Articles: Aerospace
NASA’s First “A”: A Legacy of Aeronautics Innovations
NASA’s predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), began a legacy of aeronautical innovation that continues today. While much of the focus of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An ATP System for Deep-Space Optical Communication
An acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) system is proposed for aiming an optical- communications downlink laser beam from deep space. In providing for a direction reference, the concept exploits the mature technology of star trackers to eliminate the need for a costly and potentially...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Polar Traverse Rover Instrument
A Polar Traverse Rover (PTR) is a device designed to determine the role of Antarctica in the global climate system by determining typical paths of continental air that passes the South Pole, and by obtaining insight into the relationship between events at the Antarctic and the meteorology of sub- polar altitudes....
Briefs: Medical
Detecting Phycocyanin-Pigmented Microbes in Reflected Light
A recently invented method of measuring concentrations of phycocynanin- pigmented algae and bacteria in water is based on measurement of the spectrum of reflected sunlight. When...
Briefs: Medical
Expert System Control of Plant Growth in an Enclosed Space
The Expert System is an enclosed, controlled environment for growing plants, which incorporates a computerized, knowledge-based software program that is designed to capture the...
Articles: Aerospace
NASA Technology: The Next 50 Years
“Space exploration is all about inspiration, innovation, and discovery. It’s about imagining the future. It’s about taking new steps, and exploring beyond our limitations, and creating something...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
DMAC and NMP as Electrolyte Additives for Li-Ion Cells
Dimethyl acetamide (DMAC) and N-methyl pyrrolidinone (NMP) have been found to be useful as high- temperature- resilience-enhancing additives to a baseline electrolyte used in...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Mass Spectrometer Containing Multiple Fixed Collectors
A miniature mass spectrometer that incorporates features not typically found in prior mass spectrometers is undergoing development. This mass spectrometer is designed to simultaneously...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Waveguide Harmonic Generator for the SIM
A second-harmonic generator (SHG) serves as the source of the visible laser beam in an onboard calibration scheme for NASA's planned Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), which requires an infrared laser beam and a visible laser beam coherent with the infrared laser beam. The SHG includes...
Articles: Nanotechnology
America’s Premier Nano Engineering Event
The 2008 NASA Tech Briefs National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), be held November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, is for design engineers who want to know what’s real, what’s close to...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Whispering Gallery Mode Resonator With Orthogonally Reconfigurable Filter Function
An optical resonator has been developed with reconfigurable filter function that has resonant lines that can be shifted precisely and independently from each other, creating any desirable combination of resonant lines. This is achieved by changing the axial...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Bimaterial Thermal Compensators for WGM Resonators
Bimaterial thermal compensators have been proposed as inexpensive means of preventing (to first order) or reducing temperature-related changes in the resonance frequencies of...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Powered by Lithium-Ion Batteries, NASA Spacecraft Explore Mars and the Moon
Yardney Technical Products
Pawcatuck, CT
860-599-1100
www.yardney.com
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed safely near...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Stable Calibration of Raman Lidar Water-Vapor Measurements
A method has been devised to ensure stable, long-term calibration of Raman lidar measurements that are used to determine the altitude-dependent mixing ratio of water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Because the lidar measurements yield a quantity proportional to the...
Application Briefs: Aerospace
NASA’s Next-Generation Space Suit Built for Orion Spacecraft
Oceaneering International
Houston, TX
281-228-5300
www.oceaneering.com
Oceaneering International has secured a...
NASA Tech Needs
Centennial Challenges
The NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge was held on August 2 and 3 on the campus of the California Poly - technic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. The competition required teams to build a roving excavator that...
Eye on Innovation: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Brighter Side of Globalization for Manufacturers: New, Innovative Product Development Models
Director of Product
Management
Dassault Systèmes
SolidWorks Corp.
Concord, MA
Global...
Who's Who: Nanotechnology
Dr. Jonathan Trent, Bioengineering Research Scientist, Ames Research Center
Dr. Jonathan Trent is an expert in the use of extremophile proteins to create nanoscale electronic devices. An extremophile is a life form capable of surviving in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Object Recognition Using Feature-and Color-Based Methods
An improved adaptive method of processing image data in an artificial neural network has been developed to enable automated, real-time recognition of possibly moving objects under...
Briefs: Information Technology
Root Source Analysis/ValuStream™ — a Methodology for Identifying and Managing Risks
Root Source Analysis (RoSA) is a systems-engineering methodology that has been developed at NASA over the past five years. It is designed to reduce costs, schedule, and technical risks by systematically examining critical assumptions and the state of the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Ensemble: an Architecture for Mission-Operations Software
"Ensemble" is the name of an open architecture for, and a methodology for the development of, spacecraft mission-operations software. Ensemble is also potentially applicable to the development of non-spacecraft mission-operations-type software.
Products
VIUscan™
Creaform, Levis, QE, Canada, offers the VIUscan™, the latest addition to the Handyscan 3D line of handheld scanners, which are used for the design, manufacturing, and inspection of any type of parts or assembly. VIUscan is a...
Techs for License
Technology Uses In-Building Wi-Fi to Determine Location of Wireless Devices
LOCADIO technology pairs readings of IEEE 802.11× received signal-strength indication (RSSI) with probabilistic analysis of building floor plans to deduce where a wirelessenabled device is in a building. It can locate a wireless device within a room to an accuracy of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
On-Orbit Multi-Field Wavefront Control With a Kalman Filter
A document describes a multi-field wavefront control (WFC) procedure for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on-orbit optical telescope element (OTE) fine-phasing using wavefront measurements at the NIRCam pupil. The control is applied to JWST primary mirror (PM) segments and...
Techs for License
Advanced Particle Separation Technology Uses Coriolis Force and Specific Gravity
This technology selectively separates fine and small particles that have a desired particle size range by using the particles’ specific gravity and their various sedimentation rates in a rotating vessel of vibrating liquid. By adjusting the frequency and amplitude...
Tech Needs
Reducing Free Fatty Acids in Frying Oil
A food manufacturer is looking for a technology to extend the usability of its frying oils; specifically, technologies to reduce the formation of free fatty acids (FFA) during frying. The company seeks to change or control chemical reaction of hydrolysis without changing water content of the food itself....
Tech Needs
Image Processing for Controlling a Robot or Quality Inspection
A company seeks technologies that may be applicable to automated assembly lines, including a robot to use image processing to select and pick up small parts from a bin using a pin several millimeters in diameter. The image processing technology should be general-purpose and highly...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Interplanetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator
A document describes the Inter - planetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator (IONAC) — an electronic apparatus, now under development, for relaying data at high rates in spacecraft and interplanetary radio-communication systems utilizing a delay-tolerant networking protocol....
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Sensor Technology Leads Manufacturing into Predictive Maintenance
Reactive, avoidable equipment repairs are a leading contributor to lost productivity in industrial manufacturing operations. Parts with an average selling price of just a few...
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