Most insulating applications block additional heat transfer by adding more insulation. This thin, flexible, aerogel-based thermal insulation is available in thicknesses from 0.25 to 1 mm, and achieves a thermal conductivity in the range of 15-20 milliWatts/meter-Kelvin (about...

An improved locking nut comprises (1) an internally threaded shell, partly resembling a conventional nut, that can be engaged by a wrench or other tool, and (2) an internally and externally threaded insert that engages the threads of the shell and a bolt. Whereas some prior locking nuts are plated over...

Reusable holders have been devised for evaluating high-temperature, plasma-resistant re-entry materials, especially fabrics. Typical material samples tested support thermal-protection-system damage repair requiring evaluation prior to re-entry into...

A four-element array conformed to a singly curved conducting surface has been demonstrated to provide 2 dB axial ratio of 14 percent, while maintaining VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio) of 2:1 and gain of 13 dBiC. The array is digitally controlled and can be scanned with the LMS Adaptive Algorithm...

The Reconfigurable Robust Routing for Mobile Outreach Network (R3MOON) provides advanced communications networking technologies suitable for the lunar surface environment and applications. The R3MOON technology is based on a detailed concept of operations tailored for lunar surface networks,...

The invention allows a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or similar device to be efficiently reconfigured in whole or in part to provide higher capacity, non-redundant operation. The redundant device consists of functional units such as adders or multipliers, configuration memory for the functional units,...

Helmet- and head-mounted display systems, denoted fiber-scanned micro-displays, have been proposed to provide information in an “augmented reality” format (meaning that the information would be optically overlaid on the user’s field of view). A system of this type would include laser diodes feeding light into the...