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Briefs: Software
LEGEND, a LEO-to-GEO Environment Debris Model
LEGEND (LEO-to-GEO Environment Debris model) is a three-dimensional orbital debris evolutionary model that is capable of simulating the historical and future debris populations in the near- Earth environment. The historical component in LEGEND adopts a deterministic approach to mimic the known...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Millimeter-Wave Localizers for Aircraft-to-Aircraft Approach Navigation
Aerial refueling technology for both manned and unmanned aircraft is critical for operations where extended aircraft flight time is required. Existing refueling assets are typically manned aircraft, which couple to a second aircraft through the use of a refueling boom....
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
SpaceCube Version 1.5
SpaceCube 1.5 is a high-performance and low-power system in a compact form factor. It is a hybrid processing system consisting of CPU (central processing unit), FPGA (field-programmable gate array), and DSP (digital signal processor) processing elements. The primary processing engine is the Virtex-5 FX100T FPGA, which has two...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Impedance Discontinuity Reduction Between High-Speed Differential Connectors and PCB Interfaces
High-speed serial communication (i.e., Gigabit Ethernet) requires differential transmission and controlled impedances. Impedance control is essential throughout cabling, connector, and circuit board construction.
Briefs: Information Technology
Permanent magnet machines are used in many industrial applications because of their ability to produce high power densities. The market for such machines has been expanding...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fast, High-Precision Readout Circuit for Detector Arrays
The GEO-CAPE mission described in NASA’s Earth Science and Applications Decadal Survey requires high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution measurements to monitor and characterize the rapidly changing chemistry of the troposphere over North and South Americas. High-frame-rate focal...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A System for Measuring the Sway of the Vehicle Assembly Building
A system was developed to measure the sway of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. This system was installed in the VAB and gathered more than one total year of data. The building movement was correlated with measurements provided by three wind towers in order...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
ISS Ammonia Leak Detection Through X-Ray Fluorescence
Ammonia leaks are a significant concern for the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has external transport lines that direct liquid ammonia to radiator panels where the ammonia is cooled and then brought back to thermal control units. These transport lines and radiator panels are subject...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Hydrometeor Size Distribution Measurements by Imaging the Attenuation of a Laser Spot
The optical extinction of a laser due to scattering of particles is a well-known phenomenon. In a laboratory environment, this physical principle is known as the Beer-Lambert law, and is often used to measure the concentration of scattering particles in a fluid or...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Testing of victim detection radars has traditionally used human subjects who volunteer to be buried in, or climb into a space within, a rubble pile. This is not only uncomfortable, but can be...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Mixed Signal Radio Frequency Interface Front (MSRFIF) end is an energy harvesting product that can work from low frequencies (60 Hz or less) up to 250 MHz. Since analog signal processing may be needed for...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Quasi-Linear Circuit
This work involved developing space qualifiable switch mode DC/DC power supplies that improve performance with fewer components, and result in elimination of digital components and reduction in magnetics. This design is for missions where systems may be operating under extreme conditions, especially at elevated temperature...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
High-Speed, High-Resolution Time-to-Digital Conversion
This innovation is a series of time-tag pulses from a photomultiplier tube, featuring short time interval between pulses (e.g., 2.5 ns). Using the previous art, dead time between pulses is too long, or too much hardware is required, including a very-high-speed demultiplexer. A faster method is...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Li-Ion Battery and Supercapacitor Hybrid Design for Long Extravehicular Activities
With the need for long periods of extravehicular activities (EVAs) on the Moon or Mars or a near-asteroid, the need for long-performance batteries has increased significantly. The energy requirements for the EVA suit, as well as surface systems such as rovers, have...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Ultrasonic Low-Friction Containment Plate for Thermal and Ultrasonic Stir Weld Processes
The thermal stir welding (TSW) process is finding applications in fabrication of space vehicles. In this process, workpieces to be joined by TSW are drawn, by heavy forces, between “containment plates,” past the TSW tool that then causes joining of the...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
High-Powered, Ultrasonically Assisted Thermal Stir Welding
This method is a solid-state weld process capable of joining metallic alloys without melting. The weld workpieces to be joined by thermal stir welding (TSW) are drawn, by heavy forces, between containment plates past the TSW stir tool that then causes joining of the weld workpiece.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Next-Generation MKIII Lightweight HUT/Hatch Assembly
The MK III (H-1) carbon-graphite/ epoxy Hard Upper Torso (HUT)/Hatch assembly was designed, fabricated, and tested in the early 1990s. The spacesuit represented an 8.3 psi (≈58 kPa) technology demonstrator model of a zero prebreathe suit. The basic torso shell, brief, and hip areas of the suit...
Briefs: Materials
Centrifugal Sieve for Gravity-Level-Independent Size Segregation of Granular Materials
Conventional size segregation or screening in batch mode, using stacked vibrated screens, is often a time-consuming process. Utilization of centrifugal force instead of gravity as the primary body force can significantly shorten the time to segregate feedstock...
Briefs: Materials
Ion Exchange Technology Development in Support of the Urine Processor Assembly
The urine processor assembly (UPA) on the International Space Station (ISS) recovers water from urine via a vacuum distillation process. The distillation occurs in a rotating distillation assembly (DA) where the urine is heated and subjected to sub-ambient pressure. As...
Briefs: Materials
Next-generation high-temperature thermoelectric-power-generating devices will employ segmented architectures and will have to reliably withstand thermally induced mechanical...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
UltraSail CubeSat Solar Sail Flight Experiment
UltraSail is a next-generation, high-risk, high-payoff sail system for the launch, deployment, stabilization, and control of very large (km2 class) solar sails enabling high payload mass fractions for interplanetary and deep space spacecraft. UltraSail is a non-traditional approach to propulsion...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Acquisition and Retaining Granular Samples via a Rotating Coring Bit
This device takes advantage of the centrifugal forces that are generated when a coring bit is rotated, and a granular sample is entered into the bit while it is spinning, making it adhere to the internal wall of the bit, where it compacts itself into the wall of the bit. The bit...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Counterflow Regolith Heat Exchanger
A problem exists in reducing the total heating power required to extract oxygen from lunar regolith. All such processes require heating a great deal of soil, and the heat energy is wasted if it cannot be recycled from processed material back into new material.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Very-Low-Cost, Rugged Vacuum System
NASA, DoD, DHS, and commercial industry have a need for miniaturized, rugged, low-cost vacuum systems. Recent advances in sensor technology have led to the development of very small mass spectrometer detectors as well as other miniature analytical instruments. However, the vacuum systems to support these sensors...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Mechanism for Deploying a Long, Thin-Film Antenna From a Rover
Observations with radio telescopes address key problems in cosmology, astrobiology, heliophysics, and planetary science including the first light in the Universe (Cosmic Dawn), magnetic fields of extrasolar planets, particle acceleration mechanisms, and the lunar ionosphere. The Moon is...
Briefs: Medical
FRET-Aptamer Assays for Bone Marker Assessment, C-Telopeptide, Creatinine, and Vitamin D
Astronauts lose 1.0 to 1.5% of their bone mass per month on long-duration spaceflights. NASA wishes to monitor the bone loss onboard spacecraft to develop nutritional and exercise countermeasures, and make adjustments during long space missions. On Earth, the...
Briefs: Medical
Sterile delivery devices can be created by integrating a medicine delivery instrument with surfaces that are coated with germicidal and anti-fouling material. This requires...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Complementary Barrier Infrared Detector (CBIRD) Contact Methods
The performance of the CBIRD detector is enhanced by using new device contacting methods that have been developed. The detector structure features a narrow gap adsorber sandwiched between a pair of complementary, unipolar barriers that are, in turn, surrounded by contact layers. In...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multimode Directional Coupler for Utilization of Harmonic Frequencies From TWTAs
A novel waveguide multimode directional coupler (MDC) intended for the measurement and potential utilization of the second and higher order harmonic frequencies from high-power traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) has been successfully designed, fabricated, and...
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