Tech Briefs

Electronics & Software

Access our comprehensive library of technical briefs on electronics and software, from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories.

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Briefs: Software
Asynchronous Message Service (AMS) Software Libraries
This software implements the protocols described in the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) publication CCSDS 735.1-B-1. The purpose of the protocols is to enable the exchange of messages among a group of applications. The protocols provide several mechanisms for message...
Briefs: Software
Software for Executing International Standard CCSDS 123B
Advanced remote-sensing instruments in recent years often employ multiple wavelengths for maximal science return. Many of them comprise hundreds to over a thousand spectral bands. These instruments multiply the data volume and stress the communication bandwidth. With previously deployed space...
Briefs: Software
TASAR and TAP: Airborne Trajectory Management Enabled by Traffic-Aware Software
This innovation consists of the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Request (TASAR) concept and the associated Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software. TASAR is intended to enable pilots to discover trajectory improvement opportunities while en route that will result in...
Briefs: Software
Module::Build::Database
Module::Build::Database was developed as part of the Atmospheric Composition Processing System, which works with the Science Investigator-Led Processing System for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The technology allows the user to distribute changes to the schema in a database alongside software that relies on the database.
Briefs: Information Technology
Safety Analysis of Conflict Prevention Algorithms
Different types of information are used to help aircraft maintain separation standards. At the lowest level, information is needed to indicate if separation standards will be violated in the near future, called a conflict. Once a conflict is detected, then conflict resolution information may be used...
Briefs: Information Technology
Ultra-thin-wall metallic cylinders are extremely difficult to analyze for flaws from top-view X-ray computed tomography (CT) slices and volume...
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Briefs: Information Technology
The doubling or tripling of airspace capacity that will be needed over the next several decades will require that tactical separation guidance be automated for appropriately...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Immediately following firing of the solid rocket booster (SRB) separation motors during STS-134 ascent, an unknown object resembling a headless bolt was captured by one...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Whole Symbol Moments SNR Estimator Analysis and Implementation
A data-dependent algorithm was developed for estimating symbol signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with a non-integral number of samples per symbol. The classical split symbol SNR estimator algorithm was adapted to incorporate the whole symbol by removing the data polarity.
Briefs: Information Technology
The communication between NASA space mission operations teams and their respective spacecraft in outer space is accomplished via the Deep...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A spacecraft high-gain antenna (HGA) was designed with a sharp Vnotch in its far-field cross-pole pattern to determine the spacecraft...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Quick Thrust Profile Design Analysis for Verifying Spacecraft Operational Capabilities
A paper describes a process for imposing safety constraints on a spacecraft trajectory design. The conventional process has the ACS (Attitude Control System) team define geometric constraints, then the NAV (Navigation) team produces a compliant thrust direction...
Briefs: Information Technology
Co-Optimized, Blunt-Body Re-entry Vehicle Design Process
A document describes a design optimization method for determining optimal shapes for vehicles with mid-range lift-to-drag ratios that are entering or re-entering planetary atmospheres. The design space includes consideration of hypersonic aerothermodynamic properties (for minimizing heating)...
Briefs: Information Technology
Numerical Evaluation of Near-Hypersingular Integrals
A document discusses a method for simple and efficient numerical integration (quadrature) of integrals characterized by a near-hypersingularity. Near-hypersingular integrals arise in gradients of Newton-type potentials when the fields at a desired observation point are close to the source. The...
Briefs: Lighting
The ultimate challenge in the race to miniaturize light emitting diodes (LED) has finally been met. A team led by the Institut de Physique et de Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS, CNRS/Université de...
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Briefs: Lighting
A team of MIT researchers has used a novel material that’s just a few atoms thick to create devices that can harness or emit light. This proof-of-concept could lead to ultra-thin,...
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Briefs: Lighting
Improving the Efficiency of Green-Blue-Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have suggested a method that could significantly increase the efficiency of green-blue-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes based on GaInN/GaN, AlGaN/GaN, and AlInN/GaN quantum wells. Their approach could enable advances in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Adaptive Periodic-Correlation Algorithm for Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensing
Conventional Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensing requires a point source such as a star to perform wavefront sensing. This software allows one to conduct such sensing using an extended-scene or scene-based image. The software allows a Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor (SH-WFS)...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
This electronic device is designed to provide optimal control of an electromagnetically actuated shutter used on a digital or photographic camera. The SD36B1 Electromechanical Shutter Driver...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Sub-Nanosecond, Compact, Low-Power Time-Interval Measurement
This innovation is a sub-nanosecond time-interval measurement that is compact and inexpensive, implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Currently, high-speed count ers or semi-custom or custom ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) are used for time-interval...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A vehicle electronic control unit consists of various high-side power stages for driving different loads. Common faults that these power stages experience are Short Circuit to...
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Briefs: Energy
High-Energy Lithium Flow Cells With Sulfur Cathodes for Transportation Applications
Since the entry of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries into the market, considerable improvements have been made in their gravimetric and volumetric energy densities, especially compared to aqueous systems such as Pb-acid, Ni-Cd, and Ni-MH. Sulfur cathodes have been...
Briefs: Software
Weekly Status Reporting & Approval Application Revision 2
The Weekly Status Reporting & Approval Application is a Web application that enables organizations to gather weekly or monthly (periodically) statuses electronically from all employees using a time-based process. Users input their status, which may include uploaded images, into...
Briefs: Software
CoolSPICE: SPICE Simulator for Cryogenic Electronics
Accurate assessment of circuits at cold temperatures is extremely difficult due to lack of models and tools that can simulate circuit behavior at cryogenic temperatures. A library of cryogenic temperature models was built, as well as a circuit simulator that can use those models and simulate...
Briefs: Software
Telescience Resource Kit, Release 3
Release 3 of the Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) has become available. TReK 3 is a suite of application programs that can be used to monitor and control a payload aboard the International Space Station. TReK provides both local ground support system services and an interface to utilize remote services provided by...
Briefs: Software
Software Tools for Fault Management Technologies
The ability to detect, diagnose, and respond to faults and anomalies in a timely fashion is a major concern in space missions. Fault Management (FM) primarily concerns operational mitigations of spacecraft failures. Qualtech Systems worked towards development of software tools for facilitating FM by...
Briefs: Information Technology
Atmospheric Turbulence Modeling for Aero Vehicles
Atmospheric turbulences are fractional order, and because of that, it is difficult to simulate these disturbances. Past models fall short in providing sufficiently accurate simulation of atmospheric turbulence, especially at high altitudes, for control designs of high-speed atmospheric vehicles. In...
Briefs: Information Technology
Autonomic Quiescence
Biologically inspired autonomous and autonomic systems (AAS) are essentially about creating self-directed and self-managing systems based on metaphors such as that of the autonomic nervous system. Agent technologies have been identified as a key enabler for engineering autonomy and autonomicity in systems, both in terms of...
Briefs: Information Technology
Optimization of OT-MACH Filter Generation for Target Recognition
An automatic Optimum Trade-Off Maximum Average Correlation Height (OT-MACH) filter generator for use in a gray-scale optical correlator (GOC) has been developed for improved target detection. While the OT-MACH filter has been shown to be an optimal filter for target detection,...

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