Aerogels with gradients in density have been produced in experiments, as part of an effort to develop materials that will be used in outer space to capture particles traveling at high speeds for the STARDUST mission.

The VrTool computer program enables its user to rapidly develop a prototype virtual-reality (VR) application program. Users of VR application programs need software that can help them keep pace with the rapidly evolving VR field. None of the previously commercially available VR software tool kits...

A two-photon microscope imaging spectrometer has been proposed for use in scanning confocal two-photon microscopy. The proposed instrument would solve a spectrum-overlap that sometimes arises, as explained below.

A computer program establishes an interface between the MATLAB software and the serial data port of a personal computer (PC) that runs either the Windows 95 or the Windows NT operating system. The program makes it possible to utilize the graphical user interface (GUI) and the...

A computer program facilitates the analysis and design of a radio-communication system for transmitting data from an orbiting spacecraft to ground stations. Input data provided by the user include primarily (1) parameters of the spacecraft orbit (including parameters that specify...

The Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS) specify a developmental system of international protocols for data communications between spacecraft and points on Earth. SCPS protocols are intended to make a spacecraft appear, to a terrestrial computer user, as just another node on...

An improved method of manufacturing high-temperature superconductors of general composition YBa2Cu3O7— x and various grain structures has been devised. This method involves mixing, pressing, and heating of Y2O3, CuO, and Ba(NO3)2 powders. This method is easier than an older method that...

An improved process for waterproofing ceramic materials — especially lightweight ceramic insulation materials in both rigid (tile) and flexible (blanket) form — has been invented. In this process, traditional waterproofing agents are used, but before the waterproofing agents are applied, the...

Marshall Aerospace Vehicle Representation in C (MAVERIC) is a C-language computer program developed for use in performing high-fidelity simulations of flights and analyses of the guidance and control performances of the X-33 aerospace vehicle and the VentureStar reusable launch vehicle (RLV)....

The Johnson Space Center (JSC) body-fluids monitor advances the state of the art of measuring hydration levels in humans during spaceflight. Neither bulky nor heavy, this noninvasive instrument is built around a commercial inductance-capacitance-resistance meter, which is used to obtain...

Many networks rely on firewalls or filtering routers for frontline network security. Packet filtering firewalls or routers filter incoming or outgoing packets based on a set of access rules. The IP (Internet Protocol) Packet Generator computer program assists in verifying that a packet filtering firewall...

A software system has been devised to manage automatically (1) the distribution of mutually independent computing tasks to computer workstations in NASA's Flight Design and Analysis System (FADS) network and (2) the execution of those tasks on those workstations. This program parallelizes serial tasks,...

A report proposes that spacecraft assigned to orbits distant from the Earth be equipped with trim panels that would intercept the solar wind to generate small torques to correct for disturbance torques and thereby help to maintain the spacecraft pointed in the required directions. Paired panels would...