US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years

Aug. 30, 2023, by P. Layton, The Conversation

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-military-unleash-thousands-autonomous-war.html

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China's growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday.

The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military.

Military systems capable of various degrees of independent operation have become increasingly common over the past decade or so. But the scale and scope of the US announcement makes clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.

An idea whose time has come

Over the past decade, there has been considerable development of advanced robotic systems for military purposes. Many of these have been based on modifying commercial technology, which itself has become more capable, cheaper and more widely available.

More recently, the focus has shifted onto experimenting with how to best use these in combat. Russia's war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the technology is ready for real-world deployment.

Loitering munitions, a form of robot air vehicle, have been widely used to find and attack armored vehicles and artillery. Ukrainian naval attack drones have paralyzed Russia's Black Sea fleet, forcing their crewed warships to stay in port.

Military robots are an idea whose time has come.
Robots everywhere

In her speech, Hicks talked of a perceived urgent need to change how wars are fought. She declared, in somewhat impenetrable Pentagon-speak, that the new Replicator program would be "field attritable autonomous systems at scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months."

Decoding this, "autonomous" means a robot that can carry out complex military missions without human intervention.

"Attritable" means the robot is cheap enough that it can be placed at risk and lost if the mission is of high priority. Such a robot is not quite designed to be disposable, but it would be reasonably affordable so many can be bought and combat losses replaced.

Finally, "multiple domains" means robots on land, at sea, in the air and in space. In short, robots everywhere for all kinds of tasks.

The robot mission

For the US military, Russia is an "acute threat" but China is the "pacing challenge" against which to benchmark its military capabilities.

China's People's Liberation Army is seen as having a significant advantage in terms of "mass": it has more people, more tanks, more ships, more missiles and so on. The US may have better-quality equipment, but China wins on quantity.

By quickly building thousands of "attritable autonomous systems", the Replicator program will now give the US the numbers considered necessary to win future major wars.

The imagined future war of most concern is a hypothetical battle for Taiwan, which some postulate could soon begin. Recent tabletop wargames have suggested large swarms of robots could be the decisive element for the US in defeating any major Chinese invasion.

However, Replicator is also looking further ahead, and aims to institutionalize mass production of robots for the long term. Hicks argues, "We must ensure [China's] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, 'today is not the day'—and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond."

A brave new world?

One great concern about autonomous systems is whether their use can conform to the laws of armed conflict.

Optimists argue robots can be carefully programmed to follow rules, and in the heat and confusion of combat they may even obey better than humans.

Pessimists counter by noting not all situations can be foreseen, and robots may well misunderstand and attack when they should not. They have a point.

Among earlier autonomous military systems, the Phalanx close-in point defense gun and the Patriot surface-to-air missile have both misperformed.

Used only once in combat, during the first Gulf War in 1991, the Phalanx fired at a chaff decoy cloud rather than countering the attacking anti-ship missile. The more modern Patriot has proven effective in shooting down attacking ballistic missiles, but also twice shot down friendly aircraft during the second Gulf War in 2003, killing their human crews.

Clever design may overcome such problems in future autonomous systems. However, Hicks promised a "responsible and ethical approach to AI and autonomous systems" in her speech—which suggests any system able to kill targets will still need formal authorization from a human to do so.

A global change

The US may be the first nation to field large numbers of autonomous systems, but other countries will be close behind. China is an obvious candidate, with great strength in both artificial intelligence and combat drone production.

However, because much of the technology behind autonomous military drones has been developed for civilian purposes, it is widely available and relatively cheap. Autonomous military systems are not just for the great powers, but could also soon be fielded by many middle and smaller powers.

Libya and Israel, among others, have reportedly deployed autonomous weapons, and Turkish-made drones have proved important in the Ukraine war.

Australia is another country keenly interested in the possibilities of autonomous weapons. The Australian Defense Force is today building the MQ-28 Ghostbat autonomous fast jet air vehicle, robot mechanized armored vehicles, robot logistic trucks and robot submarines, and is already using the Bluebottle robot sailboat for maritime border surveillance in the Timor Sea.

And in a move that foreshadowed the Replicator initiative, the Australian government last month called for local companies to suggest how they might build very large numbers of military aerial drones in-country in the next few years.

At least one Australian company, SYPAQ, is already on the move, sending a number of its cheap, cardboard-bodied drones to bolster Ukraine's defenses.

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Technology News: Which radio waves disrupt the magnetic sense in migratory birds’ eyes? - study

 

Which radio waves disrupt the magnetic sense in migratory birds’ eyes? - study

Radio waves emitted by radio and TV broadcasting can interfere with the magnetic compass used by birds, but the ones used by mobile communication do not.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post, AUGUST 30, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-756858

A huge group of white-winged terns are seen flocking to Eilat. (photo credit: NOAM WEISS/INTERNATIONAL BIRDING & RESEARCH CENTER EILAT (IBRCE))

How do billions of small migratory songbirds that fly thousands of kilometre's every year between their breeding and wintering grounds find their way? They use celestial cues to navigate, much as sailors of yore used the sun and stars to guide them.

But unlike humans, they also have a “magnetic compass” in their eyes to detect the magnetic field generated by Earth’s molten core and use it to determine their position and direction. 

According to a new discovery by researchers at the UK’s University of Oxford and Germany’s University of Oldenberg, while radio waves emitted by radio and TV broadcasting and citizens radio can interfere with this compass, those used in mobile communication networks do not because the frequencies are too high to affect their sense of orientation.

How humans interfere with birds' magnetic compass

The study has just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) under the title “Upper bound for broadband radiofrequency field disruption of magnetic compass orientation in night-migratory songbirds,” The research team was led by neurosensory sciences Prof. Henrik Mouritsen of Germany and chemistry Prof. Peter Hore of the UK.

This finding bolsters the researchers’ theory that the magnetic-compass sense in these birds is based on a quantum-mechanical effect known as radical pair mechanism in their eyes. For this study, the team combined behavioural experiments with complex quantum-mechanical calculations on a supercomputer.

 

Radio telescopes, which are used to find radio broadcasts from space (Illustrative). (credit: PIXABAY)

Mouritsen, Hore, and colleagues had already proved nine years ago that electro smog – human-made electromagnetic noise – in the AM radio waveband such as that generated by household electrical appliances, impairs migratory birds’ ability to use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation, which is known as magnetoreception.

They suggested that this weak electro smog, which is harmless for humans, affects the complex quantum-physical processes in certain cells in the retinas of migratory birds that enable them to navigate. But whether electro smog also affects free-flying birds such as long-distance migratory birds, whose numbers have been declining for some time for unknown reasons, remained unclear.

The team took a closer look at the connection between the quantum-mechanical mechanism that they suspect forms the basis for the birds’ magnetic sense and the disruption of this mechanism by radio waves. The focus of their interest was the cut-off frequency above which the navigation of migratory birds remains unaffected, since determining this value allows conclusions to be drawn about the properties of the actual magnetic sensor in the birds. Their theory was that this sensor is a light-sensitive protein called cryptochrome-4 that has the necessary magnetic properties.

The scientists’ initial theoretical prediction was that the cut-off frequency would lie somewhere between 120 and 220 megahertz in the Very High Frequency (VHF) range, so the team conducted behavioural experiments with Eurasian blackcaps using different frequency bands within this range. In a study published in 2022 the researchers had already shown that radio waves of a frequency between 75 and 85 megahertz interfere with the magnetic compass sense of these small songbirds. These experiments showed that their magnetic compass stopped working when they were exposed to these radio frequencies but worked properly without exposure. Blackcaps are long and medium-distance migrants that can cover long distances during their annual migration

The researchers also performed model calculations in which they simulated the quantum-mechanical processes inside the cryptochrome protein. On the basis of these calculations, they were able to narrow down the cut-off frequency even further, to 116 megahertz. 

Gaining a better understanding of magnetoreception is important for improving the protection of migratory birds, they wrote. It can also provide insights on key questions like what kind of electromagnetic radiation drives birds off course and should be avoided in areas like nature reserves where migratory birds stop to rest. 

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Saab Offers Four Expeditionary Submarines to the Netherlands

31.07.2023 Canadian Defence Review

https://www.canadiandefencereview.com/news/saab-offers-four-expeditionary-submarines-to-the-netherlands

Supported by Sweden and the United Kingdom, Saab has submitted its proposal for the replacement of Netherland’s current submarines. The proposal comprises four advanced Expeditionary Submarines with the latest innovations and technologies and includes a cooperation with Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Group.

Saab’s offered solution is based on a successful, proven and future-proof design. It will incorporate the latest capabilities and technologies, whilst its truly modular design will allow for new technologies as they evolve to ensure relevance for many years to come.

Saab and Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Group have cooperated since 2015 and the offer to build submarines to replace the Dutch Walrus-class is a balanced cooperation between the Netherlands and Sweden.

“The outstanding capabilities of the Expeditionary Submarine C718 meets and exceeds the Dutch needs and requirements long-term. Our offer constitutes a substantial contribution to the operational capability of the Dutch Defence Forces. Cooperation with local industry throughout the programme secures strategic autonomy for the Netherlands. These are Dutch submarines for the Royal Netherlands Navy,” says Mats Wicksell, Senior Vice President and head of Saab’s business area Kockums.

The C718 is an advanced Expeditionary Submarine that offers an unsurpassed level of endurance and exceeds the Royal Netherlands Navy needs for long-distance operations, sufficient accommodation, crew comfort and increased weapon payload capability.

As part of the proposal, Saab offers a proven and integrated weapon launching system and one of the best sensor-systems in the world. Saab’s innovative design features signature solutions to minimise detection by active sonars, all combined in an undetectable and extremely capable submarine.

The offer includes knowledge transfer to the Netherlands. Once delivered, the submarines will be fully maintainable by the Royal Netherlands Navy including upgrades throughout their lifespans.

Sweden, through Saab’s business area Kockums, has a long tradition in producing world class submarines. Four nations are currently operating submarines and submarine technology designed by Saab’s business area Kockums; Sweden, Australia, Japan and Singapore.

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Space News: Black holes may be causing mature galaxies to stop producing new stars

 

Black holes may be causing mature galaxies to stop producing new stars

Scientists have long suggested that the supermassive black holes in these galaxies are interacting with the gas clouds to prevent star formation.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, AUGUST 30, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/science/space/article-756783

 This artist's concept shows a supermassive black hole at the center of a remote galaxy digesting the remnants of a star. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It may be black holes that prevent mature galaxies from forming new stars, according to a new study published recently based on new evidence that has emerged from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).  

Lots of the galaxies nearest Earth are in such a state, known as quiescent. Scientists have long suggested that the supermassive black holes in these galaxies are interacting with the gas clouds to prevent star formation.

“This means that these outflows can efficiently compete with star formation for using up the gas”

Francesco D’Eugenio, University of Cambridge

The recent data from the JWST allowed scientists to see what was happening in these galaxies more than 10 billion years ago. Recently they were able to see gas leaving galaxies, indicating that the gas was being pushed out by the black holes in the galaxy’s center.

“I would say it’s the first direct evidence that supermassive black holes can actually remove the gas in a way that turns off the galaxy,” says Sirio Belli at the University of Bologna in Italy, one of the researchers.

Belli focused the JWST on a galaxy called COSMOS-11142, which recently has stopped creating new stars, and studied the gas flow leaving the galaxy.

 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. (credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (UCL), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University))

“With the neutral gas, we see that actually there is a lot of mass leaving the galaxy,” Belli said, “so it’s a very natural conclusion that this wind is then turning off the galaxy, because, of course, the gas is the fuel for star formation.”

The second part of the study was conducted by Francesco D’Eugenio from the University of Cambridge on a second galaxy from 11 billion years ago. This galaxy was selected when research suggested that it had stopped producing new stars relatively recently.

Galaxies still produce gas needed for stars

The researchers noticed that the gas leaving was the type of gas necessary for star formation.

“This means that these outflows can efficiently compete with star formation for using up the gas,” D’Eugenio explained.

Whilst neither of these observations is conclusive evidence that black holes are to blame, both provide scientists with a starting point for further clarifications.             

Black Holes Explained – From Birth to Death

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Technology News: NASA exploring potential for supersonic passenger jet which could fly from London to New York in 90 minutes

NASA exploring potential for supersonic passenger jet which could fly from London to New York in 90 minutes

NASA's X-59 research jet is designed to travel faster than sound while muffling the resulting sonic boom. The space agency is exploring whether the plane's tech could also apply to future commercial airliners - allowing travellers to cross the Atlantic at speeds greater than 1,500mph.

By Tom Acres, Sky News technology reporter, Friday 25 August 2023

https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-exploring-potential-for-supersonic-passenger-jet-which-could-fly-from-london-to-new-york-in-90-minutes-12947077

                   NASA's X-59 research plane could run its first test flight later this year. Pic: NASA

NASA is exploring the potential for a supersonic jet that could take commercial passengers from London to New York in 90 minutes.

The US space agency's Quesst mission was launched in 2016, primarily to design an aircraft with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom: that's what we hear on the ground when a plane travels faster than sound.

They are so powerful that operating an aircraft capable of producing them above populated areas is banned.

NASA's project has resulted in X-59, a Concorde-like research jet designed by defence contractor Lockheed Martin that can cruise at 937mph at an altitude of 55,000ft without generating an unacceptable noise level.

It hopes to run test flights over US cities in 2024 and gather data on locals' response to the sound, with the hope it could inform changes to aviation rules.

This week, NASA's Glenn Research Center revealed it had investigated the business case for supersonic travel, potentially allowing for a jet to zip over the Atlantic at between 1,500 and 3,000mph.

Today's large airliners fly at roughly 600mph, and a London to New York flight takes around eight hours on average.

Now, companies including Boeing and Rolls-Royce have been contracted to come up with a potential roadmap for making such trips a reality - including design concepts for supersonic passenger planes.

Mary Jo Long-Davis, manager of NASA's hypersonic technology project, said: "The design concepts and tech roadmaps are really important to have in our hands when the companies are finished.

"We are also conscious of the need to account for safety, efficiency, economic, and societal considerations.

"It's important to innovate responsibly so we return benefits to travellers and do no harm to the environment."

Image:X-59 aircraft parked near the runway at Lockheed Martin's California facility. Pic: Lockheed Martin

'A new chapter in supersonic flight'

The announcement comes just weeks after X-59 was moved from its construction site to the so-called flight line, the space between the hangar and runway at a Lockheed Martin facility in California.

The firm, which was handed a £187.5m contract to build the plane, has started a series of ground tests ahead of a potential trial flight later this year.

Peter Coen, NASA's Quesst mission integration manager, has said his team are "ready to write a new chapter in the history of supersonic flight".

It would follow in the contrails of Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner.

It holds the record for fastest commercial flight between New York and London, completing it in two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds in 1996.

The planes were grounded in 2003, as operators British Airways and Air France blamed a downturn in demand and increasing maintenance costs.

The final Concorde departed three years after an Air France Concorde flight 4590 crashed into a hotel shortly after take-off from Paris - killing 109 people on board and four people on the ground.

NASA is not alone in researching supersonic commercial travel.

United Airlines has partnered with start-up firm Boom Supersonic to potentially bring it back to travellers, while Virgin Galactic revealed designs for a supersonic passenger plane in 2020.

Concorde Final Take off from JFK Airport 

British Airways Concorde final take off from JFK Airport, New York, 24th October 2003.

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Mysterious Loops in The Fabric of Reality: Physicists Get First Glimpse of 'Alice Rings'

PHYSICS 29 August 2023, By M. MCRAE

https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-loops-in-the-fabric-of-reality-physicists-get-first-glimpse-of-alice-rings

(Heikka Valja/Aalto University)

Strange loops in the fabric of reality have finally been witnessed forming in a super cold gas, providing physicists with an opportunity to study the behaviors of a rather peculiar kind of one-sided magnetism.

Known as 'Alice rings' after the Alice of 'Wonderland' fame, the circular structures were observed by a collaboration between researchers in the US and Finland which already has a long list of discoveries concerning the distortions in quantum fields known as topological monopoles.

The isolated equivalent of a pole on a magnet, monopoles truly sound like something Alice would have seen in her hunt for the white rabbit. Cutting a magnet in half won't succeed in separating its north from south, but monopoles can theoretically arise in the quantum machinery that gives rise to various forces and particles.

One version of the monopole takes the form of an elementary particle, one that has defied all attempts to identify so remains, for now, purely hypothetical.

Yet monopoles can emerge in other settings. The frothing of various quantum fields can give rise to their own style of one-sided magnetism as they swirl, pulling and tugging on their surrounds to give birth to short-lived anomalies that stand out for a split moment before vanishing into the churn once more.

As a member of the Monopole Collaboration from Aalto University in Finland, physicist Mikko Möttönen is intimately familiar with a whole variety of whirlpools, strings, and tangles that can emerge in the weave of a quantum fabric.

In 2015, just a year after proving a topological monopole's existence, Möttönen and his colleagues triumphantly succeeded in observing one in isolation for the first time in an ultra-cold state of rubidium atoms called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).

"We are the only ones who have been able to create topological monopoles in quantum fields," Möttönen explained to ScienceAlert.

"After creating them, it took some time for us to also study quantum knots and skyrmions before we had a close look at what happens to the topological monopole right after it has been created."

Less than two years after their initial observation, the collaboration made a surprise discovery – monopoles could decay into other types.

In this latest investigation, the researchers again watched a topological monopole melt into something else, only this time the end result was more like a tiny doorway into Wonderland – structures named Alice strings.

Alice strings are closely associated with monopoles, twisting into one-sided magnetic poles whenever they close into loops. And those loops of Alice strings are known as Alice rings.

Yet while typical monopoles might last a few thousandths of a second, Alice rings stick around for more than 80 milliseconds – some 20 times longer.

"From a distance, the Alice ring just looks like a monopole, but the world takes a different shape when peering through the center of the ring," says David Hall, a physicist from Amherst College in the US.

Like Alice's own looking glass, passing through the strange magnetic loop in a BEC's quantum field can turn everything on its head. Other monopoles that happen to fall through become reversed into their mirror-versions, flipping the ring into its opposite as they slide on through.

While the team have yet to observe this inversion experimentally, catching sight of the ring's formation in the decay of a topological monopole is exciting progress.

On a practical level, we can only speculate how the finding might be applied. But the more we learn about the unstable nature of quantum fields, the better we might be able to map their waters and understand deeper truths of reality.

"Primarily, this creation of Alice rings is of fundamental importance," Möttönen tells ScienceAlert.

"It casts light and inspiration to the search of the deepest constituents of the Universe, matter, and information."

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Defense News: Israel to have partial laser defenses by next year - Rafael chair

 

Israel to have partial laser defenses by next year - Rafael chairman

"One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection. In two years there may be complete protection," said Yuval Steinitz. (Rafael Chairman)

By YONAH JEREMY BOB, JERUSALEM POST STAFF, AUGUST 27, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-756455

Israel's ground-breaking laser system experiment carried out in the south of the country by the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Research and Development (DDR&D, or MAFAT in Hebrew) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. (photo credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY)

Israel will have partial laser defenses by this time next year, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems chairman Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio on Sunday.

"One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection. In two years there may be complete protection – against missiles, shells, rockets, or anything else. This will protect us both in the South and in the North," said Steinitz.

Israel's push for laser air defenses

This past February, senior Defense Ministry official Brig.-Gen. (res.) Danny Gold said Israel’s air-defense lasers, when fully deployed, will be able to shoot down the drones Iran has been sending Russia to use against Ukraine.Speaking at the Artificial Intelligence conference at Tel Aviv University at the time, the MAFAT [Directorate of Defense Research & Development] director said his ministry was working on developing “the next generation of using lasers.”

He talked about multiple successful tests destroying rockets “with a very sophisticated laser-weapons system.... We have done the same for mortars, rockets and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], like the Iranian UAVs they are sending to Ukraine. The same concept of UAV, we can shoot them down.”

In February 2022, then-prime minister Naftali Bennett proclaimed that Israel’s ability to use lasers had progressed significantly and could be operational much sooner than people had expected.

 BORDER Police officer checks a unit at a laser system aimed to intercept incendiary balloons, near the Gaza border. (credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

This past January, outgoing IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi told The Jerusalem Post, “The laser-defense system is truly great news. It will be both land- and air-based. I do want to be cautious regarding timeframes. In another two years, we expect to deploy systems along the Gaza Strip border to test this tool’s effectiveness.

“It has worked very well in field tests. If this experiment works – and we continue to integrate and enhance the laser-defense system over two years – we will move as fast as possible to deploy it across the entire North. I cannot commit to a specific number of years. I don’t want to be optimistic and I also don’t want to be pessimistic.”

Kohavi added, “I know that there has been great progress over the last three years, and we invested a lot of money in this. We defined the laser-defense system as having multiple benefits that we would need to invest a lot in. I am happy that it has progressed so much.”             

Israel to have partial laser defenses by next year

          

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India first to land near moon south pole after Russia fails

Aug. 26, 2023 by R. Saxena, Bloomberg News

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-india-moon-south-pole-russia.html

Side view of the crater Moltke taken from Apollo 10. 

Credit: Public Domain

India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole after Russia's attempt at a lunar touch down in the same area ended in failure following an engine malfunction.

Chandrayaan-3—India's spacecraft that launched last month—achieved a soft landing at 6:04 p.m. local time on Wednesday, after Russia's Luna-25 crashed into the moon on Sunday. A rover, named Pragyan, or wisdom, is set to analyze the chemical makeup of the moon's surface and search for water over the course of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 days on Earth.

India is the second country, along with China, to have an operating rover on the moon.

A successful touch down lifts India's prestige in the global space race, after the country suffered a setback from a failed moon mission in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to bolster the country's place among the world's space faring nations and in June India signed the Artemis Accords, a U.S.-backed initiative with more than two dozen other countries to govern joint missions and civilian space exploration.

Vikram, Chandrayaan-3's lander, has been trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, as billionaire industrialists and Bollywood actors eagerly awaited the historic moment. Schools urged students across the world's most-populous nation to watch the live event and commemorate the landmark mission, while some prayed in mosques and temples for a successful landing.

Shares of 13 Indian space-sector companies, including PTC Industries Ltd., Zen Technologies Ltd. and Centum Electronics Ltd., rallied and added more than $2.5 billion in market value this week, according to data complied by Bloomberg.

The water ice present in the moon's unchartered south pole has also piqued the interest of space voyaging countries, including the U.S. and China. It could be a crucial drinking, breathing and rocket fuel resource to advance human space exploration deeper into the solar system.

The U.S. space agency's mission, Artemis III, plans to send the first humans to explore the area near the south pole in 2025. China is also seeking to build a research station near the region and place astronauts on the moon by 2030. Japan has an uncrewed mission planned for launch on Aug. 26.

India has other space efforts slated. The country will soon launch a mission, called Aditya L1, for a detailed solar study. A Venus mission is also on the Indian Space Research Organisation's agenda, Modi said after the landing. The agency plans to demonstrate human spaceflight capability through its Gaganyaan mission, which will launch crew members into an orbit of 400 kilometers (249 miles) for three days before bringing them back safely to Earth.

India's space agency and NASA have agreed to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station. The South Asian nation is also in discussions with Japan to work on a moon mission together.

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Scientists Invent New Glass With Supreme Toughness

By U. OF BAYREUTH Aug 26, 2023

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-invent-new-glass-with-supreme-toughness/

Researchers have developed a significantly tougher oxide glass using paracrystallization, paving the way for more durable and damage-resistant glass products in the future. 

(Stock video illustrating the concept of a super strong cell phone.)

Scientists have produced an oxide glass with unprecedented toughness. Under high pressures and temperatures, they succeeded in paracrystallizing an aluminosilicate glass: The resulting crystal-like structures cause the glass to withstand very high stresses and are retained under ambient conditions. Paracrystallization thus proves to be a promising process for producing extremely break-resistant glasses.

In many respects, glass is an attractive material for modern technologies. However, its inherent brittleness, which makes it prone to cracks and fractures, limits its potential applications. Research attempts to significantly bolster the toughness of glass while retaining its advantageous properties have largely failed to produce the desired results.

Innovative Approach and Process

The new approach presented in the scientific journal Nature Materials starts with oxide glasses which have a rather disordered internal structure and are the most widely commercially utilized glass materials. Using aluminosilicate, which contains silicon, aluminum, boron, and oxygen, as an example, the research team in Germany and China has now succeeded in giving it a new structure. To this end, they employed high-pressure and high-temperature technologies at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI) of the University of Bayreuth.

Simulated structure of glassy (left) and paracrystalline (right) grossular. The atoms of the elements oxygen, silicon, aluminum, and calcium (from small to large) are colored lighter the higher the degree of order in the surrounding structure. 

Credit: Hu Tang

At pressures between 10 and 15 gigapascals and a temperature of around 1,000 degrees Celsius, the silicon, aluminum, boron, and oxygen atoms grouped together to form crystal-like structures. These structures are called “paracrystalline” because they differ significantly from a completely irregular structure, but they do not approach the clear regular structure of crystals. Both empirical analyses using spectroscopic techniques and theoretical calculations clearly showed this intermediate state between crystal structures and amorphous irregularity.

Implications of Paracrystallization

Even after a drop in pressure and temperature to normal ambient conditions, the paracrystalline structures in the aluminosilicate glass remain. The penetration of the glass with these structures results in the toughness of the glass being many times higher than before paracrystallization. It now reaches a value of up to 1,99 ± 0,06 MPa (m)¹/². This is a toughness never before measured for oxide glasses. At the same time, the transparency of the glass is not seriously affected by the paracrystalline structures.

Dr. Hu Tang, first author of the study, in front of a high-pressure press at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI). 

Credit: UBT / Chr. Wißler



The researchers explain the extraordinary strengthening of the glass by the fact that forces acting on the glass from outside, which would normally lead to breakage or internal cracks, are now primarily directed against the paracrystalline structures. They dissolve areas of these structures and transform them back into an amorphous, random state. In this way, the glass as a whole acquires greater internal plasticity, so that it does not break or crack when it is exposed to these or even to stronger forces.

Future Prospects

“Our discovery highlights an effective strategy for developing highly damage-tolerant glass materials, which we plan to pursue with our research in the coming years,” said Dr. Hu Tang, first author of the new study.

“The increase in toughness due to paracrystallization shows that structural changes at the atomic level can have a significant impact on the properties of oxide glasses. At this level, there is great potential for optimizing glass as a material that is far from being exhausted,” adds Prof. Dr. Tomoo Katsura of the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics.

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