Modular units crossing “Valley of Death” for Air Force use ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If a nuclear device were to unexpectedly detonate anywhere on Earth, the ensuing effort to find out who made the weapon probably would be led by aircraft rapidly collecting airborne radioactive particles for analysis. Relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — equipped [...]
Category Archives: Military / Defense
More than 400 rockets soar from Sandia’s Kauai Test Facility in 50-year history
December 17, 2012 – 5:00 am
KAUAI, Hawaii — A white-orange oval, the rocket moves slowly, silently across the night sky, followed by a metallic roar that fades away the farther it flies from its launch pad at Sandia National Laboratories’ Kauai Test Facility. When the rocket is an orange ember against the black backdrop, it sparks momentarily as a Navy [...]
Sandia Labs helps wounded veterans onto the career track
December 4, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Combat veterans often return with wounds, some visible, some not. Sandia National Laboratories has launched a hiring program with the goal of helping those wounded warriors get into the workforce and develop career-based skills and experience. “We want to give back to those who have given so much to our country,” said [...]
Traumatic brain injury patients, supercomputer simulations studied to improve helmets
November 14, 2012 – 9:39 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico are comparing supercomputer simulations of blast waves on the brain with clinical studies of veterans suffering from mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) to help improve helmet designs. Paul Taylor and John Ludwigsen of Sandia’s Terminal Ballistics Technology Department and Corey Ford, [...]
Northrop Grumman, GE partnerships tap wide range of Sandia Labs expertise
November 5, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories has signed a pair of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) that could broadly add to the Labs’ research into combustion, defense, energy and nuclear security. The umbrella CRADAs, which enable Sandia and its partners to pursue multiple projects in a variety of categories, are with Northrop Grumman Information [...]
National Hispanic engineering organization names Sandia manager Engineer of the Year
October 18, 2012 – 11:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — A radar systems manager at Sandia National Laboratories who is committed to encouraging youths to pursue science and technology careers has been named 2012 Engineer of the Year by the Hispanic Engineering National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC). Steve Castillo, manager of Sandia’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems Engineering & Decision Support group, [...]
Dry-run experiments verify key aspect of Sandia nuclear fusion concept
September 17, 2012 – 5:00 am
Scientific “break-even” or better is near-term goal ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Magnetically imploded tubes called liners, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific “break-even” energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests, according to a Sandia research paper accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters (PRL). To exceed scientific [...]
Sandia explosives legend Paul Cooper hangs up his teaching hat
August 27, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Paul Cooper, one of the world’s foremost explosives experts, retired from Sandia National Laboratories more than a decade ago but continued his labor of love, teaching a new generation of engineers everything they needed to know about blowing things up. Cooper taught explosives safety and technology to about 1,000 people at Sandia [...]
Lifelike, cost-effective robotic Sandia Hand can disable IEDs
August 15, 2012 – 2:00 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories has developed a cost-effective robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The Sandia Hand addresses challenges that have prevented widespread adoption of other robotic hands, such as cost, durability, dexterity and modularity. “Current iterations of robotic hands can cost more than $250,000. We [...]
“Toxic” political discussions limit climate response, says invited speaker at Sandia
August 14, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The inability of natural and social scientists to convince political leaders that “we’re spinning a roulette wheel over climate change” puts humanity at “extreme risk,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology management professor Henry Jacoby, former co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, during a lecture [...]
Increased productivity, not less energy use, results from more efficient lighting
August 6, 2012 – 9:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two researchers have reprised in the journal Energy Policy their groundbreaking finding that improvements in lighting — from candles to gas lamps to electric bulbs — historically have led to increased light consumption rather than lower overall energy use by society. In an article in the journal Energy Policy, Sandia researcher Jeff [...]
Predictions by climate models are flawed, says invited speaker at Sandia
July 25, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, a global warming skeptic, told about 70 Sandia researchers in June that too much is being made of climate change by researchers seeking government funding. He said their data and their methods did not support their claims. “Despite concerns over the last decades with the [...]
Global warming unequivocal in its advance, says invited speaker at Sandia
July 24, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Global warming is unequivocal in its advance and will lead to more record-setting temperatures, said Warren M. Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in the seventh lecture of Sandia National Laboratories’ Climate Change and National Security series. The talk was given in mid-May. Washington, a pioneer in atmospheric [...]
Award-winning Sandia Labs engineer trods global path of nonproliferation
June 27, 2012 – 8:30 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Adam Williams of Sandia National Laboratories won a 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Award for his work in international security and nonproliferation. Williams was named Most Promising Engineer-Government in the prestigious BEYA program, which recognizes some of the nation’s best and brightest engineers, scientists and technology experts. The awards are sponsored [...]
Sandia Red Storm supercomputer exits world stage
June 26, 2012 – 9:27 am
From helping destroy an errant satellite to aiding a foundering computer company, forerunner machine was without peer ALBUQERQUE, N.M. — A celebration at Sandia’s Computer Science Research Institute in mid-May wrote finis to Red Storm, the Sandia-designed and Cray Inc.-built supercomputer, one of the most influential machines of its era, with 124 descendants at 70 [...]
Navy pilot training enhanced by AEMASE ‘smart machine’ developed at Sandia Labs
May 16, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Navy pilots and other flight specialists soon will have a new “smart machine” installed in training simulators that learns from expert instructors to more efficiently train their students. Sandia National Laboratories’ Automated Expert Modeling & Student Evaluation (AEMASE, pronounced “amaze”) is being provided to the Navy as a component of flight simulators. [...]
Miniature Sandia sensors may advance climate studies
April 10, 2012 – 5:00 am
Self-sealing valves also increase data reliability for airborne industrial and battlefield gas detection and point-of-contact medicine ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An air sampler the size of an ear plug is expected to cheaply and easily collect atmospheric samples to improve computer climate models. “We now have an inexpensive tool for collecting pristine vapor samples in the [...]
U.S. Navy experience shows climate alterations, invited speaker at Sandia Labs says
March 29, 2012 – 12:25 pm
Information based on data, not computer models ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Because its presence is worldwide, the U.S. Navy sees the effects of climate change directly, an invited lecturer in Sandia National Laboratories’ ongoing Climate Change and National Security Speaker Series recently told his scientific audience in Albuquerque and, by teleconference, Livermore, Calif. “The findings are independent [...]
Anthrax-killing foam proves effective in meth lab cleanup
February 16, 2012 – 5:00 am
Sandia’s decontamination foam is now also a meth eraser Sandia’s decontamination foam, developed more than a decade ago and used to decontaminate federal office buildings and mailrooms during the 2001 anthrax attacks, is now being used to decontaminate illegal methamphetamine labs. Mark Tucker, a chemical engineer in Sandia’s Chemical & Biological Systems Dept. and co-creator [...]
Sandia’s self-guided bullet prototype can hit target a mile away
January 30, 2012 – 8:45 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Take two Sandia National Laboratories engineers who are hunters, get them talking about the sport and it shouldn’t be surprising when the conversation leads to a patented design for a self-guided bullet that could help war fighters. (Click here for a video showing the prototype’s flight.) Sandia researchers Red Jones and Brian [...]
Big machines: two radiation generators mark major milestones in helping protect the U.S.
September 7, 2011 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two remarkable pulsed-power machines used to test the nation’s defenses against atomic weapons have surpassed milestones at Sandia National Laboratories: 4,000 firings, called ‘shots,’ on the Saturn accelerator and 9,000 shots on the HERMES III accelerator. Saturn — originally projected to last 5 to 10 years — began operating in 1987. Its major [...]
New thermal battery manufacturing method to be industrialized under Sandia, ATB research agreement
June 1, 2011 – 11:45 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — A new thin-film coating process for manufacturing thermal batteries used in nuclear weapons and other munitions that was invented at Sandia National Laboratories will be industrialized under a new corporate partnership with a Maryland company. The process could lead to create lighter batteries in a variety of shapes for future applications. A [...]
Sandia wins 3 national technology transfer awards for bringing ideas, research to market
March 14, 2011 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A water blade that is disabling improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan, software that detects water contamination or evidence of terrorists poisoning municipal water systems and a program that provides free technical assistance to New Mexico’s small businesses all have earned national awards for Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia will receive three 2011 [...]
Sandia Labs’ device helps U.S. troops in Afghanistan disable improvised explosive devices
September 10, 2010 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A device developed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to help them disable deadly improvised explosive devices, or IEDs — the No. 1 killer and threat to troops in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. Sandia licensed [...]
MTI satellite continues to serve after 10 years in orbit
April 19, 2010 – 5:00 am
For engineers and scientists at Sandia, the evening of Friday, March 12, marked a proud moment in exceptional service to the nation. Hundreds of miles above the Earth, the Multispectral Thermal Imager satellite reached its 10th anniversary of service as it completed its 55,000th orbit — far exceeding both its intended maximum life and its [...]
Sandia hopping robots to bolster troop capabilities
September 11, 2009 – 3:25 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Boston Dynamics, developer of advanced dynamic robots such as BigDog and PETMAN, has been awarded a contract by Sandia to develop the next generation of the Precision Urban Hopper, meaning Sandia‘s hopping robots may soon be in combat. When fully operational, the four-wheeled hopper robots will navigate autonomously by wheel and jump [...]
Sandia receives DoD “trusted design” accreditation
March 14, 2009 – 12:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has received accreditation to provide “trusted design” services for both unclassified and classified integrated circuits at its Albuquerque, N.M., facility. Sandia’s Category 1A status was awarded through the Trusted IC Supplier Accreditation Program (www.dmea.osd.mil/trustedic.html) of the Department of Defense (DoD)’s Defense MicroElectronics Activity (DMEA) (www.dmea.osd.mil/). The accreditation program is [...]