Aerospace

Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Executive Roundtable: 3D Printing

Tech Briefs posed questions to 3D printing/AM industry execs, to get their views on issues like metal printing, new materials, and environmental sustainability.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Autonomic and Apoptotic Highly Distributed System

Applications include distributed computer systems, computer security, and commercial satellite systems.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

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: Communications

Wi-Fi-assisted Inertial Odometry (WIO) Measures Speed and Distance of Indoor Movement

The technique could be used to improve navigation for robots, drones, or pedestrians.

Briefs: Energy

Shape Memory Alloy Mechanisms for CubeSats

This lightweight and efficient mechanism enables retention, release, and deployment of solar arrays and antennas.

NASA Spinoff: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Space Station Garden Shines Light on Earth-Based Horticulture

NASA’s LED lighting system enables food and other crops to be grown indoors in places like skyscrapers.

Briefs: Aerospace

Leaf-Inspired Surface Prevents Frost Formation

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

Briefs: Software

Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness (LHASA)

This framework determines regional landslide probability in near real time.

Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics

Products of Tomorrow: May 2020

A cryptographic ID tag, a high-reliability NASA switch, and a stretchable thermoelectric generator...

Facility Focus: Imaging

Facility Focus: NASA Ames Research Center

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

Articles: Imaging

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...

Technology Leaders: Photonics/Optics

Tackling Aircraft Laser Strikes from the Ground

To reduce the increasing frequency of attacks, the ground-based Laser Aircraft Strike Suppression Optical System (LASSOS) has been developed by researchers from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

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.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Square Structural Joint with Robotic Assembly Tool

Square trusses replace round for enhanced strength and robotics compatibility.

Briefs: Aerospace

Multifunctional Structure Stabilizes and Rotates Satellites

This technology cancels out the vibrations of a satellite by vibrating the solar panels in the opposite direction.

Facility Focus: Materials

Facility Focus: California Institute of Technology

See some of the world-changing tools and technologies launched by Caltech scientists, from earthquake monitoring to helping the blind see.

Briefs: Automotive

Relaxor Piezoelectric Single-Crystal Multilayer Stacks for Energy Harvesting Transducers (RPSEHT)

Applications include powering portable electronic devices and sensors, and harvesting waste mechanical energy for aircraft, automobile, and other transportation equipment.

Briefs: Materials

Powder Particles for Corrosion Prevention in Rebar

The coating protects parking decks, bridges, concrete piers, offshore platforms, buildings, and cooling towers.

NASA Spinoff: Aerospace

Detailed Spectrometry Makes Dangerous-Materials Testing Safer

Technology used to search for extraterrestrial life can characterize radioactive material.

Briefs: Aerospace

High-Reliability Radio Frequency MEMS Switch

Applications include homeland security, vehicle anti-collision systems, telecommunications systems, and industrial instrumentation.