20 most recent innovations in aerospace

New 'Smart' Material Can De-Ice Any Surface

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 00:00:00 Z

Researchers have discovered a 'smart' material that can be applied to any surface to repel ice and outperforms all others currently in use.

Icy conditions can be deadly, whether you are flying into bad weather or too close to power transmission lines during a storm, researchers said.

One side of the surface of the material known as a magnetic slippery surface (MAGSS) is coated with a magnetic material, while a thin layer of magnetic fluid - a mixture of fluid and iron oxide nanoparticles - is deposited on the other side. The magnetic fluid faces outside.

When a droplet of water hits the surface, the magnetic fluid acts as a barrier, stopping the droplet from reaching the solid surface.

Vibrating Boots To Help Astronauts Keep Their Footing

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:00:00 Z

Research has shown that the low gravity on the Moon can actually make it harder to stay upright as it is harder for astronauts to distinguish up from down. The pressure suits that don't let astronaut's see their feet and their bulky boots don't help proceedings and puts them at constant risk of tripping for a potentially fatal fall. To keep future explorers on their feet, MIT researchers are developing a new space boot that uses built-in sensors and tiny "haptic" motors to help guide the wearer around obstacles by means of vibrations.

Popular science fiction makes spacesuits seem no more complicated than a wetsuit and scuba gear, but they're actually extremely complex bits of technology that combine space engineering with tailoring. They are also bulky, hard to move about in with any grace and, since the astronaut is essentially trying to navigate a human-shaped balloon with a fishbowl stuck on top, something as simple as stepping over a curb can be a major hazard.

Still in its preliminary design phase, the space boot being developed by researchers at MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory is essentially a shoe with proximity detectors and a haptic feedback system to tell the wearer where and how close an obstacle is. Other, more Earthbound systems have had similar functions, such as inserts working with an app for navigation and toe-ticklers linked to GPS, However, the information given is often very simple, such as buzzing the left or right foot to indicate walking directions.

The MIT team's goal for is to come up with a more efficient and reliable system for the space boot so it can convey spatial information. To do this, they are investigating what sort of stimuli best communicates information, where to place the haptic motors, and what are the best cues to send to the wearer.

The original concept was to use a series of haptic motors positioned around the foot. The initial design had six haptic motors surrounding each foot with one motor at the heel, big toe, and instep, and three motors along the outer edge of the foot. The vibrations would buzz as sensors picked up an obstacle in proximity of the foot and warn the wearer of its direction and distance.

Based on proximity, the vibrations would vary smoothly from minimum to maximum without a break, but in initial tests where subjects had to identify the intended stimuli, the team found that if the subjects were distracted,when taking a simple computer test, for example, they couldn't identify the gradual increases in vibration, nor could they discern the direction of the stimulus. In addition, some parts of the foot proved very insensitive to stimulation.

Based on these tests, the team produced a simpler design using motors at the toe, heel, and the front of the outside of the foot. In addition, the vibrations weren't varied smoothly, but in jumps from low to high intensity to produce an unambiguous warning that a collision with some obstacle is imminent with the high-intensity vibration coming in pulses to get the point across.

According to MIT, the team is planning further trials using a more advanced prototype of the boot. The first trials will deal with the problems of stepping over obstacles of different heights and learning how the haptic signals can be coordinated with visual cues. Once made practical, the team believes that the space boot could be useful not only for astronauts, but for rescue workers, the elderly, and the visually impaired back on Earth.

Beetle Inspired Coating Stops Frost

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 00:00:00 Z

An advanced coating, inspired by a beetle’s shell, could be used to prevent frost forming on components including aircraft parts and windscreens a team of US researchers has claimed.

The technology, which has been developed at Virginia Tech, uses photolithography to create chemical micropatterns to control the growth of frost caused by condensation.

According to a paper in the online journal Scientific Reports, the technique takes its inspiration from the Namib Desert Beetle, which has a water repellent surface studded with bumps that attract water. These bumps enable it to collect airborne water, which then flows down water-repellant channels towards the insect’s mouth.

Jonathan Boreyko, an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering said that by mimicking this ability to control where dew-drops grow it’s is possible to create frost-proof surfaces.

The journey of frost across a surface begins with a single, frozen dewdrop, the researchers said.

“The twist is how ice bridges grow,” Boreyko said. “Ice harvests water from dew drops and this causes ice bridges to propagate frost across the droplets on the surface. Only a single droplet has to freeze to get this chain reaction started.”

By controlling spacing of the condensation, the researchers were able to control the speed frost grows across surfaces, or completely prevent frost.

“We made a single dry zone around a piece of ice,” Boreyko said. “Dew drops preferentially grow on the array of hydrophilic dots. When the dots are spaced far enough apart and one of the drops freezes into ice, the ice is no longer able to spread frost to the neighboring drops because they are too far away. Instead, the drops actually evaporate completely, creating a dry zone around the ice.”

Creating frost-free zones on larger surfaces could have a variety of applications – including on wind turbines or airplane wings, where a huge amount of energy I currently used up on frost reduction.

This isn’t the first time that engineers have been inspired by the beetle’s elegant water gathering technique. Back in 2012, US start-up NBD Nano announced that it had copied the insect’s ability to develop a self-filling water bottle.

Drones As Smart Dollies

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:00:00 Z

Drone tech is exciting and full of potential, but few companies are focusing on tech that provides benefits drone users can enjoy now, without spending a fortune or managing an architectural firm or large-scale agricultural concern. Perceptiv Labs, a YC Winter 2015 cohort startup with a founding team out of Waterloo’s top-flight robotics engineering department, is offering high-flying drone hobbyists, filmmakers and journalists a relatively affordable, yet advanced way to introduce some highly intelligent automation into their video-making antics right now.

Perceptiv, which also has funding from Version One Ventures, is launching SHIFT today via pre-order campaign, a $600 accessory (which will retail post-campaign for $800) that works with the DJI Phantom and 3D Robotics Iris, providing a vision sensor, processor and autopilot program for capturing amazing aerial shots via subject tracking. Essentially, it turns these hobbyist drones into robotic flying dollies for capturing great pans, zooms and fly-by shots, with computer vision tech making sure to keep a user-defined subject exactly where it needs to be in the frame along the way.

As a startup, Perceptiv is targeting a much larger opportunity that includes much more ambitious advances in computer vision and autonomous device operation. Co-founder Neil Mathew explained in an interview the broader vision for his company.

“The end goal is to build the infrastructure of vision-based intelligence for drones that will let them navigate independently in unknown spaces, avoid collisions with obstacles, and be able to track and detect objects,” he said. “[We want them to] understand a scene, and intelligently respond to instructions as opposed to just being able to fly manually.”

It’s not a unique goal – other companies, including large industry heavyweights like Qualcomm and Intel, are also very interested in research projects related specifically to computer vision and autonomous vehicles. Nvidia also showed off a number of collision avoidance models that incorporate computer vision and advanced object detection at CES this year. But Mathew explained that where Perceptiv differs from many of these other companies is that they’ve actually launched a product, rather than just announcing research programs.

SHIFT is that product, and it’s designed to offer a very real, immediately tangible impact for a specific audience right now, rather than the promise of something cool coming five or ten years down the road.

“Our product is something that will let professional filmmakers take really beautiful precise shots with drones, without two years of piloting experience,” he said. “It’s relatively easy to fly a drone up high and get a simple shot, but being able to take some sort of complex maneuver with a drone where you’re tracking a subject of interest, it becomes really difficult to fly a drone as well as control camera angles at the same time.”

Ambulance Drone

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:00:00 Z

If you're struck by a heart attack, nothing means more to your survival than rescuer response time. With this flying ambulance drone in action, the odds of coming back from cardiac arrest could improve from 8 percent to 80.

Developed by Belgian engineering graduate Alec Momont studying at the TU Delft University, the drone can fly a resuscitating defibrillator at 60 MPH out to a range of 4.6 square miles. Rescuers can communicate to people at the scene of the incident through microphone, walking them through how to apply the drone's defibrillating pads and observing the scene through a camera.

The drone navigates via GPS dialed in to the position of a caller's cell phone. It's got a maximum payload of about nine pounds, but Momont hopes to increase that or make lightweight medical supplies to diversify the flying ambulance's capabilities.

The idea is to make the drone a "flying medical toolbox" with "an oxygen mask to a person trapped in a fire, or an insulin injection to a diabetes sufferer."

Robotic Parking System

Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:00:00 Z

Trying to catch a flight on time becomes an issue when you end up circling the supposed ‘park and go’ garage, trying to find vacancy. Passengers at Düsseldorf Airport in Germany no longer need to stress over this, thanks to the installation of ‘RAY’. The robotic transport system scans your vehicle’s size, detects obstacles it may face on its way, and then adjusts its forklift style method to gently lift and carry your car over to the space saving spot that has been assigned according to measurements it has taken of your car. What makes ‘RAY’ even smarter, is that it connects to the flight database, so it knows when you will be returning from your trip and picking up your automobile. you even have the option of telling it that you will need to retrieve your baggage first and will require a few more minutes; and if your travel plans change, you can easily relay your updated info to ‘RAY’ through a linked app.

Designed by Bavarian start-up company serva, ‘RAY’ been conceived to be flexible and agile – it can turn on the spot and park sideways – making it easy to install into any existing parking station. Rather than needing a typical 6 meter lane, the system requires only 3 meters to manoeuvre, as it eliminates the space necessary for opening your doors and comfortably entering and exiting your automobile. A forklift-like machine gently lifts and transfers your car to its designated parking space. In addition, ‘RAY’ seeks to defy the often under-lit garages through its parking portals which are are open and outfitted with smooth lighting that is easy to understand, and provides guidance as to the location of your vehicle.

Active Surface Optimises Drag Reduction

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:00:00 Z

Researchers at MIT have developed a smart curved surface that can morph at will to reduce drag, generating a series of small, evenly spaced dimples that make it resemble the outside of a golf ball. This technology could be used to reduce hurricane damage on some public buildings, as well as increase the aerodynamic and fuel efficiency in cars.

Scientists and golfers alike have long known that the dimples on the surface of a golf ball allow it to drastically reduce drag and travel much farther than would otherwise be possible. This happens because the small dents hold the airflow near the surface of ball for a longer time, and this reduces the size of the wake, or zone of turbulence, as the ball takes off.

In reality, though, things are a bit more complicated than that. In recent years, in-depth aerodynamic studies have shown that the dimples reduce drag only at lower speeds. As you move toward faster speeds, the advantage of irregularities disappears and a smooth surface becomes the best way to minimize the wake. That's the reason why the Brazuca ball in use in this World Cup has dimples on its surface, but F1 cars don't.

Now, researchers at MIT have married the best of both worlds by developing "smorphs," smart morphing surfaces that can tune their smoothness on the fly to maximize aerodynamic efficiency at all speeds.

These new surfaces can change their configuration in real time because they're made using a multilayer material with a stiff skin and a soft interior. When air is extracted from the interior of a small spherical object made out of this material, the surface shrinks slightly and its surface wrinkles, creating dimples at regular intervals that resemble, and have the same aerodynamic benefits as, golf balls.

The configuration of the material is controlled by adjusting the pressure inside the ball, and this means that the researchers can not only turn the dimples on and off, but also tune their size precisely to minimize drag for all speeds.

"Smorphs" could be especially useful in building structures that won't collapse or incur significant damage when facing very high winds. One example could be the so-called radomes, the spherical, weatherproof domes that enclose radar antennas. The researchers say that the materials could also be used to minimize drag in cars in order to maximize fuel efficiency.

Windowless Jet

Mon, 24 Feb 2014 00:00:00 Z

The revolutionary new S-512 supersonic jet from Spike Aerospace has no windows. Replacing those oval portals to the outside world is a high-definition display that live streams views from the outside to the inside of the cabin.

It might sound like a claustrophobic’s nightmare but running the length of the S-512 are tiny cameras capturing footage to be beamed to the interior walls that are covered with a thin display. Despite not having an actual window to look out of, panoramas are constructed in their place.

When you want a little shut-eye the screen can be dimmed or if you want a change of scene there are a library of images stored in the system you can choose from. Bored of flying over the desert? Change it to the breathtaking views of flying over the snow-peaked Alps.

Aside from looking pretty fancy there is an engineering reason for this innovation. By ditching windows from the aircraft is allows for a smoother fuselage, which will reduce drag and increase speed, meaning you’ll be able to get to your destination faster. It also reduces the weight by not needing structural support for windows and eliminates construction challenges they pose.

The aircraft design also incorporates advanced composite materials and a propulsion system that will whiz 18 passengers at speeds of 2,204km/h — fast enough to get from LA to Tokyo in eight hours instead of the standard 14-16 hours.

Wall-Climbing, Gecko Robot

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:00:00 Z

A wall-crawling robot inspired by the gecko has taken a small but important step towards a future in space, scientists said on Thursday. The tiny legged prototype could be the forerunner of automatons that crawl along the hulls of spacecraft, cleaning and maintaining them, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

Its footpads are covered with dry microfibers modeled on the toe hair of the gecko, which is celebrated for its ability to scuttle up windows and along walls yet not leave a trace. The lizard does the trick through millions of ultra-fine hairs called setae, which interact with the climbing surface to create a molecular attraction known as the van der Waals force.

Researchers at Canada's Simon Fraser University first built a 240-gram (eight-ounce) tank-like gecko-bot, using tracks with microfiber treads. They then developed this into a six-legged climbing robot, nicknamed Abigaille.

The "dry adhesive" that helps Abigaille climb walls has now been put through its paces at a materials-testing lab at ESA's European Space and Technology Center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Replicating the vacuum and temperatures of space, but not the zero gravity, the tests found that the adhesive worked like a charm, the agency said.

Inflatable Satellite Antenna

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 00:00:00 Z

CubeSats are certainly in the process of revolutionizing the satellite industry. With that smaller overall size, however, comes smaller onboard antennas. These severely limit CubeSats’ communications range, restricting them to fairly low orbits. That may be about to change, though, as MIT is developing larger, inflatable antennas.

Inflatable satellite antennas have been developed and tested before, although they were designed for regular-sized satellites, and utilized compressed air systems. Given the limited payload capacity of a CubeSat, cramming in heavy, bulky metal tanks and pressure valves just wouldn’t work. There’s also a risk that the compressed air tanks could explode in transit.

Instead, the MIT team turned to benzoic acid. It’s a sublimating powder, which means that it expands into gas form when exposed to low pressure – and in outer space, the pressure is pretty darn low.“With this antenna you could transmit from the moon, and even farther than that,” says Alessandra Babuscia, who led the research. “This antenna is one of the cheapest and most economical solutions to the problem of communications.”

Heli-Chute, Auto-Rotating Parachute

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 00:00:00 Z

Atair's Heli-Chutes are innovative auto-rotating parachutes designed for low-cost military and humanitarian airdrops. The fully reusable Heli-Chutes pack up to 4 times smaller than conventional round parachutes of equal vertical descent rate, are economical due to using less fabric and labor in construction, and are inherently gyro-stabilized.

Heli-Chutes' innovative spinning wings have a stabilizing effect that eliminates the pendulum effect common in cargo airdrops using conventional round parachutes. Spin stabilization prevents the payload from landing on its side and is particularly valuable when delivering fragile equipment or medicines.

WindTracer predicts wind direction with lasers

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 Z

WindTracer systems have been in action around the world for more than a decade, where it is used to detect hazardous winds and aircraft wakes. The thing about wind energy is this, it is extremely difficult to predict the behavior of the wind itself. WindTracer relies on a scanner that utilizes a laser to “trace” microscopic dust particles in the wind.

It fires an infrared laser into the atmosphere at a rate of 750 times per second, Its light travels anywhere from 15 to 30 kilometers, or until it has contacted an airborne particle, it will reflects off the particle and bounces back toward the WindTracer. This reflected signal is the basis from where one calculates the speed of the dust particles blowing in the wind, and hence making a clever prediction of the wind direction.

3D-printed parts increase fuel efficiency by 15 percent

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 Z

CFM International, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial airline engines, is using some 3D-printed components to help improve the fuel efficiency of its new line of jet engines by 15 percent. Earlier this month, the company — which is co-owned by GE and French aerospace giant Snecma — announced that it had decided on the final configuration of parts that are going into its new line of LEAP-1B engines for use in the Boeing 737 MAX commercial jets. So far, there have been 1,185 orders for planes with the new engine, and CFM said it expects to complete its first test by the middle of 2014.

The LEAP-1B is just one of a lineup of three different LEAP engines: The LEAP-1A is the larger, more powerful version and the LEAP-1C is the smallest of the line. But all three use 3D-printed parts, or more accurately, parts sintered of metal powders out by a laser, including valves and aircraft gaskets. By 2020, GE predicts that up to 10,000 components inside a jet engine will all be manufactured via similar means. GE just acquired some 3D-printing companies to help it along this process late last year, so expect the company's dreams of more fuel-efficient aircraft to really take flight in later years.

SkyTender, a drink dispenser for airplanes

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 Z

Don't you hate waiting for the drinks cart to slowly make its way through economy class to your seat? This product might speed things up a bit. SkyTender isn't quite the robot bartender that some are making it out to be, but as an automated drinks dispenser it could make flying slightly less hellish than it nearly always is.

This beverage trolley can whip up more than 30 different drinks, including soft drinks, coffee, wine, and cocktails, at the touch of a button or two. SkyTender has a touch screen that rises out of the trolley. Put a cup in the dispenser, push a button on the screen, and there's your drink. A stocked trolley, which has about 32 liter of hot and cold water on board, can prepare up to 290 drink servings.

Yes, you still need a flight attendant in the loop. Changing the drinks cartridges, keeping the batteries charged, and other maintenance tasks mean there's room for breakdowns, but perhaps no more than when conventional trolleys run out of your choice of wine.

Flight/car simulator cuts costs by re-purposing industrial robot

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 Z

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has built a cost-effective motion simulator powered by a single industrial robot arm that can handle extreme scenarios, such as spin maneuvers and even flight take-off and landing.

The DLR Robotic Motion Simulator uses KUKA's mass-produced industrial robot components, thus saving a great deal of the cost normally attributed to commercial motion simulators. The KUKA robot arm is strong enough to lift a car chassis, so it's perfectly suited to lifting and spinning you around inside a lightweight virtual reality cabin. Once you're strapped in, the top shell of the pod acts as a hemispherical projection screen, giving you a wide field of view. The arm provides pitch, yaw, and roll, while the entire rig moves back and forth on a track.

To take advantage of this flexibility, the DLR Robotic Motion Simulator features modular components that can be switched in short order to suit a variety of situations – from driving a road vehicle to flying a helicopter or other aircraft. That means it will have plenty of training applications, but it also looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

Giant, Floating Airship

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 Z

In Orange County, California, a hulking, 230-foot long, 36,000-pound beast is being groomed as the future of air travel. For the next few years, all eyes in the aviation space are on the Pelican: a prototype for a revolutionary new airship--neither a blimp nor a plane--developed by engineering firm Aeros on a $35-million contract from the Pentagon and NASA.

What’s so significant about the aircraft? First, it doesn’t need a runway to land, which means it could deliver the 66 tons of cargo it’s expected to carry anywhere in the world. This could change the game for military operations (hence the investors) but also for humanitarian aid, by getting supplies to hard to reach places after a disaster or to islands lacking in infrastructure. The Aeros team imagines using it to transport massive wind turbines some day, allowing for gains in an industry that’s long been hindered by transportation difficulties. Another vision for the airship is as the Titanic of the air: a luxury cruise through the skies, letting passengers slowly absorb the sites below, while dining in style high above.

The Pelican will run on just one-third the fuel of the most common cargo planes by using helium to aid in buoyancy. As Aviation Week explains it, "compressing the helium makes the vehicle heavier than air for easier ground handling and cargo unloading. Releasing the helium displaces air inside the vehicle and makes it neutrally buoyant."

This month, the Pelican reached several important milestones in its development. In early January, its cockpit controls were used to move along the ground, without the assistance of personnel on the ground. The following week, the vehicle completed its "first float," hovering above the ground at its engineering hangar in Tustin, California.

While the Pelican is just a prototype, the real thing will be nearly twice as long when it’s ready for flight, some time in the next few years. Until these are as ubiquitous as commercial liners, we’ll just continue praying for an aisle seat.

Planetary resources: mining asteroids project launched

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 Z

Outside experts are sceptical about the project, announced at a news conference in Seattle on Tuesday, which would likely require untold millions, or perhaps billions of dollars and huge advances in technology.

But the same entrepreneurs pioneered the selling of space rides to tourists – a notion that seemed fanciful not long ago, too.

"Since my early teenage years, I've wanted to be an asteroid miner. I always viewed it as a glamorous vision of where we could go," Peter Diamandis, one of the founders of Planetary Resources, said at a news conference at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. The company's vision "is to make the resources of space available to humanity."

The inaugural step, to be achieved in the next 18 to 24 months, would be launching the first in a series of private telescopes that would search for the right type of asteroids.

The plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals out of the rocks that routinely whizz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020.

Several scientists not involved in the project said they were simultaneously thrilled and wary, calling the plan daring, difficult – and very pricey. They do not see how it could be cost-effective, even with platinum and gold worth nearly $1,600 an ounce. An forthcoming NASA mission to return just 2 ounces (60 grams) of an asteroid to Earth will cost about $1 billion.

Robots autonomously strip paint from aircraft using lasers

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 Z

If you think stripping paint off an end table can be a messy, time consuming job, imagine removing paint and other coatings from an aircraft like the C-130 transport plane. Tasked with developing a robotic system that would take such a chore out of the hands of maintenance personnel, Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, developed a team of robots that gets the job done – using laser beams, no less.

The large robots consist of a mobile platform on which is mounted a large, articulated arm that moves up and down on hydraulic lifts. On the end of each arm is an array of sensors that allow the arm to glide evenly over the plane’s surface and a continuous wave laser that removes the paint in selective layers. The sensors can also assess the plane’s condition as they go. The speed at which they work needs to remain even so that the laser can strip the paint without overheating the plane’s skin. Meanwhile, a custom High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) system safely collects paint debris as it is removed from the aircraft.

How many robots are required for each team depends on the aircraft. Two robots are enough for a fighter, but four robots might be needed for a cargo plane. The system controlling the robots generates plans for stripping the plane, which can be updated as the job proceeds. It also “virtually” masks areas of the plane that shouldn't be touched, so maintenance crews don’t have to run about with masking tape and paper.

"Superjet" variable cycle jet engine could power future fighter aircraft

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 Z

GE Aviation is developing a revolutionary new jet engine that aims to combine the best traits of turbojet and turbofan engines, delivering supersonic speed capability and fuel efficiency in one package.

There are two main species of jet engines for aviation: low-bypass turbofans, usually called turbojets, and high-bypass turbofans. Turbojets are optimized for high-performance, pushing fighter jets to above Mach 2, but pay for that performance with terrible fuel efficiency. In contrast, high-bypass turbofans are the heavy lifters of commercial aviation, being optimized for subsonic thrust and fuel efficiency, but performing poorly at supersonic speeds.

In an ADVENT (ADaptive VErsitile ENgine Technology) engine, the high-pressure core exhaust and the low-pressure bypass streams of a conventional turbofan are joined by a third. This third duct will be opened or closed as part of a variable cycle to transform it from a strike aircraft engine to a transport-type engine. If the duct is open the bypass ratio will increase, reducing fuel burn, and increasing subsonic range by up to 40 percent. If the ducts are closed, additional air is forced through the core and high pressure compressor, enabling thrust and speed to increase and providing world-class supersonic performance.

GE's ADVENT designs are based on new manufacturing technologies like 3-D printing of intricate cooling components and super-strong but lightweight ceramic matrix composites. These allow the manufacture of highly efficient jet engines operating at temperatures above the melting point of steel.

Engineers also designed the new engine to be easy to fly. “We want the engine to take care of itself and let the pilot focus on the mission,” says Abe Levatter, project manager at GE Aviation. “When the pilot says ‘I’m out of danger, I want to cruise home,’ the engine reconfigures itself. We take it upon ourselves to make the engine optimized for whatever the pilot wants.”

Bigelow's inflatable space station

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:00:00 Z

NASA has announced that it has awarded a US$17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide the International Space Station with an inflatable module. The BEAM is an inflatable torus-shaped storage module based on NASA’s abandoned TransHab design that NASA and Bigelow claim could be sent into orbit within two years.

If the final design is similar in size to the Bigelow BA 2100 module, then the BEAM will weigh 65,000 kg (143,000 lb) and, when inflated, will have a length of 17.8 m (58.4 ft) with a diameter of 12.6 m (41.3 ft). If so, it will be two and a half times the volume of the ISS itself. However, there are alternative designs available.

NASA is interested in the Bigelow inflatable modules because of its desire for cheaper, lighter space assets and because ground tests have indicated that the vectran fabric from which the modules are made shows superior resistance to micrometeors compared to rigid module walls.