NASA uses the Programmable Josephson Voltage Standard (PJVS) to ensure the agency’s calibrations include the most accurate voltage measurement with the lowest measurement uncertainty possible. 

Langley Research Center is actively using state-of-the-art Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) modeling and simulation tools to accelerate the adoption of advanced materials and ensure the safety of aging infrastructure.

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. See the latest updates as of February 2021. 

The Mars 2020 mission, including the Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter, will land on Mars on February 18, 2021. A first on a Mars mission, the Sample Caching System included on Perseverance will collect and store short cores of Martian rocks and soils destined for future return to Earth and study with advanced instrumentation. The system is complex, including a drill for sample collection and tubes to seal and store the collected samples until a future mission can retrieve them.  

Vegetation control is a necessary and effective tool to minimize the risk of fire propagation into explosives storage magazines, which could lead to dangerous and costly accidents. Generally, vegetation around explosives storage sites is strictly controlled. The Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Transportation Security Administration all have specific regulations to control the potential damage to explosives storage magazines from a nearby fire. Similarly, NASA has NASA-STD-8719.12, Safety Standard for Explosives, Propellants, and Pyrotechnics section 5.4 Vegetation Control, which outlines the basic agency requirements for managing vegetation. However, how each center implements these controls varies to accommodate the centers’ environments and needs.

The latest issue of the EEE Parts Bulletin covers news from the Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts. This issue focuses on the comparison of test methods for Human Body Model Electrostatic Discharge.

The latest issue of the EEE Parts Bulletin covers news from the Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts discipline from March 2020 through October 2020. 

Gallium Nitride (GaN), a Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductor, is emerging as a promising material for electronic components in the aerospace industry. While historically semiconductor devices have been silicon-based, in recent years, devices using WBG materials such as silicon carbide and GaN have matured to a point where their performance and economic value are competitive with, or in some cases, exceed traditional silicon parts. 

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. See the latest updates as of November 2020. 

As part of the Software Assurance Research Program (SARP), the project team leading the “Software Assurance Tasking Checklists for NASA-STD-8739.8” project developed and deployed a tool to automate the identification of Software Assurance (SA) activities using Commercial Off-The-Shelf tools. This checklist tool is one of five research projects in Fiscal Year 2020 sponsored by SARP and aimed to address the current needs of the SA community across the agency.