Technology Highlights
Digging Deeper to Find Life on Ocean Worlds
In February 2023, researchers from around the country gathered at a NASA-sponsored workshop to discuss the latest developments and a roadmap for a cryobot mission concept to drill through the icy crusts of Europa and Enceladus and search for life.
Deformable Mirrors in Space: Key Technology to Directly Image Earth Twins
Finding and studying Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars is critical to understand whether we are alone in the universe. To study such planets and assess if they can sustain life, it is necessary to directly image them. However, these planets…
Deploying and Demonstrating Navigation Aids on the Lunar Surface
NASA is developing lunar navigation beacons to be deployed on spacecraft or the lunar surface to aid in localization and help future space vehicles determine position, velocity, and time to high accuracy.
New Software Enables Atmospheric Modeling with Greater Resolution
Next-generation software is making it easier for researchers, policy makers, and citizen scientists to model air quality and greenhouse gases using NASA meteorological data.
Tracing the Origin and Energization of Plasma in the Heliosphere
PROJECT: Solar Wind Pickup Ion Composition Energy Spectrometer (SPICES) SNAPSHOT: SPICES is a new sensor that will help scientists discover where matter originates and how it is energized throughout the solar system Imagine that you have a secret decoder ring…
Growing Yeast on the Moon to Study Radiation Risks to Human Explorers
PROJECT: Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) SNAPSHOT: An autonomous microfluidic culturing system with CubeSat heritage teams up with two state-of-the-art radiation detectors to measure how biology responds to the radiation and reduced gravity environment on the lunar…
HOTTech Attempts to Tackle Venus
Specialized test rig determines how new technologies fare in extreme conditions PROJECT: Hot Operating Temperature Technology (HOTTech) Program; NASA Glenn Extreme Environment Rig (GEER) SNAPSHOT: Projects in NASA’s HOTTech Program are developing technologies that will operate on the surface of…
New X-ray Detectors to Provide Unprecedented Vision of the Invisible Universe
PROJECT: Advanced Magnetic Microcalorimeter development SNAPSHOT: A new class of X-ray detector with unprecedented energy resolution and array size could help transform our understanding of the cosmos through unparalleled vision into the otherwise invisible universe. Very detailed information is now…
Sending Signals Through the Ice on Ocean Worlds
PROJECT: Ocean Worlds Signals Through the Ice (STI) SNAPSHOT: The Ocean Worlds Signals Through the Ice (STI) team is developing communication technologies to enable subsurface exploration of ocean worlds where conditions may be conducive to life. Detection of extraterrestrial life…
Coexisting quantum gases in Earth’s orbit
PROJECT: Cold Atom Lab (CAL) SNAPSHOT: Two species of quantum gases have been created to coexist and interact for the first time in space. Accessing resonant interactions among these gases will allow scientists to explore few-body physics, quantum chemistry, and…
