Tech Briefs

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A comprehensive library of technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories covering all aspects of innovations in electronics, software, photonics, imaging, motion control, automation, sensors, test, materials, manufacturing, mechanical, and mechatronics.

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Briefs: Information Technology
Software for Display and Analysis of Scientific Data

The Southwest Data Display and Analysis System (SDDAS) is a flexible, extensible software system intended to support analysis of space physics data from multiple instruments and multiple spacecraft missions. SDDAS was developed in response to the need of space scientists to be able to gain...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

The figure illustrates a simple mechanism designed for anchoring one end of a cable on a structure and for adjusting the tension in the cable. Unlike turnbuckles and other conventional...

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Briefs: Materials

Polyimide-matrix/carbon-fiber composite materials with enhanced thermo-oxidative stability can be made from carbon fibers that have been coated with suitably formulated reactive...

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Briefs: Materials
Tape-Spring Reinforcements for Inflatable Structural Tubes

Lightweight, inflatable tubular structural components containing tape-spring reinforcements are undergoing development. The basic (without tape-spring reinforcement) tubular components are made, variously, of aluminum laminates or composite materials and are under consideration for use...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

An improved mechanism has been devised to facilitate the adjustment of tension in a cable in a cable-and-pulley drive. Cable-and-pulley drives are being used increasingly in robots and other...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Designing Purging Flows of Clean, Dry Gases

A method of designing purging flows of clean, dry gases to maintain acceptably low levels of contamination in enclosed volumes has been developed. The method is applicable to diverse enclosures that must be kept clean, including housings of precise optical instruments, clinical facilities, facilities...

Briefs: Materials
Update on a Progressive-Failure-Analysis Software System

A report presents additional information on the GENOA-PFA computer program, which was described in "Software for Simulating Progressive Fracture in Braided PMCs" (LEW-16845), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 24, No. 3 (March 2000), page 52. On the basis of material-property data, finite-element...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Simulations of Evolving Transitional Mixing Layers

A report describes direct numerical simulations of single- and two-phase, temporally developing transitional mixing layers at Reynolds numbers (based on the initial vorticity thickness and mean velocity difference) from 200 to 600. As many as 300 × 332 ×180 grid points were used to discretize...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Simulations of a Transitional Droplet-Laden Mixing Layer

A report describes direct numerical simulations of a droplet-laden mixing layer (e.g., evaporating droplets of a hydrocarbon fuel in air) undergoing a transition to mixing turbulence. The governing equations are those of Lagrangian transport of discrete droplets through a flowing gas,...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Thermodynamic Instability of InxGa1–xAs/GaAs Quantum Dots

A report describes experiments that generated evidence of thermodynamic instability of nanometer-size islands (quantum dots) in InxGa1–xAs grown on GaAs. InxGa1–xAs/GaAs specimens were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition,...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Portable ECG/EGG Data Recorder

A portable electronic unit with no moving parts except button switches digitizes and stores a 48-hour record of the myoelectric activity of the stomach and heart as sensed via electrodes on the surface of the abdomen. Just as the more familiar electrocardiogram (ECG) is useful in diagnosing the condition of the...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A system for determining the locations of nearby lightning strikes from electric-field and acoustic measurements has been developed and built. The system includes at least three receivers,...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A prototype W-Band, low-noise amplifier has been fabricated by bump-bonding a high-speed, low-noise InP high-electron-mobility (HEMT) transistor onto the previously fabricated passive...

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Briefs: Test & Measurement

An apparatus based on line-of-sight resonant absorption of ultraviolet light yields measurement data from which one can calculate the concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) and of hydroxyl...

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Briefs: Test & Measurement

The Gyroscope Automated Testbed is a computer-controlled apparatus designed primarily for automated testing of vibratory gyroscopes. It can also be used to test other devices: By changing...

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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Electromechanical Testing of Microelectromechanical Devices

A method of electromechanical testing has been proposed for general diagnosis, evaluation of performance, and burn-in (accelerated life testing) of microelectromechanical devices. The tests would ordinarily be performed at the wafer level; that is, after the devices have been fabricated...

Briefs: Materials
Enhanced Shield Against Meteoroids and Orbital Debris

NASA scientists, who are very concerned with the increasing hazard of impacts of orbital debris impact on spacecraft, have designed the "stuffed Whipple" shield — a lightweight, relatively inexpensive alternative to simple aluminum meteoroid/orbital-debris (M/OD) shield. The stuffed Whipple...

Briefs: Materials

Improved zinc anodes for silver/zinc and nickel/zinc rechargeable electrochemical cells have been invented. This invention will increase the usefulness and decrease cycle-life costs of...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

The figure schematically illustrates three manipulator mechanisms for positioning an end effector (a robot hand or other object) in a plane (which would ordinarily be horizontal)....

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Path-Planning Program for a Redundant Robotic Manipulator

The Space Station Robot Manipulator System (SSRMS) Path Planning Program is a computer program that, in comparison with software developed previously for the same purpose, supports operations of faster and more complex robots. Two especially notable features of the program are that (1) it...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Maskless Gray-Scale X-Ray Lithography

In a proposed technique of maskless gray-scale x-ray lithography, a photoresist to be patterned would be exposed to a parallel beam of hard x-rays. As explained below, the photoresist would be translated across the beam at a varying rate to effect one-dimensional spatial variations in the radiation dose...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Nonsaturating Electronic Image Sensors

Focal-plane electronic image sensors that would not saturate when exposed to intense illumination have been proposed. These sensors could be used to acquire accurate, scientific-quality data on images (including spectral images), even when the images contain both very bright and very dark areas. The...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

A methodology for designing highly accurate readout circuits for infrared (IR) image detectors that have large pixel detector capacitances (of the order of tens of picofarads) and...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Efforts are under way to develop a technique of noncontact acousto-ultrasonic testing in which (1) a pulsed laser beam excites ultrasonic waves in a plate specimen and (2) the...

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Briefs: Test & Measurement

A lightweight, low-power-consumption power supply has been developed to generate a combination of radio-frequency (RF) and dc voltages needed for the operation of a miniature quadrupole...

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Briefs: Information Technology

Forth Source Code Analysis Tool Set (FSCATS) is a computer program that provides a wide range of capabilities for documenting, analyzing, and reverse-engineering computer programs written in the Forth...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Controlling Crystal-Growth Habit in Directional Freezing

A method of controlling the crystal-growth habit in directional freezing has been devised. A substance can be purified by directional-freeze crystallization, wherein (1) the liquid phase of the substance is partially frozen, causing impurities to become preferentially concentrated in the...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

A computer program (see figure) has been developed to serve as a time- and cost-effective means of automating thermal analyses of such hypersonic flight systems as the space shuttle orbiter, the...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

A computer program written within the Mathematica software system automatically generates FORTRAN computer codes that numerically simulate, with high accuracy, the acoustical...

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On-Demand Webinars: Defense

From Data to Decision: How AI Enhances Warfighter Readiness

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Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

April Battery & Electrification Summit

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Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024

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Upcoming Webinars: Materials

Unleashing Epoxy's Potential: Ensuring Hermetic Sealing in Modern...

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Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement

Building an Automotive EMC Test Plan

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Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace

The Moon and Beyond from a Thermal Perspective

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