A team led by the Southwest Research Institute has received a $5 million contract to develop tools and methods for NASA to explore the solar system through the space agency’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. The Project for Exploration Science Pathfinder Research for Enhancing Solar System Observations consortium will focus on pathfinding research, techniques and technologies to support missions on airless bodies […] More

NASA has selected Lockheed Martin to build, design and operate spacecraft that would support research into the bulk physical properties, geology and surface composition of  six Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun. Lockheed said Thursday the Lucy spacecraft will be built through one of NASA’s two new Discovery Program missions and that the agency established a $450 million cap for vehicle development. […] More

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $6.7 million contract to a team comprised of Boeing, Southwest Research Institute and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining to help the military branch develop software and technology for a multi-process robotic system. SwRI said Wednesday the team aims to build and demonstrate a mobile robotic platform that will […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne and the Energy Department‘s National Energy Technology Laboratory will continue to develop air-breathing rotating detonation engine technology intended for natural gas-fueled power plants under a $6.8 million follow-on cooperative agreement. The new agreement comes under the second phase of a DOE program that seeks to build on Aerojet Rocketdyne‘s RED development efforts with University of Michigan, Purdue University, University of […] More

The National Advanced Mobility Consortium has elected three new members to the nonprofit organization’s board of directors. NAMC said Tuesday Christopher Rohe will serve as president of the board of directors, while Michael Ladika and Gerald Lane have been appointed respectively as vice president and treasurer of the manned and unmanned ground vehicle-focused consortium. Rohe serves as senior […] More

Southwest Research Institute has received potential five-year, $39 million contract to help the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division build tactical and non-tactical systems. SwRI said Tuesday it will provide research, development, testing and support services intended to help NSWCDD address technical challenges. The nonprofit aims to help fulfill the center’s system requirements for homeland security, counterterrorism, mission assurance, force protection, unmanned systems […] More

The U.S. Air Force civil engineer center’s environmental restoration division has awarded an LMI-led team a one-year, $500,000 task order to provide systems engineering and other services to address program requirements. The consulting firm said Monday it will utilize its previous experience with similar U.S. Army environmental restoration programs, as well as the company’s environmental remediation services […] More

The Energy Department‘s National Energy Technology Laboratory will invest $30 million in six selected Phase 2 projects to help develop technologies for gas turbine components and supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles. DOE said Wednesday it seeks technologies that work to help combined-cycle power plants meet a target thermal efficiency rating of 65 percent from its current efficiency rating of 61 […] More

A NASA spacecraft with a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory-built instrument that works to measure high-energy particles is scheduled to reach Jupiter on July 4 as part of a mission to study the planet and the universe. Johns Hopkins APL’s Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument onboard the Lockheed Martin-built Juno spacecraft has three detectors designed […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded SRI International and Southwest Research Institute contracts to develop and design system prototypes to convert toxic chemicals into soil and other non-hazardous compounds. DARPA said Wednesday it made the awards under the agency’s Agnostic Compact Demilitarization of Chemical Agents initiative. ACDC aims to develop new transportable platforms that will work to neutralize […] More

A NASA spacecraft with a Ball Aerospace & Technologies-built camera is scheduled to arrive at Pluto on July 14. Ball Aerospace said Wednesday the 23-pound Ralph camera will work to gather images of the planet as the New Horizons spacecraft performs flybys within 7,000 miles of Pluto. “We know so little about Pluto that we expect the mission […] More