NASA to 3D Print Nanomaterial-Based Detector Platform
GREENBELT, MD—Technologist Mahmooda Sultana and her team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center here have received a $2 million development award to spend the next two years advancing a nanomaterial-based detector platform. This platform measures only 2 by 3 inches, yet is capable of sensing minute concentrations of gases,vapor, atmospheric pressure and temperature, and then transmitting the data via a wireless antenna.
If successful, the platform could benefit all of NASA's major scientific disciplines and efforts to send humans to the Moon and Mars. These tiny platforms could be deployed on planetary rovers to detect small quantities of water and methane, for example, or be used as monitoring or biological sensors to maintain astronaut health and safety.