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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Cryogenic Liquid Sample Acquisition System for Remote Space Applications
There is a need to acquire autonomously cryogenic hydrocarbon liquid sample from remote planetary locations such as the lakes of Titan for instruments such as mass spectrometers. There are several problems that had to be solved relative to collecting the right amount of...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Integrating a Microwave Radiometer into Radar Hardware for Simultaneous Data Collection Between the Instruments
The conventional method for integrating a radiometer into radar hardware is to share the RF front end between the instruments, and to have separate IF receivers that take data at separate times. Alternatively, the radar and radiometer...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Quality knives are typically fabricated from high-strength steel alloys. Depending on the application, there are different requirements for...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
High-Pressure Lightweight Thrusters
Returning samples of Martian soil and rock to Earth is of great interest to scientists. There were numerous studies to evaluate Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission architectures, technology needs, development plans, and requirements. The largest propulsion risk element of the MSR mission is the Mars Ascent Vehicle...
Briefs: Materials
Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been developed that may shift the paradigm of traditional metal production by allowing complex netshaped...
Briefs: Materials
Ambient Dried Aerogels
A method has been developed for creating aerogel using normal pressure and ambient temperatures. All spacecraft, satellites, and landers require the use of thermal insulation due to the extreme environments encountered in space and on extraterrestrial bodies. Ambient dried aerogels introduce the possibility of using aerogel...
Briefs: Materials
Passivation of Flexible YBCO Superconducting Current Lead With Amorphous SiO₂ Layer
Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators (ADR) are operated in space to cool detectors of cosmic radiation to a few 10s of mK. A key element of the ADR is a superconducting magnet operating at about 0.3 K that is continually energized and de-energized in...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This invention is a new approach to designing foil bearings to increase their load capacity and improve their reliability through passive thermal management. In...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Propellant-Flow-Actuated Rocket Engine Igniter
A rocket engine igniter has been created that uses a pneumatically driven hammer that, by specialized geometry, is induced into an oscillatory state that can be used to either repeatedly impact a piezoelectric crystal with sufficient force to generate a spark capable of initiating combustion, or can be...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Unibody Composite Pressurized Structure
An integrated, generic unibody composite pressurized structure (UCPS) combined with a positive expulsion device (PED), consisting of an elastomeric bladder for monopropellant hydrazine, has been quasi-standardized for spacecraft use. The combination functions as an all-composite, nonmetallic, propellant tank...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Lightweight Liquid Helium Dewar for High-Altitude Balloon Payloads
Astrophysical observations at millimeter wavelengths require large (2-to-5- meter diameter) telescopes carried to altitudes above 35 km by scientific research balloons. The scientific performance is greatly enhanced if the telescope is cooled to temperatures below 10 K with no...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
In popular perception, the vastness of space is an empty vacuum dotted with stars, planets, black holes, and other celestial formations. In reality, astrophysicists have shown that...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module Alignment Optimization Tool
During cryogenic vacuum testing of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), the global alignment of the ISIM with respect to the designed interface of the JWST optical telescope element (OTE) will be measured through a series of optical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Radar Range Sidelobe Reduction Using Adaptive Pulse Compression Technique
Pulse compression has been widely used in radars so that low-power, long RF pulses can be transmitted, rather than a high-power short pulse. Pulse compression radars offer a number of advantages over high-power short pulsed radars, such as no need of highpower RF circuitry,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
SweepSAR, a novel radar architecture that depends on a DBF (digital beamforming) array, requires calibration accuracies that are order(s) of magnitude greater...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Electro-Optic Time-to-Space Converter for Optical Detector Jitter Mitigation
A common problem in optical detection is determining the arrival time of a weak optical pulse that may comprise only one to a few photons. Currently, this problem is solved by using a photodetector to convert the optical signal to an electronic signal. The timing of the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Partially Transparent Petaled Mask/Occulter for Visible-Range Spectrum
The presence of the Poisson Spot, also known as the spot of Arago, has been known since the 18th century. This spot is the consequence of constructive interference of light diffracted by the edge of the obstacle where the central position can be determined by symmetry of the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Aircraft performance can be compromised when ice forms on aircraft surfaces such as the wings, nacelles, sensors, and control systems. This can cause safety issues due to significant changes in...
Briefs: Information Technology
Educational NASA Computational and Scientific Studies (enCOMPASS)
Educational NASA Computational and Scientific Studies (enCOMPASS) is an educational project of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center aimed at bridging the gap between computational objectives and needs of NASA’s scientific research, missions, and projects, and academia’s latest...
Briefs: Information Technology
Coarse-Grain Bandwidth Estimation Scheme for Large-Scale Network
A large-scale network that supports a large number of users can have an aggregate data rate of hundreds of Mbps at any time. High-fidelity simulation of a large-scale network might be too complicated and memory-intensive for typical commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) tools. Unlike a...
Briefs: Information Technology
Detection of Moving Targets Using Soliton Resonance Effect
The objective of this research was to develop a fundamentally new method for detecting hidden moving targets within noisy and cluttered data-streams using a novel “soliton resonance” effect in nonlinear dynamical systems.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
High-Efficiency Nested Hall Thrusters for Robotic Solar System Exploration
This work describes the scaling and design attributes of Nested Hall Thrusters (NHT) with extremely large operational envelopes, including a wide range of throttleability in power and specific impulse at high efficiency (>50%). NHTs have the potential to provide the game...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
High-Voltage Clock Driver for Photon-Counting CCD Characterization
A document discusses the CCD97 from e2v technologies as it is being evaluated at Goddard Space Flight Center’s Detector Characterization Laboratory (DCL) for possible use in ultra-low background noise space astronomy applications, such as Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph...
Briefs: Information Technology
Development of the Code RITRACKS
A document discusses the code RITRACKS (Relativistic Ion Tracks), which was developed to simulate heavy ion track structure at the microscopic and nanoscopic scales. It is a Monte- Carlo code that simulates the production of radiolytic species in water, event-by-event, and which may be used to simulate tracks and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A sensor has been demonstrated that can measure distance over a total range of about 300 microns to an accuracy of about 0.1 nm (resolution of about 0.01 nm). This represents an...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Due to limited resources available for power and space for payloads, miniaturizing and integrating instrumentation is a high priority for addressing the challenges of...
Briefs: Information Technology
Commercial Non-Dispersive Infrared Spectroscopy Sensors for Sub-Ambient Carbon Dioxide Detection
Carbon dioxide produced through respiration can accumulate rapidly within closed spaces. If not managed, a crew’s respiratory rate increases, head aches and hyperventilation occur, vision and hearing are affected, and cognitive abilities decrease....
Briefs: Physical Sciences
While a variety of techniques exist to monitor trace gases, methods relying on absorption of laser light are the most commonly used in terrestrial applications....
Briefs: Software
Mission Data System Java Edition Version 7
The Mission Data System framework defines closed-loop control system abstractions from State Analysis including interfaces for state variables, goals, estimators, and controllers that can be adapted to implement a goal-oriented control system. The framework further provides an execution environment that...
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