Future sensors: planetary prospective
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
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A small airframe design that is optimized for launch, recovery, and mass production is presented.
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This paper provides a review of the current status, the challenges and potential near future applications of these materials.
This paper provides backgrund about these materials and it includes a review of the state of the art, challenges and potential applications of these materials for future space missions.
The paper presents a brief review in the field of electroactive polymers. it outlines the main classes of electroactive polymers, their properties and applications. Current efforts to synthesize electroactive polymers with novel or improved characteristics along with the challenges, opportunities and future research directions in the subject area are discussed.
During the last decade and a half new polymers have emerged that respond to electrical stimulation with a significant shape or size change. This capability of electroactive polymer (EAP) materials is attracting the attention of engineers and scientists from many different disciplines.
Evolution allowed nature to introduce highly effective biological mechanisms that are incredible inspiration for innovation. Humans have always made efforts to imitate nature's inventions and we are increasingly making advances that it becomes significantly easier to imitate, copy, and adapt biological methods, processes and systems. This brought us to the ability to create technology that is far beyond the simple mimicking of nature. Having better tools to understand and to implement nature's principles we are now equipped like never before to be inspired by nature and to employ our tools in far superior ways. Effectively, by bio-inspiration we can have a better view and value of nature capability while studying its models to learn what can be extracted, copied or adapted. Using electroactive polymers (EAP) as artificial muscles is adding an important element to the development of biologically inspired technologies.
The search for existing or past life in the Universe is one of the most important objectives of NASA's mission. In support of this objective, ultrasonic based mechanisms are currently being developed at JPL to allow probing and sampling rocks as well as perform as a sensor platform for in-situ astrobiological analysis. The technology is based on the novel Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC), which requires low axial force, thereby overcoming one of the major limitations of planetary sampling in low gravity using conventional drills. The USDC was demonstrated to: 1) drill ice and various rocks including granite, diorite, basalt and limestone, 2) not require bit sharpening, and 3) operate at high and low temperatures. The capabilities that are being investigated including probing the ground to select sampling sites, collecting various forms of samples, and hosting sensors for measuring chemical/physical properties. A series of modifications of the USDC basic configuration were implemented leading an ultrasonic abrasion tool (URAT), Ultrasonic Gopher for deep Drilling, and the lab-on-a-drill.