Dunes Bureau

Industry

The systems, supply chains and production processes behind global business.

Electric vehicles move through a modern production floor with assembly stations in view.

A car’s advertised price now has a clearer definition in the US

The Federal Trade Commission’s September guidance describes how mandatory dealer fees, discounts and vehicle availability appear in automobile advertising.

2 min read

Landsat 8 view of mostly brown agricultural fields, partial centre-pivot irrigation circles and dry playa lakes around Lubbock, Texas, on 9 September 2026.

Industry · Analysis

Cotton’s water risk is visible from orbit

NASA’s 8 October Landsat report turns drought and aquifer decline into an operating map for the Texas High Plains cotton economy.

2 min read

An electric-propulsion qualification thruster mounted inside a vacuum chamber at NASA Glenn’s Electric Propulsion and Power Laboratory.

Industry · Analysis

NASA’s power-lab bid puts the calendar first

A 6 October solicitation sets proposal, question and anticipated-award dates for a new Glenn laboratory, making bid discipline the first engineering task.

2 min read

Ice accumulated on an unheated droplet-detection probe inside NASA’s Icing Research Tunnel.

Industry · Analysis

Aircraft icing tests need the whole droplet spectrum

NASA’s 5 October report shows why an aircraft-icing test depends on measuring the cloud as carefully as the hardware exposed to it.

2 min read

NASA X-59 eXternal Vision System display showing clouds, terrain and flight data, including a Mach reading of 1.534.

Industry · Analysis

A six-flight week tests pace as well as speed

NASA’s X-59 flew six times in four days and reached Mach 1.53. The next evidence will come from scheduled maintenance and the programme’s return to flight—not from the records alone.

2 min read

Archival NASA illustration of the OSAM-1 servicing spacecraft grappling Landsat 7 against a star field; a separate concept from SSPICY.

Industry · Analysis

Satellite servicing needs a useful inspection first

The SSPICY mission launched on 1 October, with inspections planned for 2027. Its business significance lies in the decisions that better information about an ageing spacecraft could support.

2 min read

The metallic DAVINCI engineering probe model on its support frame before thermal testing.

Industry · Analysis

DAVINCI’s heat test puts the temperature ramp in focus

A Venus probe model survived six rapid heating cycles. For industrial buyers, the useful question is whether a supplier’s test reproduces the equipment’s actual exposure over time.

2 min read

Side-by-side microscope views of composite samples made with simulated lunar dust and simulated Martian dust.

Industry · Analysis

On-demand manufacturing starts with qualified feedstock

A NASA material update combines biodegradable plastic with simulated lunar and Martian dust. The opportunity is local fabrication; the next test is whether the feedstock survives its operating environment.

2 min read

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked to the International Space Station above Earth on 3 July 2024.

Industry · Analysis

Starliner’s return now depends on stage gates

NASA’s 28 September plan puts an uncrewed evaluation flight before crewed service. For suppliers and investors, test evidence—not timetable optimism—is now the key milestone.

2 min read

Electric scooters and motorcycles move through an Indian factory with room reserved for future production lines.

Industry · Analysis

Factory expansion needs demand gates

Ultraviolette's planned Indian plant can grow from 250,000 to 500,000 vehicles a year—a useful model for matching capacity to evidence.

2 min read

A concrete slab in a controlled fire test, shown in cutaway with trapped moisture and a localised spall at the heated surface.

Industry · Analysis

Concrete fire risk needs more than one mechanism

A 24 September NIST analysis narrows when trapped water could drive violent concrete spalling—and why that remains only one part of the failure question.

2 min read