Apollo Lightcraft Project

The ultimate goal for this NASA/USRA-sponsored Apollo Lightcraft Project is to develop a revolutionary manned launch vehicle technology which can potentially reduce payload transport costs by a factor of 1000 below the Space Shuttle Orbiter. The Rensselaer design team proposes to utilize advanced, highly energetic, beamed-energy sources (laser, microwave) and innovative combined-cycle (airbreathing/rocket) engines to accomplish this goal. The research effort focuses on the concept of a 100 MW-class, laser-boosted Lightcraft Technology Demonstrator (LTD) drone. The preliminary conceptual design of this 1.4 meter diameter microspacecraft involved an analytical performance analysis of the transatmospheric engine in its two modes of operation (including an assessment of propellant and tankage requirements), and a detailed design of internal structure and external aeroshell configuration. The central theme of this advanced propulsion research was to pick a known excellent working fluid (i.e., air or LN sub 2), and then to design a combined-cycle engine concept around it. Also, a structural vibration analysis was performed on the annular shroud pulsejet engine. Finally, the sensor satellite mission was examined to identify the requisite subsystem hardware: e.g., electrical power supply, optics and sensors, communications and attitude control systems

Apollo Lightcraft Project

This second year of the NASA/USRA-sponsored Advanced Aeronautical Design effort focused on systems integration and analysis of the Apollo Lightcraft. This beam-powered, single-stage-to-orbit vehicle is envisioned as the shuttlecraft of the 21st century. The five person vehicle was inspired largely by the Apollo Command Module, then reconfigured to include a new front seat with dual cockpit controls for the pilot and co-pilot, while still retaining the 3-abreast crew accommodations in the rear seat. The gross liftoff mass is 5550 kg, of which 500 kg is the payload and 300 kg is the LH2 propellant. The round trip cost to orbit is projected to be three orders of magnitude lower than the current space shuttle orbiter. The advanced laser-driven 5-speed combined-cycle engine has shiftpoints at Mach 1, 5, 11 and 25+. The Apollo Lightcraft can climb into low Earth orbit in three minutes, or fly to any spot on the globe in less than 45 minutes. Detailed investigations of the Apollo Lightcraft Project this second year further evolved the propulsion system design, while focusing on the following areas: (1) man/machine interface; (2) flight control systems; (3) power beaming system architecture; (4) re-entry aerodynamics; (5) shroud structural dynamics; and (6) optimal trajectory analysis. The principal new findings are documented. Advanced design efforts for the next academic year (1988/1989) will center on a one meter+ diameter spacecraft: the Lightcraft Technology Demonstrator (LTD). Detailed engineering design and analyses, as well as critical proof-of-concept experiments, will be carried out on this small, near-term machine. As presently conceived, the LTD could be constructed using state of the art components derived from existing liquid chemical rocket engine technology, advanced composite materials, and high power laser optics

Handbook of fiber optic data communication: a practical guide to optical networking

The third edition of this Handbook provides a comprehensive, easy to use guide to the field of optical fiber data communications. Written by experts in the industry from major companies such as IBM, Cisco and Nortel, the Handbook is a key reference for optical fiber technology, networking, protocols, applications, manufacturing, and future directions. It includes chapters on all the major industry standards, written by the same experts who developed them.This edition contains new material on transceiver form factors (QSFP, SFP +, XFP, X2), manufacturing standards, including JEDEC and

Cybersecurity Test Bed for Smart Contracts

Blockchain, smart contracts, and related concepts have emerged in recent years as a promising technology for cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other areas. However, there are still many security issues that must be addressed as these technologies evolve. This paper reviews some of the leading social engineering attacks on smart contracts, as well as several vulnerabilities which result from insecure code development. A smart contract test bed is constructed using Solidity and a Metamask wallet to evaluate vulnerabilities such as insecure arithmetic, denial of service, and re-entrancy attacks. Cross-chain vulnerabilities and potential vulnerabilities resulting from layer 2 side-chain processing were also investigated. Mitigation best practices are proposed based on the experimental results

Trusted CI Webinar: The NSF CC-DNI SecureCloud Project with Casimer DeCusatis

Cyberinfrastructure is undergoing a radical transformation as traditional data centers are replaced by cloud computing. Cloud hosted applications tend to have a poorly defined network perimeter, large attack surfaces, and pose significant challenges for network visibility, segmentation, and authentication. We discuss research from the NSF SecureCloud project, which addresses the unique requirements of cloud security using an autonomic, zero trust architecture. We have created and tested original software using a first-of-a-kind cybersecurity test bed constructed at the New York State Cloud Computing & Analytic Center, Marist College. We developed the first honeypot for software defined network (SDN) controllers , and created honeypots for graph database APIs, SSH, and other applications. These honeypots collect raw data telemetry, which is processed into actionable threat intelligence using our Lightweight Cloud Analytics for Real Time Security (LCARS), an SIEM that includes the G-Star graph database and hive plot visualizer. We have built a threat intelligence database including attack patterns and orchestrated response recipes. We demonstrate dynamic reconfiguration using REST APIs for network appliances, while we cloak high risk applications using a combination of Transport Layer Access Control and First Packet Authentication. Use cases include reconfiguration of trust levels in response to distributed denial of service (DDoS) and other attacks.NSF #1547272NSF #1541384Ope