Application Briefs

Material Passes Tests for James Webb Space Telescope Sunshield

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will observe primarily the infrared light from faint and very distant objects. But all objects, including telescopes, also emit infrared light...

Night Vision Compatible LED Indicators

Wilbrecht LEDCO’s new Night Vision Imaging System (NVIS) compatible LEDs are designed for avionics applications that require night vision compatibility. Available in green, yellow, white and red in both...

Test Systems Ensure Structural Integrity of Orion Crew Vehicle

NASA is currently validating the Orion spacecraft design for human spaceflight. Three systems developed by G Systems were used for testing the new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV)....

Software Toolkit Inspects Automotive Components

MPC , a Walworth, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of plastic parts for the automotive industry, builds many types of components. One such product is the oil filler cap for the car’s engine. The cap...

Covert Aircraft Landing Lights

Covert lighting on military aircraft is increasingly being implemented on existing airframes to create a compatible environment for pilots using night vision goggles during flight. This retrofitting procedure...

Aircraft Cockpit and Cabin Lighting

Lumex, Palatine, Illinois Due to the significant performance benefits they provide, LED and LCD technologies are replacing traditional incandescent bulb fixtures in more and more places throughout the cockpit...

Optimized Machine Capability Through Mechatronics: Packaging for the Future

Mechatronics can be defined as the science to optimize the performance and capabilities of machines using a multi-domain synergistic design approach. It is also...

Springs and Couplings Keep Mars Science Laboratory Rover on Track

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Rover “Curiosity” is the biggest rover to roam the Red Planet, measuring almost the size of a standard car. The rover is expected to land on...

Reverse Engineering Software Reduces Design Time of NASA UAV Engine Cowling

Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, needed to redesign the engine cowling of their Systems Integration Evaluation Remote Research Aircraft...

Designing Optical Systems With Off-The-Shelf Products

Utilization of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) products is now almost a bylaw of government and military design projects and is becoming of increasing interest in commercial designs, as...

Air Conditioning Cools Lunar Test Vehicles

NASA tests robotics for lunar electric rovers (LERs) and space exploration in remote locations, such as the Arizona desert, that closely simulate the terrain of the Moon or planets. The LER tests are...

Collision-Prediction Capabilities to Improve NAS Integration

Collision avoidance radar Numerica Corporation Loveland, COM 970-561-2000 www.numerica.us The National Airspace System (NAS) is a complex and shared network of people, procedures,...

Reducing Energy Costs at a California Waste Facility

Waste Connections, Inc. is an integrated solid waste services company that provides solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services in mostly exclusive and secondary...

Industrial LED Hall Lighting

Jenoptik, Jena, Germany LEiDS, Backnang-Waldrems, Germany The Lucid power high-bay light-emitting diode (LED) system from Jenoptik and LEiDS was developed for use in high halls and buildings. The hall and high rack...

Prototype Helps Astronauts Use Robot on International Space Station

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) material parts RedEye On Demand Eden Prairie, MN 866-882-6934 Wyle is a leading provider of high-tech science, aerospace engineering, and...

Going ‘Digital’ Simplifies Medical Device Inspection

At various times throughout the manufacturing process, medical device and orthopaedic implant manufacturers need to carry out a wide range of inspections and measurements of the parts...

Robots Play Role in Future Aircraft Wing Production

KUKA Systems (Sterling Heights, MI), in conjunction with Bombardier Aerospace, has devised an innovative robotic cell for laying up dry carbon fiber material as a result of a national research...

Software Manages Mission Data from Saturn and Mars Exploration

ERDAS APOLLO Essentials - Image Web Server ERDAS Norcross, GA 770-776-3400 www.erdas.com The Italian Space Agency (ASI) is using ERDAS APOLLO to manage data collected from different...

Creating 3D Terrain Maps from 2D Data

Disaster relief workers, border patrol officers, wildfire fighters, and many others need up-to-date information about what they will see when they enter an area, not just sketchy topographic maps that may...

Sensors Measure Vibroacoustic Shock During Launches

G-Link®, SG-Link®, WSDA®, and SensorCloud® wireless sensor components MicroStrain Williston, VT 802-862-6629 www.microstrain.com MicroStrain provided NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida...

Flexible LED Assembly for Automotive Signal Lighting

A build-out-of-the-box approach to turn, tail, and stop lighting applications on vehicles significantly reduces engineering and development costs. With recent improvements to Snap LED, an...

Data Acquisition System Monitors Lightning Strikes

Genesis HighSpeed data acquisition system and Perception software HBM Marlboro, MA 508-624-4500 www.hbm.com NASA Kennedy Space Center, based in Cape Canaveral, FL, has one of the highest rates...

LED Street Lights Cut Energy Consumption and Eliminate Bulb Changes

Founded over 200 years ago along the Mississippi River in Missouri, the city of Cape Girardeau is now home to almost 38,000 residents. The Missouri Highway 74 corridor through...

Fine Laser Cutting Technology

Fine laser cutting is an ideal technology for specialized cutting requirements found in the manufacturing of medical tube tools and components. From surgical instruments used in cutting and biopsy, to needles...

NASA Uses Emergency Notification System to Communicate With Personnel

The Communicator!® NXT™ emergency notification system Cassidian Communications (an EADS North America company) Temecula, CA 951-719-2100

Multi-Layer Films and Tapes Provide Thermal Protection for NASA Spacecraft

Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) materials Dunmore Corporation Bristol, PA 215-781-8895 www.dunmore.com The final flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis carried Multi-Layer...

DC Motor Automates Patient Transfer Device

One of the growing problems facing nurses is a reduced staff, and with it the need to care for overweight patients with very little help. This effort has led to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)...

Improving Microinverter Performance in Photovoltaic Systems

We have known for decades that the sun radiates enough energy to meet the world’s needs for power, both now and in the future. As in any energy conversion from original source to a...

Capacitive Pressure Sensor Enables Better Combustor Design

Pressure sensor Sporian® Microsystems Lafayette, CO 303-516-9116 www.sporian.com Sporian Microsystems has been awarded a NASA contract to develop a capacitive pressure sensor. The...