Innovation Now

When it came time to update the outdated electromechanical cockpit of the space shuttle Atlantis, a liquid crystal display was the logical choice.

A low-light sensor that measures light emissions and reflections enables the Black Marble team to accurately account for power outages.

From surface experiments to vacuum chambers, NASA uses BP-1 to help researchers better understand the lunar surface.

A hand-held sextant, the tool used by sailors for centuries, could become the emergency system that would allow future explorers to navigate using the stars.

Starshade is designed to unfold into a large disk with petal-like edges, forming a shield that could block out unwanted light for a space telescope.

As Viking landed on July 20, 1976, images of the settling dust began what would become a high-resolution gallery of Mars.

With its four suitcase-sized satellites, PUNCH will image and track the solar wind as it leaves the Sun.

From songs selected for the Golden record on the Voyager spacecraft to favorite prelaunch songs, music is a NASA tradition.

As BREEZE circumnavigates Venus, it could perform various atmospheric studies, track weather patterns, and conduct active volcanic investigations.

The modest rocket Goddard fondly called Nell, burned a flight into the future and established Robert Goddard as the father of modern rocketry.

On this particular evening, the dust in the Martian atmosphere was thick enough that not even moderately bright stars were visible.

Herbie Hancock once said that, “Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.” For some of our astronauts, it transcends Earth as well.

Treasures lie within the cold, dark regions of our Moon.

NASA’s heat shield technologies have been adapted to make a superior protective enclosure for practical, affordable fire safes.

Each year, expedition members search the Antarctic ice for these space rocks.

Researchers have developed a hand-held meter that gives an on-the-spot quantitative measure of the chlorophyll in a plant.

Although the star is now barely visible to the unaided eye, the celestial fireworks continue.

MoveBank is a set of online tools to help ecologists link environmental data from remote sensing instruments, NASA’s Earth-observing satellites, and weather models to information collected about animal migration.

A decade into its interstellar journey, Voyager is still returning data, yielding new insights into what this unexplored frontier is like.

Predicting exactly where, when, and how the dancing lights we call the auroras will occur on Earth, is challenging.