Category: Applied Physics Lab
APL-led team demonstrates space weather observation system
August 30, 2010
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, with help from Boeing Co. and Iridium Communications, has successfully implemented a new system to monitor Earth’s space environment. Known as the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment, or AMPERE, the system provides real-time magnetic field measurements using commercial satellites as part of a new observation network […]
APL breaks ground for spacecraft integration facility
August 2, 2010
Officials from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, along with government and construction industry representatives, broke ground July 16 for a new spacecraft assembly and testing facility on the APL campus in Laurel, Md. Designated as Building 30, the $30 million facility is scheduled to open by fall 2012. The 47,500-square-foot structure will include […]
APL gets funding to test thought-controlled prosthetic limb
July 19, 2010
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded a contract for up to $34.5 million to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to manage the development and testing of the Modular Prosthetic Limb, or MPL, on a human subject, using a brain-controlled interface. APL scientists and engineers developed the underlying technology under DARPA’s Revolutionizing […]
Ralph Semmel named next director of Applied Physics Laboratory
June 21, 2010
Ralph D. Semmel, who currently oversees a variety of research and development activities at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has been selected to lead the Laboratory as its next director. On July 1, Semmel will succeed Richard T. Roca, who has served as APL’s director since January 2000. In announcing the appointment, Stuart […]
Dynamic chamber puts chemical weapons sensors to the test
January 25, 2010
Applied Physics Laboratory engineers have constructed a first-of-its-kind chamber to test the viability of sensors designed to detect chemical warfare agents under realistic battlefield conditions. While the use of chemical weapons was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, terrorists have increasingly deployed chemical armaments against civilian and military populations over the past decade. […]
MESSENGER reveals more territory on Mercury
November 9, 2009
A NASA spacecraft’s third and final flyby of the planet Mercury gives scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet’s surface and provides new scientific findings about this relatively unknown planet.
Chemical-catching researchers look to copy canine ‘sniffer’
November 2, 2009
A dog’s nose, with its thousands of olfactory receptors, is one of the best chemical detection “sniffers” in military and police circles. That’s why a Homeland Protection Business Area team at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on its RealNose program, which aims to construct a sensor that would operate like—and as well as—a dog’s nose. The sensor will eventually be integrated into a system that could simultaneously detect more than 20 chemicals.
New Cassini images help redraw shape of solar system
October 19, 2009
In a paper published Oct. 15 in Science, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory present a new view of the region of the sun’s influence, or heliosphere, and the forces that shape it. Images from one of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument’s sensors, the Ion and Neutral Camera, known as MIMI/INCA, on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere may not have the cometlike shape predicted by existing models.
JHU brings virtual learning to Baltimore County schools
October 12, 2009
Software engineers at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory, in collaboration with JHU’s Center for Technology in Education, have developed a prototype Virtual Learning Environment to provide Baltimore County students with a gaminglike experience to augment existing math and science curricula.
MESSENGER gains critical gravity assist for Mercury orbit
October 5, 2009
MESSENGER successfully passed Mercury on Tuesday, Sept. 29, on its third flyby, gaining a critical gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011 and capturing images of 5 percent of the planet never before seen.