Tech Briefs

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A comprehensive library of technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories covering all aspects of innovations in electronics, software, photonics, imaging, motion control, automation, sensors, test, materials, manufacturing, mechanical, and mechatronics.

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Launching Payloads Into Orbit at Relatively Low Cost

A report proposes the development of a system for launching payloads into orbit at about one-fifth the cost per unit payload weight of current systems. The system would be based on the formerly secret PILOT micro-satellite-launching system developed in response to the Soviet launch of...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Telescope Formation at L2 for Observing Earth’s Atmosphere

Two documents describe a proposed Earth-atmosphere observatory to orbit the Sun at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point — a point of unstable equilibrium in the shadow of the Earth, about 1.5 million km from the Earth along an outward projection of the Earth-Sun axis. The observatory...

Briefs: Materials

A technique for suppressing sublimation of key elements from skutterudite compounds in advanced thermoelectric devices has been demonstrated. The essence of the technique is to cover...

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Briefs: Materials

Ultrahigh temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are a class of materials that include the diborides of metals such as hafnium and zirconium. The materials are of interest to NASA for their potential utility as sharp...

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Briefs: Materials
Nanorod-Based Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paints

A proposed program of research and development would be devoted to exploitation of nanomaterials in pressuresensitive paints (PSPs), which are used on wind-tunnel models for mapping surface pressures associated with flow fields. Heretofore, some success has been achieved in measuring...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A microrectenna that would operate at a frequency of 2.5 THz has been designed and partially fabricated. The circuit is intended to be a prototype of an extremely compact device that...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A polarimetric radiometer that operates at a frequency of 40 GHz has been designed and built as a prototype of multiple identical units that could be arranged in a planar array for scientific...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Photonic local oscillators and modulators that include whispering-gallery- mode (WGM) optical resonators have been proposed as power-efficient devices for generating and detecting radiation...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

The upper part of the figure depicts an aperture-coupled L-band antenna comprising patterned metal conductor films supported on two thin polyimide membranes separated by an air gap. In this...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Focal-plane arrays of semiconductor quantum-dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) are being developed as superior alternatives to prior infrared imagers, including imagers based on...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A miniature L-band transceiver that operates at a carrier frequency of 1.25 GHz has been developed as part of a generic radar electronics module (REM) that would constitute one unit in an array of many...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

The device shown in the figure exploits cathodoluminescence to generate intense light in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum. This device is suitable for use as a source of...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A system of electronic hardware and software, now undergoing development, automatically estimates the location of a robotic land vehicle in an urban environment using a somewhat...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Injection of working fluid into a centrifugal compressor in the reverse tangent direction has been invented as a way of preventing flow instabilities (stall and surge) or restoring...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

A diaphragm pump driven by a piezoelectric actuator is undergoing development. This pump is intended to be a prototype of lightweight, highly reliable pumps for circulating cooling liquids in...

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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

An anodizing process, at an early stage of development at the time of reporting the information for this article, has shown promise as a means of fabricating alumina nanotemplates...

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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

An economical room-temperature mechanical alloying process has been shown to be an effective means of making a homogeneous powder that can be hot-pressed to synthesize a thermoelectric...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

An automated flying-insect detection system (AFIDS) was developed as a proof-of-concept instrument for real-time detection and identification of flying insects. This type of system has use in...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

A laboratory blackbody cavity has been designed and built for calibrating infrared radiometers used to measure radiant temperatures in the range from about 200 to about 273 K. In this...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

Calligraphic poling is a technique for generating an arbitrary, possibly complex pattern of localized reversal in the direction of permanent polarization in a wafer of LiNbO3 or other...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Photometric Calibration of Consumer Video Cameras

Equipment and techniques have been developed to implement a method of photometric calibration of consumer video cameras for imaging of objects that are sufficiently narrow or sufficiently distant to be optically equivalent to point or line sources. Heretofore, it has been difficult to calibrate...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

A study of four previously published computational criteria for identifying vortices in high-pressure flows has led to the selection of one of them as the best. This development can...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

The risk of premature failure of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), typically composed of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), compromises the reliability of TBCs used to provide thermal protection...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

A class of proposed thermionic cooling devices would incorporate precise arrays of metal nanowires as electron emitters. The proposed devices could be highly miniaturized, enabling...

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Briefs: Information Technology

A method of approximating a scalar function of n independent variables (where n is a positive integer) to arbitrary accuracy has been developed. This method is expected to be...

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Briefs: Information Technology

A method of automated recognition of three-dimensional (3D) features in images generated by ground-penetrating imaging radar (GPIR) is undergoing development. GPIR 3D images can be analyzed...

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Briefs: Information Technology

An algorithm has been developed to enable a computer aboard a robot to autonomously plan the path of the manipulator arm of the robot to avoid collisions between the arm and any...

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Briefs: Information Technology

A recently conceived method of automated diagnosis of a complex electromechanical system affords a complete set of capabilities for hybrid diagnosis in the case in which the state of...

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Briefs: Information Technology
State-Estimation Algorithm Based on Computer Vision

An algorithm and software to implement the algorithm are being developed as means to estimate the state (that is, the position and velocity) of an autonomous vehicle, relative to a visible nearby target object, to provide guidance for maneuvering the vehicle. In the original intended...

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April Battery & Electrification Summit

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Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024

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Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

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