The ROSETTA/MIDAS mission of the Europeans Space Agency (ESA) intends to study the dust collected from the Wirtanen comet using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This instrument utilzes an XY piezoelectric stage to achieve precise positioning in two in-plane orthogonal directions, and a Z actuator to support the needles for the analyses of dust particles in the out-of-plane direction.

This article deals with a stress sensor for cables which has been designed, built and test. it is based on a special magnetostrictive effect of ferromagnetic materials as high elastic limit steels used for bridge cables or prestressed concrete.

Continous interest from the French Navy (DRET and CERDSM) has permitted significant improvements to magnetostrictive transducers in order to produce low-frequency high-power sonar sources. These improvements can be appreciated by looking at three transducers.