NASA Research and Technology

Scientists working on advanced technology for space exploration, including waste conversion and electrostatic experiments in laboratory settings.

Indian scientist working in laboratory

LCROSS in Ames clean room N-240 - Jerry Wang (L) and Glen Sasaki securing all parts

RAYMOND G. (CORKY) CLINTON WITH A WORKING MODEL OF THE FIRST 3-D PRINTER TO BE SENT TO THE ISS, ALONG WITH OTHER PRODUCTS FROM THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING LAB IN BUILDING 4707.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- United Space Alliance SRB technician Jim Glass conducts a Flex test on a cable on the solid rocket booster at left. The SRB is part of Space Shuttle Atlantis, rolled back from Launch Pad 39A in order to conduct tests on the cables. A prior extensive evaluation of NASAs SRB cable inventory on the shelf revealed conductor damage in four (of about 200) cables. Shuttle managers decided to prove the integrity of the system tunnel cables already on Atlantis before launching. Workers are conducting inspections, making continuity checks and conducting X-ray analysis on the cables. The launch has been rescheduled no earlier than Feb. 6. <br

Advanced Stirling Converter

Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and P.I. at NASA Ames Research Center - Total Luminance Photometer shake test in N-244 EEL Laboratory; Kim Ennico takes notes on test set up

Ray Pitts, co-principal investigator for OSCAR, prepares the Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) for thermal testing Jan. 26, 2021, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tests are in preparation for a scheduled suborbital flight test later this year facilitated by NASAs Flight Opportunities program. The testing ensures the thermal environment of the payload wont create additional hazards during flight and that OSCAR can successfully operate within the temperature range it may encounter as it performs tests in microgravity.

Space Communications and Navigation, SCaN Quantum Metrology Lab. Space Communications and Navigation, SCaN Quantum Metrology Lab

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the KSC Space Life Sciences Labs Resource Recovery lab, bioengineer Tony Rector checks the clear plexiglass ARMS reactor vessel. ARMS, or Aerobic Rotational Membrane System, is a wastewater processing project being tested for use on the International Space Station to collect, clean and reuse wastewater. It could be adapted for use on the Moon and Mars. The Lab is exploring various aspects of a bioregenerative life support system. Such research and technology development will be crucial to long-term habitation of space by humans.

Laser laboratory of experimental physics at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

SIGNATONE HIGH-TEMPERATURE PROBE STATION

LCROSS flight hardware in clean room at Ames N-240. EEL personnel fabricating testing components with Jerry Wang of Ames, Engineering Evaluation labLCROSS flight hardware in clean room at Ames N-240. EEL personnel fabricating testing components with Jerry Wang of Ames, Engineering Evaluation lab

Managing Director Dr. Ingmar Hoerr, CureVac GmbH in the Tuebingen-Reutlingen Technology Park, Biotechnology Start-up Centre, develops vaccine against coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic, Stuttgart, Germany, Europe

Students watching experiment involving the Eiffel tower

Wandelbots Unterricht

Straight on shot from a high angle down at the Army Research Laboratory's (ARL) unique high-speed imaging facility which is enabling process characterization and optimization electrospinning, an advanced technology for developing nanofiber-based individual protective clothing (e.g., chemical/biological protective wear), vehicle filtration systems and other protective systems. Base: Aberdeen Proving Grounds State: Maryland (MD) Country: United States Of America (USA)

X-RAY MIRROR REPLICATION AND SHELL SEPARATION PROCESS: CHET SPEEGLE, JOHN HOOD, KEITH BOWEN, CARL WIDRIG, RATANA MEEKHAM, AMY MEEKHAM

Common Test Bed, Fuel Cell Laboratory

Martha Williams, who leads the team inventing the Flexible Damage Detection System, stands in a laboratory with a prototype at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The system uses circuits printed on thin thermal film and specialized software. The system is designed to show where damage to a surface occurs and how severe it may be. It could offer astronauts a real-time update on their spacecraft's condition during a mission without requiring a spacewalk.

Indian scientist working in laboratory

JOHNNIE CLARK, BRIAN WEST, AND ZACK JONES OF MSFCS ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TEAM, WITH MSFCS XLINE SELECTIVE LASER MELTING SYSTEM. CURRENTLY ONE OF THE LARGEST METAL 3D PRINTERS, THE XLINE AT MARSHALL IS BEING USED TO DEVELOP AND CERTIFY NICKEL ALLOY 718 MATERIAL PROPERTIES AND LARGE MANUFACTURING TECH DEMOS FOR THE RS25 ENGINE AND THE COMMERCIAL CREWED VEHICLE PROJECTS.

DATE: 1-7-14LOCATION: Bldg. 9NW - POGO StandSUBJECT: Expedition 44 astronaut Kjell Lindgren during ISS EVA POGO 1 training.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., recently conducted hypersonic testing of Dream Chaser models for SNC as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program in order to obtain necessary data for the material selection and design of the TPS

Machine tests precise dimensions of part at ARC Corporation in Arkansas. (model released)

Heinrich-Heine-University, Theoretical Pharmacy Group Prof. Gohlke, PhD student at 3D monitor with 3D mouse, Duesseldorf, Germany, Europe

Professorship for Flight Mechanics and Flight Control at the Technical University (TU) Dresden

ARTHUR BROWN (AST, AEROSPACE METALLIC MATERIALS) LOADS A CERAMIC COATED SILICON WAFER INTO A KRATOS (ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY FOR CHEMICAL ANALYSIS) TO PERFORM X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY (XPS). XPS IS A TECHNIQUE THAT ANALYZES THE SURFACE CHEMISTRY OF A SAMPLE BY IRRADIATING IT WITH X-RAYS AND MEASURING THE NUMBER AND KINETIC ENERGY OF ELECTRON THAT ESCAPE.

Team members assemble the flight hardware for NASAs Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, on Oct. 10, 2019, in the Space Station Processing Facility at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left are Annie Meier, Gino Carro, Evan Bell and Jamie Toro. OSCAR is an Early Career Initiative project at the spaceport that studies technology to convert trash and human waste into useful gasses such as methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. By processing small pieces of trash in a high-temperature reactor, OSCAR is advancing new and innovative technology for managing waste in space. A prototype has been developed, and the team is in the process of constructing a new rig for a suborbital flight test.

Bill Nye and Dr. Jim Garvin at the Science on a Sphere during a tour of Goddard Space Flight Center on September 8, 2011

Advanced Stirling Converter

A test unit, or prototype, of NASA's Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) was delivered to the Space Station Processing Facility at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The APH is the largest plant chamber built for the agency. Oscar Monje, a scientist on the Engineering Services Contract, prepares the base of the APH for engineering development tests to see how the science will integrate with the various systems of the plant habitat. The APH will have about 180 sensors and fourt times the light output of Veggie. The APH will be delivered to the International Space Station in March 2017.

Students from the University of Alabama prepare their robotic miner for its turn to dig in the mining arena during NASAs LUNABOTICS competition on May 24, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams use their autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with rocks and simulated lunar soil, or regolith. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.

Jim Mantovani, left, and A.J. Nick, with Kennedy Space Centers Exploration and Research and Technology programs, unbox a CubeRover at the Florida spaceport on Oct. 9, 2020. The rover was delivered by Pittsburgh-based space robotics company Astrobotic, as part of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award from NASA. Nick will lead CubeRover testing in the coming months in the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratorys regolith bin, which holds approximately 120 tons of lunar regolith simulant at Kennedys Swamp Works. In 2019, NASA announced a $2 million Tipping Point award to develop more mature CubeRovers payload interfaces and increase its capabilities.

The first NASA Dropping In a Microgravity Environment (DIME) student competition pilot project came to a conclusion at the Glenn Research Center in April 2001. The competition involved high-school student teams who developed the concept for a microgravity experiment and prepared an experiment proposal. The two student teams - COSI Academy, sponsored by the Columbus Center of Science and Industry, and another team from Cincinnati, Ohio's Sycamore High School, designed a microgravity experiment, fabricated the experimental apparatus, and visited NASA Glenn to operate their experiment in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower. Here Carol Hodanbosi of the National Center for Microgravity Research and Jose Carrion, a lab mechanic with AKAC, prepare a student experiment package (inside the silver-colored frame) inside the orange-colored drag shield that encloses all experiment hardware. This image is from a digital still camera; higher resolution is not available.

NASA researcher Dr. Donald Frazier uses a blue laser shining through a quartz window into a special mix of chemicals to generate a polymer film on the inside quartz surface. As the chemicals respond to the laser light, they adhere to the glass surface, forming optical films. Dr. Frazier and Dr. Mark S. Paley developed the process in the Space Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Working aboard the Space Shuttle, a science team led by Dr. Frazier formed thin-films potentially useful in optical computers with fewer impurities than those formed on Earth. Patterns of these films can be traced onto the quartz surface. In the optical computers of the future, thee films could replace electronic circuits and wires, making the systems more efficient and cost-effective, as well as lighter and more compact.

Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Modular Power Systems for Space Exploration (AMPS); electrochemistry, AMPS, will infuse and demonstrate batteries, fuel cells, and other power modules for exploration ground system demonstrations

NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster - Commercial, NEXT-C Flight Power Processing Unit, PPU

San Carlos de Bariloche . province of Río Negro San Carlos de Bariloche . province of Río Negro, republica Argentina,Patagonia, cono sur, South America Copyright: xZoonar.com/BartomeuxBalaguerxRotgerx 21818365

Astronaut Jessica Watkins at Howard University. Howard University Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dr. Quinton Williams gives NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins a tour of the Renewable Energy/Battery Research Laboratory at Howard University, Friday, March 31, 2023, in Washington.

PHOTO DATE: 06-23-11LOCATION: Bld 9NWSUBJECT: Expedition 29 crew members, Dan Burbank, Don Pettit and Andre Kuiper during EVA Fluid QD Ops with instructor Sandra MooreWORK ORDER: 2011-1643

PHOTO DATE: 7-1-14LOCATION: Bldg. 4south, Room 1303SUBJECT: 43S/Expedition 44/45 crew member Oleg Kononenko during Nikon D4 EQ# training with instructor Paul Reichert.

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Associate Forest Shaner operates an industrial cabinet X-ray imaging system at the NPS campus in Monterey. The system, recently installed by the school's Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education, is providing NPS researchers and their partners with new capabilities that will advance research efforts in several areas.

TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPE / TEM

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Lloyd Pierce, a NASA test engineer, checks electronic components related to the faulty sensor readings in the liquid hydrogen tank low-level fuel cut-off sensor. The sensor failed a routine prelaunch check during the launch July 13, causing mission managers to scrub Discovery's first launch attempt. The sensor protects the Shuttle's main engines by triggering their shutdown in the event fuel runs unexpectedly low. The sensor is one of four inside the liquid hydrogen section of the External Tank (ET).

STS-133 DISCOVERY ET-137 X-RAY BACK SCATTER & SLIDE BASKET

Members of the Cold Atom Laboratory team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are seen here with their ground-based testbed, which can reliably create a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Reportage at ISIR (Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems) in Paris, France. Exoskeleton prototype used for neuro-motor rehabilitation and physical therapy. ABLE is an arm exoskeleton which is in contact with the human arm in multiple locations in order to control joint synergy during hemiplegia rehabilitation.

Dr. Leo Esaki, IBM researcher at corporate headquarter/lab in Yorktown Heights, New York - digital file from original | Library of Congress

Engineering bench system hardware for the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested on a lab bench at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This is done in a horizontal arrangement to reduce pressure differences so the tests more closely resemble behavior in the microgravity of space. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceutica

PHOTO DATE: 09-24-14 LOCATION: Bldg. 4south, Room 1303 SUBJECT: Expedition 43 crew members Terry Virts and Samantha Cristoforetti during camera review training with instructors Steve Berenzweig and Katrina Willougby.

telescope shop

Senior leaders with Kennedy Space Center in Florida, familiarize newly appointed officials from NASA Headquarters with the centers facilities during a tour on April 19, 2021. The group views research and technology experiments in the Space Station Processing Facility. Janine Captain, the principal investigator for the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations, or MSolo, briefs the team about the commercial off the-shelf- mass spectrometer the team at Kennedy has hardened for lunar operations. MSolo will be part of four missions for NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, including NASAs Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) and NASAs Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER.

Professor with muscular dystrophy advising engineering students in chemistry laboratory working on x-ray fluorescence analyzers

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schreiber at the high-pressure machine for simulating conditions deep in the earth for research on the origin of life, Faculty of Biology, Department of Geology, Laboratory at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany, Europe

Cutting Edge magazine - NavCube - Jennifer Donaldson, Monther Hasouneh, Dave Petrick.

Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Modular Power Systems for Space Exploration (AMPS); electrochemistry, AMPS, will infuse and demonstrate batteries, fuel cells, and other power modules for exploration ground system demonstrations

Mark Velasco (left) and Jared Sass assemble a custom cold heat exchanger for freezing carbon dioxide from a simulated Martian environment in the Cryogenics Test Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Mar. 20, 2019.

Visit by Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 Astronaut

Chemical Engineer David Rinderknecht, left, and Ray Pitts, co-principal investigator for the Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR), prepare OSCAR for thermal testing Jan. 26, 2021, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tests are in preparation for a scheduled suborbital flight test later this year facilitated by NASAs Flight Opportunities program. The testing ensures the thermal environment of the payload wont create additional hazards during flight and that OSCAR can successfully operate within the temperature range it may encounter as it performs tests in microgravity.

FROM RIGHT, MARSHALL RESEARCHER DR. DAVID SMITH, U.S. ARMY RESEARCHER KRISHNA MYNENI AND ARMY CONTRACTOR HONGROK CHANG HAVE BEGUN A THREE-YEAR NASA PROJECT TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE NEW GYROSCOPES THAT COULD DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE IN-FLIGHT NAVIGATION CAPABILITIES FOR SPACE VEHICLES, MILITARY AIR AND SEA ASSETS AND COMMERCIAL VEHICLES. THE FAST LIGHT OPTICAL GYROSCOPES FOR PRECISE INERTIAL NAVIGATION” PROJECT INCLUDES RESEARCHERS AT NASA’S MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER IN HUNTSVILLE, ALA.; THE U.S. ARMY AVIATION AND MISSILE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND ENGINEERING CENTER (AMRDEC) AT REDSTONE ARSENAL IN HUNTSVILLE; AND NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY IN EVANSTON, ILL.

Laser laboratory of experimental physics at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Atmospheric Scientist

NASA Earth & Space Air Prize Demonstration Event

PHOTO DATE: 05/16/14LOCATION: JSC B4 ROOM 1303SUBJECT: Soyuz 40 (Expedition 42) Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaye and Yelena Serova during EVA IR Camera EQ training with instructor Katrina Willoughby

KSC-2012-6319 - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Paul Hintze is the researcher leading the trash-to-gas project at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hintze's group of six researchers at Kennedy and groups from NASA centers in Ohio, California and Texas wrote in a recent paper that the current methods of handling trash - either carrying it along on the round trip through space or gathering it into an expendable module and burning it up in Earth's atmosphere - are not suitable answers for missions that go beyond Earth orbit or even past the moon. Working in a laboratory at Kennedy, Hintze's team built an 80-pound device that looks like a three-foot-long metal pipe to test theories about incinerating a variety of trash ranging from used clothes to uneaten food. The reactor holds more than three quarts of material and burns at about 1,000 degrees F, about twice the maximum temperature of an average household oven. It's expected to take astronauts four hours to burn a day's worth of trash from

Laser laboratory of experimental physics at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Man and young lady looking at telescopes

A technician winds a superconducting wire onto a coil for use as a magnet.

Lady looking through lens of telescope

Reportage on the observatory accredited by the French Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Ministry to provide surveillance and information on air quality in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes area of France. Dioxin filters will be analysed in the lab. The grey filter was set up two days ago.

Dr. Ye Zhang, project scientist for the ISS Research Office at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, demonstrates how biological samples are tested in a microgravity simulation device in the Microgravity Simulation Support Facility on Dec. 20, 2018.

internal system

Office of the Secretary - NIST Site Visit

Senior Airman Timothy D. Burrows, a 157th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels labs technician, performs a quality control test on jet aircraft fuel at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., April 21, 2016.

JSC2012-E-237319 (5 Nov. 2012) --- NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Expedition 37/38 flight engineer, prepares to use virtual reality hardware in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center to rehearse some of his duties on the upcoming mission to the International Space Station. This type of virtual reality training allows the astronauts to wear a helmet and special gloves while looking at computer displays simulating actual movements around the various locations on the station hardware with which they will be working. A crew instructor assisted Hopkins.

Don Sirois, an Auburn University research associate, and Bruce Strom, a mechanical engineering Co-Op Student, are evaluating the dimensional characteristics of an aluminum automobile engine casting. More accurate metal casting processes may reduce the weight of some cast metal products used in automobiles, such as engines. Research in low gravity has taken an important first step toward making metal products used in homes, automobiles, and aircraft less expensive, safer, and more durable. Auburn University and industry are partnering with NASA to develop one of the first accurate computer model predictions of molten metals and molding materials used in a manufacturing process called casting. Ford Motor Company's casting plant in Cleveland, Ohio is using NASA-sponsored computer modeling information to improve the casting process of automobile and light-truck engine blocks.

Rod Coil Co-polymer Technology

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken tours the Quantum Materials Lab at the University of Copenhagen, in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 17, 2021.

The rock band X Ambassadors is photographed in front of NASAs Artemis II Orion crew module inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida. X Ambassadors visited Kennedy on Oct. 21, 2019, and had the opportunity to tour areas around the multi-user spaceport such as the O&C, Launch Complex 39B and Swamp Works. The title of the bands latest album, Orion, led them to an up-close look at the spacecraft that will take humans farther than theyve ever gone before.

Student in wheelchair examining furnace ignitor in HVAC classroom

Geometer with measure instrument

ANDREW S. KEYS. MSFC CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Alexander Peart, a 1 Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels laboratory technician noncommissioned officer in charge, tests the temperature and conductivity of a fuel sample June 15, 2022, at Hurlburt Field, Florida. This test is performed to certify the static dissipating additive is within appropriate limits.

retiree rambling through nature with compass

Leslie Smith, Systems Engineer, poses with an additive manufactured small combustion chamber, and poster she designed, of the Payload Interface Adapter (PIA) trade study that depicts four different concepts. The PIA is vital in helping transport various payloads to Beyond Earth Orbit.

A multidisciplinary team of engineers, biologists, and horticulturalists working out of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida supports the use of technology and automation in plant growth research that looks to supplement the diet of astronauts so they can undertake longer and more distant space exploration missions than ever before.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden issued the following statement regarding NASA's selection by the Partnership for Public Service as the Best Place to Work in Government "NASAs selection as the Best Place to Work in Government for the second year in a row is a testament to the excellence of our workforce and their determination to maintain Americas leadership in space exploration." We are also pleased to announce that NASA Goddard was ranked 13th best agency subcomponent. Read more a href= http //1.usa.gov/1cTQHIC rel= nofollow 1.usa.gov/1cTQHIC /a b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html rel= nofollow NASA image use policy. /a /b b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html rel= nofollow NASA Goddard Space Flight Center /a /b enables NASAs mission through four scientific endeavors Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASAs accomplishments by contr

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