Pentagon Inventing Group Hits 50, Looks to Next Strides

DARPA offering $500,000 to space innovators

(NEWSER) - Is it possible that Star Trek and a sci-fi story written by Jules Verne more than 100 years ago will inspire the next generation of space technologies? DARPA, the research and development division of the US military, sure hopes so. In fact, the agency has promised to award $500,000 this fall to the group that has the best plan to make interstellar travel a reality within 100 years, reports the LA Times . To get the ideas flowing, DARPA will host a symposium featuring all manner of space aficionados, from astrophysicists to sci-fi writers, in Florida next month . More»

Some Defense Department employees had top-secret security clearances

(NEWSER) - Several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances have allegedly been caught buying or downloading child pornography. Federal investigators identified alleged perverts everywhere from the NSA to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and some of them even used their work computers to download the material, the Boston Globe reports. Some cases have already been prosecuted, but others were dropped or have languished unresolved for years, according to newly disclosed documents. More»

(NEWSER) - With all the hoopla of the Apollo anniversary safely behind us, a White House panel is ready to deliver a sobering assessment of the nation's current moon plans: They're too expensive. The panel, set up by President Obama to review NASA's human space flight program, says the agency's budget is far too skimpy to afford a return trip by the stated goal of 2020, reports Space.com. More»