When Rocco Viggiano first held the prototype cell in his gloved hands, he saw more than a battery: he envisioned wings powered not by fossil fuel but by stored energy, silent and safe. In that moment, the future of flight felt within reach.
It sounds like a line from a science fiction novel, yet the research is very real. In recent years, NASA’s SABERS (Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety) program has quietly pushed the boundaries of what batteries can do.
The promise? A solid-state battery architecture that could double or even triple energy density, and in so doing, open up new horizons for aviation—and beyond.
From Liquid To Solid: Why NASA Is Betting Big
Current lithium-ion batteries rely on liquid or gel electrolytes, which allow ions to move but bring serious downsides: flammability, leakage, performance degradation over time, and complexity in cooling systems. NASA scientists point out that liquid electrolytes are a limiting factor in pushing energy density and safety for heavier-duty applications like aircraft.
SABERS instead replaces that liquid medium with solid electrolyte components, embracing a configuration that discards the casings around each cell. In the NASA description, sulfur and selenium-based cells are stacked directly on top of one another, without intervening casings, trimming 30–40 % of the weight one would normally carry.
The gain is dramatic: double or triple the stored energy, NASA says. Already, SABERS prototypes have reportedly hit 500 watt-hours per kilogram—about double what an electric car battery might deliver today.
If you pause to imagine: a battery pack that’s lighter, safer, and yet holds more energy than current systems—that opens doors. For aircraft, less weight means longer range. For ground vehicles, it means less battery bulk for the same drive distance. For grid storage, it means denser storage in tighter space.
The 4th Point: Stacking And Weight Savings Are Transformative
This is the pivot: by eliminating individual cell casings and permitting direct stacking, NASA’s architecture slashes ballast weight and simplifies cooling architectures. These are not incremental tweaks—they are structural reimaginings of battery design.
The cascading advantage is one of compounding returns: lighter structure, fewer thermal management demands, simpler interconnects, more energy per kilogram.
In effect, NASA’s design approach reframes the battery pack itself as a structural component. When flights demand every gram counts, that shift becomes magnified.
As EVs and eVTOLs aim for ever-higher performance, the ability to stack cells seamlessly—and without the traditional envelope of casings—could turn the battery into both energy source and structural backbone.
To paraphrase the 4th point in narrative terms: NASA is not just making a stronger battery, but rethinking the very anatomy of the battery so that its parts serve multiple roles—storage, structure, and safety all in one.
Collaborations, Challenges, And Recent Advances
NASA is not working alone. Georgia Tech contributes with micromechanics modeling and understanding internal pressures. Their insights refined how the cells behave under stress and guided improved configurations.
That said, hurdles remain. Solid electrolytes tend to crack under stress or fail at interfaces. Scaling from lab prototypes to manufacturable cells is notoriously difficult. And even as SABERS pushes forward, other research groups are making parallel advances.
- A team at the University of Texas at Dallas recently discovered that mixing small particles across solid electrolyte interfaces can create “space charge layers” that boost ion transport.
- At the University of Chicago, researchers unveiled an “anode-free sodium solid-state battery,” sidestepping lithium scarcity and potentially cutting cost and environmental impact.
- Meanwhile, industry giants are chasing the same dream. Toyota says it has overcome durability issues and anticipates commercialization by 2027–2028, including a battery that charges in 10 minutes or less.
- The auto sector more broadly sees solid-state as a “holy grail.” Companies including Volkswagen, Hyundai, Honda, and startups like QuantumScape and Solid Power are investing heavily.
Not all is smooth sailing—many prototypes fail stress, temperature, or longevity tests—but the momentum is real and accelerating.
A Day In The Life: Behind The Scenes
Picture a lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Under bright lights, engineers in white coats adjust micrometer probes to the battery interface. A test rig hums as a stack of sulfur-selenium cells pulses with current. The air smells faintly of ozone.
John Connell and Yi Lin, part of the SABERS team, rotate between designing electrode scaffolds and interpreting pressure maps inside the cell. They calibrate sensors, monitor stress distributions, and test how the materials deform under thermal cycles. Their work ranges from macro-level assembly to molecular modeling.
One afternoon, a sudden readout flags a hotspot in one module. The team huddles around a screen and traces the anomaly to a micro-crack in an electrolyte junction. Viggiano looks on: “We’ll adjust the stacking pressure and rerun the thermal cycle,” he says. It’s iterative, painstaking—but every incremental fix inches them closer to that breakthrough.
For consumers and readers, that scene might feel distant. But the same battery principles tested for flight could one day power our daily commute, our electric grids, or the autonomous aircraft we board for short trips.
What Lies Ahead—And What It May Mean
The potential impact is vast. For aviation, a battery with double or triple energy density and a lower weight profile could make regional electric flight viable—planes that charge like EVs and fly at efficiency levels previously impossible. For EV markets, lighter, safer, denser battery packs could accelerate adoption, cut costs, and shrink charging infrastructure stress.
In energy storage, utility-scale “battery farms” using solid-state designs could pack more power into smaller footprints, improving grid resilience.
Still, the path is long. Commercial deployment is unlikely this decade for aviation; mass-market EVs may see solid-state designs in the late 2020s or early 2030s.
Issues of cost, manufacturing scale, interface stability, and mechanical durability remain. But NASA’s approach—the architectural rethink of battery anatomy—is a bold bet that could shift more than one paradigm.
When Viggiano described the work, it wasn’t just about volts or amp-hours. It was about hope: that energy storage might no longer be the bottleneck it has long been. That flight might one day hum on stored electrons instead of combusting fuel. And that human ingenuity may yet transform a dream into a winged reality.
