This 132-ft ship can travel on its own, hunt for stealth submarines

                It’s not only drones and driverless cars that may become the norm someday. Ocean-faring ships might also run without captains or crews. The Pentagon on 2 May showed off the world’s largest unmanned surface vessel, a self-driving 132 foot ship able to travel up to 10,000 nautical miles on its own to hunt for stealth submarines and underwater mines.

                The US military’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, in conjunction with the navy will be testing the shop off the San Diego coast over the next two years. Unlike smaller, remote-controlled craft launched from ships, the “Sea Hunter” is built to operate on its own.

                SARPA spokesman Jared B. Adams said the ship relies on radar, sonar, cameras and GPS for movement and detection. Unmanned ships will supplement missions to help keep service members out of harm’s way, Adams said. With its twin diesel engines, it could go as far as Guam from San Diego on a mission.

                Maritime companies of Europe and Asia have been looking into developing fleets of unmanned ships to cut down on operation costs and get through areas plagued by pirates. The idea in the commercial sector has sparked debate over whether it’s possible to make robotic boats safe enough, while others have expressed concern about hackers taking control.

New material to take net data speed to 2 GB/s

                Researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have developed a new material that may not only provide efficient lighting, but also power wireless internet with data speed of up to 2 Gigabytes per second. The nano-crystalline material rapidly makes white light out of blue light. Earlier inventions like visible-light communication makes use of parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that are unregulated and is more energy-efficient, but the conversion process is not fast enough to match the speed at which LEDs can be switched on an off. The researchers created nanocrystal of cesium lead bromide that were eight nanometers in size. They were able to show uptical processes in the nanocrystals occurs on a time-scale of seven nanoseconds. This meant they could modulate the optical emission at a frequency of 491 megahertz.

Ultra-thin flexible solar cells to power e-wearables

Scientists have developed new solar cells thinner than human hair and flexible enough to wrap around a pencil, that could power wearable electronics like fitness trackers and smart glasses. The thin cells can be integrated onto frames of glasses or fabric and might power the next wave of wearable electronics.

                “Our photovoltaic is about 1 micrometer thick,” said Jongho Lee, an engineer at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea. One micrometer is much thinner than an average human hair. Standard photovoltaic are usually hundreds of times thicker, and even most other thin photovoltaics are 2 to 4 times thicker. The researchers made the ultra-thin solar cells from the semiconductor gallium arsenide.

                The researchers tested the efficiency of the device at converting sunlight to electricity and found that it was comparable to similar thicker photovoltaics. They performed bending tests and found the cells could wrap around a radius as small as 1.4mm.

Flying Observatory SOFIA detects Atomic Oxygen in Martian Atmosphere

                Atomic Oxygen was detected in the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere known as Mesosphere. This presence of Atomic Oxygen for the first time since observation 40 years ago was detected by an instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Atomic oxygen affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet’s atmosphere. The research was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.