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Briefs: Materials
Control of Carbon Nanotube Density and Tower Height in an Array
Use of arrays of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as an intermediary for transport of electrical particles (e.g., electrons) and/or transport of thermal energy from one body to another has grown. For example, a CNT array may be used for dissipation of thermal energy or accumulated electrical...
Briefs: Materials
In order to understand whether the ablation laser would cause chemical reactions within the trapped organic molecules during resonant laser ablation of water ice containing organic molecules, a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Aridged retention interface is necessary to secure planetary sample tubes within a caching system for use in future sample return missions. The assumed retention...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Planetary Ice Mining by Down-Hole Energy Injection
Ice has been discovered on Mars and is present in the permanently shadowed craters on the Moon and on many asteroids. The ice is usually buried beneath an overburden of regolith. Evidence indicates this overburden may be a meter deep in some locations for the Moon; for Mars, it varies with latitude...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Laser Architecture and Atomic Filter for Daytime Measurements Using Spaceborne Sodium Lidar
A satellite-borne sodium lidar will provide key measurements that elucidate the complex relation between the chemistry and dynamics of the Earth’s mesosphere, and thus provide a thorough understanding of the composition and dynamics of this region. The...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Rangefinder for Measuring Volume of Cryogenic or Caustic Turbulent Fluids
Specific impulse (ISP), or simply impulse (change in momentum) per unit amount of propellant consumed, is a measure of rocket and jet engine efficiency. The amount of propellant, or in the case of engine testing at the Stennis Space Center (SSC), cryogen consumed during...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Micro-Force Sensing Nanoprobe
The NGXO (Next Generation X-Ray Optics) project has several problems relating to how to bond a very thin glass mirror to a metallic structure without distortion. One problem is that all epoxies shrink (at the micron level) when they cure. This shrinkage distorts the optical quality of the mirror unacceptably. Another...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
High-Channel-Count, High-Scan-Rate Data Acquisition System for the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel
The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) has been operational since 1960, investigating a wide range of aeroelastic and non-aeroelastic phenomena. A dedicated aeroelastic test facility, the TDT is a large,...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Fusible Alloy Thermometer
This work was based on the need for a relatively small passive detector of maximum temperature reached by an object that can be visually inspected. The device requirements are to be hermetically sealed for contamination control, give a clear indication of maximum temperature achieved (non-reversible) with a ~10 °C...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Small-Volume Pressurized Sample Handling System
A method was developed for effective, efficient, non-destructive, in-situ sample processing. Pressure vessels are used for sample delivery and collection, a shaker is used to keep the particles suspended, a back pressure of argon gas is used to keep the system under pressure to regulate the flow, and...
Briefs: Propulsion
An advanced Lean-Direct-Injection (LDI) turbine engine combustor was developed. Named LDI-II, which stands for second-generation LDI, this technology has vastly improved and expanded the performance...
Briefs: Aerospace
As powered flight expands to include electric propulsion technologies, aeronautics designers need to understand the electrical, aerodynamic, and structural characteristics...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The Hall effect thruster (HET) was designed for long-duration operation with gaseous iodine as the propellant. Iodine is an alternative to the state-of-the-art propellant xenon. Compared to xenon,...
Briefs: Propulsion
Burnable-Poison-Operated Reactor Using Gadolinium Loaded Alloy
The problem to be resolved in this work was the use of radial control drums as the sole active reactivity control system for nuclear thermal propulsion, which results in significant rocket performance changes during full-power operation. This can result in large inefficiencies in...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Airborne Elastic Backscatter and Raman Polychromator for Ash Detection
Volcanic ash is a significant hazard to aircraft engine and electronics. It has caused damage to unwary aircraft and disrupted air travel for thousands of travelers, costing millions of dollars. The small, jagged fragments of rocks, minerals, and volcanic glass that constitute...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Intelligent Displacement Sensor Deployment Using MTConnect Protocol over Ethernet
Quality measurements for design validation and certification requirements sometimes require hundreds or thousands of sensors and actuators. Maintaining such a complex system is difficult, especially over an extended time period and inevitable personnel changes. Many...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) imaging techniques are already a popular solution for imaging through dust and fog. While mm-wave offers excellent penetration to dust when compared with infrared or optical sensing,...
Briefs: Materials
NASA has developed a unique and robust multifunctional material called 3-Dimensional Multifunctional Ablative (3DMAT) Thermal Protection System (TPS) that meets both the structural and...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Many future space vehicles, planetary bases, and mining operations will be too large and heavy to launch on a single rocket. Instead, component parts would need to be launched on multiple...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A durable gripper tool was designed for use by RoboSimian robots intended for use in disaster scenarios that demand high-force, robust manipulation. The resulting Cam Hand fills a previously unaddressed niche that emphasizes grip...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
As CubeSats take on increased functionality, including larger solar arrays for increased power demands and large antennas for science and communications needs, the requirements for...
Briefs: Software
Predicting Magnetospheric Relativistic >1 MeV Electrons
There is an association between High-Intensity Long-Duration Continuous AE (HILDCAA) activity intervals and the acceleration of relativistic >1 MeV electrons in the magnetosphere. All of the HILDCAAs that occurred in solar cycle 23 (SC23) from 1995 to 2008 led to the acceleration of...
Briefs: Software
Optimal Prioritized Actuator Allocation
For formation flying, rendezvous and docking, and proximity operations with small bodies of the solar system, spacecraft require simultaneous translational and rotational agility. The necessary agility is generally provided by combinations of multiple small thrusters and torque-only actuators. To use these...
Briefs: Software
Terrain Model Registration
This technology is a method for registration of terrain models created using stereovision on a planetary rover. Most 3D model registration approaches use some variant of iterated closest point (ICP), which minimizes a norm based on the distances between corresponding points on an arbitrary 3D surface where closest points...
Briefs: Software
Error Budget for Pointing at Surface Features From Close Range
Traditional error budgets that characterize pointing capability in terms of a single radial angle lack sufficient information to support analysis of pointing error in terms of distance along a nearby surface.
Briefs: Software
Traceable Automation with Remote Display and Interruptible Scheduler Version 1.04.0
Traceable Automation with Remote Display and Interruptible Scheduler (TARDIS) is a software set designed for use in ground operations. TARDIS is a multi-mission automation framework that supports seamless integration of manual and automatic processing. It was...
Briefs: Software
Java Pathfinder (JPF) Core System
The JPF Core System is a framework to analyze and verify Java bytecode programs. The major component of JPF core is an extensible and runtime-configurable virtual machine (VM) that can be customized with runtime components such as specific instruction sets and plug-ins to observe program execution. The JPF core can...
Briefs: Software
Single Doppler Retrieval Toolkit (SingleDop)
Single-Doppler retrieval of low-level, two-dimensional winds is desired to compare ground radar wind retrievals to satellite scatterometer wind retrievals. This needs to be integrated within the growing collection of open-source radar tools maintained by the Python Atmospheric/Ocean Sciences (PyAOS)...
Briefs: Software
Computing Efficient Onboard Analysis and Re-Scheduling
Prior space missions have not routinely used onboard decision-making. The Autonomous Sciencecraft (ASE), flying onboard the Earth Observing One spacecraft, has been flying autonomous agent software for the past decade that enables it to analyze acquired imagery onboard, and use that analysis to...
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