Technology Innovation is a digital publication of NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate which will feature the latest space technology innovators and project developments across the agency. It will also highlight the American inventors, entrepreneurs and application engineers who have transformed space exploration technologies into products that benefit the nation. This issue focuses on a few of the innovators, systems, and materials that helped to make 2012 a groundbreaking year in Mars exploration. The technologies pioneered by these scientists will be vital components of future space missions, but they are also improving life on Earth through a wide variety of industrial, educational, and humanitarian applications.
Volume 16, number 1, contains four feature articles--
• Time Flies: MEDLI
• Tailor Made: Woven Thermal Protection Systems
• Innovation Without Borders: International Space Apps Challenge
• Photon Express: Optical Communications
--plus short articles on the commercial evolution of a heat-resistant coating invented by scientists at Ames Research Center and airflow sensors developed by a former NASA engineer. The issue closes with an "Insight" piece by Neil Cheatwood, the Principal Investigator for Planetary Entry, Descent and Landing at Langley Research Center.