Electronics & Software

A report discusses using the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) light airplane as an observation platform on Mars in order to gather data. It would have to survive insertion into the atmosphere, fly long enough to meet science objectives, and provide a stable platform.

Three documents discuss the Sustainable Objective Valuation and Attainability (SOVA) algorithm and software as used to plan tasks (principally, scientific observations and associated maneuvers) for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite. SOVA is a means of managing risk in a...

Significant improvements have been made in the instrument originally described in a prior NASA Tech Briefs article: “Improved Speed and Functionality of a 580-GHz Imaging Radar” (NPO-45156), Vol. 34, No. 7 (July 2010), p. 51. First, the wideband YIG oscillator has been replaced...

The Interplanetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator (IONAC) described previously in “The Interplanetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator” (NPO-45584), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 10, (October 2008) p. 106 provides functions that implement the Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) bundle protocol. New missions that require...

This work describes the development of a large Ka Band Slot Array for the Glacier and Land Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN), a proposed spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar for topographic mapping of ice sheets and glaciers. GLISTIN will collect ice...

This innovation can be run as a standalone network application on any computer in a networked environment. This design can be configured to control one or more routers (one instance per router), and can also be configured to listen to a policy server over the network to receive new...

HEMT-based receiver arrays with excellent noise and scalability are already starting to be manufactured at 100 GHz, but the advances in technology should make it possible to develop receiver modules with even greater operation frequency up to 200 GHz. A prototype...

Coupling between two waveguide-fed planar slot arrays has been investigated using full-wave analysis. The analysis employs the method-of-moments solution to the pertinent coupled integral equa- tions for the aperture electric field of all slots. In order to compute coupling between two arrays, the input...

A method has been designed for using multiple independent stations to discriminate fast transient radio sources from local anomalies, such as antenna noise or radio frequency interference (RFI). This can improve the sensitivity of incoherent detection for geographically separated stations such...

Break-out boxes (BOBs) are necessary for all electrical inte- gration/cable checkouts and troubleshooting. Because the price of a BOB is high, and no work can be done without one, often the procedure stops, simply waiting for a BOB. A less expensive BOB would take less time in the integration, testing, and troubleshooting...

The Remote Asynchronous Message Service (RAMS) gateway is a special-purpose AMS application node that enables exchange of AMS messages between nodes residing in different AMS “continua,” notionally in different geographical locations. JPL’s implementation of RAMS gateway functionality is integrated...

The MARSAUTOTIE program generates tie points for use with the Mars pointing correction software “In-Situ Pointing Correction and Rover Microlocalization,” (NPO-46696) Software Tech Briefs, Vol. 34, No. 9 (September 2010), page 18, in a completely automated manner, with no operator...

Jitter_Correct.m is a MATLAB function that automatically measures and corrects inter-frame jitter in an image sequence to a user-specified precision. In addition, the algorithm dynamically adjusts the image sample size to increase the accuracy of the measurement.

MSLICE Sequencing is a graphical tool for writing sequences and integrating them into RML files, as well as for producing SCMF files for uplink. When operated in a testbed environment, it also supports uplinking these SCMF files to the testbed via Chill.

This software accepts the EOS MLS calibrated measurements of microwave radiances products and operational meteorological data, and produces a set of estimates of atmospheric temperature and composition. This version has been designed to be as flexible as possible. The software is controlled by a...

This general-purpose 3D graphics visualization C++ tool is designed for visualization of simulation and analysis data for articulated mechanisms. Examples of such systems are vehicles, robotic arms, biomechanics models, and biomolecular structures. DspaceOgre builds upon the open-source Ogre3D graphics...

A contact force model was developed for use in touch and go (TAG) surface sampling simulations on small celestial bodies such as comets and asteroids. In TAG scenarios, a spacecraft descending toward the surface of a small body comes into contact with the surface for a short duration of time, collects...

A document discusses how the HST SM4 SpaceCube flight spare was modified to create an experiment called the SpaceCube Demonstration Platform (SC DP) for use on the MISSE7 Space Station payload (in collaboration with NRL). It is designed to serve as an on-orbit platform for demonstrating advanced fault tolerance...

Traditionally, nodes in a sensor network simply collect data and then pass it on to a centralized node that archives, distributes, and possibly analyzes the data. However, analysis at the individual nodes could enable faster detection of anomalies or other interesting events, as well as faster responses...

Image spatial resolution characteristics can vary widely among sources. In the case of aerial-based imaging systems, the image spatial resolution characteristics can even vary between acquisitions. In these systems, aircraft altitude, speed, and sensor look angle all affect...

A small-footprint, full surface-mount-component printed circuit board employs MOSFET (metal-oxide-semi-conductor field-effect transistor) power switches to switch high currents from any input power supply from 3 to 30 V.

Multi-rate finite impulse response (MRFIR) filters are among the essential signal-processing components in space-borne instruments where finite impulse response filters are often used to minimize nonlinear group delay and finite-precision effects. Cascaded...

Many distributed systems share common sensors and instruments along with a common power line supplying current to the system. A communication technique and circuit has been developed that allows for the simple inclusion of an instrument, sensor, or actuator node within any system containing a common power...