Search results for "nasa"

As climate change garners more attention around the world, scientists at the University of Virginia and Cornell University have made critical advances in understanding the physical properties of an emerging class of solar cells that have the potential to dramatically lower the cost of solar energy.Solar cells remain a focal point of scientific investigation because the sun offers the most abundant source of energy on earth.

Space has long been a field reserved for big spenders such as governments and large companies. However with rapid advances in electronics and information technology, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, of El Segundo, California, seeks to break through the cost barrier with its family of low-cost Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft.

All mechanical systems in the real world experience some level of shock and vibration and these forces can take their toll on products (and people). Therefore, design engineers have always had a driving interest in finding ways to better understand our world in motion. California-based Diversified Technical Systems (DTS) look into the technology that is available in order to do this.

A novel 3D solar cell design developed at Georgia Tech will soon get its first testing in space aboard the International Space Station. An experimental module containing 18 test cells was launched to the ISS, and will be installed on the exterior of the station to study the cells’ performance and their ability to withstand the rigors of space. In addition to testing the 3D format, the module will also study a low-cost copper-zinc-tin-sulfid...

Sailors working on vessels spread across the Earth’s oceans and seas must be better connected than astronauts, who’s working environment is hundreds of kilometres into space, right? Well, recent research from the 2015 Crew Connectivity Survey and sources such as NASA and The Atlantic has taken a closer look at the communication services that are provided to sailors, as well as the limiting factors that impact accessibility, making a d...

The mISSion imaginaTIon design challenge from Texas Instruments has been won by five seventh graders from the Hyde Park Middle School in Las Vegas, Nevada. The national competition asked students from across the country to propose solutions to challenges astronauts would face on a journey to Mars.

In the coming days, a telescope designed and built at KTH will be launched into the stratosphere to observe the small pulsar at the centre of the spectacular Crab Nebula. Carried aloft by a 150-diametre helium balloon about 40km above Earth, the telescope will by used by researchers at KTH to determine the polarisation of radiation waves emitted by the Crab pulsar, says Physics Professor Mark Pearce, the project leader at KTH Royal Institute of T...

A partnership between NASA and Hitachi is testing a system known as Aircraft Access to System Wide Information Management (SWIM), to wirelessly send aviation information. The test was recently conducted on an FAA Bombardier Global 5000 test aircraft taxiing 60 to 70 miles per hour on the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport runway.

Scientists are getting closer to finding worlds that resemble our own 'blue marble' of a planet. NASA's Kepler mission alone has confirmed more than 1,000 planets outside our solar system -- a handful of which are a bit bigger than Earth and orbit in the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water might exist. Some astronomers think the discovery of Earth's true analogs may be around the corner. What are the next steps to search for life o...

NASA is soliciting ideas from U.S. industry for designs of a Mars orbiter for potential launch in the 2020s. The satellite would provide advanced communications and imaging, as well as robotic science exploration, in support of NASA's Journey to Mars. The orbiter would substantially increase bandwidth communications and maintain high-resolution imaging capability.