Topic

Tools Ensure Reliability of Critical Software

NASA Technology In November 2006, after attempting to make a routine maneuver, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) reported unexpected errors. The onboard software switched to backup resources, and...

Electronic Handbooks Simplify Process Management

NASA Technology Getting a multitude of people to work together to manage processes across many organizations —for example, flight projects, research, technologies, or data centers and...

Software Innovations Speed Scientific Computing

NASA Technology What causes the Sun to change? And what are the impacts on our planet and our daily lives? These are some of the top questions that the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science...

Controller Chips Preserve Microprocessor Function

NASA Technology Above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Brazil, there is a dip in the Earth’s surrounding magnetic field called the South Atlantic Anomaly. Here, space radiation can reach...

Nanotube Production Devices Expand Research Capabilities

NASA Technology In order for the Hubble Space Telescope to take incredible, never-seen-before shots of celestial bodies and then send them back to Earth, the spacecraft needs power. While...

Custom Machines Advance Composite Manufacturing

NASA Technology Here is a brief list of materials that NASA will not be using to construct spacecraft: wood, adobe, fiberglass, bone. While it might be obvious why these materials would not make...

Polyimide Foams Offer Superior Insulation

NASA Technology At Langley Research Center, Erik Weiser and his colleagues in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch were working with a new substance for fabricating composites for use in...

Beam Steering Devices Reduce Payload Weight

NASA Technology Scientists have long been able to shift the direction of a laser beam, steering it toward a target, but often the strength and focus of the light is altered. For precision...

Models Support Energy-Saving Microwave Technologies

NASA Technology During the Apollo Program, astronauts on the Moon encountered a small menace that created big problems: lunar dust. Similar to how tiny bits of Styrofoam behave on...

Materials Advance Chemical Propulsion Technology

NASA Technology In the future, the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate hopes to use better-performing and lower-cost propulsion systems to send rovers, probes, and...

High-Temperature Coatings Offer Energy Savings

NASA Technology The U.S. X-Plane Program included the first-of-its-kind research in aerodynamics and astronautics with experimental vehicles, including the first aircraft to break the sound...

Bioreactors Drive Advances in Tissue Engineering

NASA Technology It was an unlikely moment for inspiration. Engineers David Wolf and Ray Schwarz stopped by their lab around midday. Wolf, of Johnson Space Center, and Schwarz, with NASA...

Tooling Techniques Enhance Medical Imaging

NASA Technology They can release as much energy as tens of billions of hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. They send protons and electrons rocketing at near the speed of light. They heat gas in...

Ventilator Technologies Sustain Critically Injured Patients

NASA Technology Consider this scenario: A soldier has been critically wounded in a sudden firefight in a remote region of Afghanistan. The soldier’s comrades attend to him and radio...

Protein Innovations Advance Drug Treatments, Skin Care

NASA Technology Dan Carter carefully layered the sheets of tracing paper on the light box. On each sheet were renderings of the atomic components of an essential human protein, one whose...

Mass Analyzers Facilitate Research on Addiction

NASA Technology The famous “go/no go” command for Space Shuttle launches comes from a place called the Firing Room. Located at Kennedy Space Center in the Launch Control Center (LCC), there...

Frameworks Coordinate Scientific Data Management

NASA Technology Voyager 2 sailing beyond the far boundary of the solar system. The rover Opportunity churning across the red soil of Mars. Cassini-Huygens imaging the moons of Saturn. Capable of...

Cameras Improve Navigation for Pilots, Drivers

NASA Technology After 10 months of traveling through deep space to Mars, the Phoenix Lander finally approached its destination. The last 7 minutes of the spacecraft’s 423...

Integrated Design Tools Reduce Risk, Cost

NASA Technology As NASA designs new spacecraft for its science missions and begins designs for the next generation of human spaceflight vehicles, it also works to revolutionize Earth’s airspace with...

Advisory Systems Save Time, Fuel for Airlines

NASA Technology Heinz Erzberger never thought the sky was falling, but he knew it could benefit from enhanced traffic control. Throughout the 1990s, Erzberger led a team at Ames Research Center to...

Modeling Programs Increase Aircraft Design Safety

NASA Technology “Flutter” may sound like a benign word when associated with a flag in a breeze, a butterfly, or seaweed in an ocean current. When used in the context of aerodynamics,...

Fly-by-Wire Systems Enable Safer, More Efficient Flight

NASA Technology In 1961, not long after NASA received the imperative from President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the Moon within the decade, then-NASA administrator James Webb posed a...

Modified Fittings Enhance Industrial Safety

NASA Technology Kennedy Space Center is not only home to one of the largest buildings in the world—the massive Vehicle Assembly Building—it also hosts a number of one-of-a-kind facilities. The...

Simulation Tools Model Icing for Aircraft Design

NASA Technology Here’s a simple science experiment to try: Place an unopened bottle of distilled water in your freezer. After 2–3 hours, if the water is pure enough, you will notice that it...

Information Systems Coordinate Emergency Management

NASA Technology The rescue crews have been searching for the woman for nearly a week. Hurricane Katrina devastated Hancock County, the southernmost point in Mississippi, and the woman had...

Imaging Systems Provide Maps for U.S. Soldiers

NASA Technology Spanning nearly four decades, the remarkable Landsat program has continuously provided data about the Earth’s surface, including detailed maps of vegetation, land use, forest...

High-Pressure Systems Suppress Fires in Seconds

NASA Technology Much deserved attention is given to the feats of innovation that allow humans to live in space and robotic explorers to beam never-before- seen images back to Earth. In the...

Alloy-Enhanced Fans Maintain Fresh Air in Tunnels

NASA Technology The Partnership for Next Generation Vehicles (PNGV) is not a NASA initiative to develop powerful new rockets and spacecraft, even though it may sound like one. PNGV was a...

Control Algorithms Charge Batteries Faster

NASA Technology On March 29, 2011, NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft beamed a milestone image to Earth: the first photo of Mercury taken from...