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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Signal-conditioning amplifier recorders (SCAmpRs) have been proposed as a means of simplifying and upgrading the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Ground Measurement System (GMS), which is a versatile...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
SpaceWire Driver Software for Special DSPs
A computer program provides a high-level C-language interface to electronics circuitry that controls a SpaceWire interface in a system based on a space qualified version of the ADSP-21020 digital signal processor (DSP). SpaceWire is a spacecraft-oriented standard for packet-switching data-communication...
Briefs: Software
Software for Preprocessing Data From Rocket-Engine Tests
Three computer programs have been written to preprocess digitized outputs of sensors during rocket-engine tests at Stennis Space Center (SSC). The programs apply exclusively to the SSC "E" test-stand complex and utilize the SSC file format. The programs are the following:
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Proposed integrated-circuit modules called "nanoconverters" would derive DC power from impinging electromagnetic beams having frequencies in the terahertz range. Nanoconverters are composed of microscopic...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Rotary electrical couplings based on induction (transformer action) rather than conduction between rotating and stationary circuitry have been invented. These couplings provide an alternative to slip...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) circuits for measuring spatially varying intensities of beams of low-energy charged particles have been developed. These circuits are intended especially...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Software for Remote Monitoring of Space-Station Payloads
Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) is a suite of application programs that enables geographically dispersed users to monitor scientific payloads aboard the International Space Station (ISS). TReK provides local ground support services that can simultaneously receive, process, record, playback,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Relating Downlink Data Products to Uplink Commands
An improved data-labeling system provides for automatic association of data products of an exploratory robot (downlink information) with previously transmitted commands (uplink information) that caused the robot to gather the data. Such association is essential to correct and timely analysis of the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Virtually all spring manufacturers must test their products with some kind of load testing machine. Testing ensures that the product is produced and shipped within the customer's specifications. Or does it? Disputes over...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The figure depicts a prototype of a robotic-manipulator gripping device that includes two passive compliant fingers, suitable for picking up and manipulating objects that have irregular shapes and/or...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed instrumented robotic vehicle called an "aerover" would fly, roll along the ground, and/or float on bodies of liquid, as needed. The aerover would combine features of an aerobot (a robotic...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A small friction-stir- welding tool has been developed for use in tack welding of aluminum-alloy workpieces. It is necessary to tack-weld the workpieces in order to hold them together...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved method of selective plating of metals and possibly other materials involves the use of directed high-intensity acoustic beams. The beams, typically in the ultrasonic frequency...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A suitlock assembly that comprises a docking fixture and mechanism has been invented to facilitate and accelerate donning and doffing of a sealed protective suit and/or to enable ingress and...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An optoelectronic apparatus has been invented as a noninvasive means of measuring the concentration of glucose in the human body. The apparatus performs polarimetric and interferometric...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Solution-Adaptive Program for Computing 2D/Axi Viscous Flow
A computer program solves the Navier- Stokes equations governing the flow of a viscous, compressible fluid in an axisymmetric or two-dimensional (2D) setting. To obtain solutions more accurate than those generated by prior such programs that utilize regular and/or fixed computational...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An optoelectronic system has been developed for measuring heights, above a floor, of designated points on a large object. In the original application for which the system was conceived,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method of detecting bacterial spores incorporates
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Miniature, relatively inexpensive microbioanalytical systems ("laboratory-on-a-chip" devices) have been proposed for the detection of hazardous microbes and toxic chemicals. Each system...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Pulsed-Source Interferometry in Acoustic Imaging
A combination of pulsed-source interferometry and acoustic diffraction has been proposed for use in imaging subsurface microscopic defects and other features in such diverse objects as integrated-circuit chips, specimens of materials, and mechanical parts. A specimen to be inspected by this technique...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Live/Dead Bacterial Spore Assay Using DPA-Triggered Tb Luminescence
A method of measuring the fraction of bacterial spores in a sample that remain viable exploits DPA-triggered luminescence of Tb3+ and is based partly on the same principles as those described in the immediately preceding article. Unlike prior methods for performing such live/dead...
Briefs: Medical
Growth Conditions To Reduce Oxalic Acid Content of Spinach
A controlled environment agricultural (CEA) technique to increase the nutritive value of spinach has been developed. This technique makes it possible to reduce the concentration of oxalic acid in spinach leaves. It is desirable to reduce the oxalic acid content because oxalic acid acts as...
Briefs: Medical
The hydrodynamic focusing bioreactor (HFB) is a bioreactor system designed for three-dimensional cell culture and tissue-engineering investigations on orbiting spacecraft and in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Further work on beacon-based exception analysis for multimissions (BEAM), a method of real-time, automated diagnosis of a complex electromechanical systems, has greatly...
Briefs: Information Technology
Self-Supervised Dynamical Systems
Some progress has been made in a continuing effort to develop mathematical models of the behaviors of multi- agent systems known in biology, economics, and sociology (e.g., systems ranging from single or a few biomolecules to many interacting higher organisms). This effort at an earlier stage was reported in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Irreversible Entropy Production in Two-Phase Mixing Layers
This report presents a study of dissipation (irreversible production of entropy) in three-dimensional, temporal mixing layers laden with evaporating liquid drops. The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of evaporating drops on the development of turbulent features in flows....
Briefs: Software
Software for Tracking Costs of Mars Projects
The Mars Cost Tracking Model is a computer program that administers a system set up for tracking the costs of future NASA projects that pertain to Mars. Previously, no such tracking system existed, and documentation was written in a variety of formats and scattered in various places. It was difficult to...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software Computes Tape-Casting Parameters
Tcast2 is a FORTRAN computer program that accelerates the setup of a process in which a slurry containing metal particles and a polymeric binder is cast, to a thickness regulated by a doctor blade, onto fibers wound on a rotating drum to make a “green” precursor of a metal-matrix/fiber composite tape....
Briefs: Medical
Sports-related injuries are a common cause of damaged ligaments and tendons in shoulders, knees, wrists, elbows and ankles, and can usually be repaired through arthroscopic surgery. Through an...
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