Topics

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?

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?"

ZERODUR: The Highly Technical Glass-Ceramic

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

Fabrication of Multilayer Ferritin Arrays

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

Semiconductors Can Behave Like Metals and Superconductors

This work potentially opens the door to advances like more energy-efficient electronic devices.

Soft Prosthetic Hand Feels Surroundings via Stretchable Optical Waveguides

Sensors in the hand can actually detect forces being transmitted through the thickness of the robot.

SMART Solar Sail

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

Mission Control Conference System Enables Global Collaboration

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

Development Software Handles High-Integrity Space Applications

NASA needed help accurately measuring Earth-reflected sunlight.

Biohybrid Can Turn Carbon Dioxide into New Products

Applications exist both on Mars and on Earth.

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.

Nature-Inspired Green Energy Technology

A new design enables artificial photosynthesis to generate fuel that can power homes and vehicles.

New on the Market: July 2020

Photoelectric sensors, cable connectors, power monitors, and USB3 cameras.

Product of the Month

Tektronix announced new digital storage oscilloscopes.

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?

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.

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.

Navigation Measurement Software

This program provides a relative navigation capability for spacecraft, remotely operated terrestrial vehicles, and machine vision.

Boosting Performance in Hydraulic Systems with Alternative Coatings

Taking a holistic approach to sealing systems in hydraulic systems using chrome alternatives helps engineers achieve optimum function.

Solenoid Valve Health Monitor

The Solenoid Valve Health Monitor System (SVHMS) was developed to remotely monitor the health of solenoid valves, lowering operational costs and increasing reliability by predicting valve failures before they...

New Products

Positioning System H2W Technologies (Santa Clarita, CA) offers the SRT-030/360-026-01 two-axis X-Theta positioning system for motion control applications that require coordinated linear and rotary positioning. The system consists...

Selecting Pressure Sensors for Autoclaves

Find the right pressure sensors for your sterilization applications.

Battlefield Navigation with MEMS

Soldiers tend to dodge, dive, duck, and run, creating motion measurement challenges.

Process for Producing High-Quality, Lightweight Mirrors

The process provides a cost-effective solution for applications in space-based imaging systems, military reconnaissance, and satellite and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Mars 2020 – The Anatomy of Perseverance

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

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: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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

Products of Tomorrow

Nature-Inspired Energy Tech, Superelastic Tires, Wearable Supercapacitors, and more...