As NASA's Chief Engineer, Michael Ryschkewitsch is responsible for the overall review and technical readiness of all NASA programs. To download this interview as a podcast, click here.

Much like the Morpho butterfly’s microscopic wing structure, MORPHOTEX® fibers have various thicknesses and structures, which then determine specific colors. Thin films of 70-nm thickness, consisting either of polyester or nylon, are laminated in 61 alternating layers. By precisely...

A processing methodology enables quick and accurate identification of signal arrival direction. The improved mathematical concept allows unified detection, even with the cumbersome environment noise that afflicts conventional methods. It will be applied to devices that assume the...

A company develops composite materials using core-shell particles: ceramic, metal, or polymer elements coated with a ceramic oxide shield. The particles are mixed into thermoplastic resins, including polyethylene. During the melt processing, the high shear in the mixing...

Traditionally, heat treatments are used to sterilize food products, through either ultra-high-temperature processing or retorting. These treatments negatively affect the color, taste, and nutritional content of the food products, especially for “non-cooked” products such as gazpacho, cheese-based or...

A laser cavity was designed and implemented by using a wedged polarization rotator and a Porro prism in order to reduce the parts count, and to improve the laser reliability. In this invention, a z-cut quartz polarization rotator is used to compensate...

An affordable technology designed to facilitate extensive global atmospheric aerosol measurements has been developed. This lightweight instrument is compatible with newly developed platforms such as tethered balloons, blimps, kites, and even disposable instruments such as dropsondes.This technology is based on detection...

A sensor provides a measurement of the degree of seating of an electrical connector. This sensor provides a number of discrete distances that a plug is inserted into a socket or receptacle. The number of measurements is equal to the number of pins available in the connector for sensing.

This work relates to the development of sensors that measure specific aerosol properties. These properties are in the form of integrated moment distributions, i.e., total surface area, total mass, etc., or mathematical combinations of these moment distributions. Specifically, the innovation involves two...

Traditionally, nodes in a sensor network simply collect data and then pass it on to a centralized node that archives, distributes, and possibly analyzes the data. However, analysis at the individual nodes could enable faster detection of anomalies or other interesting events, as well as faster responses...