2026 NASA Aerospace Battery Workshop

The forum focuses on the Army Aviation Roadmap and the industrial base, sustainment, and acquisition. Its program includes discussion of Army transformation and the organic industrial base, with opportunities for briefings involving project managers, Army aviation transformation and future-capability leaders, original equipment manufacturers, and other industry leaders. Professional sessions address the industrial base, the Army Aviation Roadmap, sustainment and the organic industrial base, acquisition, integration of the Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air portfolio, force modernization, the operating environment, the Pentagon landscape, and future warfighting concepts. Exhibit-hall open-mic panels cover cargo; attack and reconnaissance; utility aircraft; uncrewed aircraft systems; next-generation command and control; AMCOM sustainment; counter-drone systems; aviation mission systems and architecture; tactical aviation and ground munitions; and MV-75 Cheyenne opportunities.

Conference themes include battery chemistry and cell innovation; EV systems and powertrain integration; battery manufacturing and supply-chain industrialization; energy storage and grid applications; and advanced air mobility and electrified aviation. Listed technical topics include solid-state commercialization, silicon anodes, sodium-ion, advanced materials, gigafactory execution, manufacturing scale-up, critical minerals, localization, quality, battery safety, recycling, and grid interconnection. The expo covers battery manufacturing, EV powertrains, thermal management, energy storage, components, testing, and charging infrastructure.

The program examines North American advanced battery markets and technologies across grid-connected storage, electric vehicles, heavy-duty transportation, data centers, robotics, defense, and aerospace. Market briefings address light- and heavy-duty EVs, data centers and the grid, robotics, aerospace and defense applications, energy materials, and battery recycling and second-life markets. Plenary sessions cover data-center energy storage, foreign battery manufacturers in the U.S., and EV manufacturers navigating battery supply-chain gaps. Impact Sessions address non-lithium and emerging chemistries; defense batteries and domestic supply-chain security; truck, rail, and transit electrification; battery materials and the missing pCAM/CAM/AAM midstream; battery-technology financing; U.S. battery-materials mining; robotics and aerospace; domestic battery-manufacturing equipment supply chains; next-generation batteries; Chinese battery and technology supply relationships; and digitalization and AI in battery manufacturing. Other program elements include Community Action Labs, member company and research-institution presentations, and a closing roundtable on the future of battery technology. Featured program speakers include Bob Galyen, NAATBatt International’s Chief Technology Officer; M. Stanley Whittingham, NAATBatt’s Chief Science Officer and Nobel laureate; and David Hochschild, Chair of the California Energy Commission.

The expo covers battery manufacturing, EV powertrains, thermal management, and energy storage. Conference topics include battery chemistry, manufacturing scalability, EV integration, sustainability, and energy storage.

Topics include electrical safety and high-risk work environments; serious-incident reviews and lessons learned; human performance and error reduction; contractor safety; confined-space, work-at-height, and rescue practices; and emergency response, thermal runaway, and fire preparedness for battery energy storage systems. Operations and asset-performance topics include predictive maintenance, reliability optimization, advanced analytics, major-component reliability for gearboxes, blades, inverters, and BESS, aging fleets, asset-life extension, hybrid wind, solar, and storage operations, and operational readiness and commissioning. Workforce themes include fatigue management, technician readiness, apprenticeships, cross-training, frontline leadership, knowledge transfer, and succession planning. The PowerCast Stage features practical presentations on operational experiences, demonstrations, emerging technologies, and best practices.

The program includes symposia on AI, machine learning, and data science across electrochemical systems; energy storage and battery materials; and the translation of battery materials into manufacturable electrodes and cells. Battery topics include fast charging, electrolyte and interphase engineering in lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, solid-state battery benchmarking, and beyond-lithium-ion chemistries such as lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, sodium-ion, magnesium and multivalent-ion, and redox-flow batteries. Manufacturing themes include scalable synthesis, coating and drying, in-line metrology, quality assurance, pilot-line scale-up, cost models, reliability testing, and raw-material processing. Other symposia address industrial electrochemistry and process intensification, including reactor scale-up, techno-economic analysis, life-cycle analysis, commercialization, and hybrid process systems; water electrolysis, hydrogen, renewable fuels, and fuel cells; and carbon nanostructures for energy conversion and storage. Additional listed topics include corrosion, semiconductor materials and processing, and electrochemical systems for energy conversion.

The meeting spans materials science research in quantum materials, energy and sustainability, semiconductors, nanomaterials, soft materials and biomaterials, and structural and functional materials. Symposia address sustainable materials chemistry and processing for lithium and earth-abundant batteries; sodium-ion storage; materials, characterization and manufacturing for solid-state batteries; next-generation EV battery materials; hydrogen storage and transmission; and electrochemical conversion of CO₂ and nitrogen compounds into sustainable products. Other topics include AI-driven materials design and autonomous science, chiplet architectures, 2D materials for microelectronics and neuromorphic computing, additive manufacturing across length scales, high-entropy materials, and resilient materials for fission and fusion reactors. Featured programming includes a plenary on critical elements from urban mines and decarbonization of the metal sectors, a keynote on progress and challenges toward an inertial fusion energy future, and sessions on bioelectronics translation and silicon photonics, optical connectivity, sensing, data centers and commercialization.

Hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy’s Thermal Energy Recovery & Management Center of Excellence, the workshop focuses on testing, validation, integration, and deployment of high-temperature heat pumps across technology readiness levels. Plenary topics include the U.S. industrial heat-pump landscape, market pathways, technology readiness, economics, deployment pathways, technology advances, R&D priorities, demonstrations, and deployment lessons. Breakout discussions cover OEM roadmaps and product readiness; working fluids, compressors, component supply chains, advanced heat exchangers, and system integration; end-user needs, controls, thermal storage, and grid flexibility; and standards, codes, testing, certification, financing, commercialization, and public-private partnerships. Report-outs and a facilitated discussion address priority needs, gaps, and recommended actions, followed by workshop synthesis on cross-cutting R&D, demonstration, deployment, and partnership priorities.

The conference covers four technical tracks: SR-1 and spacecraft reactors, including reactor physics, fuels and materials, power conversion, thermal management, controls, testing and civil, commercial, defense, and science mission applications; LR-1 and planetary surface reactors, including lunar and Mars power architectures, deployment, power distribution, and integration with habitats, mobility, ISRU, and science payloads; Dragonfly and radioisotope power systems, including isotope production, fuel fabrication, testing, safety, and mission operations; and building the space nuclear industrial base, including infrastructure, manufacturing and qualification supply chains, regulatory frameworks, safety, standards, workforce, and industrial partnerships. Special programming includes the 2nd Workshop for Fission Instrumentation and Controls for Space, on sensors, actuators, software, and conditioning electronics, and a special session on innovative spacecraft structures and thermal systems for nuclear propulsion and power, including deployable assemblies, vehicle aggregation, in-space assembly, and mission flexibility. Accepted and presented papers and abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings. Submissions are evaluated for originality, methodological rigor, quality of results, and scientific impact.

The program focuses on weapon-system maintenance and sustainment, readiness, and defense industrial base revitalization. Plenary and breakout sessions examine acquisition authorities and faster capability delivery; domestic manufacturing, industrial-base investment, and workforce capacity; contested logistics and forward maintenance; munitions lifecycle management; resilient supply chains; and the application of AI, advanced manufacturing, software, and digital engineering to sustainment. Specific discussions include the Portfolio Acquisition Executive authorities under the Warfighting Acquisition System; the Major Weapon Systems and Critical Munitions Readiness Campaign Plan; EO 14415 supply-chain mapping and illumination; and public-private co-production, technical data and right to repair, intellectual property, and capital requirements for industrial-base expansion. The Weapon Systems Software Summit covers applied AI and autonomous systems, DevSecOps and software factories, cybersecurity and Zero Trust, digital engineering, data and cloud architecture, acquisition policy, and workforce and talent management. Associated forums address corrosion prevention, provisioning and cataloging, defense working-capital funds, depot capabilities, allied co-sustainment, and supply-chain risk management. The program also includes a Maintenance Innovation Challenge and a co-located Maintenance and Logistics Exhibition with a Maintenance Yard.