Sandia Labs

Researchers are looking to the common dragonfly for clues to develop smaller, more efficient missile defenses. By replicating the predatory insect's brain in a computer algorithm, the goal is to create interceptors that can lock on to threats much faster and achieve a much higher kill ratio.

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has announced that it has set up an academic research coalition to help create artificially intelligent aerospace systems to control hypersonic missiles and other complicated vehicles in challenging environments.

A team of nine robots​ developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has disassembled or "demilitarized" 700,000 submunitions at the US Army's Anniston Munitions Center Multiple Launch Rocket System Recycle Facility in Alabama.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons might be a staple of movies and video games, but they pose a very real threat. Sandia National Laboratories has developed a "friendly" EMP generator to make sure military and civilian equipment can withstand such potentially devastating bursts of​ energy​.

After a 15-year hiatus, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is returning to flying sounding rockets. The centerpiece of the HOT SHOT program, the suborbital rocket launches are designed to cut the development time for new weapon systems by a third while lowering R&D costs.

In anticipation of the hydrogen economy of the future, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is working on software models that will help hydrogen refueling stations switch from hydrogen gas to liquid hydrogen while implementing new, easier to follow safety standards.

Sandia engineers have developed the most durable metal alloy ever created. Made up of a combination of platinum and gold, the new material is 100 times more wear-resistant than high-strength steel, and the first metal alloy to join the same class as diamond. It also produces its own lubricant.

To ensure that moving spent radioactive fuel is being carried out with the minimum of risks, Sandia National Laboratories recently completed a nuclear "triathlon" of a simulated cargo of spent fuel rods over 14,500 mi to record the stress and jolts that fuel undergoes in transit.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants can be a key part of a renewable energy strategy, but progress is often focused on larger facilities. Now, engineers from Sandia National Laboratories are improving the efficiency of smaller plants, designing a new receiver that can absorb much more sunlight.

Sandia National Laboratories is up to big things. After having recently replicated the energy found around black holes, the facility has just delivered proof of concept for a method of testing rocket parts using a 60-foot-long (18 m) compressed nitrogen gun that makes the process greener and safer.

Using the most powerful X-ray-generating machine on the planet, researchers have reproduced what happens to matter just before it is devoured by a black hole. Their findings show that a long-standing theory regarding the giant gravitational sinkholes may be completely wrong.

Despite not getting the headlines it did last year, Zika remains an ongoing issue that needs addressing. A team from Sandia National Laboratories has developed a low-cost, portable device for quickly detecting Zika and similar viruses in a sample, driven by a smartphone app.