Boeing has unveiled its newest unmanned platform, the Airpower Teaming System. Built by Boeing Australia, the military drone will complement existing military aircraft, and extend airborne missions. “The Boeing Airpower Teaming System will provide a disruptive advantage for allied forces’ manned/unmanned missions,” says Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of Boeing Autonomous Systems. “With…
Virtual Reality May Reveal How Time is Perceived in Space
Einstein’s time-dilation hypothesis states “that time slows down the faster you travel,” according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Flying atomic clocks aboard aircraft have verified the hypothesis, and astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are continually studying their perception of time in space. Right now, ISS astronauts are traveling at 17,895 mph (28,800…
How NASA’s All-Electric X-Plane with 14 Wing Propellers Will Keep Cool
NASA’s X-57 Maxwell will explore electric-powered flight. According to the agency, it will be “the first all-electric X-plane, and will be flown to validate and demonstrate the benefits that distributed electric propulsion may yield for the future of aviation.” In the aircraft’s final configuration, it will have a whopping 14 electric motors and propellers on…
Israel’s Mission to the Moon Suffers Its First Technical Glitch
Last week, Israel launched the first privately funded mission to the moon with SpaceIL’s Beresheet (Hebrew for “In the beginning”) spacecraft. In the midst of its lunar voyage, the spacecraft has met a technical hiccup, according to the Associated Press (AP). SpaceIL engineers announced Tuesday, February 26, that the onboard computer system reset itself unexpectedly, the…
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Survives Mysterious Computer Reset
The Mars Curiosity rover is abound with ambition, recently leaving its Vera Rubin Ridge dig site, remembered in a 360-degree video, toward the bottom of the Gale Crater known as the “clay-bearing unit,” named “Glen Torridon.” However, Friday, February 15, Curiosity ran into an issue. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the leader of…
Japan’s Probe Briefly Landed on an Asteroid to Shoot It with a Bullet
Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe successfully landed on the Ryugu asteroid that’s 300 million km away, to collect samples that could point to the origin of the solar system and life itself. The probe didn’t stay long. After touchdown, it fired a special bullet into the asteroid’s surface in order to gather the scattered dust samples for analysis back…
Watch a Satellite Fling a Pen-Sized Harpoon at Space Junk
A pen-sized harpoon fired from a satellite at 44.7 mph (20 m/s) successfully captured a target in space, demonstrating its potential in space junk removal. The aluminum target was situated on a 1.5-m carbon-fiber boom, which was attached to the mission’s main spacecraft. Harpoon Lead Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space Chris Burgess says, “Successful…
InSight Places Temperature-Taking Instrument on Mars’ Surface
InSight is making great progress on Mars. Just this month, its seismometer was fitted with a protective dome shield. Now, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) reports InSight has placed its second instrument on the Martian surface, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3). Situated 3 ft (1 m) from the seismometer, HP3 will measure…
From Self-Driving Tractors to Texts from Plants: 5 Farming Tools with NASA Roots
NASA’s technology contributions aren’t bound to just space applications. Throughout the years, many companies have teamed up with the agency to bring innovation to the agriculture industry. Below are just five examples, compiled by NASA, of farming technology with NASA origins. 1. Self-Driving Tractors In the 1990s, GPS was still a new development, and John…
Smartphone-Based System to Monitor America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
The United States is suffering from aging infrastructure, earning a D+ grade nationwide on an A-F scale, the American Society of Civil Engineers reports. To better observe these structures, including deteriorating roads and bridges, University of Missouri (MU) scientists have developed a smartphone-based monitoring system. Smartphones are packed with various sensors, such as a camera,…
Visit Curiosity’s Mars Dig Site in a 360-Degree Video
NASA’s Curiosity rover launched November 26, 2011, toward Mars, landing on the Red Planet August 6, 2012, in the 96-mi-wide Gale Crater. Unlike its older counterpart Opportunity, Curiosity is still on talking terms with Earth, and after more than a year of exploring Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge, it has moved on to another site. But…
Firefighting Robots Get a Life-Saving Upgrade
A design improvement for firefighting robots strives to help their navigation skills in burning structures, thus decreasing the dangers for human firefighters. Developed by Purdue University researchers, the robots are now equipped with a new automatic T-valve system, which can remove water from a fire hose when the robot arrives at a new location. As…
Award-Winning Project Detects Dangerous Land Mines with Drones
The Create the Future Design Contest was launched in 2002 by NASA Tech Briefs magazine publishers, recognizing engineering innovation. First place for the 2018 aerospace and defense category was awarded to a Binghamton University, State University of New York team for their project that uses drones to locate dangerous land mines. The accolades go to Binghamton…
An Eco-Friendly DIY Wooden Drone Kit
Aerowood is a customizable wooden DIY drone kit. The product is currently in the midst of an Indiegogo funding campaign, with project owner SirTeen at the helm. Step-by-step instructions help the user when they receive the kit containing 184 eco-friendly wooden components. No glue is required, as everything snaps together just like a 3D jigsaw…
InSight’s Seismometer Features Climate-Controlled Housing
Since InSight’s November 26 touchdown on Mars, it’s been quite busy trying to deploy all three of its science tools. When InSight’s robotic arm set the seismometer (SEIS) onto Mars’ surface December 16, the lander officially placed its first instrument on the Martian terrain. Now SEIS has reached another milestone—it dons a domed shield that’ll…
Israel Readies the First Privately Funded Mission to the Moon
The first privately funded mission to the moon will center on SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft, which is Hebrew for “In the beginning.” After its lunar landing, Beresheet will also be the first spacecraft to “hop” on its rocket engine to a secondary landing spot. Israel’s SpaceIL can be traced back to 2011 as one of the…
ESA’s Solar Orbiter Preps for a High-Temp Mission
The ESA’s Solar Orbiter is primed for a 2020 launch, ready to measure the sun’s solar wind from a minimum distance of 42 million km (about 26 million mi). To put that into perspective, that’s less than one-third Earth’s distance. Being that close to the sun spells a hot mission for the Solar Orbiter. It’ll…
Opportunity, Phone Home: Engineers Send New Commands to Contact Mars Rover
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have started transmitting new commands to the Opportunity rover, in hopes of awakening its connection with Earth. While Opportunity recently celebrated 15 years on Mars, it also sent a stark reminder to the rover team that communication has stopped. June 10, 2018, marks the last time Opportunity communicated…
NASA’s Opportunity Rover Celebrates 15 Years on Mars
NASA’s Opportunity rover has successfully logged 15 years on the surface of Mars. When it first landed in the Red Planet’s Meridiani Planum region January 24, 2004, it was meant to travel 1,100 yards and operate for 90 Martian days (sols). However, the golf-cart-sized rover has far surpassed expectations. So far, it has traveled more…
Boeing’s Flying Car Takes to the Sky for its First Test Flight
Manassas, Va., was recently home to Boeing’s first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle (PAV) prototype. During its flight, the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft completed a controlled take off, then hovered for a bit before it made its landing. The entire process tested the prototype’s ground control systems and autonomous…
Amazon’s Safety Vest Prevents Robots from Running into Humans
As the workforce becomes a mix of man and machine, Amazon is looking to up human worker safety with a new wearable currently found at 25+ of its sites, according to TechCrunch. With more than 100,000 robots under Amazon’s employment, it’s a design with a growing necessity. Called the Robotic Tech Vest, its built-in sensors…
ExoMars Software Aces Self-Driving Test
ESA’s scientists have successfully tested navigation software for the ExoMars 2020 mission, putting it through a rover-based driving test. The team used the ExoMars Testing Rover (ExoTeR), which is a half-scale version of the rover that’ll traverse the Red Planet, to check the navigation software during the two-day-long rover trials. At ESA’s 9 x 9…
Astronauts Prep for Space Station Life in VR
Virtual reality (VR) has stepped beyond the video games industry, today helping astronauts prep for life aboard the International Space Station (ISS). While Earth-bound, astronauts can practice their spacewalks and master the art of equipment operations in microgravity. In the image below (Figure 1), ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is utilizing VR to prepare for his…
A Cybersecurity System That Learns From the Hackers Themselves
To fortify the integrity of the United States’ energy grid, systems must be able to hold their own against destructive hackers. Sometimes, the best approach is to learn the ways of the enemy, beating them at their own game—a tactic that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) researchers took to heart. Known…
Hubble’s Camera to Resume Operations By End of Week
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 automatically suspended operations January 8. NASA now reports the camera was brought back to operations mode, edging closer to once again conducting science operations. The problem started when Wide Field Camera 3’s software detected that some of its voltage levels fell outside the predefined range, according to NASA.…