NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. The Superfuge can subject test items to inertial forces up to 300 times the force of the Earth’s gravity. It can also accommodate a 16,000-pound payload capacity while integrating vibration, spin, thermal and shock environments simultaneously, mimicking flight conditions from launch to reentry. “There is not another machine in the world that has the capabilities we do here,” said Orlando Abeyta, Sandia operations engineer at the Superfuge. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by Craig Fritz

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. Sandia operations engineer Orlando Abeyta works on wiring prior to placing a cage around and attaching VIPER to the arm of the Superfuge. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by Craig Fritz

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. To get the rover ready for tests, an engineer and technologist work on sensor connections while VIPER is suspended in a cage at the end of the Superfuge arm at Sandia. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by David Lienemann

NASA’s VIPER rover, designed to map water at the moon’s south pole, reached a major milestone with help from Sandia and its Superfuge, a unique facility with one-of-a-kind testing capabilities. To power up the test, a team of technologists set up electrical connections. Sandia’s Superfuge can subject test items to inertial forces up to 300 times the force of Earth’s gravity and mimic flight conditions from launch to reentry. Learn more at bit.ly/49JuMGn Photo by David Lienemann

After accelerating innovation across the Labs through a focus on design thinking principles, Sandia is now targeting three new goals to meet national security challenges head-on. “Sandia is different now than it was in September 2023,” Labs Director Laura McGill said. “We have made significant progress since that time as a result of efforts across the Labs, driven by the urgency of the moment as we deter nuclear peer adversaries and a host of other threats.” Learn more at bit.ly/3ZCUpDZ Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s Roberta Rivera watched her mom, Esther Montoya, nurture hundreds of students during her career at West Mesa High School. Roberta remembers being in awe of her mom and, as often happens with children, picked up lessons along the way. Now a community relations specialist at the Labs, Roberta reflects on a decades-long career dedicated to helping people and serving the community. Learn more at bit.ly/4r77Ybb Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s newest supercomputer, Spectra, is the first to incorporate specialized chips that analyze code to prioritize tasks in real time. The potential payoff is increased performance and reduced power consumption. The collaboration between Sandia, NextSilicon and Penguin Computing could reshape how the nation performs high-stakes simulations critical to its nuclear deterrence mission. Learn more at bit.ly/49XEjep Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia researchers developed a wearable dosimeter patch that helps improve cancer treatment accuracy by providing real-time feedback on radiation dose and alerting clinicians if the radiation is off target. With funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the research team is also exploring how the patches can support situational awareness and monitor exposure for military personnel in hazardous environments. Learn more at bit.ly/4ajYx1Q Photo by Spencer Toy

Sandia’s impact reached $5.2 billion in 2025, an economic record for the 17th straight year, reflecting the work, partnerships and spending that affect the Labs’ local communities. “As the nation’s premier engineering laboratory, Sandia’s mission is to solve some of the most complex national security challenges. But we don’t do that in isolation. We do it as part of a community — one that includes local businesses, schools, nonprofits and tens of thousands of families across New Mexico and beyond,” Labs Director Laura McGill said. Learn more at bit.ly/4a8F6bf Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia data scientist Emily Kemp and her partner pick apples with Seed2Need, a nonprofit that grows and harvests food to donate to people in New Mexico. More than 100 Sandia volunteers, family members and friends attended the volunteer event in Corrales, New Mexico. See more photos at bit.ly/4iWe9v8 Photo by Craig Fritz

Mary Alice Cusentino, or “Mac”, enjoys a challenge. As a scientist at Sandia, Mac studies how materials could be used to one day create fusion energy. Outside of work, she trains for Ironman races: a long-distance triathlon that covers a total of 140.6 miles of swimming, running and biking. In both racing and in her fusion energy work, Mac sees each effort as a series of incremental wins. Learn more at bit.ly/4iXveFj Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia researchers are helping unlock the future of geothermal energy. A report titled “Future of Geothermal in New Mexico” lays out the opportunities — and challenges — to harnessing the state’s geothermal resources as a reliable, sustained domestic source of energy. In the photo, mechanical engineer Melanie Schneider attaches sensors in a testbed where a 1,000-foot bore hole is laid horizontally to allow for work on both ends. Learn more at bit.ly/4pqxqHM Photo by Craig Fritz

Geothermal systems need three key things: hot rocks, water and permeability within the rock so the water can flow. Sandia researchers are identifying the opportunities and challenges of using New Mexico’s geothermal resources as a reliable, sustained domestic source of energy. In the photo, mechanical engineer Melanie Schneider sets up a testbed to evaluate a new prototype that uses the casing string as an acoustic wavelength for wireless power and communication with downhole sensors. Learn more at bit.ly/4pqxqHM Photo by Craig Fritz

Pinon Elementary School students celebrate their advancement to the finals of the New Mexico Electric Car Challenge. Sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories, the annual event encourages students to push their creativity to the limit while embracing science, technology, engineering and math to design and build an electric car that can travel the fastest while carrying a payload. See more photos bit.ly/48M6Q62 Photo by Craig Fritz

Jefferson Middle School students let their car loose under the watchful eye of Sandia volunteer Justin Tea during the New Mexico Electric Car Challenge. Sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories, the annual event encourages students to push their creativity to the limit while embracing science, technology, engineering and math to design and build an electric car that can travel the fastest while carrying a payload. See more photos bit.ly/48M6Q62 Photo by Craig Fritz

The Republic of Pickle team presents their cars to judges during the design presentation portion of the New Mexico Electric Car Challenge. Sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories, the annual event encourages students to push their creativity to the limit while embracing science, technology, engineering and math to design and build an electric car that can travel the fastest while carrying a payload. See more photos bit.ly/48M6Q62 Photo by Craig Fritz

The executive leadership team for the newly formed Nuclear Deterrence and Science executive directorate held an inau¬gural town hall on Nov. 13, 2025. Deputy Laboratories Director Rita Gonzales was joined onstage by Associate Laboratories Directors Doug Kothe, Brad Boswell and Steve Girrens. Learn more at bit.ly/4s2VRN5 Photo by Craig Fritz

Deb Menke, a community relations specialist at the Labs, teaches a course at Sandia focused on discovering and celebrating individual strengths. A common theme throughout Deb’s career has been her drive to understand others, to better serve her customers and to help people and teams achieve greater success. Learn more about Deb’s career at bit.ly/4j2c4Ox Photo by Craig Fritz

Sandia’s Chris Allemang contributed to research toward improving the performance of certain quantum computers. The team from Sandia, the University of Arkansas and Dartmouth College improved the flow of electrical current through a specialized semiconductor device by introducing tin and silicon impurities. The faster semiconductor, can improve how quantum computers hand off information inside their systems, making them more efficient, reliable and scalable. The research was recently published in Advanced Electronic Materials. Learn more at bit.ly/4sjXWV4 Photo by Craig Fritz

A significant milestone has been not only accomplished but exceeded in the effort to advance artificial intelligence for national security. In 2025, Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories — known as the trilabs — built a federated-AI model as a pilot project, and they now have a prototype. Federated learning is a technique for training AI models on decentralized data. Hops, pictured, is one of the Sandia systems in the project. Learn more at bit.ly/48ZNCIV Photo by Craig Fritz