Briefs: Test & Measurement
From cellphones to satellites, industry spends millions on traditional gold alloy electrical contact coatings. While gold and other metal alloys have been an industry standard to protect metal components...
Briefs: Materials
For many researchers, graphene is ideal for use in filtration membranes. A single sheet of graphene resembles atomically thin chicken wire, and is composed of carbon atoms joined...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have designed a superior seal assembly that is durable and highly dependable in extremely harsh environments. This...
Q&A: Medical
Professor Shahsavari and graduate student Sung Hoon have demonstrated a process for producing a cement that is stronger, lighter, and more durable than the...
Briefs: Nanotechnology
A new method increases the service life of concrete structures by reducing the infiltration rates of deleterious ions. The key is a nano-sized additive that slows down penetration of...
Briefs: Materials
High-Kinetic-Energy Penetrator Shielding and High-Wear-Resistance Materials Fabricated with Boron Nitride Nanotubes and BNNT Polymer Composites
In recent years, anti-penetration materials have been more widely used for armor, bulletproof vests, and micrometeoroid and orbital debris protection layers for space-suits, space vehicles, and...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optoelectronic engineers in China and Hong Kong have manufactured a special type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that is paper-thin, flexible, light, and tough. With this, a daily...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Linear Resonators Make Electronics More Resistant to Damage and Defects
Mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices are prone to failure caused by small defects in their complex electronics that can result from regular use. An innovation provides robust protection against circuitry damage that affects signal transmission.
Briefs: Materials
USAF-96 Steel is a low-alloy steel that, when thermally processed with the method described here, has the following typical values: an ultimate tensile strength of 245 ksi, yield strength at 0.2% offset...
Briefs: Materials
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a simple mechanism for the clean cutting of high-strength and high-toughness carbon nanotube/poly-mer fiber composites on demand without high blade wear or...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Compact Termination for Structural Soft Goods
Space environments are particularly harsh for the high-strength fibers NASA relies on for soft structures. Kevlar, Nomex, Nylon, and other synthetic fibers are broken down by exposure to the combination of vacuum, atomic oxygen, and ultraviolet radiation. Glass fiber offers unique advantages for...
NASA Spinoff: Robotics, Automation & Control
On the Curiosity rover, a tool called CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) is helping scientists determine what minerals make up the Martian landscape, and whether single-celled or more...
Articles: Imaging
Imaging lenses used in many industrial machine vision applications have special requirements beyond those of standard imaging lenses. The lenses used in factory automation, robotics, and industrial inspection...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), in collaboration with General Motors and Oceaneering, have designed a state-of-the-art, highly dexterous, humanoid robot: Robonaut 2 (R2)....
Application Briefs: Test & Measurement
CILS has developed a computer-printable, durable label for the identification of instruments on the Columbus Space Module, part of the International Space Station...
Briefs: Motion Control
Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), in collaboration with General Motors and Oceaneering, have designed a state-of-the-art, highly dexterous, humanoid robot: Robonaut 2 (R2)....
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Research at The University of Nottingham (UK) and the University at Ningbo (China) has found that laser scanning is a viable structural safety technique to detect the damaging...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
NASA'S Langley Research Center has developed a new adhesively bonded joint concept for curved and flat panel sandwich...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Safety Drain System for Fluid Reservoir
Researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have developed a system that reduces the entrapment risks associated with a pool or spa’s recirculation drain. The technology prevents hazards caused by suction forces on the body, hair, clothing, or other articles. Employing a novel configuration of...
Briefs: Materials
Compliant Electrode and Composite Materials for Piezoelectric Wind and Mechanical Energy Conversion
Thin film, piezoelectric materials generate a small voltage whenever they are deformed, suggesting that they are suitable for tapping energy from freely available resources, such as the wind. Yet their low-energy production levels and lack of...
Briefs: Materials
Development of a Novel, Regenerable Microlith Catalytic Reactor for CO2 Reduction via Bosch Process
Utilization of CO2 to produce life support consumables, such as water and oxygen, offers a potential advance for NASA’s cabin atmosphere revitalization system and in-situ resources utilization concepts for long-term manned space...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Mars Science Laboratory Flight Software for Autonomous Drilling
One of the goals of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is to collect powderized samples from the interior of rocks and deliver them to onboard science instruments. This goal is achieved using the algorithms and software that control the drill hardware to produce a system that...
Briefs: Imaging
Flight Proving a Heliophysics Soft X-Ray Imager
The interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magneto - sphere results in “space weather.” To determine the true nature of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction, scientists require global measurements of processes occurring at the bow shock, in the magnetosheath, and at the...
Briefs: Materials
Selective Clay Placement Within a Silicate Clay-Epoxy-Blend Nanocomposite
The dispersion of a layered silicate into an epoxy matrix often increases the material strength and stiffness, but reduces resin toughness. This innovation is a method to selectively place organically modified clay within specific regions of an epoxy blend, where the clay...
Briefs: Motion Control
Evaluation of Rail Gun Technology for Launch Assist of Air-Breathing Rockets
A prototype horizontal electromagnetic rail launcher has been demonstrated along with a corresponding theory. This system builds out of published work in augmented rail guns, but modifies this technology so that the motor can operate for seconds rather than...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
ADLINK Technology (San Jose, CA) has released its new IMT-1 Android 4.2 tablet, integrating the TI OMAP5432 1.5GHz dual-core ARM A15 processor for high performance computing power. Built-in WLAN or optional WWAN...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Aerodynamic control surfaces, with excessive free-play, can cause limit cycle oscillations (LCO), a sustained vibration of constant amplitude. The LCO is caused by a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Noncontact DC and AC Magnetostrictive Current Sensor
At the time of this reporting, there have been no effective methods of monitoring current in conductors in space without breaking the circuit or making contact with the conductor. In space, reliability rules all designs, and breaking a circuit to insert a sensor to monitor current would reduce...
Products: Lighting
ERNI (Richmond, VA) has developed a compact and economical wire-to-board interconnect solution with high current density in a small, 2.0mm pitch form factor. The iBridge™ single-row cable connector system delivers...
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