Pushing The Limits On Nanotechnology

Share

Summary

NASA breaking ground right down to the molecular level.

Story Published: May 23, 2001 at 10:37 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 10:30 AM PDT

Pushing The Limits On Nanotechnology
PASADENA, CALIF. - Computer chips today are small and getting smaller. They're the reason devices like personal computers and cell phones keep shrinking. But the limits of current technology might be just over the horizon, according to some experts.

"We're reaching the point where we can no longer extend the microelectronics technologies we've developed," says Barbara Wilson, chief technologist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The current estimate is we have about 10 to 15 years, after which time unless we figure out how to work in the nanotechnology region you're not going to get a computer that's going to be any better than the one you had last year."

A new system at JPL is pushing the limit on what's possible right down to the molecular level. For example, a document containing thousands of names can now be shrunk to fit on the point of a pin.

'We Have To Make Everything Small'

NASA has a particular interest in nanotechnology given the high costs in putting conventional spacecraft into orbit or beyond.

"If you think about the fact that it costs $1 million or so to put a kilogram package on the surface of Mars you can recognize how precious every gram is that we send out there," says Wilson. "We have to make everything small. We have to put a whole laboratory on a chip essentially."

Wilson says that nanotechnology could also become important in keeping space travelers healthy -- for instance, during a three-year trip to Mars.

"On an extended space voyage, you can't abort and go to a hospital," says Wilson. "You're stuck out there, sort of like some of the examples we've had in the Antarctic recently. When we look into the future what we hope is to do is have microscopic diagnostics right inside your system because these things can be small enough to be totally not interfering with the rest of your biological system."

What does this mean to the rest of us? It's hoped that those microscopic devices could detect and destroy harmful micro-organisms before they cause illness. But until then, nanotechnology has a lot of growing up to do.

For More Information

www.stn2.com
www.jpl.nasa.gov