Aeronautics

Briefs: Aerospace

ONav and GeoPixel™ Web-Based Navigation for the Collection of Aerial Imagery

Multiple commercial applications include defense, search and rescue, and disaster relief.

Briefs: Aerospace

Directional UAV Localization of Power Line Ultraviolet Corona

This method detects power line faults using a drone.

Blog: Aerospace

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 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: Imaging

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: 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?

Podcasts: Robotics, Automation & Control

Here's an Idea: A Morphing Airplane Wing Built by Tiny Robots

Ben Jennet is a PhD student at MIT and a former space research fellow at NASA. He is working with NASA to develop a new kind of aircraft wing that's flexible and changes mid-flight.

Technology Leaders: Aerospace

ZERODUR: The Highly Technical Glass-Ceramic

Highly technical glass-ceramic delivers optical precision at nanometer scale.

Briefs: Aerospace

Fabrication of Multilayer Ferritin Arrays

This method creates a thin-film electrode for a bio-nanobattery.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

SMART Solar Sail

The miniaturized, autonomous, reconfigurable solar sail is capable of very fine maneuvering by small surface deformation.

NASA Spinoff: Aerospace

Mission Control Conference System Enables Global Collaboration

Automated systems developed for NASA now serve as office conference bridges.

Technology Leaders: Test & Measurement

Enhancing Aircraft System Monitoring and Reducing Unscheduled Maintenance

Aircraft may have a huge amount of data available, but this doesn’t mean it’s the right data to troubleshoot a problem.

Blog: Aerospace

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?

Podcasts: Aerospace

Here's an Idea: A Rock-Vaporizing 'SuperCam' for the Mars Rover

In this episode of Here's an Idea, we learn how researcher Roger Wiens went from sketching Mars and making homemade telescopes to bringing science instruments to Mars itself.

Articles: Test & Measurement

Mars 2020 – The Anatomy of Perseverance

NASA's Mars 2020 rover looks virtually the same as Curiosity but there are a number of differences.

Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control

Mars 2020 – Building Perseverance

Tech Briefs spoke with NASA’s Keith Comeaux, Deputy Project Chief Engineer, to learn more about the helicopter heading to Mars.

Facility Focus: Aerospace

Facility Focus: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Engineering focuses on solving the “grand challenges” facing humanity.

Articles: Imaging

Mars 2020 – Looking for Life

Tech Briefs spoke with NASA’s Ken Williford, Mars 2020 Deputy Project Scientist, to learn more about the science capabilities of Perseverance.

Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Mars 2020 – Getting to Mars

Perseverance will have the ability to land in more challenging terrain than Curiosity, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates.

Articles: Test & Measurement

Mars 2020 – The Science of Mars 2020

Learn about the four goals of the Mars 2020 mission.

Articles: Test & Measurement

Mars 2020 – Perseverance to the Red Planet

Read our special series on the Mars 2020 mission, featuring interviews with NASA experts and designers of the Perseverance rover.

Briefs: Materials

Nano-Infused Ceramic Can Report its own Health

A ceramic sensor could be embedded into structures such as bridges and aircraft to monitor their health.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Characterizing Richness of Previously Unmapped Terrain and its Impact on Navigation Using 3D Range Sensors

Landers to small bodies such as comets and asteroids can use this program to estimate the terrain richness of the previously unmapped small body.

Briefs: Energy

Leaf-Inspired Surface Prevents Frost Formation

This new design could conserve energy used for defrosting airplanes, appliances, and more.

Facility Focus: Materials

Facility Focus: NASA Ames Research Center

This NASA center hosts the world’s greatest collection of wind tunnels and flight simulation facilities

Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control

3D Imaging the Biolocomotion of Fruit Flies

The last thing you probably do when a fly buzzes toward you is marvel at its graceful wing and body kinematics. But that’s exactly what researchers at Cornell University’s Itai Cohen Group...