Creating Predictable Patterns from Unpredictable Carbon Nanotubes
Integrating nanoscale fibers such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into commercial applications, from coatings for aircraft wings to heat sinks for mobile computing, requires them to…
Aeronautics
New Chip Design Method May Result in Miniature Smart Drones
A team of engineers at MIT has developed a method for designing efficient computer chips may get miniature smart drones off the ground. In recent…
New “Morphing” Wing Could Enable More Efficient Plane Flight
Engineers at MIT and NASA have developed a new kind of bendable, “morphing” wing that could enable more efficient plane manufacturing and flight. When the…
NASA Invests in Next Stage of Visionary Technology Development
Using a peer-review process that evaluated innovativeness and technical viability, NASA has selected eight technology proposals for investment that have the potential to transform future…
NASA to Begin Historic New Era of X-Plane Research
NASA’s aeronautical innovators are preparing to put in the sky an array of new experimental aircraft, each intended to carry on the legacy of demonstrating…
NASA to Build a Quieter Supersonic Passenger Jet
NASA’s award of a contract for the preliminary design of a “low boom” flight demonstration aircraft brings the return of supersonic passenger air travel is…
Refueling at the Moon May Be the Best Option for a Piloted Mission to Mars
New research from MIT shows that stopping at the moon may be the best option for a piloted mission to Mars, revealing that fueling up…
New Robotic Platform Could Take Space Exploration to New Heights
A team of scientists from Stanford, MIT and JPL have developed an autonomous system for exploring moons and asteroids that could help take space exploration…
Flying Squirrels Can Adjust Speed and Flight Dynamically
Flying squirrels, a tribe of 44 species of the family Sciuridae, might look reckless as they fling themselves through the air, but scientists have reported…
SpaceX Grasshopper is First Reusable Rocket
SpaceX’s ground-breaking rocket, the Grasshopper, is still in development, but it’s designed to be reusable, meaning that it takes off and lands vertically. The rocket…
Mini Ion Thrusters Could Propel Small Satellites in Space
A team of MIT engineers have developed a new propulsion system that uses microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions,…
CO2 Snow Particles on Mars are About the Size of Red Blood Cells
By using data gathered from instruments onboard the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists at MIT have calculated the size of snow particles…