Category Archives: Engineering

NASA Funding Flows to Seven Small Businesses in Arizona

NASA has selected its 2018 crop of small businesses to receive funding supporting innovation research and technology transfer, with seven awards going to Arizona.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts, which total $43.5 million nationally among 348 awardees, support projects that promise to benefit both NASA’s mission and the U.S. economy.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Seven Arizona Small Businesses Receive NASA Funding

FBI Warns of State-Sponsored Malware Attack

Photo by Synthesis Studios.

The FBI has issued an alert warning users to reboot, update and secure their routers as a precaution against a widespread, foreign state-sponsored malware attack.

Experts estimate the malware, called VPNFilter, has infected hundreds of thousands of routers in more than 50 countries.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
FBI Urges Router Reboot To Guard Against State-Sponsored Malware Attack

NASA to Send Mini-Copter to the Red Planet in 2020

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

When the next Mars rover launches in 2020, it will sport a sidekick: a football-sized scout helicopter.

Mars’s atmosphere is 1 percent as dense as Earth’s, so the copter will have to fly at the equivalent of 100,000 feet — 60,000 feet higher than any Earth-bound chopper has ever flown.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Mars 2020 Rover Mission To Include Scout Helicopter

Arizona Utility Looks Into Robots to Maintain Canals

Maintaining water quality across Salt River Project’s 131 miles of canals, connected by more than 1,000 miles of lateral ditches and pipes, poses unique technical and workforce problems.

Now, SRP is working with Arizona State University robot experts to develop robotic solutions to the problem.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Lifeblood Of The Desert: Salt River Project Teams Turn To ASU Robots To Maintain Canal System

Orbital ATK to Expand Launch Vehicles Division

Rendering courtesy of new Orbital ATK center.

Aerospace and defense company Orbital ATK is expanding its Chandler, Arizona-based launch vehicles division.

Orbital will establish the 47-acre campus a stone’s throw from the company’s existing Chandler campus, which employs nearly 1,600 people.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Orbital ATK To Expand Its Chandler Footprint