A multichannel electrometer voltmeter that employs a mechanical resonator maintained in sustained amplitude-stabilized oscillation has been developed for the space-based measurement of an Internal Electrostatic Discharge Monitor (IESDM) sensor. The IESDM is new sensor technology...

To satisfy the Major Constituents Analysis (MCA) requirements for the Vehicle Cabin Atmosphere Monitor (VCAM), this software analyzes the relative abundance ratios for N2, O2, Ar, and CO2 as a function of time and constructs their best-estimate mean. A histogram is first...

PSSEARCH provides predictive sea state estimation, coupled with closedloop feedback control for automated ride control. It enables a manned or unmanned watercraft to determine the 3D map and sea state conditions in its vicinity in real time. Adaptive path-planning/...

LEGION is a lightweight C-language software library that enables distributed asynchronous data processing with a loosely coupled set of compute nodes. Loosely coupled means that a node can offer itself in service to a larger task at any time and can withdraw itself from service...

The Mission Data System provides a framework for modeling complex systems in terms of system behaviors and goals that express intent. Complex activity plans can be represented as goal networks that express the coordination of goals on different state variables of the system. Real-time...

This software provides an automated capability to measure and qualify the frequency stability performance of the Deep Space Network (DSN) ground system, using daily spacecraft tracking data. The results help to verify if the DSN performance is...

This software displays a full summary of information regarding the overflight opportunities between any set of lander and orbiter pairs that the user has access to view. The information display can be customized, allowing the user to choose which fields to view/hide and filter.

Graphene is a single atomic layer of graphite. It is optically transparent and has high electron mobility, and thus has great potential to make transparent conductive electrodes. This invention contributes towards the development of graphene transparent conductive...

A fabrication process is reported for prototype emitters of THz radiation, which operate cryogenically, and should provide a fast, stable blackbody source suitable for characterization of THz devices. The fabrication has been demonstrated and, at the time of this...

Absorber-coupled microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) arrays were developed for submillimeter and farinfrared astronomy. These sensors comprise arrays of lambda/2 stepped microwave impedance resonators patterned on a 1.5-mm-thick silicon membrane, which is optimized for optical coupling. The...

NASA’s initiative for Lunar and Martian exploration will require long lived, robust drive systems for manned vehicles that must operate in hostile environments. The operation of these mechanical drives will pose a problem because of the existing extreme...

Most people know me as the editor of high-tech engineering magazines such as Defense Tech Briefs, Embedded Technology, Photonics Tech Briefs, and Lighting Technology. What they don’t know is that for the past 39 years I’ve maintained an exciting part-time career as an auto racing writer and photographer. In that time I’ve...

Radio signals reach pilots on board an aircraft through the “radar dome,“ the rounded nose of the aircraft. But the errors that occur during the production of this nose — tiny foreign particles, drops of water or air bubbles — can impede radio traffic. In the future, a non-destructive...

A new way of creating surface textures on glass, developed by researchers at MIT, virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare — and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right offThrough a process involving thin layers of material...

The first prototype of a new, ultra-compact motor that will allow small satellites to journey beyond Earth’s orbit has been developed by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. The goal of the micro motor is to drastically reduce the cost of space...

NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has demonstrated remotely controlled robots and specialized tools can perform precise satellite-servicing tasks in space. The project marks a milestone in the use of the space station as a technology...

Wireless networks today are able to brake just one bike, but in the future, they could regulate entire trains. Computer scientists at Saarland University in Germany are designing mathematical calculations to check such systems automatically. Professor Holger Hermanns, whose group developed the...

As the number of mobile electronic devices from smart phones to e-bikes increases steadily worldwide, so does the demand for small, lightweight, and powerful batteries. Experts are looking at lithium-sulfur batteries as the next step in energy storage.

Multi-hop wireless networks can provide data access for large and unconventional spaces, but they face significant limits on the amount of data they can transmit. North Carolina State University researchers have developed a more efficient data transmission approach that can boost the amount...

A new form of microscope that can produce results in seconds rather than hours -- dramatically speeding up the process of drug development -- is being developed at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. Scientists are creating the Mesolens -- a lens that will be capable of showing...

Last December, MIT Media Lab researchers caused a stir by releasing a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle. But the experimental setup that enabled that video was designed for a much different application: a camera that can see around corners.

With more than 15 million endoscope procedures done on patients each year in the US alone, scientists report evidence that a new version of these flexible instruments for diagnosing and treating disease shows promise for helping surgeons more completely remove cancerous...

Consumers can currently pay for products with mobile apps, and many tools are available to turn smartphones into mobile cash registers. Sixty-five percent of respondents to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey say that by 2020 most people will have fully adopted the...

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center flew its Ikhana MQ-9 unmanned aircraft with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) device for the first time last month. It was the first time an unmanned aircraft as large as Ikhana – with a 66-foot wingspan, a takeoff weight of more...

Navy unmanned aircraft will be able to distinguish small pirate boats from other vessels when an Office of Naval Research (ONR)-funded sensor starts airborne tests this summer. Called the Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker (MMSS), the sensor is a mix of high-definition cameras, mid-wave infrared...

Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain have developed an automatic air navigation and collision avoidance model using an automatic learning system. Based on how human beings learn to perceive motion, the model builds software using a simulator-based...

Researchers are developing a technique that uses nanotechnology to harvest energy from hot pipes or engine components to potentially recover energy wasted in factories, power plants, and cars.Researchers have coated glass fibers with a new thermoelectric material they developed. When thermoelectric materials...

A new Northwestern Medicine brain-machine technology delivers messages from the brain directly to the muscles -- bypassing the spinal cord -- to enable voluntary and complex movement of a paralyzed hand. The device could eventually be tested on, and perhaps aid, paralyzed patients.The...