Earlier this 12 months, we hosted a Game Changing Technology Industry Day for the aerospace business, and in October our engineers and technologists visited Capitol Hill showcasing a few of these thrilling improvements. Take a look at these know-how developments that would quickly be making waves on Earth and in house.
1. Wearable know-how
With smartwatches, glasses, and headsets already fascinating customers around the globe, it’s no shock that the following evolution of wearable know-how might be utilized by first responders on the scene of an accident or by troopers on a battlefield. The Integrated Display and Environmental Awareness System (IDEAS) is an interactive optical pc that works for sensible glasses.
It has a clear show, so customers have an unobstructed view even throughout video conferences or whereas visualizing environmental knowledge.
And whereas the IDEAS prototype is an revolutionary answer to the challenges of in-space missions, it gained’t simply profit astronauts – this know-how may be utilized to countless fields here on Earth.
2. Each breath they take: life assist applied sciences
Earlier than astronauts can enterprise to Mars and past, we have to considerably improve our life assist programs. The Next Generation Life Support challenge is growing applied sciences to permit astronauts to securely perform longer period missions past low-Earth orbit.
The Variable Oxygen Regulator will enhance the management of house swimsuit strain, with options for stopping decompression illness. The Fast Cycle Amine know-how will take away carbon dioxide and humidity and vastly enhance upon at this time’s present complicated system.
3. 3-D printing (for extra than simply pizza)
New Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), equivalent to 3-D printing, will help us construct rocket components extra shortly and help in constructing habitats on different planets.
These manufacturing initiatives will end in revolutionary, cost-efficient options to a lot of our planetary missions. Again in 2014, the Worldwide Area Station’s 3-D printer manufactured the first 3-D printed object in space, paving the way in which to future long-term house expeditions.
The article, a printhead faceplate, is engraved with names of the organizations that collaborated on this house station know-how demonstration: NASA and Made In Area, Inc., the house manufacturing firm that labored with us to design, construct and take a look at the 3-D printer.
4. Spacecraft touchdown gear
Giant spacecraft getting into the environment of Mars will likely be touring over 5 occasions the pace of sound, exposing the craft to excessive warmth and drag forces. The Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) is designed to guard spacecraft from this atmosphere with an inflatable construction that helps gradual a craft for touchdown.
To get astronauts and different heavy hundreds to the floor safely, these elements have to be very robust. The inflatable consists of a cloth 15 occasions stronger than metal, whereas the thermal safety system can face up to temperatures over 1600°C.
5. From warmth protect know-how to firefighter shelters
For the Convective Heating Improvement for Emergency Fire Shelters (CHIEFS) challenge, we partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to develop safer, simpler emergency fireplace shelters for wild land firefighters.
Utilizing current know-how for versatile spacecraft warmth shields like HIAD, we’re constructing and testing new fireplace shelters composed of stacks of sturdy, insulated supplies that could help protect the lives of firefighters.
6. Robots and rovers
Actual life is trying a bit extra like science fiction as Human Robotics Systems have gotten extremely complicated. They’re amplifying human productiveness and decreasing mission threat by enhancing the effectiveness of human-robot groups.
Our humanoid assistant Robonaut is at the moment aboard the Worldwide Area Station serving to astronauts carry out duties.
A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers already on and round Mars is dramatically rising our information and paving the way in which for future human explorers. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover measured radiation on the way in which to Mars and is sending again knowledge from the floor.
This knowledge will assist us plan learn how to defend the astronauts who will discover Mars.
Future missions just like the Mars 2020 rover, searching for indicators of previous life, will reveal new applied sciences that would assist astronauts survive on the Pink Planet.
7. Robotic repairs
At present, a satellite tv for pc that’s even partially broken can’t be mounted in orbit. As an alternative, it have to be disposed of, which is a whole lot of potential science misplaced.
Satellite Servicing applied sciences would make it doable to restore, improve, and even assemble spacecraft in orbit utilizing robotics.
This will prolong the lifespan of a mission, and in addition allow deeper house exploration.
Restore-L, set to launch in 2020, is a mission that may reveal the power to seize and refuel a satellite tv for pc.
8. Low-cost spacecraft avionics controllers
Small satellites, or smallsats, are shortly turning into helpful instruments for each scientists and business. Nonetheless, the excessive price of spacecraft avionics—the programs that information and management the craft—typically limits how and when smallsats may be despatched into orbit by tagging alongside as payloads on bigger launches.
Utilizing Affordable Vehicle Avionics (AVA) know-how, we may launch many extra small satellites utilizing an affordable avionics controller. This system is smaller than a stack of six CD instances and weighs lower than two kilos!
9. Making glass from metallic
After a JPL analysis staff of modern-day alchemists set about mixing their very own alloys, they found {that a} glass manufactured from metallic had the damage resistance of a ceramic, was twice as robust as titanium, and will face up to the intense chilly of planetary surfaces, with temperatures beneath -150 levels Fahrenheit.
Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) gears would allow mechanisms to perform with out losing power on heaters. Most machines want to take care of a hotter temperature to run easily, which expends treasured gasoline and reduces the mission’s science return.
By growing gearboxes manufactured from BMG alloys, we are able to prolong the lifetime of a spacecraft and be taught extra concerning the far reaches of our photo voltaic system than ever earlier than. Plus, given their extraordinarily excessive melting factors, metallic glasses may be cheaply manufactured into components by injection molding, identical to plastics.
10. Lighter, cheaper, safer spacecraft gasoline tanks
Cryogenic propellant tanks are important for holding gasoline for launch automobiles like our Space Launch System—the world’s strongest rocket. However the present methodology for constructing these tanks is dear and time-consuming, involving virtually a mile of welded components.
Advanced Near Net Shape Technology, a part of our Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, is an revolutionary manufacturing course of for setting up cryotanks, utilizing cylinders that solely have welds in a single space.
This makes the tank lighter, cheaper, and safer for astronauts, as there are fewer doubtlessly faulty welds.
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