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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
High-precision mirrors for space applications are traditionally manufactured from one piece of material, such as lightweight glass “sandwich” or...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The sounding rocket experiment FIRE (Far-ultraviolet Imaging Rocket Experi ment) will improve the science community’s ability to image a spectral region hitherto unexplored...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
On medium- to long- duration human spaceflight missions, latency in communications from Earth could reduce efficiency or hinder local operations, control, and monitoring of the various...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Single-Pole Double-Throw MMIC Switches for a Microwave Radiometer
In order to reduce the effect of gain and noise instabilities in the RF chain of a microwave radiometer, a Dicke radiometer topology is often used, as in the case of the proposed surface water and ocean topography (SWOT) radiometer instrument. For this topology, a single-pole...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
On Shaft Data Acquisition System (OSDAS)
On Shaft Data Acquisition System (OSDAS) is a rugged, compact, multiple-channel data acquisition computer system that is designed to record data from instrumentation while operating under extreme rotational centrifugal or gravitational acceleration forces. This system, which was developed for the Heritage...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Commonly, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) being developed in cPCI embedded systems include the bus interface in the FPGA. This complicates the development because the interface is...
Briefs: Materials
Ablative materials are required to protect a space vehicle from the extreme temperatures encountered during the most demanding (hyperbolic) atmospheric entry...
Briefs: Materials
A long-term space mission requires efficient air revitalization performance to sustain the crew. Prefilter and particulate air filter media are susceptible to rapid fouling that adversely affects their...
Briefs: Materials
Polyurea-Based Aerogel Monoliths and Composites
A flexible, organic polyurea-based aerogel insulation material was developed that will provide superior thermal insulation and inherent radiation protection for government and commercial applications. The rubbery polyurea-based aerogel exhibits little dustiness, good flexibility and toughness, and...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Modular, Rapid Propellant Loading System/Cryogenic Testbed
The Cryogenic Test Laboratory (CTL) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has designed, fabricated, and installed a modular, rapid propellant-loading system to simulate rapid loading of a launch-vehicle composite or standard cryogenic tank. The system will also function as a cryogenic testbed for...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Actuators are critical to all the robotic and manipulation mechanisms that are used in current and future NASA missions, and are also needed for many other industrial, aeronautical, and space...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Future lunar landers and rovers will require variable thermal links that allow for heat rejection during the lunar daytime and passively prevent heat rejection during the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Over-center mechanisms were used in the orbiter payload bay to lock down the robotic arm during the launch of the space shuttle. These mechanisms were unlocked while in orbit in order to release the...
Briefs: Medical
Developing Physiologic Models for Emergency Medical Procedures Under Microgravity
Several technological enhancements have been made to METI’s commercial Emergency Care Simulator (ECS) with regard to how microgravity affects human physiology. The ECS uses both a software only lung simulation, and an integrated mannequin lung that uses a physical...
Briefs: Medical
Improving Balance Function Using Low Levels of Electrical Stimulation of the Balance Organs
Crewmembers returning from long duration space flight face significant challenges due to the microgravity induced inappropriate adaptations in balance/sensorimotor function. The Neuroscience Laboratory at JSC is developing a method based on stochastic...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Hands-Free Transcranial Color Doppler Probe
Current transcranial color Doppler (TCD) transducer probes are bulky and difficult to move in tiny increments to search and optimize TCD signals. This invention provides miniature motions of a TCD transducer probe to optimize TCD signals.
Briefs: Medical
Portable Intravenous Fluid Production Device for Ground Use
There are several medical conditions that require intravenous (IV) fluids. Limitations of mass, volume, storage space, shelf-life, transportation, and local resources can restrict the availability of such important fluids. These limitations are expected in long-duration space exploration...
Briefs: Medical
Adaptation of a Filter Assembly to Assess Microbial Bioburden of Pressurant Within a Propulsion System
A report describes an adaptation of a filter assembly to enable it to be used to filter out microorganisms from a propulsion system. The filter assembly has previously been used for particulates >2 μm. Projects that utilize large volumes o...
Briefs: Medical
PMA-Linked Fluorescence for Rapid Detection of Viable Bacterial Endospores
The most common approach for assessing the abundance of viable bacterial endospores is the culture-based plating method. However, culture-based approaches are heavily biased and oftentimes incompatible with upstream sample processing strategies, which make viable...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Vision-Aided Autonomous Landing and Ingress of Micro Aerial Vehicles
Micro aerial vehicles have limited sensor suites and computational power. For reconnaissance tasks and to conserve energy, these systems need the ability to autonomously land at vantage points or enter buildings (ingress). But for autonomous navigation, information is needed to...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Whispering Gallery Mode Optomechanical Resonator
Great progress has been made in both micromechanical resonators and microoptical resonators over the past decade, and a new field has recently emerged combining these mechanical and optical systems. In such optomechanical systems, the two resonators are strongly coupled with one influencing the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Self-Sealing Wet Chemistry Cell for Field Analysis
In most analytical investigations, there is a need to process complex field samples for the unique detection of analytes, especially when detecting low-concentration organic molecules that may identify extraterrestrial life. Wet chemistry based instruments are the techniques of choice for most...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multiplexed Force and Deflection Sensing Shell Membranes for Robotic Manipulators
Force sensing is an essential requirement for dexterous robot manipulation, e.g., for extravehicular robots making vehicle repairs. Although strain gauges have been widely used, a new sensing approach is desirable for applications that require greater robustness,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Mars Technology Rover with Arm-Mounted Percussive Coring Tool, Microimager, and Sample-Handling Encapsulation Containerization Subsystem
A report describes the PLuto (programmable logic) Mars Technology Rover, a mid-sized FIDO (field integrated design and operations) class rover with six fully drivable and steerable cleated wheels, a rocker-bogey...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Fault-Tolerant, Real-Time, Multi-Core Computer System
A document discusses a fault-tolerant, self-aware, low-power, multi-core computer for space missions with thousands of simple cores, achieving speed through concurrency. The proposed machine decides how to achieve concurrency in real time, rather than depending on programmers. The driving...
Briefs: Software
The controlled transfer of heat from a component to its surroundings is critical for the operation of many industrial processes. For example, cooling of electronics components is needed to maintain safe operation and...
Briefs: Software
Surface plasmons are coherent electron oscillations that exist at the interface between any two materials where the real part of the dielectric function changes sign across the interface. Surface Plasmon Resonance...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Highvoltage.dk is a Danish consulting engineering firm with expertise in lightning protection and high-voltage engineering. The company, founded in 2005, tackles...
Briefs: Software
Computing Radiative Transfer in a 3D Medium
A package of software computes the time-dependent propagation of a narrow laser beam in an arbitrary threedimensional (3D) medium with absorption and scattering, using the transientdiscrete- ordinates method and a direct integration method. Unlike prior software that utilizes a Monte Carlo method, this...
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