Stories
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Application Briefs: Motion Control
The Onyx guided parachute designed and manufactured by Atair Aerospace (Brooklyn, NY) is an autonomous precision airdrop system. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) uses motors and planetary...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The terminal descent sensor (TDS) is a radar altimeter/velocimeter that improves the accuracy of velocity sensing by more than an order of magnitude when compared to existing sensors. The TDS is designed...
Briefs: Information Technology
The descent image motion estimation system (DIMES) is a system of hardware and software, designed for original use in estimating the horizontal velocity of a spacecraft descending toward...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed laser-based instrument would quickly measure the approximate distance and approximate direction to the closest target within its field of view. The instrument would not contain any...
Briefs: Software
A computer program implements the algorithm described in "Hypothetical Scenario Generator for Fault-Tolerant Diagnosis" (NPO-42516), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 6 (June 2007), page 71. To...
Briefs: Software
Patented in 1991, friction stir welding (FSW) has since been used widely to create strong joints in aluminum alloys. The aircraft industry has started to adapt this...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
It has been proposed to equip future microprocessors with electronic cumulative timers, for essentially the same reasons for which land vehicles are equipped with odometers (total-distance-traveled meters)...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An assembly that contains a sensor, sensor signal conditioning circuitry, a sensor-readout analog-to-digital converter (ADC), data-storage circuitry, and a microprocessor that runs special-purpose software and...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Increasingly dependent on continuous video monitoring and recording, even today's more sophisticated security surveillance systems are often plagued by reliability...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Modern digital technology and a little imagination have led to today’s most popular devices, like the MP3 player — a tiny digital music player that you can carry in your shirt pocket, and...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A team from Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, has been awarded the 2006 NASA Government Invention of the Year for an actuator and sensor system that is more durable than a piezoelectric system,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Multi-Antenna Radar Systems for Doppler Rain Measurements
Use of multiple-antenna radar systems aboard moving high-altitude platforms has been proposed for measuring rainfall. The platforms contemplated in the proposal would be primarily spacecraft, but, in principle, the proposal could also apply to aircraft. The problem of measuring rainfall...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Update on Controlling Herds of Cooperative Robots
A document presents further information on the subject matter of “Controlling Herds of Cooperative Robots” (NPO-40723), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 30, No. 4 (April 2006), page 81. To recapitulate: A methodology for controlling a herd of cooperative and autonomous mobile robots exploring the surface...
Briefs: Information Technology
Hypothetical Scenario Generator for Fault-Tolerant Diagnosis
The Hypothetical Scenario Generator for Fault-tolerant Diagnostics (HSG) is an algorithm being developed in conjunction with other components of artificial- intelligence systems for automated diagnosis and prognosis of faults in spacecraft, aircraft, and other complex engineering systems....
Who's Who: Aerospace
Supersonic speed would allow travelers to cut significantly their travel time. However, because of the resulting sonic booms, the Federal Aviation Administration...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure is a simplified diagram of an apparatus, now undergoing development, for range imaging based on measurement of the round-trip phase delay of a pulsed laser beam. Variants of this...
Who's Who: Aerospace
In a crash, keeping the occupants alive and uninjured is paramount. In order to study the dynamics of an impact, military and general aviation aircraft,...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
At full power, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN), will produce the world’s most intense pulsed...
Articles: Aerospace
Meet the Judges, “Create the Future” 2006 Design Contest
William Brosey, Section Manager,BWXT Y-12, Oak Ridge, TN
Joe Buford, Mfg. Engineer,Boeing Satellite Development Center, El Segundo, CA
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Balloon for Long-Duration, High-Altitude Flight at Venus
A document describes a 5.5-m-diameter, helium-filled balloon designed for carrying a scientific payload having a mass of 44 kg for at least six days at an altitude of about 55 km in the atmosphere of Venus. The requirement for floating at nearly constant altitude dictates the choice of a...
Briefs: Software
Arbitrating Control of Control and Display Units
The ARINC 739 Switch is a computer program that arbitrates control of two multi-function control and display units (MCDUs) between (1) a commercial flight-management computer (FMC) and (2) NASA software used in research on transport aircraft. (MCDUs are the primary interfaces between pilots and FMCs...
Briefs: Software
Fusing Symbolic and Numerical Diagnostic Computations
"X-2000 Anomaly Detection Language" denotes a developmental computing language, and the software that establishes and utilizes the language, for fusing two diagnostic computer programs, one implementing a numerical analysis method, the other implementing a symbolic analysis method into a unified...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Video Guidance Sensor and Time-of-Flight Rangefinder
A proposed video guidance sensor (VGS) would be based mostly on the hardware and software of a prior Advanced VGS (AVGS), with some additions to enable it to function as a time-of-flight rangefinder (in contradistinction to a triangulation or image-processing rangefinder). It would typically be...
Briefs: Materials
Composite elastic skins having tailorable mechanical properties have been invented for covering shape-changing ("morphable") structures. These skins are intended especially for use on...
Briefs: Software
User Interactive Software for Analysis of Human Physiological Data
Ambulatory physiological monitoring has been used to study human health and performance in space and in a variety of Earth-based environments (e.g., military aircraft, armored vehicles, small groups in isolation, and patients). Large, multi-channel data files are typically recorded...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
system for real-time detection of surface- fatigue-pitting damage to gears for use in a helicopter transmission is based on fuzzy-logic used to fuse data from sensors that measure...
Briefs: Software
Predicting Lifetime of a Thermomechanically Loaded Component
NASALIFE is a computer program for predicting the lifetime, as affected by low cycle fatigue (LCF) and creep rupture, of a structural component subject to temporally varying, multiaxial thermomechanical loads. The component could be, for example, part of an aircraft turbine engine....
Articles: Aerospace
In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of NASA Tech Briefs, our features in 2006 highlight a different technology category each month, tracing the past 30 years of the technology, and continuing with a glimpse...
Briefs: Medical
An effort is under way to develop noninvasive neuro-electric interfaces through which human operators could control systems as diverse as simple mechanical devices, computers, aircraft,...
Top Stories
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Ultrasound Wristband Precisely Tracks Hand Movements in Real Time
Podcasts: Electronics & Computers
Arm’s Agentic AI CPU: Engineering the Next Generation of AI Data Centers
Quiz: Manned Systems
National Astronaut Day 2026: Astronauts and Space Missions Quiz
Articles: Design
Redefining the Automotive Industry with Versatile Innovation
Application Briefs: Connectivity
Blog: Aerospace
Lincoln Laboratory Laser Communications Terminal Launches on Historic...
Webcasts
Podcasts: Design
How Smart Implants and AI Robotics Could Transform Neurological Surgery
Webinars: Internet of Things
Virtual. Physical. Connected: How Smart Testing Is Changing...
Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Superior Environmental Protection with Ultra-Thin Parylene and...
Summits: Energy
Battery Manufacturing & Simulation Summit 2026
Webinars: Power
Virtual Screening of Materials for Increased Battery Performance

