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PORTABLE POWER That 10% low power warning on your phone or the red battery on your tablet are helpful reminders to plug in. But they’re also a sign of trouble when you’re in the woods, all the outlets in the airport waiting area are taken, or you forgot your charger. Having a lightweight, affordable portable solar panel that makes it convenient to recharge all those batteries is now a viable alternative, thanks to NASA. “We’ve had a lot of small business partners looking not just at advanced cell technology, but also at maintaining low costs,” says Mike Piszczor, chief of the Photovoltaic and Electrochemical Systems Branch at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “For space applications, a typical cell that’s about 1.5 by 3 inches is $400–$500, and that’s because they go through flight qualification in addition to the manufacturing process used. It saves in the long run, because even with that very expensive cell technology, it’s so efficient that it saves in overall system co...

EXPLORING ICY MOONS New technology will study above and below surface ice. Skating on a frozen lake—with its ridges, stones, and cracks—can present challenges that skating on an indoor ice rink doesn’t. It’s possible to see and avoid most of those obstacles, no matter how large the lake; but imagine the difficulty and tools required to maneuver around slabs of ice as tall as mountains, cracks that are miles deep, and explosions of water from beneath your feet. Compared to ice on Earth, exploring ice-covered moons won’t be a skate in the park. NASA has learned a lot about the subzero-temperature moons Enceladus and Europa, where the agency wants to search for signs of life, among other observations. But a mission to either moon (they orbit Saturn and Jupiter, respectively) will take more preparation than tossing skates and a thermos of hot chocolate into the car. Just getting there is complicated (See Cosmic Neighborhood). Observations by robotic spacecraft have provided informatio...

MINI-PUMPS The same miniaturized pumps on the Mars Curiosity rover are at work on Earth. Finding evidence of life on Mars requires high-tech equipment, whether that life is extinct or currently living below the surface and producing methane. Those same resources can be used on this planet during an industrial accident or dangerous chemical spill to let emergency crews know what they’re dealing with. But that’s only if the equipment can be used onsite. A mass spectrometer offers that kind of support on and off this planet. A mass spectrometer analyzes ionized samples of material by measuring the mass of the ionized molecules to determine the ratio of different isotopes in it or learn about the structure of its molecules. This information can be used to determine a sample’s age, how it formed or what molecules it contains (See Distant Encounters). But to land on Mars or be available for onsite emergency use on Earth, this equipment needs to be smaller and more rugged than the large mo...

what is dragon flying? The first explorers on distant moons will be robots, including a helicopter bound for Titan. Going back in time to see what Earth was like billions of years ago could answer some questions about why ours is the only planet of its kind in the solar system and how life began. Ancient rocks and fossils of early, simple life forms have provided some information. But if we could explore, today, another world that was similar, at least in some ways, to the young Earth, what might we learn about the way life formed and evolved? Titan, the largest of Saturn’s 62 known moons, offers an opportunity to do just that. The atmosphere is closer to that which Earth experienced billions of years ago. It’s about 95% nitrogen and 5% methane, with small amounts of other carbon-rich compounds. It is much colder, though, with a temperature around -290°F. The terrain is made up of vast expanses of organic-covered surfaces consisting of dunes, rocks, and rivers and lakes of liquid...