Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 28


Self-healing ceramics Texas A&M University has discovered a new self-healing mechanism for ceramics, a technology that could one day be used for jet engines, hypersonic aircraft and nuclear reactors. Ceramics involve various materials that are neither metallic nor organic, but rather they are crystalline and/or glassy, according to the University of Maryland. One common example is clay,... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 4


Measuring Moon dust The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and others have developed a new way to study and measure moon dust. Using an X-ray nano computed tomography (XCT) technique, researchers measured the 3D shapes of lunar particles as small as 400nm in length. The goal is to find out how these shapes impact the optical scattering characteristics of lunar dust on the... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 2


EUV lithography in outer space The U.S. space program made history on May 31, 2020, when NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). This is the first time a commercial spacecraft has delivered astronauts to the ISS. The ISS serves as a research lab for companies, government agencies and universiti... » read more