Aerospace

Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Coming Soon - 2020 Create the Future Contest Awards

For the first time, the winners of the Create the Future Design Contest will be announced live! Join us for this special one-hour presentation as we honor our 2020 Grand Prize Winner, along...

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Technology Advances Learning Capabilities of Drone Swarms

The learning approach allows swarms of unmanned vehicles to optimally accomplish their mission while minimizing performance uncertainty.

Briefs: Aerospace

Nanocardboard Aircraft with No Moving Parts

Tiny aircraft that weigh as much as a fruit fly could serve as Martian atmospheric probes.

Briefs: Automotive

3D Additive Manufacturing with a High-Power Electron Gun

Applications include rapid prototyping, medical, aerospace, and automotive.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Bio-Inspired Wing Design for Small Drones

Taking a cue from birds and insects, the wing design helps drones fly more efficiently and makes them more robust to atmospheric turbulence.

Briefs: Unmanned Systems

Drones Change Shape Mid-Flight

This capability will optimize performance of the vehicle through different phases of flight.

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Precision Landing Without a Pilot

For planned robotic and crewed missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA is developing and testing precise landing and hazard-avoidance technologies. A combination of laser sensors, a camera, a high-speed...

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

NASA's 'VITAL' Ventilator: A Choice Between Licensing and Open-Source

As Brazil begins mass-producing a NASA-developed ventilator, a Tech Briefs reader asks why NASA didn't go open-source.

INSIDER: Energy

Perovskite and Organic Solar cells Prove Successful in Space

Almost all satellites are powered by solar cells – but solar cells are heavy. While conventional high-performance cells reach up to three watts of electricity per gram,...

Podcasts: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Here's an Idea: An ‘Aerodrome’ Testing Ground for Unmanned Aircraft

Before delivery drones start carrying packages (and passenger drones start delivering ourselves), engineers will need to keep refining an unmanned aircraft's ability...

Briefs: AR/AI

Hummingbird Robot Uses AI to Maneuver in Tight Spaces

The robots could fly silently for covert operations and stay steady through turbulence.

NASA Spinoff: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Printed Polymer Makes Integrated Airplane Parts

In 2019, NASA engineers test-fired a 3D-printed rocket engine combustion chamber.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Occulter for CubeSat Coronagraph

The instrument has uses in photography where the goal is to image a dim object near a bright one.

Facility Focus: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Facility Focus: NASA John C. Stennis Space Center

Stennis now is testing RS-25 rocket engines for the Space Launch System (SLS) that will carry humans back to the Moon.

Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Force/Torque Sensor Helps Rover Sample Mars

See how one company reached out to NASA with an offer to develop a custom sensor for the Mars 2020 mission rover.

Blog: Aerospace

Scientist Proposes Life on Mars, Below the Surface

Although life has not been found on Mars just year, a researcher from NYU thinks there could be life...under it.