AMPERES is a prototype computer program that implements the algorithm, described in the preceding article, for optimizing designs of diffractive optics. Several other programs for designing refractive optics are commercially available, but they offer very limited capabilities with respect to...

A report describes the system for controlling the radial position and tilt of a spacecraftlike habitat for humans in NASA's Space Flight Environmental Simulator (SFES) — a 16-m-diameter centrifuge used previously to evaluate effects of hypergravitational acceleration on animals....

The Integrated Optical Design Analyzer (IODA) is a computer program that facilitates multidisciplinary concurrent engineering of highly precise optical instruments. (IODA should not be confused with a multidisciplinary optical-system-analysis program, called "IMOS," that has been reported...

A report presents a survey of the design engineering and scientific literature on airlocks and on planetary-exploration vehicles ("rovers"), from the perspective of evaluating existing and potential design concepts for airlocks for pressurized rovers. The airlocks are the key to designing a pressurized rover that...

Design for X (DFX) is a computer program that assists, at the prelimary stage of planning, in the evaluaiton of alternative spacecraft designs and mission scenarios. The input required by DFX includes a set of operations goals (scientific and engineering goals and constraints), a mathematical...

An advanced, lightweight, low-power consumption brake has been developed to satisfy NASA's special requirements for use on actuators during spaceflight. This brake can increase the stopping, holding, and parking ability of a spacecraft while reducing its electrical power consumption. Two...

Accurately and efficiently predicting the unsteady dynamics of coupled, fluid-structure systems significantly reduces the cost of designing, testing, and maintaining fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft, and turbomachinery. It also improves safety. Organizations can realize substantial savings by understanding...

Integrated Modeling of Optical Systems (IMOS) is a MATLAB™ computer program that provides many functions for analysis of a system represented by mathematical models of its thermal, structural, control, and/or optical aspects. For example, IMOS can be used to study thermal distortion of...

QRAYPKS is a general-purpose FORTRAN optics-analysis computer program that enables the computation of path lengths to an unprecedented level of precision. The impetus for developing QRAYPKS was the need to mathematically model an outer-space laser interferometer to be used in detecting gravitational...

A proposed magnetic-coupling scheme would afford additional degrees of freedom to optimize the designs of gas-driven catapults or launchers. The scheme could be applied to gas guns in diverse applications, including launching spacecraft or aircraft, propelling various objects at high speeds along the...

A report discusses the design of fast stochastic observers for spacecraft pointing control. In this special context, "observers" signifies mathematical algorithms, implemented on computers aboard spacecraft, through which one processes sensory data (principally, the outputs of star trackers and...

Outer-space plasmas and arc-jet plasmas are well known to many researchers at NASA. Efforts to understand the structures of these plasmas have consumed years of research at various NASA laboratories. Computational modeling of such plasmas involves analyses of multicomponent,...

A method of designing purging flows of clean, dry gases to maintain acceptably low levels of contamination in enclosed volumes has been developed. The method is applicable to diverse enclosures that must be kept clean, including housings of precise optical instruments, clinical facilities, facilities for...

Symbolic Generator-Based Efficient Multibody Dynamics Algorithm (SOMBAT) is a program that enables speedy and accurate computations that solve equations of motion of multiple bodies. Originally intended for space-based applications (i.e., solving equations for the dynamics of a cluster of flexible...

A report presents additional information on the Mechanical System Design/Analysis Tool (MSAT) computer program, which was reported in "Program for Designing a Mechanical System" (LEW-16710, NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 9 (September 1999), page 32. To recapitulate: MSAT is a user-friendly, multidisciplinary software system that...

The Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer/Fluid Integrator (SINDA/FLUINT) software system has been upgraded by addition of a capability for simulating fluid mixtures that include condensable vapors. SINDA/FLUINT is the NASA standard software system for computational simulation of...

A report discusses the development of a highly complex system of distributed-computing, multidisciplinary design-optimization software, called "CJOpt," for use in research on model 4 of the High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) airplane (HSCT4.0). The emphasis in the report is on the...