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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Improved Electrical-Impedance Body-Fluids Monitor
The Johnson Space Center (JSC) body-fluids monitor advances the state of the art of measuring hydration levels in humans during spaceflight. Neither bulky nor heavy, this noninvasive instrument is built around a commercial inductance-capacitance-resistance meter, which is used to obtain...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Software for Testing Access List Integrity
Many networks rely on firewalls or filtering routers for frontline network security. Packet filtering firewalls or routers filter incoming or outgoing packets based on a set of access rules. The IP (Internet Protocol) Packet Generator computer program assists in verifying that a packet filtering firewall...
Briefs: Information Technology
Program for Parallel Distributed Processing
A software system has been devised to manage automatically (1) the distribution of mutually independent computing tasks to computer workstations in NASA's Flight Design and Analysis System (FADS) network and (2) the execution of those tasks on those workstations. This program parallelizes serial tasks,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Spacecraft Solar-Wind Trim Panels for Pointing
A report proposes that spacecraft assigned to orbits distant from the Earth be equipped with trim panels that would intercept the solar wind to generate small torques to correct for disturbance torques and thereby help to maintain the spacecraft pointed in the required directions. Paired panels would...
Briefs: Materials
Reaction-Forming Method for Joining SiC-Based Parts
Two reports present additional details about the method described in "Reaction-Forming Method for Joining SiC-Based Ceramic Parts" (LEW-16661), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 3 (March 1999), page 50. To recapitulate: A carbonaceous mixture (typically a paste) is applied to a joint between parts....
Briefs: Information Technology
A method of determining the location and the uncertainty in the location of a mobile robot to subpixel resolution on a map grid has been devised. The method is applicable to a robot...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A methodology of active control has been developed in an effort to alter (preferably to reduce) the tendency of a four-wheel land vehicle to roll over during tight turns and similar...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Program for Computing Dynamics of Multiple Bodies
Symbolic Generator-Based Efficient Multibody Dynamics Algorithm (SOMBAT) is a program that enables speedy and accurate computations that solve equations of motion of multiple bodies. Originally intended for space-based applications (i.e., solving equations for the dynamics of a cluster of flexible...
Briefs: Materials
TRiangular Unstructured Mesh generator by Point insEr Tion (TRUMPET) is a computer program that generates meshes that are composed of triangular cells and are bounded by complex shapes....
Briefs: Materials
A method of analyzing and designing laminated composite-material wraps for columns, arches, domes, and other large reinforced-concrete structures involves an extension of...
Briefs: Materials
Software for Predicting Life of Metal-Matrix Composites
LIPS (LIFE PREDICTION SOFTWARE) is a computer program for predicting the life of an object that is made of a unidirectional-fiber/metal-matrix composite (MMC) material and that is subjected to mechanical loading along the fiber direction. The program is derived from a theory formulated to be...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure schematically illustrates an optoelectronic security system in which binary information on the identity of a person or object is encoded in Bragg gratings in an optical...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The apparatus shown schematically in the figure is an optoelectronic shaft-angle encoder that measures absolute angles with high resolution. This encoder is an improved version of the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
High-Power Laser Illuminator
A laser illuminator system has been developed for use in automated tracking of objects. In its original application, the system illuminates a 5° conical region expected to contain a small satellite at a distance up to 750 m from the space shuttle. If the satellite comes within this region, then a receiving...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A communication controller circuit for a wind-tunnel model is undergoing development. The circuit is intended to serve as part of a highly miniaturized, distributed, modular electronic...
Briefs: Software
GENOA-PFA is a commercial version of the Composite Durability Structural Analysis (CODSTRAN) computer program, which simulates the progression of damage ultimately leading to fracture...
Briefs: Materials
Molecular-Sieve Type 3Å
The term "Molecular-Sieve Type 3Å" denotes a clay-based, zeolite material that revolutionizes a fluid-purification process by removing trace water and iron from nitrogen tetroxide/nitric oxide (MON-3) mixtures used as oxidizer components of spacecraft propellants. Older processes of this type removed only water or iron...
Briefs: Materials
Composite Graphite Anodes Containing Cyclic Ether Additives
Scientists have developed a type of composite graphite anode that will benefit the U.S. space program and private industry by increasing the rechargeability of lithium-ion batteries. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are used on the space shuttle and Space Station, are also used in...
Briefs: Materials
Polypyrrole and Polyaniline Doped With Lignosulfonic Acid
Experiments have shown that electrically conductive polymers with water-soluble fractions can be synthesized by polymerization of pyrrole or aniline in the presence of lignosulfonic acid, which is a polymeric acid that can be derived relatively easily from the spent sulfite liquor byproducts...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A leak-free valve has been proposed as a more reliable, less expensive, adaptable alternative to a one-time-opening, pyrotechnically actuated valve (pyrovalve). In the original intended application, the pyrovalve...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Pneumatic cushions have been proposed for protecting the afterbodies of two-body instrumented soil-penetrator projectiles. These cushions would be, essentially, doughnut-shaped...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Work performed at Johnson Space Center has brought about a major improvement in the means for measuring the bending that occurs whenever stress is applied to a bolted joint. This major improvement is a...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Improvements in Rapid Prototyping
Several improvements have been proposed for the fabrication process known as "rapid prototyping." In this process, a model or prototype of a solid object is built up by controlled ejection of molten polymeric material through programmed orifices to form patterned layers. The second layer is deposited on top of the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An electron-beam ionizer has been designed to deliver ions to the entrance apertures of nine miniature quadrupole mass spectrometers in an array. A similar electron-beam ionizer could also be...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A computer-controlled instrumentation system has been developed for use in measuring concentrations of various atomic species in the exhaust gases of a space-shuttle main engine on a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure presents additional information on the optics of the atomic-absorption-spectroscopy (AAS) system described in the preceding article. The optics include (1) a periscopic...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A technique for ultrasonic characterization of plates has been extended to tubes and curved structures in general. In this technique, as explained in more detail below, one performs...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Detecting Metal Ions by Voltammetry Using Diamond Electrodes
Experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of detecting multiple species of toxic metal ions and other ions of interest dissolved in water, by means of voltammetry with electrically conductive artificial diamond electrodes. Diamond is attractive as an electrode material because it is...
Briefs: Information Technology
A preconditioning technique has been developed for numerical solution of the Helmholtz equation as applied to the steady-state propagation of sound in a semi-infinite, two-dimensional...
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