Electronics & Software

A document outlines a computational method that can be incorporated into two prior methods used to invert Global Positioning System (GPS) occultation data [signal data acquired by a low-Earth-orbiting satellite as either this or the GPS satellite rises above or falls below the horizon] to obtain...

The Real-Time Control (RTC) Application Framework is a high-level software framework written in C++ that supports the rapid design and implementation of object-oriented application programs. This framework provides built-in functionality that solves common software development problems within...

The Science Activity Planner (SAP) software system includes an uplink-planning component, which enables collaborative planning of activities to be undertaken by an exploratory robot on a remote planet or on Earth. Included in the uplink-planning component is the SAP-Uplink Browser, which enables users...

Several computer programs have been developed to enable efficient administration of a large, heterogeneous, UNIX-based computing and communication network that includes a variety of computers connected to a variety of sub-networks. One program provides secure software tools for administrators to...

Parallel Component Performance Benchmarks is a computer program developed to aid the evaluation of the Common Component Architecture (CCA) — a software architecture, based on a component model, that was conceived to foster high-performance computing, including parallel computing. More specifically, this...

A software system has been developed for prioritizing newly acquired geological data onboard a planetary rover. The system has been designed to enable efficient use of limited communication resources by transmitting the data likely to have the most scientific value. This software operates onboard a...

Multi-Mission Telecom Analysis Tool (MMTAT) is a C-language computer program for analyzing proposed spacecraft telecommunication systems. MMTAT utilizes parameterized input and computational models that can be run on standard desktop computers to perform fast and accurate analyses of telecommunication...

A recently developed high-speed digital correlator is especially well suited for processing readings of a passive microwave polarimeter. This circuit computes the auto-correlations of, and the cross-correlations among, data in four digital input streams representing samples of in-phase (I)...

A simple alternative technique has been devised protecting delicate equipment against electrostatic discharge (ESD) in settings in which workers wear communication headsets. In the original setting in which the technique was devised, the workers who wear the headsets also wear anti-ESD grounding...

Improved transmission-line pulse generators of the vector-inversion type are being developed as lightweight sources of pulsed high voltage for diverse applications, including spacecraft thrusters, portable x-ray imaging systems, impulse radar systems, and corona-discharge systems for sterilizing...

An improved design concept for direct methanol fuel cells makes it possible to construct fuel-cell stacks that can weigh as little as one-third as much as do conventional bipolar fuel-cell stacks of equal power. The structural-support components of the improved cells and stacks can be made of...

The Nanoelectronic Modeling 3-D (NEMO 3-D) computer program has been upgraded to open-source status through elimination of license-restricted components. The present version functions equivalently to the version reported in “Software for Numerical Modeling of Nanoelectronic Devices”...

Jurassicprok is a computer program that generates strip-map digital elevation models and other data products from raw data acquired by an airborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system. This software can process data from a variety of airborne SAR systems but is designed especially for the GeoSAR...

The Jurassicprok Interferometric Calibration Software (also called “Calibration Processor” or simply “CP”) estimates the calibration parameters of an airborne synthetic- aperture-radar (SAR) system, the raw measurement data of which are processed by the Jurassicprok software described in the...

Motion Measurement Processor (MMP) is one of three computer programs that are used together in the operation of a terrainmapping dual-frequency interferometric synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) system. The other two programs — Jurassicprok and Calibration Processor — are described in the two...

A Ka-band integrated range and bearing- angle formation sensor called the Autonomous Formation Flying (AFF) Sensor has been developed to enable deep-space formation flying of multiple spacecraft. The AFF Sensor concept is similar to that of the Global Positioning System (GPS), but the AFF Sensor would not...

A computer program implements a methodology, denoted probabilistic risk reduction, that is intended to aid in planning the development of complex software and/or hardware systems. This methodology integrates two complementary prior methodologies: (1) that of probabilistic risk assessment and (2) a...

An architecture for a proposed active pixel sensor (APS) and a design to implement the architecture in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuit provide for some advanced features that are expected to be especially desirable for tracking pointlike features...