Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics Missions: Workshop Summary Report
Abstract
NASA's Astrophysics Division convened the Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics Missions (ETAM) Workshop in March 2025 at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. The workshop's goal was to identify emerging technologies that could critically impact or enable future space missions-including concepts previously considered unachievable. Four key technology areas were examined: Astrophotonics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Advanced Materials, and Quantum Sensors. Approximately 60 participants from academia, industry, government laboratories, and NASA centers attended. The workshop fostered an inspiring and collaborative atmosphere that encouraged interaction among experts both within and across disciplines. The workshop's three-day novel format featured landscape presentations outlining the state of each field, followed by breakout sessions where participants, grouped in their own disciplines, identified high-impact technologies for astrophysics missions. Cross-pollination sessions then brought together experts from multiple technology domains to foster interdisciplinary insights. The event successfully identified several high-priority emerging technologies (summarized in subsequent sections of this report). In addition to the field-specific insights, the workshop also produced five key cross-cutting suggestions for the NASA Astrophysics Division to consider.
Related
- Workshop Summary: Exoplanet Orbits and Dynamics
- International Astrophysical Consortium for High-energy Calibration: Summary of the 18th IACHEC Workshop
- Testing black holes with interstellar missions: I. Orbiting probes
- Testing black holes with interstellar missions: II. Flyby probes
- Characterisation Methodology for Persistence and Anti-persistence in IR Detectors for the Euclid and SVOM Space Missions
BibTeX
@misc{crill2026emerging,
title = {{Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics Missions: Workshop Summary Report}},
author = {Brendan P Crill and Nicholas Siegler and Dan Sirbu and Luc Peterson and Sanaz Vahidinia and Ryan Watkins},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.25323},
eprint = {2609.25323},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25323},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics Missions: Workshop Summary Report
AU - Brendan P Crill
AU - Nicholas Siegler
AU - Dan Sirbu
AU - Luc Peterson
AU - Sanaz Vahidinia
AU - Ryan Watkins
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.25323
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25323
AB - NASA's Astrophysics Division convened the Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics Missions (ETAM) Workshop in March 2025 at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. The workshop's goal was to identify emerging technologies that could critically impact or enable future space missions-including concepts previously considered unachievable. Four key technology areas were examined: Astrophotonics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Advanced Materials, and Quantum Sensors. Approximately 60 participants from academia, industry, government laboratories, and NASA centers attended. The workshop fostered an inspiring and collaborative atmosphere that encouraged interaction among experts both within and across disciplines. The workshop's three-day novel format featured landscape presentations outlining the state of each field, followed by breakout sessions where participants, grouped in their own disciplines, identified high-impact technologies for astrophysics missions. Cross-pollination sessions then brought together experts from multiple technology domains to foster interdisciplinary insights. The event successfully identified several high-priority emerging technologies (summarized in subsequent sections of this report). In addition to the field-specific insights, the workshop also produced five key cross-cutting suggestions for the NASA Astrophysics Division to consider.
ER -