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New EEAs for the Connected, Autonomous Future

The connected, electrified and eventually driverless vehicle revolution has a less publicized but equally important back story — the development of next-generation electrical and electronic...

Bridging the Power Gap with 48 Volts

The hybrid Lincoln MKZ I'm driving feels like it's floating on air as we hustle down I-75, the combustion engine having been shut off by a clever bit of electrification. On this long, flat stretch of...

Shuttle, Hubble Work Lead to Strength in Custom Current Sensors

NASA Technology When it was built, the Space Shuttle boasted the world’s most complex avionics system. The Shuttle’s controls were entirely digital, with all connections...

3D Weaving Technology Strengthens Spacecraft, Race Cars

NASA Technology Weaving processes created millennia ago have helped create some of the most cutting-edge technology on NASA’s Orion spaceship, helping shield heat for humans who may one...

Data Acquisition System Captures Machine Performance

NASA Technology When you launch rockets, even the smallest deviation from design can create big problems—and they’re hard to fix for next time unless you know exactly what happened. The...

High-Heat Cement Gives Ashes New Life

NASA Technology When constructing high-performance structures, at NASA or elsewhere, materials made from recycled ingredients might not seem like a good fit. But when it comes to concrete made from ashes,...

Optical Filters for NASA Imagers Focus on Cutting Edge

NASA Technology By the time the Hubble Space Telescope launched, NASA engineers had already set their sights on its next upgrade. With camera and detector technologies improving at a rapid...

Fluorescent Diagnostic Test Readers Offer Fast, Low-Cost Results

NASA Technology NASA astronauts are screened for sound health, among a slew of other requirements, but no one is invulnerable, especially in space. For reasons not fully...

CMOS Sensors Enable Phone Cameras, HD Video

NASA Technology “People told me, ‘You’re an idiot to work on this,’” Eric Fossum recalls of his early experiments with what was at the time an alternate form of digital image sensor at...

Rocket Technology Stops Shaking in Its Tracks

NASA Technology Rocket launches—or earthquakes—are already punishing experiences. But it turns out there are some things that can make them worse: like if the vibrations hit the structure...

Space-Based Bone Scanner Expands Medical Research

NASA Technology What happens to bones after months in microgravity? The answers are of keen interest to researchers, who can use the information to offer new insights into healthcare on the...

Micromachined Sensors Monitor Train Rails, Predict Failures

NASA Technology Sensors originally designed to predict failures in a helicopter transmission have found an unexpected use detecting problems in train tracks. When Ridgetop Group...

Novel Threading Enables New Approach to Golf Clubs

NASA Technology NASA scientists routinely pioneer advances in cutting-edge fields like lasers and computer chips, but sometimes it’s the innovations they make in simple technologies that help...

Mineral Analyzer Shakes Answers Out of Soil and Rocks

NASA Technology How do you search for signs of life on a planet you’ve never been to? If you’re NASA, you send robots to do your dirty work, sifting through the soil and rocks for clues....

Building Sensor Monitors Power Usage, Device by Device

NASA Technology When NASA wanted to build the greenest, most energy-efficient Federal building in the United States, it needed a way to keep track of the energy being consumed. After all,...

Fast-Flow Nanofiber Filters Purify Water at Home and in the Field

NASA Technology More than a billion people around the world lack easy access to clean water—some trek for miles just to fill jugs for themselves and their families. Even where...

Blue-Light-Cancelling Lens Gives Skiers a Clearer View

NASA Technology Of all the colors the human eye is capable of seeing, it is particularly sensitive to blues and greens, which comprise the middle wavelengths of the visible electromagnetic...

Connectors Link Data Networks for Orion, Industry

NASA Technology The Orion crew capsule may resemble its Apollo ancestor on the surface, but all of its internal systems reflect nearly half a century of development since NASA’s Moon missions....

CO2 Sensors Monitor Vehicle Emissions from Above

NASA Technology Life on Earth is surrounded by, and dependent on, carbon dioxide (CO2). Plants need it for photosynthesis; people and animals exhale it; industry and vehicles release it as a...

Computer Learning Program Inventories Farmers’ Fields

NASA Technology There are now countless Earth-imaging satellites circling the globe, with more being sent up each year than the previous year. Yet with all those lenses peering down at...

Cooling Garments Find New Medical, Athletic, and Industrial Uses

NASA Technology When Bill Elkins started working on liquid cooling garments to keep early astronauts cool, no one saw a use for them beyond maintaining thermal comfort. In the...

Program Predicts Aerothermodynamics of Reentry, Subsonic Flight

NASA Technology Traveling nearly five miles per second, the Space Shuttle began each reentry with nothing to slow it down but the air. The gasses rushing over its wings’ leading...

Low-Cost Flow Meters Bring Efficiency, Reliability to Nuclear Plants

NASA Technology The technology looks unassuming enough: circular metal plates with multiple holes in them. The plates usually sport a large central hole surrounded by perhaps...

Professional Development Program Gets Bird’s-Eye View of Wineries

NASA Technology Virginia might not yet rival California when it comes to wine production, but a growing number of wineries and vintners are cropping up across the...

Rechargeable Hearing Aid Batteries Draw from NASA Research

NASA Technology We often imagine that inventions are born whole: Thomas Edison creates the incandescent light bulb and lights up Christie Street in Menlo Park on New Year’s Eve,...

Light-Analysis Software Explodes across Industries

NASA Technology Edward Freniere and a partner founded Lambda Research Corporation in 1992 with the idea of developing software to simulate the behavior of light, basing their first product on...

Orion Parachute Innovations Carry Commercial Rockets Back to Earth

NASA Technology No human venture into space is a success until craft and crew have safely returned to Earth.