The Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Advance Research Project Agency have teamed up to fund a Kryptowire-led project that aims to develop a user authentication tool for mobile devices.

Researchers at Kryptowire have created a continuous authentication algorithm that works to validate mobile device users through their behavioral patterns that include applied touch, phone movements and power usage, DHS said Wednesday.

“Smartphones provide new challenges for authenticating users and devices, but the number of onboard sensors and the computational power of these devices also present new opportunities,” said Vincent Sritapan, program manager for mobile device security at DHS S&T directorate.

“Since passwords often are lost, stolen, and offered for sale in bulk, continuous authentication is a new line of defense that can support new trust-based access control models.”

DHS said the new platform has been tested in at least 100 Android devices and will be supported by a Google-built application program interface.

DARPA supports Kryptowire researchers through its Active Authentication Program in partnership with the cybersecurity division under DHS’ science and technology directorate.

A Deltek report estimates that the Department of Homeland Security‘s spending on information technology contracts will increase by a 2.5% compound annual growth rate to $7.4 billion in fiscal year 2021 from $6.5 billion in FY 2016.

Deltek analyst John Slye wrote in a blog post published Wednesday the research firm’s “Federal Information Technology Market, 2016-2021” report predicts DHS will increase expenditures on software, hardware and IT services through the forecast period.

The study also projected a “comparatively flat spending” on communications and network services.

“The high priority and diverse missions across DHS and its components continues to be a major demand driver and the nature of several of their component missions requires significant technological advancements to expand their capabilities and maximize their effectiveness,” stated Slye.

“Distributed missions and workforces continues to sustain the need for specific agency infrastructure with consistent investments in bureau IT infrastructure at components like [Customs Border and Protection], [Citizenship and Immigration Services] and [Transport Security Administration],” Slye added.

NASA has sent a wax-based heat exchanger technology to the International Space Station through SpaceX‘s Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft that launched Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The agency said Thursday it developed the Phase Change Material Heat Exchanger with United Technologies Corp. for testing onboard the orbiting laboratory as part of the agency’s Game Changing Development initiative.

PCM HX is designed to thaw and reject energy from space to help sustain temperatures inside a spacecraft and protect personnel and equipment, according to NASA.

“It gets really hot when the spacecraft is between the sun and the moon,” said Rubik Sheth, a project manager and thermal systems engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

“We need these phase change material heat exchangers to absorb the excess waste energy that Orion will take in,” Sheth added.

NASA said the Dragon spacecraft that carries 5,000 pounds of cargo reached the ISS early Wednesday and the station’s crew members have begun to unload science, research and hardware from the vehicle.

NASA officials estimate the development and launch of the proposed Mars 2020 rover mission will cost approximately $2.1 billion and that mission operations will be worth around $300 million, Space News reported Wednesday.

Jeff Foust writes both cost estimates lie at the confidence level of 70 percent and are higher than the initial cost estimate of $1.5 billion when plans for the mission were announced in 2012.

George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive at NASA headquarters, said the original cost estimate for the Mars 2020 mission “assumed a more modest science payload than what was solicited and ultimately selected” and failed to cite potential contributions from NASA’s human spaceflight mission and space technology directorates.

“Our confirmed cost today, in real year dollars, of $2.1 billion for development and launch and $300 million for prime mission operations remains consistent with the scope and cost approved at the start of the project,” Tahu added.

The space agency also announced Friday that the Mars 2020 rover will now move into the design and construction phase after the space vehicle passed the Key Decision Point C development milestone, Foust reports.

The report said NASA plans to launch the rover by mid-2020 and expects the spacecraft to reach Mars by February 2021 to gather and bring Martian soil and rock samples to Earth.

NASA on Monday awarded five companies – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK and Space Systems/Loral – contracts to perform concept studies for a Mars orbiter mission.