Topics

Vision-Based Approach and Landing System (VALS)

Incorporating a vision-based navigation method, NASA Ames has developed a novel Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing (APNT) solution for AAM aircraft in environments where GPS is not available. Read on to learn more about it.

Safe, Inexpensive Method to Propel Small Satellites

A novel micropropulsion system was developed for nanosatellite applications using a liquid-fed pulsed-plasma thruster. It uses a liquid propellant for a Lorentz-force pulsed-plasma accelerator and an extended lifetime ignition system driven by nanosecond-long pulses. Read on to learn more.

UCF’s Hypersonic Technology Advances

Over the past year, the DoD has awarded funding to hypersonics research led by University of Central Florida Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Kareem Ahmed to support the advancements he’s making in the technology. The support is a testament to the progress UCF has made in the field. Read on to learn more about these advances.

Modeling and Analyzing Inter-Satellite Relative Motion

To address scalable control of orbital dynamics, NASA Ames Research Center has patented Swarm Orbital Dynamics Advisor (SODA) — a solution that accepts high-level configuration commands and provides the orbital maneuvers needed to achieve the desired type of swarm relative motion. Read on to learn more.

Recycling Defunct Satellite Material into a Fuel Source

A research team from the University of Waterloo’s Laboratory for Emerging Energy Research is looking into processing lunar regolith, the Moon’s top layer of soil and dust, into usable materials for life support, energy generation, and construction. This includes investigating the use of defunct satellite material as a fuel source when mixed with lunar regolith. Read on to learn more.

Nanoscale Device Points the Way to Future Wireless Communication Channels

In a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, a team of Caltech engineers reports building a metasurface patterned with miniscule tunable antennas capable of reflecting an incoming beam of optical light to create many sidebands, or channels, of different optical frequencies. Read on to learn more.

Future Washable Smart Clothes Powered by Wi-Fi will Monitor Health

Purdue University engineers have developed a method to transform existing cloth items into battery-free wearables resistant to laundering. These smart clothes are powered wirelessly through a flexible, silk-based coil sewn on the textile. Read on to learn more.

Prepare for Takeoff: NWI Aerostructures Thrusts Forward with CNC Control System

The aerospace industry is in an era of profound innovation. Airplanes and air travel are transforming in response to the needs of the global economy, necessitating the building of aircraft at an accelerated pace. Enter NWI. With over 50 years of long-bed machining expertise, NWI is a contract manufacturer of complex structural components, sub-assemblies, and complete major assemblies of wing structures. Read on to learn more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a 3D microwave antenna, smart CCTV systems trained to spot blockages in urban waterways, and a full-scale prototype for six telescopes that will enable, in the next decade, the space-based detection of gravitational waves.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on Michigan Engineering racing its 17th solar car, Astrum, across the Australian Outback; one on how NASA’s Europa Clipper — a 7,000-pound spacecraft — was packed and shipped from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida; one on the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative; and one on leveraging precision growth to convert plants into biodegradable electronic devices.

Shedding Weight: Connectivity in Military-Aerospace Applications

Weight is among the most critical factors behind component choice when it comes to aerospace applications. Being among the bulkiest of components, connectors and cables need to embrace the latest scientific advances in order to reduce weight and enhance performance, fuel efficiency, and overall system reliability. This article outlines the recent advances enabling lighter connectors for aircraft, satellites, and drones.

The First Non-Electric Touchpad

Researchers at Tampere University have developed the world’s first soft touchpad that can sense the force, area, and location of contact without electricity. The device utilizes pneumatic channels, enabling its use in environments such as MRI machines and other conditions that are unsuitable for electronic devices.

Test Your Knowledge About Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft

How much do you know about how hydrogen-powered aircraft work and the companies that are researching and developing hydrogen-powered aircraft programs? Find out with this quiz.

Controlling Prosthetic Hands More Precisely by the Power of Thought

Researchers at the German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, have developed a novel training protocol for brain-computer interfaces in a...

First Toroidal Micro-Robot to Swim Autonomously in Viscous Liquids

A peek through an optical microscope reveals a hidden universe teeming with life. Nature has devised ingenious methods for micro-organisms to navigate their viscous...

Celebrating Innovation and Innovators at the 2024 Create the Future Design Contest

The Create the Future Design Contest has helped bring out the best technologies for the future throughout its 22-year run. The annual contest had the finalists in each of the seven categories pitch their ideas to a team of judges, who would then choose the Grand Prize winner. Read on to learn who won.

AI Helps UAVs Predict Oncoming Turbulence

Professor Animashree (Anima) Anandkumar and her team at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a control strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that uses reinforcement learning to adaptively learn how turbulent wind can change over time and then uses that knowledge to control the UAV based on what it is experiencing.

Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination: The Army's Future Vision for Fused AI

U.S. Army leadership discusses how the Army wants to use AI and ML for processing, exploitation, and dissemination.

3D-Printed Engines Propel Next Industrial Revolution

The new possibility of 3D-printed aluminum engine parts will mean significant savings for NASA in terms of time, money, and, most importantly, the weight of future spacecraft. Elementum 3D Inc., a partner on the project, is now bringing the benefits of that technology to its customers.

Why the Air Force Is Using the Virtualitics AI Approach to Weapon Sustainment

Michael Amori, CEO and co-founder of Virtualitics, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to explain how the Air Force is using Integrated Readiness Optimization for weapons sustainment.

New Computer Vision-Based System Monitors Seasonal Dynamics of Tropical Water

Researchers have developed a new way to map water on land in the tropics. Called the UC Berkeley Random Walk Algorithm WaterMask, this advanced monitoring technology uses L-band microwaves from the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System to “see” water hidden beneath visual barriers, like tree canopies and clouds. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Develop Smallest Free-Floating Bubbles for Medical Imaging

A team of researchers from Rice University has introduced 50-nm gas-filled protein nanostructures derived from genetically engineered gas vesicles(GVs) that are referred to as 50 nmGVs. Read on to learn more.

New Upgrade Will Supercharge Atomic Vision of the World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser

The Department of Energy has given the green light for construction to begin on a high-energy upgrade that will further boost the performance of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s most powerful X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Read on to learn more about it.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on a humanoid robot that can effortlessly learn and perform a variety of expressive movements all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains; one on Picotaur, the first legged robot of its size to run, turn, push loads, and climb miniature stairs; one on the DoD’s All Domain Test Range; and one on using generative AI and cutting-edge scene-mapping technology to elevate robots from simple tools to being capable of providing aid in disaster and battlefield scenarios.