Nik Karpinsky quickly tapped out a few computer commands until Zeus, in all his bearded and statuesque glory, appeared in the middle of a holographic glass panel mounted to an office desk.The white statue stared back at Karpinsky. Then a hand appeared and turned the full-size head to the right and to...

It was a result so unexpected that MIT researchers initially thought it must be a mistake: Under certain conditions, putting a cracked piece of metal under tension — that is, exerting a force that would be expected to pull it apart — has the reverse effect, causing the crack to close and its...

The International Space Station (ISS) Visiting Vehicle Group needed a targeting tool for vehicles that rendezvous with the ISS. The Visiting Vehicle Ground Trajectory targeting tool provides the ability to perform both realtime and planning operations for the Visiting Vehicle Group. This tool provides a...

The Mobile Thread Task Manager (MTTM) is being applied to parallelizing existing flight software to understand the benefits and to develop new techniques and architectural concepts for adapting software to multicore architectures. It allocates and load-balances tasks for a group of threads that migrate across processors...

The Software Developer’s Assistant (SDA) helps software teams more efficiently and accurately conduct or execute software processes associated with NASA mission-critical software. SDA is a process enactment platform that guides software teams through project-specific standards, processes, and...

As remote sensing for scientific purposes has transitioned from an experimental technology to an operational one, the selection of instruments has become more coordinated, so that the scientific community can exploit complementary measurements. However, technological and scientific heterogeneity across devices...

There is a need to acquire autonomously cryogenic hydrocarbon liquid sample from remote planetary locations such as the lakes of Titan for instruments such as mass spectrometers. There are several problems that had to be solved relative to collecting the right amount of...

The conventional method for integrating a radiometer into radar hardware is to share the RF front end between the instruments, and to have separate IF receivers that take data at separate times. Alternatively, the radar and radiometer...

Using technology found in cellphones, inexpensive sensors might one day soon save lives by giving advance warning of deadly landslides in at-risk areas around the world. The wireless test sensors are installed around an active landslide zone.

Examination of the Martian atmosphere by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover confirms that some meteorites that have dropped to Earth really are from the Red Planet. A key new measurement of the inert gas argon in Mars' atmosphere by Curiosity's laboratory provides the most definitive evidence...

World View Enterprises will offer $75,000 helium balloon rides into “near space," allowing people to ride higher than 98,000 feet above Earth’s atmosphere.

A small, easy-to-use, lightweight explosive screening kit continues to move forward towards full fielding as a means to provide soldiers in the field with the capability to screen for suspected homemade explosive materials (HME). Using colorimetric chemistry, the Colorimetric Reconnaissance...

In remote regions of the world where electricity is hard to come by and scientific instruments are even scarcer, conducting medical tests at a doctor’s office or medical lab is rarely an option. Scientists are now reporting progress toward an inexpensive point-of-care, paper-based...

NASA has joined forces with the product development startup Marblar for a pilot program allowing the public to crowdsource product ideas for forty of NASA’s patents. This initiative will allow Marblar’s online community to use a portion of NASA’s diverse portfolio of patented...

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have successfully added a fourth dimension to their printing technology, opening up exciting possibilities for the creation and use of adaptive, composite materials in manufacturing, packaging and biomedical applications.

The current generation of satellite launch vehicles is expensive to operate, often costing hundreds of millions of dollars per flight. To help address these challenges, DARPA has established the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. The program aims to develop a fully reusable...

Researchers have developed a measuring system which, hanging from a helicopter, detects the electric field strength as well as the signal contents of air-traffic control navigation systems. The data could be used in the planning phase of wind farms to find out to what extent the planned wind...

A temperature sensor developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could improve the efficiency, control, and safety of high-temperature engines. The sensor minimizes drift -- degradation of the sensor that results in faulty temperature readings and reduces the longevity of engine...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory investigated the effects of differently shaped, nanoscale textures on a material's ability to force water droplets to roll off without wetting its surface. The findings are highly relevant for a broad range of...

Microsoft is researching earbuds that play music based on your mood. The "Septimu" headphones contain internal measurement units (IMUs), a thermometer, and a heart rate monitor. The headphones will also detect posture, keep a health diary, and monitor exercise patterns. A University...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed software that allows them to map unknown environments – such as collapsed buildings – based on the movement of a swarm of insect cyborgs, or “biobots.”