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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Automated Apparatus for Welding to Seal Pyrotechnic Devices
An automated, remotely controllable apparatus has been developed for resistance welding for hermetic sealing of pyrotechnic devices, as a substitute for special-purpose welding equipment that is no longer commercially available. Hermetic sealing of a pyrotechnic device involves a sequence...
Briefs: Medical
A technique for detecting bacterial endospores via luminescence affords a sensitivity much greater than that of a prior luminescence-based technique from which it is derived. The...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Compact, lightweight, sensitive correlation spectrometers for detecting gaseous byproducts of the onset of fire are under development. These spectrometers would be installed in aircraft,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An instrumentation system measures the concentrations of three principal contaminants (nonvolatile residue, hydrocarbon vapor, and particle fallout) in real time. The system includes a...
Briefs: Information Technology
A recently invented coding technique for data compression is based on recursive interleaving of variable-to-variable-length binary source codes. The technique can be used as a key component in data...
Briefs: Software
The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Facilities Functional Review web site provides dynamic electronic publication of select portions of MSFC’s facility-management database. This is...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software for Internet Collaboration on Mars Rover Operations
A report provides additional information about two major sub- systems of the software system described in “Software for Ground Operations for a Prototype Mars Rover” (NPO-21235), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 11 (November 2001), page 46. The software system was designed for, and...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Deep-Space Ranging Using Pseudonoise Codes
A report discusses aspects of a ranging system in which the distance between the Earth and a spacecraft is determined from the difference between the phases of (1) modulation on a radio signal trans- mitted to the spacecraft and (2) a replica of the modulation transmitted back to Earth by a transponder on...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Sonic-Boom Tests of Model of a Supersonic Business Jet Plane
A report discusses wind-tunnel tests of a scale model of a con- ceptual two-engine jet airplane designed to carry 10 passengers, have a range of 4,000 miles (≈6,400 km), cruise at a mach number of 2.0, and generate a low sonic boom [char- acterized by a shock overpressure of ≤ 0.5...
Briefs: Medical
Use of Mechanical Event Simulation Software for Bio-Mechanical Eye Research
This report examines the simulation of eye move- ment and resulting stresses with mech- anical event simulation software to research retinal detachments, a condition that affects 25,000 people annually. The set-up of the bio- mechanical finite element model of the eye, as...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Optimization of Synthetic Jet Actuators
A report presents a study oriented toward optimization of synthetic jet actuators. [A syn- thetic jet actuator is a fluidic control device that partly resembles a loudspeaker. It typically comprises a piezo- electric actuator/ diaphragm situated in a cavity, facing an orifice or nozzle at the opposite end of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Multiple-Beam System for Fast Raman Spectrometry
A developmental instrumentation system rapidly acquires full Raman spectra of gas molecules. The system is based on the principle of multiplex coherent antistokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and incorporates improvements over prior multiplex CARS systems. Among the potential applications for systems...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
According to a proposal, laser-induced acoustic shock waves would be used to lyse cells as needed for biomolecular investigations, including, for example, diagnosis of diseases, pregnancy...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Profile Refractometry for Measuring the Soret Effect
Profile refractometry is a laser-based technique for measuring the index of refraction of a fluid as a function of time and position in a fluid. The technique was developed for use in quantifying the Soret effect in a binary fluid subject to an applied thermal gradient. (The Soret effect is the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Synthesis of Optical Pulses Using Brillouin Amplification
A technique for Fourier synthesis of optical pulses involves radio-frequency (RF) phase modulation of laser beams, Brillouin selective amplification of modulation sidebands, and, finally, generation of pulses through coherent superposition of (and thus interference among) the sidebands....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Hexfoil rotary flexures have been proposed as pivots suitable for use in precise optical instruments. In the application that inspired the hexfoil concept, there is a requirement for a limited-rotation mirror gimbal that...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A Semiautomated Coordinate-Measuring System
The Advanced Payload Transfer Measurement System (APTMS) comprises electromechanical sensors and sensor output-processing circuits. Designed specifically for measuring offsets between spacecraft payload trunnions and trunnion supports during ground-based payload-transfer operations, the APTMS could be...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Improvements in the Use of Water Washes in Testing for NVR
Some improvements have been made to enhance the role of water as a test solvent for determining the amount of hydrocarbon nonvolatile residue (NVR) present on an item of hardware that is required to be totally or nearly devoid of such residue. Water is now used as an NVR-testing solvent...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Polyimide tape (Kapton™ or equivalent) has been found to be effective as a material for masking selected areas of a semi- conductor wafer that is about to be processed in a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Some airfoil designs have been shown by theory and small-scale tests to be capable of passively maintaining laminar flow at super -sonic speeds. More recently, flight tests have proven that these...
Briefs: Materials
A compact spring-loading design has been proposed to increase the reliability of seals in the joints of vacuum cryogenic systems. Heretofore, such joints have been, variously, compact or...
Briefs: Software
Software Provides Thermal Optimization of a Computer CPU
Heat is the primary enemy of any electronic component. In order for an electronic device to have a long, problem-free life, cooling must be an important design consideration. The problem of cooling CPUs, in particular, has grown as processors have become more powerful. Water cooling systems...
Briefs: Aerospace
An aircraft-mounted instrument for high- resolution, in situ measurement of the abundances of liquid water and ice in clouds is undergoing development. This instrument is intended to overcome the dis-...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Miniature, lightweight nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) spectrometers suitable for characterizing ferromagnetic minerals in the field are undergoing development. In previously developed miniature NMR...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
MEMS Design Optimization With FEA
This report examines design considerations in one of the most promising new areas of engineering – Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). Designing and optimizing MEMS devices involves unique challenges, including analyzing the inter- dependent physical phenomena to which MEMS devices are sensitive and working...
Briefs: Materials
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing apparatuses for electrolysis of methanol to produce pure hydrogen for use at industrial sites, in scientific laboratories, and in fuel...
Briefs: Medical
Further Developments Regarding Noise-Reducing Slots in QWIPs
A report presents additional information on the devices described in “Noise-Reducing Slots in Quantum-Well Infrared Photodetectors” (NPO-20518), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 6 (June 2001), page 6a. To recapitulate: it was proposed that incorporation of suitably dimensioned crossed...
Briefs: Information Technology
Time-Parallel Algorithms for Solving PDEs
A report presents additional details about a class of massively parallel algorithms for finite-difference numerical solution of time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs). Some aspects of these algorithms were described in two previous articles in NASA Tech Briefs; namely, “Massively Parallel...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The Rover Analysis Modeling and Simulation (ROAMS) algorithm is to solve the kinematics of a wheeled mo- bile robot (rover) traversing on a rocky terrain. The rover is constructed using...
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Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Transportation
Advantages of Smart Power Distribution Unit Design for Automotive &...
Upcoming Webinars: Unmanned Systems
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Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
From Spreadsheets to Insights: Fast Data Analysis Without Complex...
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Cooling a New Generation of Aerospace and Defense Embedded...
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Beyond AI-Copy-Paste Engineering: Advanced AI-Integration Success...
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
