Yes very much so. Lincoln is an interesting place. Check out the wiki article on them. They exist in a unique regime where they get to invent it -and- field it. Once up and running, they turn it over to someone else. Of the R&D labs, they have a unique structure in manning. They go after younger recent graduates with promise and then grow them for 3 to 5 years. The bulk of the staff is this type of person. The also have a built in mandate for turnover each year to force keeping things fresh. There are a smaller core of long run staff that keep the enchilada running. They have produced some simply amazing things, and since inception through today they are the folks that sharpen the cutting edge for everyone else. They also have a large number of very successful spin off companies from staff, and in fact encourage thhis sort of thing. It was something Eric Evans talked about during my visit. They are very proud of this.Giorgio wrote:The only point I am afraid of is that budget cuts will normally hit the most advanced research areas before anything else.ladajo wrote:You know, I sometimes have similar thoughts. Especially after yesterday. I made another visit to MIT's Lincoln Labs, spent the day being absolutely amazed at some of the very cool stuff we are doing here in the States across a number of disciplines.
I really like going there, always incredibly cool stuff. The bad guys should be worried.
Dunno what the situation in USA is, but in Europe is becoming every month more sad and depressing.
Did you see anything o near term application in your visit?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Laboratory
http://www.ll.mit.edu/index.html
http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/jour ... entjournal
Unfortunately I can not speak to specifics, however the links above and below can give some ideas what they are into these days.
The single photon detectors bit was very interesting, it is a driver for soon to be fielded space comms. See link below, slide 32. Some of the things they are doing with 3D LIDAR as well as Wide Area Imaging was very very cool.
Space Surveillance & Tracking is always one of my favorites with them (They drive the bus), and I was not disappointed (as always). Grant Stokes, who drives the Near Earth Object stuff was lots of fun as usual. Looks like we are currently tracking on a 1/625 major impact in about 2038. There is also a little of SS&T in the brief below. Lincoln is just bringing online the new 3.5 Meter out at ETS. It will redefine SS.
http://spacepolicyonline.com/pages/imag ... Survey.pdf
http://www.ll.mit.edu/mission/space/linear/ETS.html
http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/TTO/Progr ... (SST).aspx
As for funding. DARPA sponsors a lot with LL, as do other big stakeholders from DOD and others. DARPA has a $3 Billion budget this year.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/books/AsteroidsIII/pdf/3037.pdf
edit: fixed some typos