23. Robotic Support for Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS)
The satellites orbiting the Earth are invaluable in providing information to various governments around the world. The problem is that it costs millions of euros and countless hours to send a team of engineers into space to perform repairs when one of them malfunctions or breaks down.
DARPA’s solution is to remove humans from the mission and instead launch a Robotic Servicing Vehicle (RSV) into space. Don’t worry, the military isn’t planning on sending artificial intelligence into orbit; each RSV will be remotely controlled from a control room on Earth.
24. Hypersonic Missile – X51A Waverider
The AFRL has been developing a hypersonic propulsion system since the 1990s. The goal of the project was to create a hypersonic missile that could be carried by a B-52 to an altitude of 15km and then released to “do its thing.” It wasn’t until 2003 when a scramjet engine was added to the equation that the plan could be realized.
By utilizing a rocket booster and a scramjet engine, the X-51A can achieve hypersonic speeds of up to 6,440 km/h. Although the X-51A Waverider has not yet reached Mach 6, it reached Mach 5 during a test flight in 2013, traveling at speeds over 5,300 km/h for 3.5 minutes. At that time, no other hypersonic flight had lasted that long.
