Southwest Research Institute and ROS-Industrial developed a solution that enables industrial robots to scan and manipulate metallic objects that had previously been too “shiny” for machine vision to process. The project integrates intelligent part reconstruction using the second generation of the Robot Operating System (ROS2) framework to improve 3-D image perception when robots autonomously sand…

Southwest Research Institute has developed a high-reliability, high-voltage optocoupler for spaceflight applications. NASA has selected the device as a power interface between the Europa Clipper spacecraft and three instruments aboard, bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa in the next five years. The power converter, developed with internal funding, overcomes reliability problems similar systems have had operating…

A new, more powerful generation of a patented Southwest Research Institute magnetostrictive sensor withstands extreme temperatures, automatically adjusts frequencies and incorporates a stronger magnet. The compact magnetostrictive transducer (MsT™) more accurately detects potential problems in oil, gas and chemical industry metal and nonmetal structures such as pipelines, storage tanks and anchor rods. “The MsT system…

Southwest Research Institute engineers are developing a cooled, radial gas turbine for a small generator that provides thousands of hours of electricity to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a significant improvement to current UAV turbines that only operate a few hundred hours before wearing out. Turbines are rotary mechanical devices that, when combined with a…

NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is peering down through clouds to get an unprecedented view of this year’s hurricane activity. Already this season, five tropical storms have formed over the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean has had 20 tropical storms, five hurricanes, and two typhoons. The constellation of eight microsatellite spacecraft, built…

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) patented a new technology to inspect coatings of pipelines installed through horizontal directional drilling (HDD), a trenchless technology that has gained widespread acceptance over the past 20 years. The technology can determine both the extent and the configuration of any damage to the coating that occurs during HDD installation. “Our system…

In the first billion years of Earth’s history, the planet was bombarded by primordial asteroids, while a faint Sun provided much less heat. A Southwest Research Institute-led team posits that this tumultuous beginning may have ultimately fostered life on Earth, particularly in terms of sustaining liquid water. “The early impacts caused temporary, localized destruction and…

A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) experiment designed to assess the surface properties and processes of near-Earth asteroids successfully flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle April 2. The Box of Rocks Experiment (BORE) consists of two transparent boxes enclosing two types of rocks that simulate an asteroid’s regolith—the layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering…

Scientists at Southwest Research Institute combined dynamical, thermal, and chemical models of the Moon’s formation to explain the relative lack of volatile elements in lunar rocks. Lunar rocks closely resemble Earth rocks in many respects, but Moon rocks are more depleted in volatile elements like potassium, sodium, and zinc, which tend to have lower boiling…

Using a new process in planetary formation modeling, where planets grow from tiny bodies called “pebbles,” Southwest Research Institute scientists can explain why Mars is so much smaller than Earth. This same process also explains the rapid formation of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, as reported earlier this year. “This numerical simulation actually reproduces…

The latest data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveal diverse features on Pluto’s surface and an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen gas. However, Pluto’s small mass allows hundreds of tons of atmospheric nitrogen to escape into space each hour. So where does all this nitrogen come from? Dr. Kelsi Singer, a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research…

On March 12, NASA‘s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft are scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket to begin a two-year investigation of one of the most basic and important physical processes in the universe – magnetic reconnection. The mission will fly four identical spacecraft in a pyramid formation, using the Earth’s magnetosphere as a…