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Briefs: Motion Control
A proposed solenoid-actuated valve would open for a short time to pass a very small quantity of fluid. The valve could be used to meter a specified total quantity of the fluid through repeated...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A developmental apparatus and process for the fabrication of photonic devices utilize intense, focused laser light projected and/or diffracted in controlled patterns. The apparatus and process can be...
Briefs: Motion Control
Formulation and Algorithm for Multi-Flexible-Body Dynamics
An improved formulation of the dynamics of multiple flexible bodies coupled via joints, and an algorithm that implements the formulation, have been developed at Johnson Space Center (JSC). A robot arm with multiple, somewhat flexible links is a prime example of a dynamic system to which...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
In today's manufacturing world, the need for ultraprecise position measurement and control grows as feature sizes shrink in the semiconductor industry and the world of...
Briefs: Motion Control
Myoelectric Teleoperation for Robotics and Prosthetics
Johnson Space Center is sponsoring continuing research on the use of myoelectric signals to control dexterous robotic and prosthetic hands. This research is expected to advance the state of the art beyond that of today's most common, commercially available, myoelectrically controlled...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Microelectromechanical single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switches with predominantly planar configurations have been proposed for use in radio-frequency (RF) circuits. These switches would have overall...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Making Submicron Features by Ion Etching Through PMMA Masks
Experiments have shown that a substrate can be patterned with submicron features by the following procedure:
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Reactive-Ion Etching of Smooth Vertical Walls in Silicon
An advanced technique of deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) has been developed for fabricating smooth vertical walls in silicon wafers. These walls are suitable for use as bounding surfaces of optical waveguides in photonic and optoelectronic devices. The roughness of a typical 8-µm-high...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has ruggedized and qualified an inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) oxygen sensor that accurately and reliably aids assessment, in flight...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A device has been developed for measuring heat-transfer rates at many points underneath individual bubbles during boiling, in order to determine the heat-transfer coefficient as a function of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure schematically depicts a flow-measurement system based on an acoustic sensor mounted on a pipe, along which flows a single or two-phase fluid. The electrical output of the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fiber-optic-coupled differential-pressure transducers are being developed for use in hot, harsh environments like those in the cores of aircraft turbine engines. The prior approach to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Two airborne spectrum analyzers were developed for acquiring dynamic data, characterized by frequencies up to 25 kHz, from a hypersonic-crossflow-transition experiment aboard the air-launched...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Eye-Tracking Apparatus
A previously developed apparatus that tracks the orientation of the human eye has been modified to make it less susceptible to error induced by ambient infrared light. The apparatus is a commercial product intended primarily for use as a computer-control interface for a person who is physically unable to use a...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
An algorithm has been devised to greatly simplify and improve the calibration and the reduction of systematic noise of an imaging interferometer or other similar interferometric instrument....
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A miniature birefringence-measuring system has been developed for use in investigating extensional flows of non-Newtonian polymers in microgravity. The system could also be used on Earth to perform...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software Collects Planning and Scheduling Requirements
Interim User's Requirements Collection (IURC) is a software system that generates an interactive graphical user interface that enables users of the International Space Station (ISS) to specify their payload-planning and -scheduling requirements via the World Wide Web (WWW). IURC includes...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software for Ground Processing of Data From Landsat 7
Three computer programs have been developed for ground processing of Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data from Landsat 7. The three programs and their functions are the following:
Briefs: Materials
Plasma CVD of Boron Carbide by Pulsed Secondary Discharge
An improved method of plasma chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) of a thin film of boron carbide has been devised. Boron carbide is useful because it is hard, is electrically insulating, withstands high temperature, and resists chemical attack. Plasma CVD of boron carbide involves the thermal...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Magnetic Couplings for Gas-Driven Catapults
A proposed magnetic-coupling scheme would afford additional degrees of freedom to optimize the designs of gas-driven catapults or launchers. The scheme could be applied to gas guns in diverse applications, including launching spacecraft or aircraft, propelling various objects at high speeds along the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A relief valve has been designed to limit the differential pressure between two fluids that are not allowed to be mixed. This valve offers advantages over both simple check valves and simple relief valves. A...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Vortex-Fired Liquid-Fuel Rocket Combustion Chambers
Liquid-fuel rocket engines that utilize vortex flow fields to keep combustion-chamber walls cool have been investigated in computational simulations and experiments. In an engine of this type, the vortex flow establishes radial gradients of pressure and density that cause the lower-density hot...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Systems for Dynamic Control of Growth of Protein Crystals
Computer-controlled laboratory apparatuses for real-time monitoring and control of the growth of protein crystals are undergoing development. By use of an apparatus of this type, one can monitor and control several parameters that affect the growth of protein crystals; these parameters...
Briefs: Medical
In a new method of delivering drugs to target sites in a human body, (1) the drugs would be stored in inactive forms in timed-release microcapsules that would be injected, then (2) the drugs would...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Spaceborne Telescope for Communication, Ranging, and Imaging
A report describes a program to develop a multi-function telescope to be carried aboard spacecraft of the planned X2000 series of planetary missions. [A related multi-function telescope was described in "Telescope for Imaging and Laser Communication" (NPO-20388), NASA Tech Briefs,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Dislocation-Induced Changes in InxGa1 -xAs Quantum Dots
A report describes an experimental investigation that revealed a previously unknown type of spatial alignment of quantum dots (QDs) in InxGa1 -xAs/GaAs multilayer structures. Multilayer arrays of QDs (in the form of nanometer-sized InxGa1-xAs islands) were formed by alternately depositing...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Solitons on WDM Beams in a Nonlinear Optical Fiber
This paper sets the ultimate limit on the maximum amount of optical data pulses that can be sent through a single fiber in a given period under the wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) format. The discovery in 1973 that optical soliton on a single wavelength beam can exist in fiber is one of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fast Observers for Spacecraft Pointing Control
A report discusses the design of fast stochastic observers for spacecraft pointing control. In this special context, "observers" signifies mathematical algorithms, implemented on computers aboard spacecraft, through which one processes sensory data (principally, the outputs of star trackers and...
Briefs: Materials
Nesting-Hoop Solar Sail
A report discusses a proposed nesting-hoop solar sail that would be used to propel a spacecraft on a deep-space mission. The nesting-hoop design concept was chosen as one that would afford a desired combination of small mass and compact stowage during launch. The sail would include multiple disks, each comprising a thin...
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