Electronics & Software

A recently developed micro-commanding rotational position control system offers advantages of less mechanical complexity, less susceptibility to mechanical resonances, less power demand, less bulk, less weight, and lower cost, relative to prior rotational position control systems based on...

The AIRSAR automated, Web-based data processing and distribution system is an integrated, end-to-end synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing system. Designed to function under limited resources and rigorous demands, AIRSAR eliminates operational errors and provides for paperless archiving. Also, it provides a...

A software interface has been devised to facilitate optimization of the shapes of valves, elbows, fittings, and other components used to handle fluids under extreme conditions. This software interface translates data files generated by PLOT3D (a NASA grid-based plotting-and- data-display program)...

A software library has been developed that takes a highlevel description of a pattern to be satisfied and applies it to a target. If the two match, it returns success; otherwise, it indicates a failure. The target is semantically a tree that is constructed from elements of terminal and non-terminal...

This software addresses the problem of how to efficiently execute a knowledge base in the presence of missing data. Computationally, this is an exponentially expensive operation that without heuristics generates a search space of 1 + 2n possible scenarios, where n is the number of rules...

A computer program translates Unified Modeling Language (UML) representations of state charts into source code in the C, C++, and Python computing languages. ("State charts" signifies graphical descriptions of states and state transitions of a spacecraft or other complex system.) The UML representations constituting the input...

The Pointing History Engine (PHE) is a computer program that provides mathematical transformations needed to reconstruct, from downlinked telemetry data, the attitude of the Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) as a function of time. The PHE also...

Software has been developed for an improved method of correcting for the atmospheric optical effects (primarily, effects of aerosols and water vapor) in spectral images of the surface of the Earth acquired by airborne and spaceborne remote-sensing instruments. In this method, the variables...

A description of the functions and data structures is defined that would be necessary to implement the Chapel concept of distributions, domains, allocation, access, and interfaces to the compiler for transformations from Chapel source to their run-time implementation for these concepts. A...

Researchers at JPL and Arizona State University conducted a comparative study of three candidate algorithms for estimating components of the Martian atmosphere, using raw (uncalibrated) data collected by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS). THEMIS is an...

A paper discusses the continuing work of the Mobile Exploration System Project, which has been performing studies toward the design of hybrid communication networks for future exploratory missions to remote planets. A typical network could include stationary radio transceivers on a...

A prototype wireless acoustic measurement system (WAMS) is one of two main subsystems of the Acoustic Prediction/ Measurement Tool, which comprises software, acoustic instrumentation, and electronic hardware combined to afford integrated capabilities for predicting and measuring noise emitted by rocket and jet...

A semi-empirical theoretical model and a C++ computer program that implements the model have been developed for use in predicting the noise generated by a rocket or jet engine. The computer program, entitled the Realtime Rocket and Jet Engine Noise Analysis and Prediction Software, is one of two main...

PyCraft is a computer program that provides an interactive, workbench-like computing environment for developing and testing algorithms for multibody dynamics. Examples of multibody dynamic systems amenable to analysis with the help of PyCraft include land vehicles, spacecraft, robots, and molecular...

The term “SiC MCPMs” (wherein “MCPM” signifies “multi-chip power module”) denotes electronic power-supply modules containing multiple silicon carbide power devices and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) control integrated-circuit chips. SiC MCPMs are being developed as building blocks...

The L-3 Communications Model 999H traveling-wave tube (TWT) has been demonstrated to generate an output power of 144 W at 60-percent overall efficiency in continuous-wave operation over the frequency band from 31.8 to 32.3 GHz. The best TWT heretofore commercially available for operation...

The cryo-hydro integrated robotic penetrator system (CHIRPS) is a partially developed instrumentation system that includes a probe designed to deeply penetrate the Europan ice sheet in a search for signs of life. The CHIRPS could also be used on Earth for similar exploration of the polar ice caps —...

A Mathcad computer program largely automates the design and analysis of the restraint layer (the primary load-bearing layer) of an inflatable vessel that consists of one or more sections having cylindrical, toroidal, and/or spherical shape(s). A restraint layer typically comprises webbing...

A computer program that belongs to the class known among software experts as output truth-maintenance systems (output TMSs) has been devised as one of a number of software tools for reducing the size of the knowledge base that must be searched during execution of artificial-intelligence...

Marshall Aerospace Vehicle Representation in C (MAVERIC) is a computer program for generic, low-to-high-fidelity simulation of the flight(s) of one or more launch vehicle(s) or spacecraft. MAVERIC is designed to accommodate multi-staged vehicles, powered serially or in parallel, with...