Sourcebook on the Altay Optical Laser Research Center
A Russian satellite tracking facility in Siberia called the Altay Optical Laser Research Center is profiled in a newly updated document collection (pdf).
A proposed expansion of the facility calls for a high-resolution satellite imaging telescope with an aperture of 3.12 meters and angular resolution of 0.044 arc seconds.
“This is diffraction-limited performance, indicating serious adaptive optics,” observed Allan Thomson, the former CIA analyst who prepared the new sourcebook, which is in Russian and English.
The United States has the only proven and scalable tritium production supply chain, but it is largely reserved for nuclear weapons. Excess tritium production capacity should be leveraged to ensure the success of and U.S. leadership in fusion energy.
Despite an emerging awareness of the importance of state and local government innovation capacity, there is a shortage of plausible strategies to build that capacity.
Innovations in artificial intelligence and robotics will allow us to accelerate the search process using foundation AI models for science research and automate much of the experimentation with robotic, self-driving labs.
FAS commends the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for clearing a historic 75 pieces of legislation, including multiple crucial bills to confront the wildfire crisis.