With support from the Department of Defense and NASA, MIT undergraduates built five volleyball-sized free-flying satellites, and three of those have been on the International Space Station since 2006 to test a set of well-defined instructions for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Recently, the satellite got an upgrade that enables its remote operation ... »

Researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are cooperating in order to develop a technology that could be used as the first nuclear power plant for production of electricity on potential future extraterrestrial bases. Although far different from the familiar terrestrial nuclear power stations, they are ... »

A scientific method developed by researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center uses atomic oxygen to save and restore works of art that would have been irreparably damaged. It can also completely sterilize surgical implants intended for human bodies, improve glucose monitoring devices for diabetic patients, and texture the surfaces of polymers to invite bone cell ... »

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have successfully demonstrated the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy. The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ... »

Engineers and scientists from NASA and GM worked together through a Space Act Agreement at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to build a new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people. Using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies, future robots could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions and help ... »