Neil Cheatwood is principal investigator of the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3). In July, the IRVE-3 team tested an inflatable heat shield that protects spacecraft from extreme temperatures and hypersonic speeds when entering a planet's...

Analog and digital electronic control architecture has been combined with an operating methodology for an optical trace gas sensor platform that allows very low power consumption while providing four independent gas measurements in essentially real time, as well as a user interface and digital...

Certain selected chemicals associated with terrorist activities are too unstable to be prepared in final form. These chemicals are often prepared as precursor components, to be combined at a time immediately preceding the detonation. One example is a liquid explosive, which usually requires an...

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is a primary evolved combustion product of fluorinated and perfluorinated hydrocarbons. HF is produced during combustion by the presence of impurities and hydrogen-containing polymers including polyimides. This effect is especially dangerous in closed...

A document describes an algorithm created to estimate the mass placed on a sample verification sensor (SVS) designed for lunar or planetary robotic sample return missions. A novel SVS measures the capacitance between a rigid bottom plate and an...

Laser remote sensing measurements of trace gases from orbit can provide unprecedented information about important planetary science and answer critical questions about planetary atmospheres. Methane (CH4) is the second most important anthropogenically produced...

Hardware and algorithms have been developed to transfer electrical power and data connectivity safely, efficiently, and automatically from an identified damaged/defective wire in a cable to an alternate wire path. The combination of online cable testing capabilities, along with intelligent signal rerouting...

An InGaAs-based three-junction (3J) tandem thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell has been investigated to utilize more of the blackbody spectrum (from a 1,100 °C general purpose heat source — GPHS) efficiently. The tandem consists of three vertically stacked subcells, a 0.74-eV InGaAs cell, a...

A multichannel electrometer voltmeter has been developed that employs a mechanical resonator with voltage-sensing capacitance-probe electrodes that enable high-impedance, high-voltage, radiation-hardened measurement of an Internal Electrostatic Discharge Monitor (IESDM) sensor. The IESDM is...

A method has been developed for machining MgO crystal blocks into forms for containing metallic and silicate liquids at temperatures up to 2,400 ºC, and pressures up to at least 320 kilobars. Possible custom shapes include tubes, rods, insulators, capsules, and guides. Key differences in this innovative...

The goal of the Mars Aqueous Processing System (MAPS) is to establish a flexible process that generates multiple products that are useful for human habitation. Selectively extracting useful components into an aqueous solution, and then sequentially recovering individual constituents, can obtain a suite of refined or...

Cabin environmental control is an important issue for a successful Moon mission. Due to the unique environment of the Moon, lunar dust control is one of the main problems that significantly diminishes the air quality inside spacecraft cabins. Therefore, this innovation was motivated by NASA’s need to minimize the negative...

Today’s parking assistant systems enable drivers to safely park their cars even in the narrowest of gaps. Such sophisticated parking aids – as well as manufacturing robots – that require millimeter-precision control rely on precise all-around radar distance measurement....

Jackknifing is a major cause of devastation in a traffic accident involving tractor-trailer trucks. Researchers in Greece have now designed a device to prevent this often lethal action. The team’s sliding kingpin device allows the so-called kingpin junction between the front tractor and the...

Kessler Foundation has released preliminary research findings from its clinical study of the wearable robotic exoskeletal device, Ekso, made by Ekso Bionics. Ekso has been undergoing clinical investigation in patients with spinal cord injury at Kessler since October 2011, when the...

Professor Rick Neptune and his mechanical engineering students at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrate in this video how they're paving the way for more customized prosthetics and orthotic devices for injured soldiers.

MIT researchers have built a wearable sensor system that automatically creates a digital map of the environment through which the wearer is moving. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response.In experiments conducted on the MIT...

In today's work environments, robots are often kept isolated from humans due to their massive weight and speed, traits that could possibly endanger humans in their vicinity. Many machines are kept either inside glass cages or behind laser-controlled light curtains. New robots, however, are being built with...

Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have reached a record precision in radar distance measurements. With the help of a new radar system, an accuracy of one micrometer was achieved in joint measurements. The system is characterized by...

An ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft operating out of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, VA, will take part in the development of two future satellite instruments. The aircraft will fly test models of these instruments at altitudes greater than 60,000 feet to gather information...

A new “traffic light” test devised by Dr. Nick Sheron and colleagues at University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital in the UK could be used in primary care to diagnose liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations more easily than at...

Using the lessons of the Apollo era and robotic missions to Mars, NASA scientists and engineers are working on ways to develop landing pads that could be robotically constructed in advance of future human expeditions to destinations such as the moon or Mars. These specially...

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity would have a hard time completing its mission if it were not for a successful partnership between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor-student team at UT. Ben Blalock, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and two graduate...