Efficiencies in design, construction and building use are being unlocked thanks to analysis and proactive changes informed by construction data. Even 3D printing for a NASA project on structures on Mars is on the table.

The May 30 NASA launch has been publicized as an extraordinary event—the first crewed mission to the International Space Station on a privately owned SpaceX spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

A radiation-shielded, inflatable greenhouse with a hydroponic growing system designed by undergraduate students at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering could sustain four astronauts on a 600-day mission to Mars as soon as 2030.

Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is one step closer to readiness for NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS), as J.P. Donovan, Rockledge, Fla., wraps up major construction on the main flame deflector for the pad’s upgraded flame trench.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the University of California, Merced, are testing a drone-mounted methane-detection device that sports a miniaturized version of the NASA Mars Curiosity Rovers’ sensor array.