NASA is seeking low-cost automotive and related sensors for Lunar landing applications. With the auto industry making large investments to develop a variety of sensors for autonomous vehicles, the possibility that NASA could leverage some of this investment for landers is worth exploring. While mass and power are always important, the emphasis of this effort is to identify sensors from other industries, especially the auto industry, that have potential as lander sensors. To have “potential” means that the sensor will contribute to navigation and that it has a viable path to application in space.
Trends in Food: Functional Foods, Superfoods, Eating Less Meat
One of the very interesting presentations from March’s R&D Innovation Summit in Chicago was “The Freshest Insights in New Food Trends” by Thomas Talbert, vice president, culinary R&D at CSSI Culinary. Talbert, and his co-presenter Marie Molde of Dataessential presented a recent continuum we’ve seen in food trends.
Read this blog post from yet2‘s Hathairat Sawaengrsi for her take on today’s food and ingredient trends.
NASA is seeking commercial respirator systems to protect against fire events and ammonia leaks (10,000ppm). These specialized flight masks would be used by crews on exploration vehicles in the event of a fire or leak event and the crew has nowhere to escape the contaminated environment. Respirators function should be sufficient to allow crews to stay in the environment for a minimum of 8 hours before space suits need to be donned.
A yet2 client is seeking solid state power amplifiers (SSPA) capable of high power output for radar systems. Solutions need a single or combined chip power output in the hundreds of kilowatts range, and should also have high efficiency, operate in the Ka-band frequency, and have a wide bandwidth.
Material with High Thermal Conductivity and Low Thermal Expansion Offers 1.5x the Heat Dissipation to GaN Devices
This high thermally conductive material with low coefficient of thermal expansion offers 1.5x the thermal conductivity of conventional materials. The increased heat dissipation provides a path to the high-performance and low-cost goals of the GaN (Gallium Nitride) semiconductor packaging used in 5G communication, as well as offering superior heat dissipation for LED (Light Emitting Diode) elements.
This technology is supported by 1 US patent, 1 Japanese patent and 1 European patent.
For Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, the stores of their youth are disappearing. While Toys ‘R’ Us is the latest major retailer to liquidate and close, the U.S. retail market has also seen Sears and J C Penney close many locations. Claire’s, a mainstay of many shopping malls, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
There’s a widespread perception that malls across the U.S. are dying. But according to “Consumers Match Analysts’ Confidence in Malls,” research shows “about 165 million consumers went to a mall in the past three months” and that “82% of adults believe that shopping malls will still exist in the next five to 10 years.
Read this blog post for yet2‘s insights on how innovation might play a role in saving traditional retail.