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Briefs: Information Technology
Documents on Flight Software for the SAMPEX Spacecraft
A collection of four documents contains information on various aspects of the flight software of the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) spacecraft. The first document is part of a longer paper that presents design requirements for the software; the information in...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Up a creek without a paddle? Not if you're an International Space Station astronaut with a CRV. That's short for Crew Return Vehicle, and it's being developed following an innovative approach in the X-38...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A change in the design of the engine inlets of the T-38 airplane significantly reduces takeoff distances while increasing safety margins. Although the newer inlet design (see Figure 1) is based on well-known...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Some changes in the design and construction of the leading edges of metal airplane wings have shown promise as means to suppress laminar-to-turbulent flow transitions. The significance...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Kit for Sampling Nitrosamines From Aqueous Solutions
Scientists at White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) have devised a kit for extracting nitrosamines from aqueous solutions. In comparison with extractions according to the method recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), extractions by use of the kit are faster, cheaper and less...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The linear motor was invented in the mid-nineteenth century, at much the same time as its brother, the rotating electric motor. Because the linear motor always has to effect a reversing movement -...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A telescope produces multiple video outputs representing coregistered images in multiple spectral bands that can range from ultraviolet through far infrared. Although the overall function of the telescope is...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) integrated-circuit video image detector of the active-pixel-sensor (APS) type has been designed to implement programmable...
Briefs: Information Technology
The Radiographic Imaging Performance Support System (RIPSS) is a developmental computer network intended to serve as (1) a central electronic archive for the storage, retrieval, and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A hand-held optoelectronic instrument has been designed to generate a quantitative indication of the loss of chlorophyll, and thus the level of stress, in plants. The instrument exploits...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Relatively inexpensive, lightweight biplates for methanol fuel cells have been proposed. The reductions in weight and cost, relative to biplates now used in methanol fuel cells, would be...
Briefs: Information Technology
Program Estimates Run Time on a Parallel Computer
The Pathcalc computer program estimates the time needed to execute a given application program on a parallel computer of given computation and network capabilities. Pathcalc can be used to analyze the effects of changes in such parameters as central-processing-unit (CPU) speed, network bandwidth,...
Briefs: Materials
Improved aerogel-based thermal insulation systems have been developed to provide cost-effective and easier-to-handle alternatives to various types of multilayer insulation (MLI) and evacuated...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Shuttle Projects Information Frontier (SPIF) Telemetry and Command Processor (TAC) is a personal-computer-based data-handling system that serves as part of an interface for transfer...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved HSPES-Based MEAs for Methanol Fuel Cells
Improved membrane/electrode assemblies (MEAs) made partly from hydrogen form of sulfonated polyether sulfone (HSPES) have been developed for use in methanol fuel cells. In comparison with traditional fuel-cell MEAs made partly from a commercial perfluorosulfonic acid-based polymer, these MEAs...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The figure shows an oil tunnel and associated equipment used in experiments, using the full-flow-field tracking (FFFT) technique, to characterize flows in beds packed with poly (methyl...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Vespel parts are made from a unique polymer by DuPont that has been called a problem solver for the semiconductor industry. Vespel SPC is a new generation of Vespel polyimide...
Briefs: Aerospace
The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been a partner in many uninhabited-aerial-vehicle (UAV) test programs. Our participation has largely been in the areas of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Transmissive light valves based on voltage-tunable color-selective absorption of light in surface plasmons are undergoing development. Like other surface-plasmon-based devices reported in a number of...
Briefs: Software
Planning and Resource Reasoning Software
"Planning and Resource Reasoning" ("PARR") is the name now applied to a scheduling methodology and to computer programs developed to implement the methodology during the years 1985 through 1987. In PARR, one uses heuristics and reactive techniques to build schedules. PARR software is generic enough to be...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A portable instrument can generate video images indicative of physiological stress in plants. The instrument exploits the known relationships among physiological stress in plants, loss of...
Briefs: Materials
Improved polymer electrolyte membranes for direct methanol fuel cells can be made by any of a variety of processes in which cross-linked polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSSA) is...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The South Pole TDRSS Relay (SPTR) is a satellite radio relay communication system that provides an Internet link for a station at the South Pole. As the name of the system suggests, the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A rectangular integrated-circuit focal-plane array of 640 × 486 GaAs/AlxGa1 -xAs quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) constitutes the image sensor in an experimental long-wavelength...
Briefs: Software
Automated Scheduling and Reporting of Fire Inspections
A computer-based automated system for scheduling, reporting, and tracking fire inspections at Kennedy Space Center has supplanted a manual system based on paper fire-inspection reports transmitted by mail. The automated system not only minimizes the consumption of paper and other resources but...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Sensor Products has recently filed two patents for, and introduced, the ASET® sensor for measuring interfacial stresses in real time. The sensor does not measure force, but rather the amount of surface...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Basic research on ion-trap mass spectrometry (IT/MS) in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has resulted in a new...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved Ultrasonic Imaging of Microscopic Devices
Advances in time gating of ultrasonic signals in scanning acoustic microscopes have been proposed to enable detailed nondestructive examination of bonds and other interfaces deep within the interiors of such micromachined objects as high-density integrated electronic circuits and...
Briefs: Motion Control
PC-based control has become one of the fastest-growing automation solutions for the factory floor. Control engineers are quickly dropping their proprietary PLC boxes and replacing them with PC-based control...
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