Magazine

A technique for applying controlled test pressures to curved surfaces is based on a principle similar to that of a compartmented pilot's or astronaut's pressure suit. The technique involves the use of airbags that accommodate geometric complexity in both the surface under test...

A report presents information compiled from a search of the literature on failure modes of mechanical systems. The report was written to provide a reference base for the application of first-order reliability methods to mechanical systems in the development of a system-level design methodology. In...

A software interface between scientific data formats (SDF's) and wide-area data-base search-engine software has been developed to provide seamless access to data used in support of NASA projects. Most SDF's are known or understood by only a select audience. These SDF's are also only searchable...

The Single Mode Acquisition Code (SMAC) computer program mathematically models the optical, mechanical, and electronic dynamics of high-finesse, long-baseline, multiple-cavity optical interferometers like those used in gravity-wave detectors. Dynamical situations that can be simulated...