Toward Autonomous Anomaly Detection within Biological Ecosystems
By integrating artificial intelligence with next-generation sequencing technology, autonomous surveillance of ecosystem health is possible. This article describes the work a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) team is doing toward autonomous anomaly detection within biological ecosystems.
Pioneering Independent Research and Development Strategy in APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Mission Area: Ensuring our Nation’s Preeminence in the 21st Century
The Research and Exploratory Development (RED) Mission Area is the research engine of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Its pioneering research, whether internally or externally funded, targets game-changing breakthroughs in national security technologies and capabilities. Through its independent research and development (IRAD) program, the RED Mission Area invests in the early phase of technology development, emphasizing the exploration of bold ideas and the development of advanced prototypes. This article describes the mission area’s IRAD strategy and process and introduces a series of articles featuring a selection of current IRAD initiatives. This groundbreaking research being conducted today will invent the future for APL and its sponsors, ensuring our nation’s preeminence when APL turns 100.
Inspiring Innovation and Creativity at APL
Since 2010, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has been executing a strategy to enhance innovation at the Lab, both in its culture and in its practices. The expectation has been that this environment will increase the prospects for APL staff members to create new defining innovations—game-changing developments that profoundly advance science, engineering, and national security capabilities—even as the global innovation ecosystem rapidly changes. Established research findings on innovation principles, along with APL’s own experiments, informed the development of an integrated, complementary suite of innovation initiatives. This article tells the story of how these initiatives were introduced and how they have impacted, and continue to impact, APL’s culture and creative ideas.
Additive Manufacturing: The Current State of the Art and Future Potential
Additive manufacturing (AM, also known as 3-D printing) technologies offer the potential to revolutionize the creation of parts, disrupt supply chains, and positively affect every major industry in existence today. However, technical challenges are preventing the full vision of AM from being realized. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) uses AM extensively to create prototypes and functional parts in support of its missions. This article summarizes the current state of the art, provides poignant examples of current AM capabilities, and offers a glimpse of the future potential.
The Future of Planetary Defense Begins with DART
Doomsday scenarios of near-Earth objects (asteroids and comets) hitting Earth are fodder for action movies and science fiction books, but the potential for such an event cannot be dismissed as mere fiction. In 2022, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will demonstrate an important step in planetary defense, mitigating the threat of a direct hit by developing the ability to prevent an impact to Earth. DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is a NASA mission managed by APL with support from several NASA centers. DART launches in 2021 and will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change the motion of an asteroid in space. As the first kinetic impactor far from Earth, DART will prove the ability to deflect catastrophic threats and lead to innovations in impactor/redirect technologies. This article explains DART’s novelty and extrapolates how it might shape the future of planetary defense.
Achieving Mission Impact with Data Science
Data science emerged as a popular technical field by leveraging the advances in data storage, computing, and machine learning. Practical applications of data science are far-reaching and include marketing, fraud detection, logistics, crime prediction, social engagement, sports team management, and health care. Recognizing this profound impact, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Asymmetric Operations Sector (AOS) created the Data Science Initiative (DSI) to apply data science to national security challenges and health care. The DSI accelerated APL data science contributions to national security and health care by creating new research initiatives and establishing deep technical competencies that shaped and directed novel solutions across the AOS mission space.
Hypersonics: Past, Present, and Potential Future
Hypersonic technologies have been investigated for more than six decades, and important operational capabilities exist in the form of reentry, space lift, and interceptor systems. Today, new classes of hypersonic weapons capabilities are emerging throughout the world. This article provides a brief overview of the history, today’s state of the art, and the future potential for hypersonics.
The State of Cyber Resilience: Now and in the Future
The Department of Defense has dealt with a multiplicity of threats throughout its history, including espionage and insider threats, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats. As the department has increasingly incorporated cyber components into weapons and supporting systems in recent decades, threats from cyberattack have taken their place alongside these existing threats. At the same time, traditional cyber defenses designed to keep cyber invaders out of our systems have not always proven effective. This article discusses cyber resilience as a means for helping to ensure mission survivability despite adverse events in cyber. The article covers the state of cyber today, why cyber can be so vulnerable, and how resilience techniques can complement traditional cyber defenses to help ensure the larger mission. The article concludes with a discussion of cyber and cyber resilience in the future.
Future Defining Innovations: Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
Intelligent systems are already having a remarkable impact on society. Future advancements could have an even greater impact by empowering people through human–machine teaming, addressing challenges with vast geographic scales, and accelerating interstellar discovery. Creating intelligent systems that can be trusted to operate autonomously is a grand challenge for humanity. In this article, we explore potential futures for trustworthy autonomous systems, identify some of the significant challenges, and illustrate potential pathways by describing developments underway at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
Optical Communications: History and a Look toward APL’s Future Contributions
Over the past 15 years, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and others have developed and demonstrated impressive capabilities and technologies in optical communications. APL has conducted experiments, performed analysis, investigated designs, developed capabilities, coded algorithms, and conducted successful demonstrations. The critical optical communications challenge remaining for APL to solve over the next two decades is not in technology development. It is in partnering with the Department of Defense and national security space communities to apply and implement these technological achievements through the systems engineering and acquisition processes. This article discusses the history of optical communications, APL’s contributions in several domains, current challenges, and the way forward.