Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Briefs: Aerospace
Plasma Generator Using Spiral Conductors
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed a patented SansEC sensor technology for use in many different areas, including tall structures and wind turbines. The SansEC technology is a proven wireless sensing platform capable of measuring the electrical impedance of physical matter in proximity to the...
Articles: Defense
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
KSC Weather Data Archive
The Spaceport Weather Data Archive provides a fully searchable database of weather data gathered at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Not only can the user easily retrieve data and download it, but the user can also view graphically the weather data on a map overlay. The data are...
Briefs: Materials
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a method to create Sequential/Simultaneous Multi-Metallized Nanocomposites (S2M2N) via supercritical fluid (SCF) sequential or...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
NASA Langley Research Center’s Electric Field Imaging (EFI) system is the only noncontact method capable of quantitatively measuring the magnitude and direction of electrostatic...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a sensor technology for structural health monitoring on composite aircraft surfaces. When conventional aircraft are struck by lightning, the result can...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Sensor for Aircraft and Structure Lightning Measurement
An optical-fiber sensor based on Faraday Effect was developed for measuring total lightning current. Designed for aircraft installation, it is lightweight, non-conducting, structure conforming, and is immune to electromagnetic interference, hysteresis, and saturation. It can...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp.
San Diego, CA
858-731-9400
www.psemi.com
Selected for NASA Goddard Space Flight...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Designing automotive electronics presents numerous technical challenges, including the need to protect against electrical hazards. The three major sources of electrical hazards...
Articles: Lighting
Approximately 25 percent of global energy consumption goes to lighting applications, so making lighting more energy-efficient could have a dramatic impact on overall energy usage or make more...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Littelfuse
Chicago, IL
773-628-1000
www.littelfuse.com
Circuit protection is an essential part of any electrical or...
Briefs: Information Technology
KSC Spaceport Weather Data Archive
The Spaceport Weather Data Archive provides a fully searchable database of weather data gathered at Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Weather data includes wind, temperature, and humidity data from a surface meteorological tower network; upper air soundings from both weather...
Products: Lighting
SL Power Electronics (Ventura, CA) has introduced its new LE Series of LED drivers. Available in 10 models from 75 to 300 watts, the constant current LED drivers enable highly efficient LED lighting for applications that require...
Briefs: Software
Highvoltage.dk is a Danish consulting engineering firm with expertise in lightning protection and high-voltage engineering. The company, founded in 2005, tackles...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
High-Voltage, Low-Power BNC Feedthrough Terminator
This innovation is a high-voltage, lowpower BNC (Bayonet Neill–Concelman) feedthrough that enables the user to terminate an instrumentation cable properly while connected to a high voltage, without the use of a voltage divider. This feedthrough is low power, which will not load the source, and...
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
HBM
Marlboro, MA
508-624-4500
www.hbm.com
NASA Kennedy Space Center, based in Cape Canaveral, FL,...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optical design engineers often discuss the use of aspheres to reduce element count, but they seldom put the discussion into real-time practice, often fearing that the more complex fabrication...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fiber-Optic Magnetic-Field-Strength Measurement System for Lightning Detection
A fiber-optic sensor system is designed to measure magnetic fields associated with a lightning stroke. Field vector magnitudes are detected and processed for multiple locations. Since physical limitations prevent the sensor elements from being located in close...
Briefs: Software
Research has revealed distinct spatial and temporal distributions of lightning occurrence that are strongly influenced by large-scale atmospheric flow regimes. It was believed there were two flow systems,...
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
HBM
Marlborough, MA
800-578-4260
www.hbm.com/highspeed
In order to protect the space shuttle from lightning strikes...
NASA Spinoff: Lighting
Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, and electrical energy into mechanical energy. They generate electrical charges in response to mechanical stress and...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Saab Group has 17 business units, which are split into defense and security, systems and products, and aeronautics. Over the years, the company has taken...
Briefs: Software
Monte Carlo Simulation To Estimate Likelihood of Direct Lightning Strikes
A software tool has been designed to quantify the lightning exposure at launch sites of the stack at the pads under different configurations. In order to predict lightning strikes to generic structures, this model uses leaders whose origins (in the x–y plane) are...
Briefs: Software
Imaging Sensor Flight and Test Equipment Software
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is one of the components onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, and was designed to detect and locate lightning over the tropics. The LIS flight code was developed to run on a single onboard digital signal processor, and has operated...
Briefs: Information Technology
Algorithm for Automated Detection of Edges of Clouds
An algorithm processes cloud-physics data gathered in situ by an aircraft, along with reflectivity data gathered by ground-based radar, to determine whether the aircraft is inside or outside a cloud at a given time. A cloud edge is deemed to be detected when the in/out state changes, subject...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
In situations where human travel is necessary but where the geography is too steep or treacherous, aerial tramways often are used as a convenient alternative. Ski resorts, mountaineering...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Pilot Weather Advisor System Nears Realtime
The Pilot Weather Advisor (PWA) system is an automated satellite radio-broadcasting system that provides nearly realtime weather data to pilots of aircraft in flight anywhere in the continental United States. The system was designed to enhance safety in two distinct ways: First, the automated receipt...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Magnetic-Flux-Compensated Voltage Divider
A magnetic-flux-compensated voltage divider circuit has been proposed for use in measuring the true potential across a component that is exposed to large, rapidly varying electric currents like those produced by lightning strikes. An example of such a component is a lightning arrester, which is typically...
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