Briefs: Physical Sciences
Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays for High-End Audio Systems
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology comprises organic thin films that, when placed between two conductors, can serve as a display. This technology requires very...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Using Laser-Induced Incandescence To Measure Soot in Exhaust
An instrumentation system exploits laser-induced incandescence (LII) to measure the concentration of soot particles in an exhaust stream from an engine, furnace, or industrial process that burns hydrocarbon fuel. In comparison with LII soot-concentration-measuring systems that have...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Software Enables Advanced Modeling of Backlights for Flat Panel Displays
This enhanced illumination design and analysis program, called LightTools® 5.1, enables easy and accurate modeling of sophisticated backlights for flat panel displays....
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Sensors for Pointing Moving Instruments Toward Each Other
Optoelectronic sensor systems are being developed for use in maintaining fixed relative orientations of two scientific- instrument platforms that are in relative motion. In the original intended application, the platforms would be two spacecraft flying in formation and separated by a long...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Cathode Structure for a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
An improved cathode structure on a membrane/electrode assembly has been developed for a direct methanol fuel cell, in a continuing effort to realize practical power systems...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Anode for a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
A modified chemical composition has been devised to improve the performance of the anode of a direct methanol fuel cell. The main feature of the modified composition is the incorporation of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
X-Band, 17-Watt Solid-State Power Amplifier
An advanced solid-state power amplifier that can generate an output power of as much as 17 W at a design operating frequency of 8.4 GHz has been designed and constructed as a smaller, lighter, less...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Upgrading the Space Shuttle Caution and Warning System
A report describes the history and the continuing evolution of an avionic system aboard the space shuttle, denoted the caution and warning system, that generates visual and auditory displays to alert astronauts to malfunctions. The report focuses mainly on planned human-factors-oriented...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Fractal Reference Signals in Pulse-Width Modulation
A report proposes the use of waveforms having fractal shapes reminiscent of sawteeth (in contradistinction to conventional regular sawtooth waveforms) as reference signals for pulse-width modulation in control systems for thrusters of spacecraft flying in formation.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Powder-Collection System for Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer
A system for collecting samples of powdered rock has been devised for use in conjunction with an ultrasonic/sonic drill/corer (USDC) — a lightweight, low-power apparatus designed to...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Semiautomated, Reproducible Batch Processing of Soy
A computer-controlled apparatus processes batches of soybeans into one or more of a variety of food products, under conditions that can be chosen by the user and reproduced from batch to...
Briefs: Information Technology
Simulation of Laser Cooling and Trapping in Engineering Applications
An advanced computer code is undergoing development for numerically simulating laser cooling and trapping of large numbers of atoms. The code is expected to be useful in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Domain Compilation for Embedded Real-Time Planning
A recently conceived approach to automated real-time control of the actions of a robotic system enables an embedded real-time planning algorithm to develop plans that are more robust than...
Briefs: Information Technology
Method of Real-Time Principal-Component Analysis
Dominant element-based gradient descent and dynamic initial learning rate (DOGEDYN) is a method of sequential principal component analysis (PCA) that is well suited for such applications as...
Briefs: Information Technology
Insect-Inspired Flight Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Flight-control and navigation systems inspired by the structure and function of the visual system and brain of insects have been proposed for a class of developmental miniature...
Briefs: Information Technology
Semantic Metrics for Analysis of Software
A recently conceived suite of object-oriented software metrics focus is on semantic aspects of software, in contradistinction to traditional software metrics, which focus on syntactic aspects of software. Semantic metrics represent a more human-oriented view of software than do syntactic metrics. The...
Briefs: Information Technology
Development of Software for a Lidar-Altimeter Processor
A report describes the development of software for a digital processor that operates in conjunction with a finite-impulse-response (FIR) chip in a spaceborne lidar altimeter.Processing is started by a laserfire interrupt signal that is repeated at intervals of 25 ms. For the purpose of...
Briefs: Materials
Molybdate Coatings for Protecting Aluminum Against Corrosion
These coatings show promise, but further development is needed. Conversion coatings that comprise mixtures of molybdates and several additives have been subjected to a variety of...
Briefs: Materials
Synthesizing Diamond From Liquid Feedstock
A relatively economical method of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been developed for synthesizing diamond crystals and films. Unlike prior CVD methods for synthesizing diamond, this method does...
Briefs: Materials
Modifying Silicates for Better Dispersion in Nanocomposites
An improved chemical modification has been developed to enhance the dispersion of layered silicate particles in the formulation of a polymer/silicate nanocomposite material. The modification involves, among other things, the co-exchange of an alkyl ammonium ion and a monoprotonated...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fiber-Optic Sensor Would Monitor Growth of Polymer Film
A proposed optoelectronic sensor system would measure the increase in thickness of a film of parylene (a thermoplastic polymer made from para-xylene) during growth of the film in a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Pd/CeO2/SiC Chemical Sensors
The incorporation of nanostructured interfacial layers of CeO2 has been proposed to enhance the performances of Pd/SiC Schottky diodes used to sense hydrogen and hydrocarbons at high temperatures. If successful, this development could prove beneficial in numerous applications in which there are...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Microparticle Flow Sensor
The microparticle flow sensor (MFS) is a system for identifying and counting microscopic particles entrained in a flowing liquid. The MFS includes a transparent, optoelectronically instrumented laminar-flow chamber...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Scattering-Type Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Biosensors
Biosensors of a proposed type would exploit scattering of light by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Related prior biosensors exploit absorption of light by SPR. Relative to the prior SPR...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Diode-Laser-Based Spectrometer for Sensing Gases
A diode-laser-based spectrometer has been developed for measuring concentrations of gases and is intended particularly for use in analyzing and monitoring combustion processes under microgravitational conditions in a drop tower or a spacecraft.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Hydrogen Peroxide Enhances Removal of NOₓ From Flue Gases
Pilot scale experiments have demonstrated a method of reducing the amounts of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emitted by industrial boilers and powerplant combustors that...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Real-Time Simulation of Aeroheating the Hyper-X Airplane
A capability for real-time computational simulation of aeroheating has been developed in support of the Hyper-X program, which is directed toward demonstrating the feasibility of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Subsurface Ice Probe
The subsurface ice probe (SIPR) is a proposed apparatus that would bore into ice to depths as great as hundreds of meters by melting the ice and pumping the samples of meltwater to the surface. Originally intended for...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Large Fluvial Fans and Exploration for Hydrocarbons
A report discusses the geological phenomena known, variously, as modern large (or large modern) fluvial fans or large continental fans, from a perspective of exploring for hydrocarbons.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Doping-Induced Interband Gain in InAs/AlSb Quantum Wells
A paper describes a computational study of effects of doping in a quantum well (QW) comprising a 10-nm-thick layer of InAs sandwiched between two 21-nm-thick AlSb layers.
Briefs: Software
Tools for Designing and Analyzing Structures
Structural Design and Analysis Toolset is a collection of approximately 26 Microsoft Excel spreadsheet programs, each of which performs calculations within a different subdiscipline of structural design and analysis.
Briefs: Software
Interactive Display of Scenes With Annotations
ThreeDView was developed primarily as a component of the Science Activity Planner (SAP) software, wherein it is to be used to display annotated images of terrain acquired by exploratory robots on Mars and possibly other remote planets. The images can be generated from sets of multiple-texture image...
Briefs: Software
Solving Common Mathematical Problems
Mathematical Solutions Toolset is a collection of five software programs that rapidly solve some common mathematical problems.
Briefs: Software
Tools for Basic Statistical Analysis
Statistical Analysis Toolset is a collection of eight Microsoft Excel spreadsheet programs, each of which performs calculations pertaining to an aspect of statistical analysis.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Program Calculates Forces in Bolted Structural Joints
A mathematical model of a structure is first created by approximating its load-bearing members with representative finite elements, then NASTRAN calculates the forces and moments that each finite element contributes to grid points located throughout the structure. The user selects the finite...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Synchrotron High-Speed Magnet Monitoring Using Ethernet-Based System
Since the 1930s, synchrotrons have become essential in the widely diverse fields of scientific research and engineering development, including chemistry, biology, material...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Integrated Structural Analysis and Test Program
An integrated structural-analysis and structure-testing computer program is being developed in order to:
Automate repetitive processes in testing and analysis; Accelerate pre-test analysis; Accelerate reporting of tests; Facilitate planning of tests; Improve execution of tests; Create a...Top Stories
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Question of the Week
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OpenVPX Technology: The Future of Military Computing
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Driving Ahead of the Curve: Visionary Headlamp Concept
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The New DIS ISO/SAE 21434: Road Vehicles – Cybersecurity...
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Conformal Coating Protection of Critical Medical Technologies
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Alignment Strategy for Complex Part Geometries
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Who's Who:
Anthony Kelley, Lead Flow Research Engineer, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
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