Advancing Automotive Design With Innovative Collaboration

Emily Chang, Associate Editor

The automotive industry has faced hardships in recent times, but it can and will survive by renewing itself through innovation. After enduring a $14.6 billion loss in 2008, Ford reported a $2.7 billion profit in 2009 and applied for a total of 119 patents for the 2010 Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid. Clearly, now more than ever, inventive thinking is key to any automaker’s success. In the process, automotive engineers have not gone it ...

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Software Tool Integrating Data Flow Diagrams and Petri Nets

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

Data Flow Diagram – Petri Net (DFPN) is a software tool for analyzing other software to be developed. The full name of this program reflects its design, which combines the benefit of data-flow diagrams (which are typically favored by software analysts) with the power and precision of Petri-net models, without requiring specialized Petri-net training. (A Petri net is a particular type of directed graph, a description of which would exceed the scope of this article.)

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Metallic Foam Reduces Airplane Noise

For people who live around airports, noise created by planes can cause a disturbance. Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH have been working with metallic foam that is installed around an engine to reduce noise. The firm foam, crafted from stainless steel, looks like a tightly compacted honeycomb made of silver metal, and feels uniform on the surface — gently abrasive, like a fine-grained pumice stone. “This is an open cell foam, which is mostly air. The foam is formed by ligaments — ...

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Taxi...Take Me to The Moon

Bruce Bennett

In the words of the late, great gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” That’s comforting to know because the future of America’s space exploration program has suddenly gotten weird, and the last thing you need ...

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Inflatable Tubular Structures Rigidized With Foams

Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama

Lightweight booms could be deployed from compact stowage and rigidized in place.

Inflatable tubular structures that have annular cross sections rigidized with foams, and the means of erecting such structures in the field, are undergoing development. Although the development effort has focused on lightweight structural booms to ...

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