DefenceTalkNASA’s leadership and top aeronautics innovators will discuss the agency’s 10-year plan to transform aviation at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) annual Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition, or Aviation 2016. The five-day conference, which will include a keynote address by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, will be held June 13-17 at the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-highlights-research-in-x-planes-and-more-at-aviation-2016-67643/

DefenceTalkNASA has informed Boeing that it is out of the running for a $3.5 billion competition to send cargo to the International Space Station, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. Boeing has received a NASA contract to send astronauts to the ISS aboard its CST-100 Starliner capsule beginning as early as 2017, but its bid to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-drops-boeing-from-race-for-3-5-billion-cargo-contract-65759/

DefenceTalkSuperfast journeys to Mars may be one big step closer for humanity, as NASA has sponsored a private company to develop a high-tech, plasma engine. Ad Astra Rocket Company, specializing in the development of plasma rocket propulsion technology, has finished contract negotiations with NASA. As part of the Next Space Technology Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) award, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-funds-plasma-rocket-technology-for-superfast-space-travel-65263/

DefenceTalkNASA, working with government and industry partners, is testing a system that would make it possible for unmanned aircraft to fly routine operations in United States airspace. Through the agency’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System (UAS-NAS) project, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Honeywell […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-partners-test-unmanned-aircraft-systems-64700/

DefenceTalkNASA researchers, working in concert with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and FlexSys Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan, successfully completed initial flight tests of a new morphing wing technology that has the potential to save millions of dollars annually in fuel costs, reduce airframe weight and decrease aircraft noise during takeoffs and landings. The […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-tests-shape-changing-wing-for-next-generation-aviation-64108/

DefenceTalkNASA mission controllers confirmed that a small satellite launched from the International Space Station at 5:30 p.m. PST on Tuesday, March 3, has successfully entered its orbit, setting the stage to test technology that could enable rapid return of payloads from space. Over the next four weeks, the TechEdSat-4 satellite will deploy a second-generation exo-brake, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-uses-cubesat-bus-to-to-test-re-enter-drag-device-63420/

DefenceTalkNASA and Nissan have combined their efforts in order to create new series of autonomous vehicles, which will navigate both urban environments and drive across Mars. “The automaker and the space agency announced a five-year partnership today that will see their engineers working together to develop the robo-cars of tomorrow. The R and D effort, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-nissan-to-create-interplanetary-driverless-vehicles-61933/

DefenceTalkIt’s more an engineer’s dream than nightmare – to rapidly prototype and redesign aircraft using 3-D printed parts. That’s just what a team of student interns and engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, got to do: custom-build aircraft by repurposing surplus Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Grafting fuselages side-by-side adds more motors, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/engineers-harvest-and-print-parts-for-new-breed-of-aircraft-60899/

DefenceTalkNASA’s research in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) may soon provide a means for early detection and mitigation of fires in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, a nearly 50,000-square-acre region centered on the Virginia-North Carolina border. NASA’s Langley Research Center, in nearby Hampton, Virginia, has signed a one-year agreement with the Department of the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nasa-aeronautics-research-tests-new-tool-for-early-wildfire-detection-60728/

DefenceTalkNASA plans to send Google smartphones with state of the art 3D sensing technology into orbit to use them as eyes and brains for its newest sci-fi inspired machinery. The gadgets will be installed into hovering robots and boost the agency’s Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, otherwise known as SPHERES, on the International […]https://www.defencetalk.com/3d-google-smartphones-to-help-nasa-robots-navigate-in-space-60095/