Wired's Danger Room blog rounds up the progress reports on the Programmable Matter project, in which teams at Harvard and MIT, backed by Pentagon research arm DARPA, are creating modular sheets and strands that can be programmed to fold themselves origami-style into shapes or build themselves into Lego-like solids. The project is already five months into its second phase, with a number of simple shape-shifting solids expected to be ready by next spring.

Meanwhile, Intel is doing its own Programmable Matter research, with the idea of creating hologram-like models for demonstration purposes, only the models would be physical objects that can be touched and manipulated.

The DARPA scientists are, of course, looking at the defense applications of this technology — morphing blobs of goo into instant weapons, building robots that can squeeze through barriers or tight spaces and then reassemble themselves. This may sound frighteningly close to Terminator territory, but the Intel app , with its suggestion of tactile virtual reality, implies a more hedonistic use for the technology. As with other Pentagon-spawned innovations (like, say, the Internet), what started as a military tool will probably end up as porn.

Currently, the flying sub only exists as a set of design objectives issued by DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). They want a craft that can arrive at a target via air, hang out for a while as surface boat, and disappear stealthily beneath the waves. According to the official request for proposals:

"By combining the beneficial characteristics and operating modes of each platform, DARPA hopes to develop a craft that will significantly enhance the United States tactical advantage in coastal insertion missions."

The proposed craft would hold eight soldiers plus all their gear and could support them as a floating surface craft for 72 hours. It would have a 1,000 mile aerial range and a 12 mile submerged range. It would more accurately be called a submersible aircraft, as an aircraft design can be pressurized and submerged far more easily than a heavy submarine could be made to fly.

Oddly enough, Military.com points out that this idea has been floating around for decades, but no one's ever even finished a prototype. Here's an artist's rendering of a design from the 1960s: Images by: DARPA/AP.

Flying Submarine or Submerging Seaplane? [Military.com]

The goal for Blackswift is to be able to take off from a conventional runway, hit Mach 6 and possibly leave the atmosphere, accomplish its mission, then come back down and land on its own. It's also part of DARPA's Prompt Global Strike initiative ("If your missile isn't there in 60 minutes or less, it's free!"). The Blackswift propulsion system is a hybrid that mixes a fairly conventional turbojet for low-altitude, low speed flight with a ram/scramjet for hypersonic speeds. Above Mach 4, the ramjet takes over, slamming air through the jet at supersonic speeds without the use of a compressor or fan blade.

If everything goes well, Blackswift could provide a basic platform for the development of further military space vehicles. Which is simultaneously really neat and pretty terrifying. Image by: Wired.

Boeing Joins Lockheed on Blackswift. [Military.com]
Blackswift Swoops in for $750 million. [Wired]

Of course if it has a military application, you know DARPA thought of it first. Back in 2005 the feds funded research into 'XNAV', as they like to call it, to see if it could be used as a backup to GPS in case that system got jammed or went down during a time of war (do these guys ever think about anything other than war?).

But space scientists at PLANS think XNAV is the primary way for future spacecraft to navigate the stars. Using the system, robot spaceships could make their way safely and accurately through interstellar space without human intervention. It might pave the way for ultra-long missions to nearby stars and planets, while the human cargo snores peacefully away in hypersleep.

Source: PLANS conference website

Over on the New Scientist technology blog, David Hambling points out that the MAHEM also resembles a weapon called "Stiletto" conceived by Arthur C. Clarke. He describes the DARPA project:

Using magnetic fields it will propel either a narrow jet of molten metal or a chunk of molten metal that morphs into an aerodynamic slug during flight . . . They will come from a device that generates a powerful electromagnetic field from an explosion . . .

The concept resembles existing weapons which use an explosive charge to squirt out a jet of high-velocity molten metal on impact. Known as High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT), this type of round has been widely used since the WWII bazooka.

Like HEAT devices, MAHEM is currently envisaged as something delivered by a warhead rather than a cannon: "MAHEM could be packaged into a missile, projectile or other platform and delivered close to target for final engagement and kill," says DARPA.

MAHEM would apparently be useful against tanks and other missiles.