NASA Tech Briefs’ Physical Sciences Web page spans the fields of earth science, chemistry, and physics, focusing on advances in sensing, test, and measurement. Tech Briefs report on innovations in microscopy, spectroscopy, photonics and more. Many of the Tech Briefs below are correlated to a Technical Support Package (TSP) or White Paper that can be downloaded free of charge.
Mar 2010
Adaptive Nulling for Interferometric Detection of Planets
An adaptive-nulling method has been proposed to augment the nulling-optical-interferometry method of detection of Earth-like planets around distant stars. The method is intended to reduce the cost of building and aligning the highly precise optical components and assemblies needed for nulling.
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Cryogenic Transport of High-Pressure-System Recharge Gas
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Advantages include low pressure and high density during transport.
A method of relatively safe, compact, efficient recharging of a high-pressure room-temperature gas supply has been proposed. In this method, the gas would be liquefied at the source for transport as a cryogenic fluid at or slightly above atmospheric ...Read More >>
Water-Vapor Raman Lidar System Reaches Higher Altitude
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Signal-to-noise ratios are increased over those of prior such systems.
A Raman lidar system for measuring the vertical distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere is located at the Table Mountain Facility (TMF) in California. Raman lidar systems for obtaining vertical water-vapor profiles in the troposphere have been ...Read More >>
Compact Ku-Band T/R Module for High-Resolution Radar Imaging of Cold Land Processes
This module can be used in phased-array antennas for radar or communications.
Global measurement of terrestrial
snow cover is critical to two of the NASA
Earth Science focus areas: (1) climate
variability and change and (2) water and
energy cycle. For radar backscatter
measurements, Ku-band frequencies,
scattered mainly within ...
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This module can be used in phased-array antennas for radar or communications.
Global measurement of terrestrial
snow cover is critical to two of the NASA
Earth Science focus areas: (1) climate
variability and change and (2) water and
energy cycle. For radar backscatter
measurements, Ku-band frequencies,
scattered mainly within ...Read More >>
Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography With High-Contrast Dielectrics
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This nondestructive evaluation tool finds fluid levels in nonconducting composite materials.
The Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT) system has been designed to complement the tools created to sense the presence of water in nonconductive spacecraft materials, by helping to not only find the approximate location of moisture but ...Read More >>
Stereoscopic Machine-Vision System Using Projected Circles
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This system identifies obstacles in relatively short processing times.
A machine-vision system capable of detecting obstacles large enough to damage or trap a robotic vehicle is undergoing development. The system includes (1) a pattern generator that projects concentric circles of laser light forward onto the terrain, (2) a stereoscopic pair ...Read More >>
Wavefront Control and Image Restoration With Less Computing
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There are numerous potential applications in scientific, medical, and military imaging.
PseudoDiversity is a method of recovering the wavefront in a sparse- or segmented-aperture optical system typified by an interferometer or a telescope equipped with an adaptive primary mirror consisting of controllably slightly moveable segments. (PseudoDiversity should not ...Read More >>
Wide-Field-of-View, High-Resolution, Stereoscopic Imager
A device combines video feeds from multiple cameras to provide wide-field-of-view, high-resolution, stereoscopic video to the user. The prototype under development consists of two camera assemblies, one for each eye. One of these assemblies incorporates a mounting structure with multiple cameras attached at offset angles. The video signals from the ...
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Polarization Imaging Apparatus
A polarization imaging apparatus has shown promise as a prototype of instruments for medical imaging with contrast greater than that achievable by use of non-polarized light. The underlying principles of design and operation are derived from observations that light interacts with tissue ultrastructures that affect reflectance, scattering, absorption, and polarization ...
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Feb 2010
Thermal Detection of Gas in a Tube Containing Flowing LiquidProfiling the Atmosphere by Use of an Elevated GPS Receiver
Insulation-Testing Cryostat With Lifting Mechanism
Optical Testing of Retroreflectors for Cryogenic Applications
Measuring Cyclic Error in Laser Heterodyne Interferometers
Self-Referencing Hartmann Test for Large-Aperture Telescopes
Measuring a Fiber-Optic Delay Line Using a Mode-Locked Laser
White-Light Phase-Conjugate Mirrors as Distortion Correctors
Biasable, Balanced, Fundamental Submillimeter Monolithic Membrane Mixer
Integrity Monitoring of Mercury Discharge Lamps
Jan 2010
Gas Flow Detection SystemMulti-Sensor Mud Detection
Cryogenic Flow Sensor
Mapping Capacitive Coupling Among Pixels in a Sensor Array
Fiber-Based Laser Transmitter for Oxygen A-Band Spectroscopy and Remote Sensing
Low-Profile, Dual-Wavelength, Dual-Polarized Antenna
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