Photos: NASA's science, tech showcase
A look at the high-tech research and development going on inside the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
Civic Center Plaza
More than 40 exhibits highlight some of the leading-edge projects NASA is researching in life sciences, robotics, information technology, transportation, and more.
Solar concentrators
It may sound like a simple idea, but using reflective surfaces like mirrors to focus sunlight onto small areas of photovoltaic solar collectors, which minimizes the amount of silicon needed, greatly reduces the production costs per kilowatt.
Science on the plaza
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)
NASA air mechanic's branch
A 7.7% scale wind tunnel model
Kepler
Each panel was recorded from separate sensors and contains millions of stars. Kepler's instrument--a photometer--is a light meter that can simultaneously measure the brightness variations of more than 100,000 stars with a precision of about 20 parts per million.
Planetary sculpture
LCROSS
The module, which sill separate into two pieces, will first crash one section into the moon causing a deep crater.