” Beavers added.

The strategy says that the DOD needs to improve its acquisition of cloud services, because cloud adoption is a fundamental component of modernization, and modernization is made necessary by the increasing digitalization of warfare.

Improving acquisition is also necessary because of rising cloud costs and tightening military budgets.

To help with this effort, the strategy “describes a desired outcome, provides a DoD-tailored FinOps framework, and identifies strategic imperatives and associated actions to enable an enterprise understanding of cloud cost and impact.”

Its implementation will be overseen by the Enterprise Cloud Management Board.

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Parsons Receives Biometric Collection Systems Army Contract
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Parsons Receives Biometric Collection Systems Army Contract

Parsons has secured a technical direction letter from the U.S. Army valued at $1.9 million for the acquisition of biometric mobile and static collection devices, including peripherals and software, in support of the Next Generation Biometrics Collection Capability, dubbed NXGBCC.

The Army said Tuesday under the TDL, which runs through April 2025, the devices will be integrated into the Ares Gateway Transaction Manager, or AGTM, to collect, store, match and share fingerprint, facial, iris and voice biometric modalities.

The AGTM will operate on a government-provided Amazon Web Services Impact Level 5 Gov-Cloud. The cloud service submits collected data to the Department of Defense Automated Biometric Identification System. After the system evaluates the biometrics data, it will return matches to the AGTM and the collection device. 

The NXGBCC is expected to be field-ready and provide soldiers with identity information in real-time by 2025.

The project manager for terrestrial sensors and the product manager for biometrics oversee the NXGBCC and DOD ABIS programs.

Lareina Adams, project manager of terrestrial sensors, said, “The NXGBCC searches a given biometric submission against 30 million encounters and more than 13 million identities in DOD ABIS, as well as against the largest unsolved latent fingerprint file in the government.”

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Senate Bill to Require DOD to Assess Risks of AI in Defense Systems
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Senate Bill to Require DOD to Assess Risks of AI in Defense Systems

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Defense to report to Congress on risk assessments of the use of artificial intelligence in defense systems as part of a push to improve DOD’s ethical technology leadership and transparency.

Welch’s office said Tuesday the proposed Artificial Intelligence Weapons Accountability and Risk Evaluation Act, also known as the AWARE Act, would establish a risk assessment process that evaluates AI technologies against several factors, including bias, bias towards escalation, cybersecurity, privacy, dependability and risk of civilian harm.

The measure would apply the risk assessment to any AI-enabled weapons, targeting or decision support tools, catalog the covered technologies and assessment outcomes in a risk ledger that is unclassified to the extent possible but may include a classified appendix and annotate which of the tech platforms have been shared, exported or used by a foreign individual or government.

Under the bill, DOD should perform an annual risk assessment of all covered AI-enabled systems and conduct a new risk assessment if a weapons review process is initiated, when a technology is procured, or when there is an update to an underlying AI model.

The legislation includes a requirement to report to Congress on an annual basis on the progress of implementing the measure, the ledger and a report on the findings.

“We know that AI-enabled weapons are exacerbating harm to civilians in warzones, and without effective oversight these systems could dangerously reshape our future. The United States has an obligation as a leader in AI innovation to also lead in AI ethics,” said Welch.

“We must be ready to answer questions about accuracy, security, privacy, and harm when we use AI-enabled weapons—and we need better data to do that,” added the Senate Commerce Committee member.

Register now to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s GovCon International Summit on Oct. 10. Listen to speakers as they discuss how international partnerships, emerging technologies and coalition warfare are reshaping the defense landscape and how the U.S. can stay ahead of the curve.

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Michael Tarulli Returns to Goldman Sachs to Lead Aerospace & Defense
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Michael Tarulli Returns to Goldman Sachs to Lead Aerospace & Defense

Michael Tarulli has rejoined the Goldman Sachs Group, where he spent a total of 15 years previously, as a partner and global head of aerospace defense within global banking and markets.

Tarulli returns to the firm from fellow investment banking organization Evercore, where he was a senior managing director in the aerospace, defense and government services wing, Goldman Sachs said Monday.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the move, Tarulli wrote, “After a brief sojourn, I’m excited to be back home at Goldman Sachs.”

The 2023 Wash100 Award recipient came onboard Goldman Sachs in 2006 working as an associate in the securities division. Tarulli attended New York University Stern School of Business and then rejoined the firm in the Investment Banking Division in 2011. The executive earned the stripe of managing director at Goldman Sachs in 2019.

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Army Seeks Input for Project Linchpin AI Modeling, Simulation
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The project manager for intelligence and analytics within the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office – Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors is soliciting industry input to address the modeling and simulation, or M&S, requirements of the service branch’s Project Linchpin.

The solicitation focuses on artificial intelligence-based solutions collecting and generating data for secure model training within the tactical environment, according to a request for information posted on SAM.gov on Monday.

The RFI also seeks to pinpoint industry capabilities to support collaboration within the AI ecosystem driving Project Linchpin’s M&S applications.

The deadline for RFI responses is on Nov. 8.

Project Linchpin was initially conceptualized in 2022 to establish trusted environments that would support development and validation of AI-powered solutions for integration with the Army’s weapons and other systems.

In March, the service branch launched the second iteration of its xTechScalable AI competition, with the project as its focus.

The Army also released an RFI in November 2023 to seek industry information on ways to implement and automate an artificial intelligence bill of materials for the project.

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NASA Deep Space Communications Tech Achieves Laser Data Milestone
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NASA Deep Space Communications Tech Achieves Laser Data Milestone

NASA has sent a laser signal from its ground architecture to the Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away from Earth. The space agency said Thursday that the successful send marks a major step forward in its development of deep space optical communications. 

For the demonstration conducted from June to July, NASA sent data to and from Psyche as bits on a near-infrared light, which can transport up to a hundred times higher data rates than radio frequencies.

According to the agency, the maximum data transmission rate achieved during the demonstration was 267 megabits per second, or almost comparable to broadband internet download speeds, when Psyche was only about 33 million miles away from Earth. When Psyche was about 240 million miles away, NASA recorded a sustained downlink data rate of 6.25 megabits per second. 

The spacecraft was launched in October 2023 to study a metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. 

“Laser communication requires a very high level of precision, and before we launched with Psyche, we didn’t know how much performance degradation we would see at our farthest distances,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Now the techniques we use to track and point have been verified, confirming that optical communications can be a robust and transformative way to explore the solar system.”

After the demonstration, NASA powered down Psyche’s flight laser transceiver to ensure that it could operate for at least a year. It will be powered back up on Nov. 4 for the post-conjunction phase.

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