Electronics & Software

The invention allows a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or similar device to be efficiently reconfigured in whole or in part to provide higher capacity, non-redundant operation. The redundant device consists of functional units such as adders or multipliers, configuration memory for the functional units,...

Helmet- and head-mounted display systems, denoted fiber-scanned micro-displays, have been proposed to provide information in an “augmented reality” format (meaning that the information would be optically overlaid on the user’s field of view). A system of this type would include laser diodes feeding light into the...

A computational model calculates the excitation of water rotational levels and emission-line spectra in a cometary coma with applications for the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO). MIRO is a millimeter-submillimeter spectrometer that will be used to study the nature of cometary nuclei, the physical processes...

The Ground Resource Allocation and Planning Environment (GRAPE 1.0) is a Web-based, collaborative team environment based on the Microsoft SharePoint platform, which provides Deep Space Network (DSN) resource planners’ tools and services for sharing information and performing analysis. The foundation platform for GRAPE...

This software models the gas and dust dynamics of comet coma (the head region of a comet) in order to support the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO) project. MIRO will study the evolution of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s coma system. The instrument will measure surface temperature,...

AVA v2 software selects goals for execution from a set of goals that oversubscribe shared resources. The term “goal” refers to a science or engineering request to execute a possibly complex command sequence, such as image targets or ground-station downlinks.

A simulation testbed architecture was developed and implemented for the integration, test, and development of a TRL-6 flight software set called AutoGNC. The AutoGNC software will combine the TRL-9 Deep Impact AutoNAV flight software suite, the TRL-9 Virtual Machine Language (VML) executive, and the TRL-3 G-REX guidance, estimation,...

OPTOOL software is a general-purpose optical systems analysis tool that was developed to offer a solution to problems associated with computational programs written for the James Webb Space Telescope optical system. It integrates existing routines into coherent processes, and provides a...

A program of research is dedicated to development of a mathematical formalism that could provide, among other things, means by which living systems could be distinguished from non-living ones. A major issue that arises in this research is the following question: What invariants of mathematical models of the...

The UV-Vis spectroscopic system for plume diagnostics monitors rocket engine health by using several analytical tools developed at Stennis Space Center (SSC), including the rocket plume spectroscopy simulation code (RPSSC), to identify and quantify the alloys from the...

Research in the field of spoken dialogue systems has been performed with the goal of making such systems more robust and easier to use in demanding situations. The term “spoken dialogue systems” signifies unified software systems containing speech-recognition, speech-synthesis, dialogue management, and...

Two algorithms have been conceived to enable automated, thorough testing of Built-in test (BIT) software. The first algorithm applies to BIT routines that define pass/fail criteria based on values of data read from such hardware devices as memories, input ports, or registers. This algorithm...

A distributed guidance and control algorithm was developed for a constellation of satellites. The system repositions satellites as required, regulates satellites to desired orbits, and prevents collisions.

A document discusses the Portable Health Algorithms Test (PHALT) System, which has been designed as a means for evolving the maturity and credibility of algorithms developed to assess the health of aerospace systems. Comprising an integrated hardware-software environment, the PHALT system allows systems health...

A paper discusses the need to perform accurate dielectric property measurements on larger sized samples, particularly liquids at microwave frequencies. These types of measurements cannot be obtained using conventional cavity perturbation methods, particularly for...

Advancements in technology have allowed the miniaturization of systems used in aerospace vehicles. This technology is driven by the need for next-generation systems that provide reliable, responsive, and cost-effective range operations while providing increased capabilities such as simultaneous mission support,...

The Automated Computer Access Request (AutoCAR) system is a Web-based account provisioning application that replaces the time-consuming paper-based computer-access request process at Johnson Space Center (JSC). AutoCAR combines rules-based and role-based functionality in one application to provide a...

The Range Safety Algorithm software encapsulates the various constructs and algorithms required to accomplish Time Space Position Information (TSPI) data management from multiple tracking sources, autonomous mission mode detection and management, and flight-termination mission rule evaluation. The...

A program has been written to enable (1) fast and easy searching of symbolic files for one or more strings of characters, dates, or numerical values in specific fields or columns and (2) summarizing results of searching other fields or columns. Intended for use in Unisys 2200-series...

DTV-SIM is a computer program that implements a mathematical model of the flight dynamics of a missile-shaped drop test vehicle (DTV) equipped with a multistage parachute system that includes two simultaneously deployed drogue parachutes and three main parachutes deployed subsequently and simultaneously by use of pilot...

A computer program assists human schedulers in satisfying, to the maximum extent possible, competing demands from multiple spacecraft missions for utilization of the transmitting/receiving Earth stations of NASA’s Deep Space Network. The program embodies a concept of optimal scheduling to attain...

A method is being developed that provides for an artificial-intelligence system to learn a user’s preferences for sets of objects and to thereafter automatically select subsets of objects according to those preferences. The method was originally intended to enable automated selection, from...

A discrete-event simulation model, and a computer program that implements the model, have been developed as means of analyzing a spiral software-development process. This model can be tailored to specific development environments for use by software project managers in making quantitative...

By studying the Orbital Express mission, modeling the spacecraft and scenarios, and testing the system, a technique has been developed that uses recursive decomposition to represent procedural actions declaratively, schemalevel uncertainty reasoning to make uncertainty reasoning tractable, and lightweight, natural...