Briefs: Materials
Thermogravimetric Analysis of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes
An improved protocol for thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) of samples of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) material has been developed to increase the degree of consistency among results so that meaningful comparisons can be made among different samples. This improved TGA protocol is...
Who's Who: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Dr. Gary Hunter, who joined NASA in 1990, is an expert in the design, fabrication, and testing of sensors, especially...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Inflatable tubular structures that have annular cross sections rigidized with foams, and the means of erecting such structures in the field, are undergoing development. Although the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A compact, high-current, hollow cathode utilizing a lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) thermionic electron emitter has been developed for use with high-power Hall thrusters and ion thrusters....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Miniature Lightweight Ion Pump
This design offers a larger surface area for pumping of active gases and reduces the mass of the pump by eliminating the additional vacuum enclosure. There are three main components to this ion pump: the cathode and anode pumping elements assembly, the vacuum enclosure (made completely of titanium and used as the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method of relatively safe, compact, efficient recharging of a high-pressure room-temperature gas supply has been proposed. In this method, the gas would be liquefied at the source...
Briefs: Lighting
Low-cost processing methods will be required if the small organic molecule materials currently under development for use in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and other electronics are ever to realize wide...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Thermal Detection of Gas in a Tube Containing Flowing Liquid
A relatively simple thermal technique has been proposed to enable detection of bubbles of gas or bulk gas in a tube that is meant to contain a flowing liquid only. In a system in which gas cannot be tolerated, the technique could be used to trigger a shutoff valve downstream of a...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A technique for reducing in-flight loss of closed-cell foam insulation has been devised. In the original application, foam is used for thermal insulation on the external tank of the space shuttle. As the space...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Integrity Monitoring of Mercury Discharge Lamps
Mercury discharge lamps are critical in many trapped ion frequency standard applications. An integrity monitoring system can be implemented using end-of-life signatures observed in operational mercury discharge lamps, making it possible to forecast imminent failure and to take action to mitigate...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure depicts selected aspects of an apparatus for testing thermal-insulation materials for cryogenic systems at temperatures and under vacuum or atmospheric conditions representative...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Biasable, Balanced, Fundamental Submillimeter Monolithic Membrane Mixer
This device is a biasable, submillimeter-wave, balanced mixer fabricated using JPL’s monolithic membrane process — a simplified version of planar membrane technology. The primary target application is instrumentation used for analysis of atmospheric constituents,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Polymeric Bladder for Storing Liquid Oxygen
A proposed system for storing oxygen in liquid form and dispensing it in gaseous form is based on (1) initial subcooling of the liquid oxygen; (2) containing the liquid oxygen in a flexible vessel; (3) applying a gas spring to the flexible vessel to keep the oxygen compressed above the saturation...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Cryogenic Chamber for Servo-Hydraulic Materials Testing
A compact cryogenic test chamber can be cooled to approximately 5 to 6 Kelvin for materials testing. The system includes a temperature controller and multiple sensors to measure specimen temperature at different locations. The testing chamber provides a fast and easy method to perform...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
On the Divergence of the Velocity Vector in Real-Gas Flow
A theoretical study was performed addressing the degree of applicability or inapplicability, to a real gas, of the occasionally stated belief that for an ideal gas, incompressibility is synonymous with a zero or very low Mach number. The measure of compressibility used in this study is...
Briefs: Materials
An improved design concept for aerogel vacuum thermal-insulation panels calls for multiple layers of aerogel sandwiched between layers of aluminized Mylar (or equivalent) poly(ethylene...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Internal Water Vapor Photoacoustic Calibration
Water vapor absorption is ubiquitous in the infrared wavelength range where photoacoustic trace gas detectors operate. This technique allows for discontinuous wavelength tuning by temperature-jumping a laser diode from one range to another within a time span suitable for photoacoustic calibration....
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Inert Welding/Brazing Gas Filters and Dryers
A system has been designed to reduce the hydrogen molecule content in inert gases that are used for shielding the welding arc and molten weld area during the manual fusion, automated welding, and induction brazing process. Two desiccant pipeline dryer cartridges are connected together using either...
Briefs: Materials
Quantifying Airborne Hydrogen in Nearly Real Time
An indirect method of measuring small concentrations of hydrogen gas in air in nearly real time has been devised to circumvent the difficulty of performing such measurements directly. In this method, a sample of air suspected of containing hydrogen is first enclosed in a suitable container, and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A small mass spectrometer utilizing a miniature field ionization source is now undergoing development. It is designed for use in a variety of applications in which there are requirements for a...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Zinc Alloys for the Fabrication of Semiconductor Devices
ZnBeO and ZnCdSeO alloys have been disclosed as materials for the improvement in performance, function, and capability of semiconductor devices. The alloys can be used alone or in combination to form active photonic layers that can emit over a range of wavelength values.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A superconducting hot-electron bolometer has been built and tested as a prototype of high-sensitivity, rapid-response detectors of submillimeter-wavelength radiation. There are diverse...
Briefs: Materials
It is now possible to grow silicon nanowires at chosen positions and orientations by a method that involves a combination of standard microfabrication processes. Because their...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A proposed, low-power, backpack-sized instrument, denoted the micro electron microprobe and sample analyzer (MEMSA), would serve as a means of rapidly performing high-resolution microscopy and...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Cryogenic Feedthrough Test Rig
The cryogenic feedthrough test rig (CFTR) allows testing of instrumentation feedthroughs at liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen temperature and pressure extremes (dangerous process fluid) without actually exposing the feedthrough to a combustible or explosive process fluid. In addition, the helium used (inert gas),...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved assembly for inert-gas shielding of a metallic joint is designed to be useable during any of a variety of both laser-based and traditional welding and brazing...
Briefs: Materials
Amorphous Silk Fibroin Membranes for Separation of CO₂
Amorphous silk fibroin has shown promise as a polymeric material derivable from natural sources for making membranes for use in removing CO2 from mixed-gas streams. For most applications of silk fibroin, for purposes other than gas separation, this material is used in its highly...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Criteria for Modeling in LES of Multicomponent Fuel Flow
A report presents a study addressing the question of which large-eddy simulation (LES) equations are appropriate for modeling the flow of evaporating drops of a multicomponent liquid in a gas (e.g., a spray of kerosene or diesel fuel in air). The LES equations are obtained from the direct...
Briefs: Materials
Lightweight composites of RP46 polyimide and glass fibers have been found to be useful as extraordinarily fire-resistant electrical-insulation materials. RP46 is a polyimide of the...
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