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Briefs: Energy
Oxygen Batteries Based on a Solid Polymer Electrolyte
Scientists have developed a derivative of the lithium-ion cell that could prove useful in spaceflight and commercial applications in which it is planned to use oxygen batteries based on solid polymer electrolytes. This derivative cell, which contains a solid polymer electrolyte and an oxygen gas...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Submillimeter-sized, transparent, solid, truncated spheres and ellipsoids for use as optical resonators in integrated microphotonic devices would be made by microfabrication...
Briefs: Information Technology
A methodology of computer-aided planning has been developed to (1) accelerate the generation of plans for activities within complex systems of personnel and equipment; (2) increase the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Electronic Time-Card System
A computer-based automated system has been developed to replace a cumbersome and error-prone paper-based system for recording employees' work times. The automated system minimizes the consumption of paper and eliminates the need for weekly pick-up and delivery of time sheets throughout the Kennedy Space Center. The...
Briefs: Medical
An improved stretching device has been developed for use in research on the effects of unidirectional loading on human and animal cells. The device is capable of applying or removing a load (a...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Small, temporary, disposable inserts, called "gap welding preforms," have been proposed for use in attaching electrically conductive ribbons to radio-frequency (RF) electronic circuits. As explained below, the use of gap...
Briefs: Medical
Figure 1 schematically illustrates a laboratory apparatus that provides quantitative information on the density and on the rate of increase (or decrease) of density at which bacteria...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Software To Detect Malfunctions in Anesthesia Equipment
To reduce response times and save lives in operating rooms, community trauma centers, and remote combat care facilities, a team of scientists working on behalf of Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) has developed an artificial-intelligence alarm-management software system that detects...
Briefs: Medical
A compact, lightweight, device makes it possible to assess the effects of antibiotics on bacteria. The device safely contains the antibiotic/bacteria mixtures, and its operation...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Two-dimensional active-pixel-spectral lidar (TAPSL) is a proposed remote-sensing technique for obtaining spatially, spectrally, and temporally resolved information about terrain or other targets....
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Heterodyne Doppler Lidar Using Pseudonoise Code
A low-power, miniature Doppler lidar instrument is being developed for use in measuring opacity (from dust) and wind profiles in the Martian atmosphere. The instrument could also be used on Earth to measure turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer, for assessments of urban and regional air...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Temperature-Compensating Microwave Attenuators
Improved passive temperature-compensating attenuators have been developed for use in processing radio signals at frequencies up to about 18 GHz. In general, temperature-compensating circuits and devices are needed to minimize (preferably, to eliminate) undesired temperature dependences of the...
Briefs: Motion Control
Modified Hartley oscillator circuits are being developed for use in driving large piezoelectric benders in periodic motion, as in some piezoelectrically driven pumps. These circuits decrease...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Acoustic Navigation Aid for Autonomous Miners
Miners today use externally powered machines designed to be used by a single operator, the autonomous miner. Many companies offer computer-operated mining equipment that can be used for both high wall and underground applications. Programmable logic controls with ring laser gyroscopes and inclinometers...
Briefs: Motion Control
A proposed method of calibration of micromachined vibratory gyroscopes would make it unnecessary to test the gyroscopes at known rates of rotation. At present, calibration entails inertial tests...
Briefs: Motion Control
A personal-computer-based system has been developed as a prototype of electronic signal-processing and computing systems for diagnosis of turbines, motors, and other rotary machines...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Microstrip Patch Rectenna With High Output Voltage
A prototype dual-polarization microstrip patch rectenna dimensioned for an operating frequency of 8.51 GHz has been built to demonstrate a design concept for obtaining maximum output voltage from a rectenna of a given size. This rectenna contains nine square microstrip patch antenna elements in a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Lightweight optoelectronic systems built around advanced image sensors and display panels have been proposed for making selected objects appear nearly transparent and thus effectively invisible. These systems are denoted...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An apparatus called a "personal motion platform" (PMP) is undergoing development for use in adding the sensations of motion to computer-controlled simulated environments of the type now popularly known as...
Briefs: Information Technology
Program for Viewing Remotely Generated Summary Data
The Beacon Visualization (BeaVis) computer program provides a ground-based computing environment for displaying, tracking, storing, and maneuvering through telemetric data streams that contain summaries of engineering data generated aboard a spacecraft. BeaVis can also serve as a general-purpose...
Briefs: Information Technology
The numerical speed of sound is a variable that is used in the numerical solution of flows from low to high speeds. The numerical speed of sound is an effective speed of sound associated with Mach numbers used in the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A research project now underway addresses the concept of utilizing stratospheric mountain waves to soar to high altitudes in sailplanes. Stratospheric mountain waves are mountain waves that...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
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 proposed...
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 are...
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 ultrasonic...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Calcium bromide can be added to the sulfur filling in a sulfur lamp to increase the emission of red light for enhanced growth of plants. Red light is more efficacious for plant growth...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Data-Filter Algorithm for Monitoring a Power System
An algorithm has been developed for a computer-based electronic system that would aid human ground controllers in monitoring data from sensors in the electric-power system of the International Space Station. Among other things, the algorithm encodes knowledge of human experts; thereby harnessing...
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 heart,...
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