Billy's Blog

Blog: Aerospace

With Satellite Data, NASA Shows COVID-19 Impact on Food Supply Chain

“Food supply” goes beyond just crop production. See how NASA is offering a more comprehensive look at food security and agriculture.

Blog: Aerospace

Watch: The Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch

Watch below as the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter make their way to Mars. NASA pros will offer their expertise throughout the day.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Watch Live: A Mars 2020 Briefing with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

Mars 2020 NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and other NASA experts offer a briefing on this week's launch of the Perseverance rover.

Blog: Aerospace

Watch: NASA's Mars 2020 Sample Return Briefing

Watch below as NASA experts review how they plan to return samples from the surface of Mars back to Earth.

Blog: Aerospace

Watch: NASA's Mars 2020 Mission Engineering and Science Briefing

Watch NASA experts review this week's preparations, as the Perseverance rover launches and begins its journey to Mars.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Answering Your Questions: How Automated is the Mars Rover Landing?

Can NASA "joystick" the landing of the next Mars rover? A Tech Briefs reader asks our NASA expert.

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Robotic Gripper Gets a Handle on a Challenging Object: Cables

We plug in our headphones everyday. Now a robot can perform the task.

Blog: Aerospace

Answering Your Questions: How Does the Mars Rover Camera Stay Clean?

The Perseverance rover has an almost human-like way of keeping its lenses clean.

Blog: Unmanned Systems

Guided by Light, A Mini Robot Catches Particles Underwater

A tiny underwater robot may someday filter out water contaminants by catching them with its tentacles.

Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Answering Your (Mars 2020) Questions: Will the Perseverance Rover Carry Around NASA's Mars Helicopter?

The Mars rover Perseverance has a helicopter. Will the rover have to carry it around?

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Even NASA Needs Effective Parts Sourcing

You can design the best product in the world but what if the parts, assemblies, and sub-components for your idea aren’t there?

Blog: Test & Measurement

Answering Your Questions: Will the 2020 Mars Rover Have Back-Up Features?

A reader asks our NASA expert: "What kind of redundancy is built into the Mars 2020 rover?"

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

'HEAT' Uses Cameras to Detect Facial Temperatures and Keep the Room Cool

The Human Embodied Autonomous Thermostat, or “HEAT," uses cameras to identify facial temperature, and adjust the room's air accordingly.

Blog: Data Acquisition

Answering Your (Mars 2020) Questions: Perseverance vs. Curiosity Rover Hardware

A reader asks NASA experts: How much hardware from the Curiosity rover is being used on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover?

Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Coffee Grounds Put a Pep in the Step of Flexible Robotic Feet

Traditional robotic feet are made of rigid components. A team of engineers at UCSD turned to coffee grounds to make legged robots more flexible and able to walk on a variety of rough terrain.

Blog: Energy

Is Water Vapor the Next Energy Source? Lightning Researchers Test the Idea

"Who knows? Maybe one day we will have roofs covered with humidity panels together with solar panels," TAU professor Colin Price told Tech Briefs.

Blog: AR/AI

NIST Researchers Use A.I. to Boost 5G Efficiency

NIST engineers are working to make the cellular network standard even faster.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

A Breakthrough for Robotic Prosthetics: Researchers Train A.I. to Spot Different Terrain

New software sets the stage for A.I.-enabled robotic prostheses that predict user terrain and initiate mechanical changes accordingly.

Blog: Transportation

How to Keep Batteries from Catching Fire? Nanotech Energy Goes with Graphene and New Electrolyte

The Los Angeles, CA-based company Nanotech Energy is using graphene to prevent thermal runaway and create a non-flammable battery.

Blog: Materials

Gecko-Inspired: Researchers Find Easier Way to Mass-Produce Adhesives

A team at Georgia Tech has discovered a Velcro-like way of mass-producing gecko-inspired adhesives.

Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

The Next Challenge for Soft Robots? Beat the Cheetah

A proof-of-concept soft robot has a cheetah-like gait that avoids the usual crawl.

Blog: Test & Measurement

As Fewer Planes Take Off, NASA's Pandora Sensors Measure Airport Air Quality

An empty airport tells you more than you might think.

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Starting In the Garage, NASA Engineer Makes Oxygen Helmet for COVID-19 Patients

See how NASA engineer Mike Buttigieg is creating a device that will free up ventilators for patients with COVID-19

Blog: FDA/Regulatory

NASA's 'VITAL' Ventilator Gets FDA Approval

A low-cost, low-complexity ventilator developed by NASA engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Mars 2020: Looking for Signs of Life in the Jezero Crater River Delta

By taking a closer look at the delta deposits on Mars, Stanford University researchers concluded that the Jezero Crater is still the best place to search for signs of life on Mars.

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Biosensor to Measure Coronavirus Concentration in Air

A team used to making pollutant-detection systems is adapting their technologies to spot coronavirus.

Blog: Software

A Faster Way to Design Rockets: Scientific Machine Learning

To speed up the design process, researchers from the University of Texas are finding more efficient ways to predict, or "learn," a rocket's behavior.

Blog: Energy

Super-Porous Material Gives Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles a Boost

A team at Northwestern University is developing a material so porous that if you were able to unfold a gram of it, you could go farther than a football field.

Blog: Test & Measurement

'mRIXS' Offers Deeper Look into Battery Chemistry

A Berkeley Lab system provides a much more sensitive probe of the chemical state of battery electrodes, especially when the battery is operated under high capacity mode.