Current and future near-Earth and deep space exploration programs and space defense programs require the development of robust intra-spacecraft serial data transfer electronics that must be reconfigurable, fault-tolerant, and have the ability to operate effectively for long periods of time...

MASCOT software was created to provide the conceptual aircraft designer accurate predictions of air vehicle stability and control characteristics. The code takes as input mass property data in the form of an inertia tensor, aerodynamic loading data, and propulsion (i.e. thrust) loading data. Using...

MIRO (Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter) is a lightweight, uncooled, dual-frequency heterodyne radiometer. The MIRO encountered asteroid Steins in 2008, and during the flyby, MIRO used the Asteroid Mode to measure the emission spectrum of Steins. The Asteroid Mode is one of the seven modes of...

When doing mission analysis and design of an imaging system in orbit around the Earth, answering the fundamental question of imaging performance requires an understanding of the image products that will be produced by the imaging system. At the highest level, this understanding can be gained by a first-principles...

This software, written separately in C and MATLAB as stand-alone packages with equivalent functionality, implements encoders and decoders for a set of nine error-correcting codes and modulators and demodulators for five modulation types. The software can be used as a single program to simulate the performance of...

Flexible Absorbent Binder (FAB) is a transparent polymer cured from a water-based solution. It is ideal for maintaining in-package humidity during shelf life and transport without drying out the package contents. FAB can make a new product with unique liquid-and vapor-handling capabilities, or it...

Code 3’s TriCore is an LED-based optical lighting technology that is two times brighter than other technology currently on the market, according to the company. It uses only one-third the power of conventional lighting systems, yielding higher watt-for-watt efficiency. The brightness...

A company needs to quickly and realistically render a 4 × 4 km landscape, complete with accurate roads, buildings, and similar landmarks in accurate colors, based on data from commercially available source databases. Quickly means much faster than the time required for the manual...

An organization seeks a low-weight material that can replace the heavy weight of steel, but withstand the physical and chemical demands of automotive applications. The alternative material can withstand a high-pressure fluid environment and replace steel used in hydraulic accumulators. The...

Gas introduction from near-ambient pressures to high vacuum traditionally is accomplished either by multi-stage differential pumping that allows for very rapid response, or by a capillary method that allows for a simple, single-stage introduction, but which often has a delayed response. Another means to...

Integrated circuits that incorporate square arrays of superconducting-transition-edge bolometers with optically reflective backshorts are being developed for use in image sensors in the spectral range from far infrared to millimeter wavelengths. To maximize the optical efficiency (and, thus,...

Honeycomb structures are commonly employed as load- and force-bearing structures as they are structurally strong and lightweight. These structures include many aircraft and spacecraft surfaces, including aircraft wings and fuselages, spacecraft pressure vessels, and...

A procedure was developed to inject thermal filler material (a paste-like substance) inside the power wire bundle coming from solar arrays. This substance fills in voids between wires, which enhances the heat path and reduces wire temperature. This leads...

LARC™-SI, Langley Research Center-Soluble Imide, was developed in 1992, with the first patent issuing in 1997, and then subsequent patents issued in 1998 and 2000. Currently, this polymer has been successfully licensed by NASA, and has generated revenues, at the time of this reporting, in...

An ablative composite is low-density (0.25 to 0.40 g/cm3), easy to fabricate, and superior to the current state-of-the-art ablator (phenolic impregnated carbon ablator, PICA) in terms of decomposition temperature, char yield, and mechanical strength. Initial ablative testing with...

A methodology for growing three-dimensional plant tissue models in a hydrodynamic focusing bioreactor (HFB) has been developed. The methodology is expected to be widely applicable, both on Earth and in outer space, as a means of growing plant cells and aggregates thereof under controlled...

Long-term spaceflight may induce a variety of harmful effects in astronauts, resulting in altered motor and cognitive behavior. The stresses experienced by humans in space — most significantly weightlessness (microgravity) and cosmic radiation — are difficult to accurately simulate...

A technique based on Evolutionary Computational Methods (ECMs) was developed that allows for the automated optimization of complex computationally modeled systems, such as autonomous systems. The primary technology, which enables the ECM to find optimal...

An approach has been developed for interpolating non-uniformly sampled data, with applications in signal and image reconstruction. This innovation generalizes the Whittaker-Shannon sampling theorem by emphasizing two assumptions explicitly (definition of a band-limited function and...

Science investigators need to quickly and effectively assess past observations of specific locations on a planetary surface. This innovation involves a location-based search technology that was adapted and applied to planetary science data to support a spatial query capability for mission operations software.

One-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operations work fastest on grids whose size is divisible by a power of two. Because of this, padding grids (that are not already sized to a power of two) so that their size is the next highest power of two can speed up operations. While this works well...

An algorithm was developed that determines the fuel-optimal spacecraft guidance trajectory that takes into account uncertainty, in order to guarantee that mission safety constraints are satisfied with the required probability. The algorithm uses convex optimization to solve for the...

Work was carried out in determination of the mathematical origin of randomness in quantum mechanics and creating a hidden statistics of Schrödinger equation; i.e., to expose the transitional stochastic process as a “bridge” to the quantum world. The governing equations of hidden statistics would...

A simple technique was developed to account for the higher order mode coupling between adjacent coupling slots in the feed waveguide of a planar slot array. The method uses an equation relating the slot impedance to the slot voltage and a reaction integral involving the...