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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Designs for Safer Launching of Spacecraft Fission System
A report proposes the development of two different mechanisms that would prevent inadvertent startup of reactors in nuclear-fission-based propulsion and power systems in future spacecraft. The purpose of this development is to contribute to safety by ensuring that radioactivity is kept to...
Briefs: Information Technology
Automated Planning and Scheduling for a Large Interferometer
A report discusses the potential application of artificial intelligence (AI) to planning, scheduling, and control of the optical configuration and other aspects of the operations of a large astronomical interferometer. Scientific demand and technical requirements necessitate...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Cooperative Communication by Low-Power Radio Transmitters
A report proposes a method of cooperative modulation between (1) low-power radio transceivers associated with sensors geographically dispersed on a remote planet for relaying information between the sensors and an Earth station. The method, denoted node selection on orthogonal...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Uplink/Downlink Spacecraft Radio Occultation Measurements
A report proposes a method to increase the accuracy of Doppler measurements made at the beginnings and endings of Earth/spacecraft radio occultations. Such measurements can reveal structural details of occulting objects in outer space. Heretofore, one-way measurements have been...
Briefs: Materials
Development of Alternatives to Hydrazines as Propellants
A brief report summarizes an investigation of less-toxic alternatives to toxic monopropellant fluids used in launch vehicles, upper stages, and spacecraft propulsion. The toxic fluids in question are (1) hydrazine and its derivatives, used, variously, as fuels or by themselves as...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
ASIC for Controlling a Power-Switching MOSFET
A report describes an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for controlling a power-switching metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) in a spacecraft power-supply system. Denoted an SCA (for switch-control ASIC), this ASIC is designed to be radiation-hard and to...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An improved technique of limited-precision arithmetic has been devised for use in convolutional filtering of image data prior to conversion of the data to binary form. Both...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Network for Forecasting Weather and Diffusion of Toxins
The Meteorological Range Safety Support System/Eastern Range Dispersion Assessment System (MARSS/ERDAS) is a system of interconnected computer workstations designed to acquire, process, and disseminate nearly real-time meteorological data and outputs of mathematical models of the atmospheric...
Briefs: Software
Software for Processing Serial Cross Sections Into 3D Images
The Reconstruction of Serial Sections (ROSS) computer program processes data from a series of tomograms to generate a three-dimensional (3D) representation of an object, and further processes data from the 3D representation to enable the viewing of any part of the object from any of an...
Briefs: Software
Software for Displaying and Comparing Wind-Tunnel Data
DARWIN is a computer program that provides access, via the Internet, to geographically dispersed NASA computer archives of both meta-data and raw test data from wind tunnels and raw simulation data from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sites. DARWIN facilitates the manipulation and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Integrated Environmental Monitoring Instrument
A miniature, battery-powered, semiautonomous environmental monitoring instrument contains advanced meteorological sensors, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver for determining its position, radio-communication circuitry, and a controller that performs measurement, control, and data-communication...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An improved mathematical model enables the somewhat more accurate prediction of the spectral response of a mixer circuit (see figure) that comprises a twin-slot antenna coupled via coplanar...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Charge-Termination Technique for Lithium-Ion Cells
An improved charge-termination technique has been developed to obtain a more accurate balance between charge and discharge of rechargeable lithium-ion-based electrochemical cells and batteries. The technique has been demonstrated experimentally and is now in use in a laboratory battery...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A suite of electronic test equipment has been developed for use in the measurement of key electrical characteristics of advanced, high-speed integrated circuits for communications,...
Briefs: Software
Software for Ground Operations for a Prototype Mars Rover
A software system has been developed for use in Earth operations centers communicating with a robotic exploratory vehicle (rover) on Mars. The software was designed for and field-tested on the Field Integrated Design and Operations rover — a prototype similar to rovers of the...
Briefs: Software
Software Processes SRTM ScanSAR Data Into Topographical Maps
A computer program automatically generates topographical maps from data collected by scan-mode synthetic-aperture radar (scanSAR) during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). A preprocessing subprogram subdivides the SAR data, along with ancillary spacecraft-motion, control,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Algorithm for Autonomous Visual Discovery
An algorithm that can discover potentially interesting objects in image data has been formulated and implemented in software. The algorithm is intended for applications in which the target objects are mathematically ill-defined and/or not known or specified in advance. Potential applications include...
Briefs: Software
Computer Program Generates Test Cases
An Automated Test Case Generator computer program generates parameter-based test cases for testing software and hardware systems. Given N parameters — each of which represents a kind of variation for testing — and a finite set of possible values for each parameter, the program generates individual...
Briefs: Software
Software Manages Documentation in a Large Test Facility
The 3MCS computer program assists an instrumentation engineer in performing the 3 essential functions of design, documentation, and configuration management of measurement and control systems in a large test facility — initially, a propulsion-system test facility at Stennis Space...
Briefs: Software
Software Performs Testing, Monitoring, and Control Functions
The Front End Processor (FEP) Real-Time Embedded Software performs command and data-processing functions for an aeronautical MIL-STD-1553B telemetry link and ground support equipment (GSE) in a spacecraft-equipment-testing environment. The FEP is used in the Test, Control, and...
Briefs: Materials
An apparatus has been developed as a means of controlling the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in air in a closed or semiclosed environmental system. The apparatus takes CO2 from the air in a source...
Briefs: Materials
A Technique for Injecting Ag+ Ions as Biocide into H2O
A simple and reliable technique facilitates the addition of silver ions to water supplies to suppress bacterial contamination. In the original application for which the technique was devised, there is a need for Ag+-ion concentrations at a biocidal levels (0.5 mg/L) in 44-L batches of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The figure schematically illustrates a portable life-support apparatus for any of a variety of protective suits to be worn in hostile environments. A prototype of the apparatus has been...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Thermoelectric Contact Cooler/Freezer
A thermoelectric contact cooler/ freezer is designed to utilize thermal conduction to rapidly freeze blood and urine samples in test tubes and syringes. This apparatus is dependable, wastes little energy, contains no moving parts other than a fan, can operate in a wide temperature range and in any orientation...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Molten-Carbonate Electrolyzers for Making CO and O2
Electrochemical cells in which molten carbonates would serve as electrolytes have been proposed for use in electrolyzing CO2. The proposal was made in an effort to implement a concept of in situ resource utilization (ISRU) for the exploration of Mars; the basic idea is to generate CO (if needed as...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved Spherical Energy Analyzer
An improved spherical energy analyzer (a type of electrostatic mass spectrometer) is under development for use in analyzing a beam of ions generated by a Hall thruster. The major improvement, relative to a commercial spherical energy analyzer, is the addition of a quadrupole stage (with refocusing electron optics)...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Redundant Oxygen-Deficiency Monitoring System
An oxygen-deficiency monitoring system (ODMS) has been developed for a ten-room facility in which the use of large amounts of nitrogen and helium could cause an oxygen deficiency severe enough to be hazardous to personnel. The ODMS comprises three subsystems, of which two monitor three rooms...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Theory of Formation-Flying Control for Multiple Spacecraft
A report presents the mathematical basis of a method of controlling multiple spacecraft flying in formation, subject to control constraints. The spacecraft are assumed to be equipped with relative-position-sensing, relative-velocity-sensing, and communication infrastructure, and with...
Briefs: Information Technology
Self-Organization Based on Quantum Entanglement
A report presents a theoretical study of communication among intelligent agents in the presence of quantum entanglement and the absence of classical (in the sense of non-quantum) communication channels. Several paradigms of self-organization based on quantum entanglement are introduced and...
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