Technology Stories

Illustration of the Auto-gopher 1 performing a deep drill
Auto-Gopher: Drilling Deep to Explore the Solar System
Planets of Our Solar System
Jan 19, 2017
An initial version of the drill technology—the Auto-Gopher-1—is pictured here with coresit acquired from drilling a 3-m hole in 40MPa gypsum.
New Atmospheric Detector Technology Demonstrated on a CubeSat
Earth
Jan 13, 2017
An artist’s depiction of GRIFEX in orbit.
Illustration of a rectangular satellite in orbit
Specialized Weaving Techniques Enable a New Heatshield for Planetary Exploration
Planets of Our Solar System
Jan 5, 2017
Technology Development: When the Galileo mission’s probe entered the Jovian atmosphere in December 1995, it experienced temperatures twice as hot as the surface of the sun, and required carbon phenolic shields to protect its onboard payload from the intense heat. Since that mission, NASA has not... Read More
Testing of HEEET material at the NASA Ames Arc Jet Complex in the Interaction Heating Facility.
Test Flights Demonstrate New Concept for Ocean Color Retrieval
Earth
Nov 18, 2016
Technology Development: The Multi-Slit Optimized Spectrometer (MOS) prototype instrument is an airborne sensor designed to demonstrate and validate the multislit concept for hyperspectral ocean color retrievals with real-world scenes. The instrument design represents a new option for hyperspectral... Read More
photograph of MOS instrument
Sounding Rocket Mission Demonstrates New Technology to Measure Magnetic Fields in a Critical Region of the Sun's Atmosphere
Sun
Nov 9, 2016
Technology Development: Remote sensing of magnetic fields requires both precision spectroscopy and precision polarimetry (spectro-polarimetry). NASA led an international team that developed the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectropolarimeter (CLASP)—the first instrument to achieve the spectro-... Read More
Photo of team standing next to sounding rocket
WFIRST coronagraph: Imaging Giant Exoplanets Around Nearby Stars
Universe
Nov 9, 2016
Technology Development: The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is the highest-ranked recommendation for a large space mission in the NRC 2010 decadal survey, New Worlds, New Horizons (NWNH) in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The WFIRST coronagraph instrument (CGI) will be the first high-... Read More
coronagraph imaging
Laboratory Technology Helps Unlock the Mysteries of Magnetic Reconnection
Earth’s Space Environment
Aug 25, 2016
Image of magnetic loops (flux ropes) on the sun, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Image of colorful loops shooting out of the sun.
Starshade to Enable First Images of Earth-sized Exoplanets
Exoplanets
Aug 25, 2016
Technology Development: Currently, astronomers can investigate Earth-sized exoplanets using only indirect methods such as detecting the changes in starlight as a planet passes in front of its star. The starshade (also known as an external occulter) is a spacecraft that will enable telescopes in... Read More
Illustration of deployed spacecraft and telescope in space
Measuring Snow to Manage Water Resources
Ice
Aug 24, 2016
Technology Development: The Wideband (8-40 GHz) Instrument for Snow Measurement (WISM) is designed to accurately measure snowpack on the ground from an airborne platform. WISM is comprised of a dual-frequency (X- and Ku-bands) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and a dual-frequency (K- and Ka-bands)... Read More
Photograph of small airplane on tarmac with mountains in the background.