June 2025

From Sea to Space—this Lab is Your Lab

Barriers to innovation come in many forms, but we believe access shouldn’t be one of them. When innovators from government, industry, and academia have the will, we can provide the way.

Testing in sea or space, for example, involves boatloads (and starships) of funding and incalculable risk. It wouldn’t be the best use of resources to deploy an expensive underwater vehicle for the first time in murky, unpredictable ocean waters.

Innovation spirit: Our state-of-the-art labs democratize experimentation by mimicking real-world environments sans the hazards.

6-minute read time

OUR CULTURE IN ACTION

Aerospace Engineer Shatters Siloes

Gabrielle Hedrick’s resume was so unique, MITRE created a position to bring her on board. As a lead engineer supporting our government sponsors responsible for commercial space operations, she’s adept at connecting information banks and ensuring essential communication among stakeholders.

To Mars and beyond: “The commercial space industry isn't necessarily waiting for the government to get up to speed—they're just going to do it," Hedrick says, adding that MITRE can meet the pace.

SPACE IMPACT

Low Stakes Testing in Low Earth Orbit

Sending a satellite to space is expensive—like millions of dollars expensive. But beyond the price tag, high probability of equipment failures, and challenges from increasing space traffic, make satellite launches a tall order.

MITRE considered: What if we provided a shared testing resource by bringing the lab to space? We partnered with Astro Digital to develop MITRE’s Space Experimentation Lab—or M-SEL—and launched it into low Earth orbit this spring.

Why it matters: The community, including government sponsors, can experiment with different concepts in orbit before making large investments.

Lab SPOTLIGHT

The Future is Blue

Although it covers nearly 71% of our planet, humans have only explored 5% of the ocean. Filling the gap is costly and risky, which is why we built our BlueTech Lab, outfitted with a 620,000-gallon tank. Located at MITRE’s Bedford, Mass., campus, it’s a resource for the private sector, government, and academia to conduct ocean and maritime testing in a controlled undersea environment.

Big picture: Our investments to advance maritime research will help meet the moment as the blue economy skyrockets—it’s projected to reach $3 trillion by 2030.

Why it matters: Understanding the ocean is a matter of national security, commerce, clean energy, and climate resiliency.

TEAM EFFORT

NVIDIA & MITRE Join Forces

With a handful of projects in the works, MITRE and NVIDIA have found a promising partner in one another.

The future of wireless: For our most recent collaboration, we’re redesigning telecom networks and infrastructure for the AI-driven future of wireless, including 6G.

Federal AI Sandbox: With support from NVIDIA’s DGX SuperPOD™ supercomputer, MITRE’s AI experts test cutting-edge technologies from the marketplace to help realize a range of federal objectives. First up: training and deploying advanced AI models in critical infrastructure cybersecurity, weather modeling, and sustainable social services.

Next-gen simulation: The Center of Excellence for NVIDIA Omniverse is a joint effort uniting industry and government to advance global simulation.

PIN DROP

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine Goes to MITRE

In a perfect world, every member of Congress would come hang out with us for a day to learn about our work—from national security to aviation safety. Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., took us up on our open-door policy and visited MITRE’s McLean campus. He recognized our “decades-long commitment to cutting-edge research” while expressing gratitude for our role as a major Virginia employer.

Engines of Innovation

Collaboration is Call to Action at Tufts Event

The winning formula for innovation is collaboration. That was the consensus at a conference hosted by Tufts University earlier this month. The two-day event—Competitiveness Conversations Across America: Growing New England’s Next Gen Innovation Economy—brought together leaders from academia, industry, and government to discuss challenges and solutions regarding the region’s blue (maritime) and green (sustainability) economies.

In a keynote address, our CEO Mark Peters touted the collective goal. “Partnerships around this room are what’s going to help break down barriers,” he said. “We all need to understand each other, what our incentives are, what our common goals are, and work together.”