Technology Highlights
Solar System
Apr 14, 2020
The next phase of groundbreaking planetary science requires access to the sub-surface and a means to capture planetary material for analysis.
Earth
Mar 31, 2020
A new instrument flew aboard NASA’s ER-2 airplane to measure the Moon’s brightness. Data from this instrument will eventually help other space-based sensors improve the Earth observations they collect.
Universe
Mar 18, 2020
To cool proposed future science instruments to operating temperatures well below one Kelvin, NASA is developing an advanced spaceflight magnetic refrigeration system.
Solar System
Mar 2, 2020
A new office has been created to manage the development of scientific instruments, space vehicle technologies, and mission support technologies needed for future planetary science missions.
Feb 19, 2020
This tiny CubeSat demonstrated low-cost, lowrisk, millimeter wave radiometer technology that will enable constellations of small satellites to provide the first temporal observations of cloud and precipitation processes on a global scale.
Universe
Feb 10, 2020
An X-ray camera is being developed with 3168 pixels and ground-breaking capability to resolve different “colors” of X-rays. This technology will allow observations of the dynamics and composition of hot energetic material in galaxy clusters and around black holes. Scientists can use these images to... Read More
Solar System
Feb 3, 2020
To help protect future space assets from dangerous effects that arise from radiation exposure, NASA is developing a new series of vacuum electronics.
Sun
Jan 28, 2020
The balloon-borne PMC Turbo experiment successfully provided information about small-scale instabilities and turbulence in the mesosphere that will ultimately contribute to improving weather and climate models.
Solar System
Jan 15, 2020
The capability to operate in harsh environments is crucial for spacecraft to explore the most forbidding regions in the solar system. Recent advances in silicon carbide (SiC) electronics have changed the paradigm of what is possible for exploration of such environments, including the surface of... Read More
Sun, Earth’s Space Environment
Jan 6, 2020
X-rays from the Sun help us probe the highest-energy phenomena that occur in our solar system, including solar storms and their origins. The Sun presents some unique challenges to researchers attempting to unravel its high-energy behavior. To deal with these challenges, a sounding rocket experiment... Read More
Solar System, Mars
Dec 30, 2019
The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration for the Mars 2020 rover mission, intended to show the feasibility and utility of using helicopters for Mars exploration. This technology may enable future missions to perform reconnaissance or independent science, and to access terrain not reachable... Read More
Dec 23, 2019
Space-based methods to measure soil moisture on Earth typically entail either sensing the extremely weak emission of microwaves from water in the soil using an instrument call a radiometer or using a radar, which transmits a signal toward Earth, and then receives the signal after it reflects from... Read More
Universe
Dec 9, 2019
This blog post originated in the 2018 Science Mission Directorate Science and Technology Report.
PROJECT
Laser Transmitter for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Mission
Sun, Earth’s Space Environment
Dec 2, 2019
This blog post originated in the 2018 Science Mission Directorate Science and Technology Report.
PROJECT
The Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram (MEM)
KEY POINTS
The low SWaP MEM sensor enables cost-effective implementation of future high-impact ionospheric current investigations on resource-... Read More
Solar System
Nov 12, 2019
Hyperdust’s unique ion optics design combines the ability to provide high-performance composition measurements with the aperture that is needed to detect a statistically significant number of particles in space over a standard mission duration of a few years.
