Software designed to give spacecraft more autonomy could support a future where swarms of satellites navigate and complete scientific objectives with limited human intervention. Astronauts living and working on the Moon and Mars will rely on satellites to provide services like navigation, weather, and communications relays. While managing complex missions, automating satellite communications will allow … Read more
NASA has released a new proposal opportunity for industry to tap into agency know-how, resources, and expertise. The Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO), managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, enables valuable collaboration without financial exchanges between NASA and industry partners. Instead, companies leverage NASA subject matter experts, facilities, software, and hardware to accelerate their … Read more
In the vacuum of space, where temperatures can plunge to minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit, it might seem like keeping things cold would be easy. But the reality is more complex for preserving ultra-cold fluid propellants – or fuel – that can easily overheat from onboard systems, solar radiation, and spacecraft exhaust. The solution is a … Read more
NASA’s latest open Software Catalog, released Wednesday, offers more than 1,200 downloadable codes developed by agency engineers that could enable faster solutions to energize the space economy and stimulate American ingenuity. The catalog is part of NASA’s effort to place advanced technologies, including agency software, into the hands of businesses, researchers, and entrepreneurs to foster … Read more
Through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, NASA nurtures visionary yet credible concepts that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace, while engaging America’s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey. These concepts span various disciplines and aim to advance capabilities such as finding resources on distant planets, making space travel safer … Read more
NASA continues to collaborate with global communities to solve complex challenges through crowdsourcing with a series of 25 new NASA Open Innovation Service (NOIS) contracts managed by the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The contract aims to empower NASA’s workforce by actively engaging the public to find creative solutions to difficult space exploration challenges … Read more
NASA’s RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) undergoes testing to extract simulated regolith, or the loose, fragmental material on the Moon’s surface, inside of the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 27. Ben Burdess, mechanical engineer at NASA Kennedy, observes RASSOR’s counterrotating drums digging … Read more
Advancing new hazard detection and precision landing technologies to help future space missions successfully achieve safe and soft landings is a critical area of space research and development, particularly for future crewed missions. To support this, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is pursuing a regular cadence of flight testing on a variety of vehicles, … Read more
Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have developed a technique to test long, flexible, composite booms for use in space in such a way that gravity helps, rather than hinders, the process. During a recent test campaign inside a 100-foot tower at a NASA Langley lab, researchers suspended a 94-foot triangular, rollable, … Read more
NASA named Stanford University of California winner of the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, a six-month competition for U.S. college and university student teams to virtually map and explore using a digital twin of NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization Pilot Excavator (IPEx). The winning team successfully demonstrated the design and functionality of their autonomous agent, or software that performs … Read more