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Briefs: Materials
Muscle Wires for Planetary-Exploration Robots
A report proposes the use of muscle wires as mechanical actuators for planetary-exploration robots. Muscle wires are commercially available in kit form in the hobby market, and have been described (though not explicitly called "muscle wires") in previous articles in NASA Tech Briefs. A muscle wire is...
Briefs: Information Technology
A wavelet-based modal-parameter-extraction procedure has been developed to augment wavelet filtering and thereby produce more-realistic, robust aeroservoelastic-stability margins. The...
Briefs: Motion Control
Hybrid Propulsion System for Returning a Sample From Mars
A paper suggests the development of a hybrid rocket engine and associated equipment for returning a sample of material from Mars at relatively low cost. In a hybrid rocket engine, a solid fuel is burned by use of a liquid or gaseous oxidizer, the flow of which can be throttled to control...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A hand-held optoelectronic shop tool measures cavities of the order of 6 in. (15 cm) in length and width, 2 to 4 in. (5 to 10 cm) in depth, with nominally flat side walls, and either curved or flat...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Equations have been derived to fill a gap in previously published standard collections of stress-and-strain formulas: These are equations for deflection of a thin circular membrane...
Briefs: Materials
A thermosetting polyimide called "DMBZ-15" has been developed for use as a matrix material in relatively inexpensive matrix/fiber composite materials. The glass-transition temperature (Tg) of DMBZ-15 is 414°C....
Briefs: Physical Sciences
We have developed an apparatus that generates a pulsed beam of fast oxygen atoms, under Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to...
Briefs: Materials
A process that involves reaction forming has been devised to enable the joining of high-temperature-resistant structural parts made of SiC-based materials. These materials...
Briefs: Software
Program Counts Lines of Source Code
The Source Lines of Code Count (SLOCC) computer program counts the number of source lines of a computer code, as an aid in the management of software, documentation of code, estimation of cost, and satisfying miscellaneous code-metric needs. SLOCC accommodates the following programming languages: Ada, Pascal,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Improved pressure probes have been designed to give nearly instantaneous readings of the time-varying local static pressure in flowing gases. The probes have been installed in a wind tunnel (see...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Aircraft-Skin-Rivet Thermocouple
The aircraft-skin-rivet thermocouple is designed for measuring the temperature on the outer surface of an airplane wing under icing conditions. More specifically, its design was motivated by the need to measure the temperature near 32 °F (0 °C) on an aluminum wing skin, with an error of no more than 1 °F (0.6...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An etching and electrolyte solution called "UNIEL" has been found to be useful for electrochemical characterization as a function of depth ("electrochemical profiling" for short) of...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Magnetron plasma etching has been found to be a promising technique for micromachining of single-crystal silicon carbide to fabricate microscopic structures comprising integrated mechanical,...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
An electromagnetic shaker based on a linear induction motor has been developed for use in flight flutter testing of aircraft. The shaker is a wing-tip-mounted unit capable of delivering...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Some additional applications have been proposed to exploit amplification by stimulated Brillouin scattering ("Brillouin Amplification" for short), building on the concepts introduced in the preceding...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A hybrid-grid scheme has been developed to afford a computationally efficient means for numerically solving equations of both (1) coupled flows of heat and mass in a fluid and (2)...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Paperless Procedure System (PPS) is a computer-based, semiautomated electronic system for collection and management of quality-assurance data in a large organization. The original...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Overview of Tapered-Slot Antennas
A document presents a comprehensive overview of the technology of tapered-slot antennas and arrays of such antennas. The fundamental operation of tapered-slot antennas is not yet fully understood, and, for lack of established design rules, the designs of these antennas have been based primarily on empirical...
Briefs: Materials
Improved concrete structural members such as columns, piers, and piles can be manufactured by incorporating fiber-reinforced-plastic (FRP) exterior shells and FRP interior submembers. The...
Briefs: Materials
Creep-Resistant Ceramic Composite for High-Temperature Use
A low-density, creep-resistant ceramic composite material has been developed as a prototype of such materials for use at high temperatures in the next generation of aircraft engines. The material consists of Nextel (or equivalent) ceramic fibers in a matrix that is, itself, a composite of...
Briefs: Materials
Nearly isotropic matrix/fiber composite materials can be made quickly and at relatively low cost by resin-transfer molding. The fiber components of these materials are fine, loosely woven,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A generic actuator has been designed to amplify the piezoelectric effect. The Bidirectional Operating Actuator (BOA) amplifies the stroke of a piezoelectric element and reorients it through a kinematic...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure schematically illustrates an automated electronic vision system that operates in conjunction with a scanning robot to inspect a large surface for damage. In the original application...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Micromachined Monopropellant Thrusters
A report proposes monopropellant microthrusters for a new generation of miniature spacecraft with mission lifetimes stretching into years. These thrusters would include micromachined nozzle/chamber assemblies containing microvalves, designed according to emerging concepts of microelectromechanical systems...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Control System for Steerable, Rooftop-Mounted Antenna
An excerpt from JPL Document D-12104 presents additional information on the control system of a steerable microwave antenna that is mounted on the roof of a land vehicle and used to communicate with a geostationary satellite. The antenna and control system were described previously in...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Fabrication of Arrays of Large Step-Free Regions on Si(100)
When a silicon wafer is cut from an ingot, it is essentially impossible to align the cut perfectly with the crystal structure. Therefore the surface contour of the wafer will be a flat plane on which terraces consisting of additional atomic layers will be scattered. An atomic step will be...
Briefs: Materials
Experiments have shown that carbon-based materials containing pure metallic iron, alloys of iron, halides of iron, and/or oxides of iron can be synthesized from precursors of general...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A substrate of nickel coated with a thin layer of silver and further coated with a thin protective layer of silicon dioxide has been found to constitute an optically reflective...
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