Last week, Artemis II launched. On Friday, the crew comes home, and our work stays with them the entire way. Draper supports the mission with guidance, navigation, and control software that runs from launch through lunar flight to return, and our engineers hold a primary seat in the Mission Evaluation Room to track the mission in real time. We’ve worked alongside this program for more than 20 years to help make a mission like this happen.
Draper joined the ARPA-H funded SCALE team to help develop a building-integrated system that detects airborne hazards and reduces exposure in real time. We’re contributing microfluidic pathogen isolation expertise to support advanced biosensors, respiratory risk modeling, and automated air systems designed to improve indoor air quality in schools and other shared spaces. The team will demonstrate the system in school districts across the country.
The Defense Microelectronics Activity named Draper as a newcomer awardee on the Advanced Technology Support Program 5 contract. The award places Draper among a small group of companies supporting the full lifecycle of microelectronics that power military systems. ATSP5 focuses on keeping defense technology current by tackling chip design, development, integration and testing. The work spans emerging areas such as nanoelectronics, advanced manufacturing and next generation computing, all aimed at reducing obsolescence and strengthening long term readiness. This award reflects growing trust in Draper’s microelectronics expertise and our ability to support complex national security missions over time. We look forward to contributing to the work ahead and partnering with DMEA to help keep critical systems current, capable, and resilient.
From lasers to lunar landers, Julia Laurenzano MacDonough's career proves that the right opportunity can change everything. AS VP and GM for our Air Force and Missile Defense Strategic Systems, Julia leads programs that protect the nation and advance space exploration. She recently spoke with SheTech interns in Utah about her path, starting with an ROTC scholarship that led to a degree in physics, then moving into early work as a laser physicist in the Air Force, and now guiding teams that tackle some of today’s toughest technical challenges. Her advice for the next generation: stay curious, take calculated risks, and surround yourself with people who push you to grow.
The sky can trick you. Draper makes sure it doesn’t. Spatial disorientation contributes up to 10% of aviation accidents, and 90% of those crashes are fatal. Pilots can lose track of which way is up, especially in poor visibility or during high-G maneuvers, and the results can be catastrophic. Draper engineers partnered with NASA and the University of Colorado Boulder to develop tools that detect the onset of disorientation and help pilots recognize when their senses are giving them the wrong signals. With pilot feedback and real-world test data, we’re building models that bring science into the cockpit and protect lives.
Read our latest feature: Finding Novel Targets on the Fly: Using Advanced AI to Make Flexible Automatic Target Recognition Systems. Draper is revolutionizing automatic target recognition with AI-driven vision language models, enabling flexible, real-time identification of previously unseen targets without retraining.
Blue Origin successfully completed its 29th New Shepard flight on February 4th. The NS-29 flight simulated the moon's gravity and carried 30 payloads, including Draper's Multi-Environment Navigator (DMEN), a vision-based navigation technology for high-altitude entry, descent, and landing missions to ensure safe and accurate landings. The flight test provided the relevant environment needed to collect data and validate algorithms to advance DMEN in anticipation of Draper CLPS Mission 1. Congratulations to Blue Origin on the successful flight and the opportunity to further test DMEN!
Draper staff recently attended the Eastern Defense Summit in Charleston, SC where they were invited to present two technology solutions in response to the Naval Information Warfare Center’s Triad of Autonomy Challenge. Brian Wong presented on Ocean Whisperer, a machine learning technique for detecting maritime pattern anomalies, and Anthony Palladino presented on ADEQUATE, a novel approach for evaluating training datasets and the effectiveness of computer vision models. Anthony’s ADEQUATE brief took the top prize of $35,000 and the chance to engage with NIWC for additional follow-on acquisition opportunities.
It’s a Marvelous Time for a Moon Landing! Read our latest feature on our teams journey to deliver payloads to the far side of the moon! Click the image to learn more. The Draper Team includes ispace-U.S. and Karman Space & Defense. #CLPS #cp12 #artemis #farside #moon
Making advancements for women's health! Draper has been selected by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as an awardee of the Sprint for Women’s Health, a funding opportunity to address critical unmet challenges in women’s health. We will will receive $3 million in funding over two years. The goal of Draper’s program is to address the challenge of drug safety during pregnancy without needing to test on pregnant women. Visit the link below to learn more.
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