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Briefs: Physical Sciences
An optical communications terminal (OCT) is being developed to enable transmission of data at a rate as high as 2.5 Gb/s, from an aircraft or spacecraft to a ground station. In addition to...
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Briefs: Software
Software for Automation of Real-Time Agents, Version 2
Version 2 of Closed Loop Execution and Recovery (CLEaR) has been developed. The previous version was reported in “Software for Automation of Real-Time Agents” (NPO-21040), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26, No. 7 (July 2002), page 34. To recapitulate: CLEaR is an artificial intelligence computer...
Briefs: Information Technology
Computationally Lightweight Air-Traffic-Control Simulation
An algorithm for computationally lightweight simulation of automated airtraffic control (ATC) at a busy airport has been derived. The algorithm is expected to serve as the basis for development of software that would be incorporated into flight-simulator software, the ATC component of which...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Holographic glass light-shaping diffusers (GLSDs) are optical components for use in special-purpose illumination systems (see figure). When properly positioned with respect to lamps and areas to...
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Briefs: Software
Quadratic Programming for Allocating Control Effort
A computer program calculates an optimal allocation of control effort in a system that includes redundant control actuators.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An advanced communication system has been proposed for transmitting and receiving coded digital data conveyed as a form of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) on orthogonal...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Aircraft and other vehicles are often kept in service beyond their original design lives. As they age, they become susceptible to system malfunctions and fatigue. Unlike future aircraft...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Systems for identifying objects by means of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) of encased labeling elements have been developed. The XRF spectra of objects so labeled...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A compact, lightweight heat exchanger has been designed to be fault-tolerant in the sense that a single-point leak would not cause mixing of heat-transfer fluids. This particular heat exchanger is intended to be...
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Briefs: Materials
Special-purpose balloons and other inflatable structures would be constructed as flexible laminates of multiple thin polymeric films interspersed with layers of adhesive, according to a...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Simulating a Direction-Finder Search for an ELT
A computer program simulates the operation of direction-finding equipment engaged in a search for an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) aboard an aircraft that has crashed.
Briefs: Software
Simulating a Direction-Finder Search for an ELT
A computer program simulates the operation of direction-finding equipment engaged in a search for an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) aboard an aircraft that has crashed. The simulated equipment is patterned after the equipment used by the Civil Air Patrol to search for missing aircraft. The...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method of maintaining radio communication despite the emergence of unpredictable fades and nulls in the radiation pattern of an antenna has been proposed. The method was originally...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed instrument would project a narrow laser beam that would be frequency-modulated with a pseudorandom noise (PN) code for simultaneous measurement of range and velocity along...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Blended Buffet-Load-Alleviation System for Fighter Airplane
The capability of modern fighter airplanes to sustain flight at high angles of attack and/or moderate angles of sideslip often results in immersion of part of such an airplane in unsteady, separated, vortical flow emanating from its forebody or wings. The flows from these surfaces become...
Briefs: Software
Predicting Noise From Aircraft Turbine-Engine Combustors
COMBUSTOR and CNOISE are computer codes that predict far-field noise that originates in the combustors of modern aircraft turbine engines — especially modern, low-gaseous-emission engines, the combustors of which sometimes generate several decibels more noise than do the combustors of older...
Briefs: Imaging
Flight-control and navigation systems inspired by the structure and function of the visual system and brain of insects have been proposed for a class of developmental miniature robotic...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
An experimental airborne remote sensing system includes a remotely controlled, lightweight, solar-powered airplane (see figure) that carries two digital-output electronic cameras and communicates...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Research and Development in Optical Communications
A report in the form of lecture slides summarizes the optical-communications program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and describes the JPL Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) and its role in the program. The purpose of the program is to develop equipment and techniques for...
Briefs: Software
Verifying Diagnostic Software
Livingstone PathFinder (LPF) is a simulation-based computer program for verifying autonomous diagnostic software. LPF is designed especially to be applied to NASA's Livingstone computer program, which implements a qualitative-model-based algorithm that diagnoses faults in a complex automated system (e.g.,an exploratory...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An improved method of locating small breaches in insulation on electrical wires combines aspects of the prior dielectric withstand voltage (DWV) and time-domain reflectometry (TDR)...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Smiths Aerospace, a leading trans-Atlantic aerospace equipment manufacturer, has grown dramatically in recent years through a combination of strategic acquisitions...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A design concept for a proposed airborne or spaceborne free-space optical-communication terminal provides for simultaneous reception of signals from multiple other...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A computationally efficient algorithm for minimizing the flight time of an aircraft in a variable wind field has been invented. The algorithm, referred to as...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In response to the loss of seven astronauts in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, large, lightweight, inflatable atmospheric-entry vehicles have been proposed as means of emergency descent and...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
System for Better Spacing of Airplanes En Route
An improved method of computing the spacing of airplanes en route, and software to implement the method, have been invented. The purpose of the invention is to help air-traffic controllers minimize those deviations of the airplanes from the trajectories preferred by their pilots that are needed to...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A control system has been designed to keep a balloon-borne scientific instrument pointed toward a celestial object within an angular error of the order of an arc second. The design is...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
An improved type of exhaust nozzle has been invented to help optimize the performances of multitube detonative combustion engines. The invention is applicable to both air-breathing and...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A compact, dual-frequency, dual-polarization, wide-angle-scanning antenna system has been developed as part of an airborne instrument for measuring rainfall. This system is an upgraded...
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