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2005
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Goddard has entered into partnership agreements with two federal agencies—the Army Research Laboratory (ARL*) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL*)—to develop joint programs of collaboration that enhance each lab’s research capabilities. Such partnerships not only accelerate the development of new technologies but also make efficient use of federal research facilities.

Areas of collaboration with ARL include design, fabrication, and testing of nanoscience and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices and technologies for use in chemical and biological detectors, power generation, thermal management systems, radio frequency electronics, electro-optic devices, and distributed sensor networks. Under the agreement ARL personnel will have access to Goddard’s Detector Development Laboratory, and Goddard personnel can access ARL’s Specialty Electronic Materials and Sensors Cleanroom.

Under the agreement with AFRL, Goddard has access to the lab’s Deployable Optics Testbed (DOT). AFRL established DOT to test technologies that are critical to the development of future space telescopes. An example of such a technology is wavefront sensing and control, which is designed to improve the optical quality of telescope lens elements. NASA is developing a wavefront sensing and control technology that, through the agreement, will be tested in AFRL’s DOT.