Feature Articles

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — “They say water is life, and that couldn’t be truer,” said Anne Francis, who has spent her life on the Navajo Nation, watching how water sustains the land, the crops and the herds of cattle on her family ranch.

But life on the Navajo Nation is hard.

The vast landscape is dotted with old-fashioned windmills, and many places are untouched by modern conveniences like electricity. Without the right infrastructure, getting water where it needs to go has been a struggle for generations.

A new technology, developed in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories and New Mexico State University, is transforming that struggle into a sustainable solution.

In a whirling geopolitical landscape of new nuclear weapons, hypersonic weapons, drones and satellites, the U.S. is hustling to test new kinds of radars aimed at detecting evolving threats. Many of these tests take place in a simulated research environment created at Sandia National Laboratories.

In January, Sandia National Laboratories and The University of New Mexico created the Quantum New Mexico Institute, a cooperatively run research center headquartered at the university.

Robert Petterborg saw an opportunity to improve a critical part used to test a weapons system. Using his spare time at work and with the help of his Sandia National Laboratories colleagues, he designed a new cable connector that eliminates misalignments that could interfere with testing and potentially damage hardware.

Just as a medication bottle might be opened and the tamper seals carefully reattached by a bad guy, the International Atomic Energy Agency is concerned its tamper-indicating devices could be bypassed and repaired or counterfeited. A possible solution? Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a groundbreaking prototype using “bruising” materials. Their innovation doesn’t just detect tampering; the new device boldly displays the evidence, like battle scars.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sal Rodriguez, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is forging a rocket revolution with the help of the University of New Mexico and student Graham Monroe.

Their cutting-edge research is propelling the future of aerospace by infusing rocket science with a touch of golf ball magic.