Short Takes – 1-17-23

NASA’s return to the moon is off to a rocky start. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “Artemis, like America itself, is an experiment begun years ago with good intentions. It was flawed from the outset, in part because of those good intentions and in part for more cynical reasons. It was bequeathed to hardworking people who genuinely want something good to come of it but are hamstrung by problems that predate them and may be too fundamental to ever fully fix, at least in the project’s current form. Yet it is all we have, for now. The rocket remains funded. The missions are scheduled. NASA says, “We are going.” And the moon will be waiting, indifferent to which vehicle we use to get there.”

Who Are You Calling a Great Power?  LawfareBlog.com article. Pull quote: “This is not a simple definition of what counts as a great power. There’s no litmus test or threshold—some minimum share of GDP or CINC score, though these can be helpful guides and are still part of the story. And that’s the point. Politics is relative, so the way policymakers think about the role of great powers in international politics should be, too.”

Intrinsic Safety moves forward. HazardExOnTheNet.net article. New version of IEC 60079-11 [specifies the construction and testing of intrinsically safe apparatus intended for use in an explosive atmosphere and for associated apparatus] coming. Pull quote: “The reorganisation of the standard, along with significant technical changes, has resulted in the section of the IEC Foreword, listing principal changes from the previous edition, extending to 10 pages. Most revised standards require only two or three pages. There are 13 Category “A” changes that are considered to be minor or editorial, that don’t alter compliance requirements between the editions, and 74 Category “B” changes that can be regarded as extensions of the standard, allowing new forms of construction, or relaxation of the requirement. However, there are 31 Category “C” changes, each representing some change that may cause a product compliant with the previous edition not to be compliant with the new edition.”

One day, there could be a pipeline of oxygen flowing from the moon's south pole. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “Oxygen is critical. We need it in human habitats, in vehicles, and in any life-support systems anywhere on the moon. We also need it as an oxidant for rocket fuel. Ferrying large quantities of oxygen from the south pole to the equator could be cumbersome and would require dedicated vehicles, tanks, and facilities. A pipeline would eliminate vehicles and other resources, including human work hours, from the process.”

News Release: DHS S&T Awards $1.1M to Accelerate Federal Research Across U.S. Agencies. DHS.gov press release. Some interesting projects:

• Argonne National Laboratory: Autonomous Intelligent Cyber-Defense Agent,

• Los Alamos National Laboratory: Industrial Internet of Things – Physics-Informed AI Vibe Sensor for Condition Monitoring and Cybersecurity, and

• Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory: Out of Band Over Existing Industrial Control Communications