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
Mission Operations and Navigation Toolkit Environment
MONTE (Mission Operations and Navigation Toolkit Environment) Release 7.3 is an extensible software system designed to support trajectory and navigation analysis/design for space missions. MONTE is intended to replace the current navigation and trajectory analysis software systems, which, at the...
Briefs: Software
Extensible Infrastructure for Browsing and Searching Abstracted Spacecraft Data
A computer program has been developed to provide a common interface for all space mission data, and allows different types of data to be displayed in the same context. This software provides an infrastructure for representing any type of mission data. Existing software...
Briefs: Software
Lossless Compression of Data Into Fixed-Length Packets
A computer program effects lossless compression of data samples from a one-dimensional source into fixed-length data packets. The software makes use of adaptive prediction: it exploits the data structure in such a way as to increase the efficiency of compression beyond that otherwise achievable.
Briefs: Software
Video-Game-Like Engine for Depicting Spacecraft Trajectories
GoView is a video-game-like software engine, written in the C and C++ computing languages, that enables real-time, three-dimensional (3D)-appearing visual representation of spacecraft and trajectories (1) from any perspective; (2) at any spatial scale from spacecraft to Solar-system...
Briefs: Software
Analog Input Data Acquisition Software
DAQ Master Software allows users to easily set up a system to monitor up to five analog input channels and save the data after acquisition.This program was written in LabVIEW 8.0, and requires the LabVIEW runtime engine 8.0 (free download from National Instruments; ni.com) to run the executable. A DAQ card...
Briefs: Software
MSLICE Science Activity Planner for the Mars Science Laboratory Mission
MSLICE (Mars Science Laboratory InterfaCE) is the tool used by scientists and engineers on the Mars Science Laboratory rover mission to visualize the data returned by the rover and collaboratively plan its activities. It enables users to efficiently and effectively search all...
Briefs: Software
Alert Notification System Router
The Alert Notification System Router (ANSR) software provides satellite operators with notifications of key events through pagers, cell phones, and e-mail. Written in Java, this application is specifically designed to meet the mission-critical standards for mission operations while operating on a variety of hardware...
Briefs: Software
MAGIC: Model and Graphic Information Converter
MAGIC is a software tool capable of converting highly detailed 3D models from an open, standard format, VRML 2.0/97, into the proprietary DTS file format used by the Torque Game Engine from GarageGames. MAGIC is used to convert 3D simulations from authoritative sources into the data needed to run the...
Briefs: Software
A lossless image-data-compression algorithm intended specifically for application to classification-map data is based on prediction, context modeling, and entropy coding. The algorithm was...
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Briefs: Software
Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser
The Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser (PBEM) is a rules-based approach to enterprise management that can be used to automate certain management tasks. This parser simplifies the management of a given endeavor by establishing policies to deal with situations that are likely to occur....
Briefs: Software
Framework for ReSTful Web Services in OSGi
Ensemble ReST is a software system that eases the development, deployment, and maintenance of server-side application programs to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by client software. Ensemble ReST takes advantage of the proven disciplines of ReST (Representational State Transfer — a...
Briefs: Software
Data Management Applications for the Service Preparation Subsystem
These software applications provide intuitive User Interfaces (UIs) with a consistent look and feel for interaction with, and control of, the Service Preparation Subsystem (SPS). The elements of the UIs described here are the File Manager, Mission Manager, and Log Monitor...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Devices that could be characterized as acoustically driven molecular sieves have been proposed for filtering water to remove all biological contaminants and all molecules larger than...
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Briefs: Software
Computer Code for Nanostructure Simulation
Due to their small size, nanostructures can have stress and thermal gradients that are larger than any macroscopic analogue. These gradients can lead to specific regions that are susceptible to failure via processes such as plastic deformation by dislocation emission, chemical debonding, and interfacial...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Parallel-Processing CMOS Circuitry for M-QAM and 8PSK TCM
There has been some additional development of parts reported in “Multi-Modulator for Bandwidth-Efficient Communication” (NPO-40807), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 6 (June 2009), page 34. The focus was on:
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
The figure schematically depicts an oscillator circuit for driving a piezoelectric transducer to excite vibrations in a mechanical structure. The circuit was designed and built to satisfy...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A device denoted a board saver has been developed as a means of reducing wear and tear of a printed-circuit board onto which an antifuse field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is to be eventually...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Digital Synchronizer Without Metastability
A proposed design for a digital synchronizing circuit would eliminate metastability that plagues flip-flop circuits in digital input/output interfaces. This metastability is associated with sampling, by use of flip-flops, of an external signal that is asynchronous with a clock signal that drives the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A two-stage variable sample-rate conversion (SRC) system has been proposed as part of a digital signal-processing system in a digital communication radio receiver that utilizes a variety of data...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method of estimating phase drifts of microwave signals distributed to, and transmitted by, antennas in an array involves the use of the signals themselves as phase...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) amplifiers of a type now being developed for operation at frequencies of hundreds of gigahertz contain InP high- electron-mobility...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Compact, Low-Overhead, MIL-STD-1553B Controller
A compact and flexible controller has been developed to provide MIL-STD-1553B Remote Terminal (RT) communications and supporting and related functions with minimal demand on the resources of the system in which the controller is to be installed. (MIL-STD-1553B is a military standard that encompasses a...
Briefs: Research Lab
Electrolytes comprising LiPF6 dissolved in alkyl carbonate/fluoroester mixtures have been found to afford improved low-temperature performance and greater high-temperature resilience in...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A digital signal-processing algorithm has been devised as a means of aligning (as defined below) the outputs of multiple receiving radio antennas in a large array for the purpose of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Enhanced Video-Oculography System
A previously developed video-oculography system has been enhanced for use in measuring vestibulo-ocular reflexes of a human subject in a centrifuge, motor vehicle, or other setting. The system as previously developed included a lightweight digital video camera mounted on goggles. The left eye was illuminated by an...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method has been proposed to increase the degree of synchronization of a radio receiver with the phase of a suppressed carrier signal modulated with a binary-phase-shift-keying (BPSK) or...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed heterodyne receiver would be capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation in both of two orthogonal linear polarizations, separating sidebands, and providing...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A new approach to masterless, distributed, digital-charge control for batteries requiring charge control has been developed and implemented. This approach is required in battery chemistries that need cell-level...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Generic structures have been conceived for multiplexer blocks to be implemented in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on four-gate field-effect transistors (G4FETs). This...
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