Tech Briefs

A comprehensive library of technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories covering all aspects of innovations in electronics, software, photonics, imaging, motion control, automation, sensors, test, materials, manufacturing, mechanical, and mechatronics.

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Briefs: Materials
Self-Cleaning Coatings and Materials for Decontaminating Field-Deployable Land and Water-Based Optical Systems
This technology exploits the organic decomposition capability and hydrophilic properties of the photocatalytic material titanium dioxide (TiO2), a non-toxic and non-hazardous substance, to address contamination and biofouling issues in...
Briefs: Materials
Li Anode Technology for Improved Performance
A novel, low-cost approach to stabilization of Li metal anodes for high-performance rechargeable batteries was developed. Electrolyte additives are selected and used in Li cell electrolyte systems, promoting formation of a protective coating on Li metal anodes for improved cycle and safety performance.
Briefs: Medical
Post-Fragmentation Whole Genome Amplification-Based Method
This innovation is derived from a proprietary amplification scheme that is based upon random fragmentation of the genome into a series of short, overlapping templates. The resulting shorter DNA strands (
Briefs: Medical
Microwave Tissue Soldering for Immediate Wound Closure
A novel approach for the immediate sealing of traumatic wounds is under development. A portable microwave generator and handheld antenna are used to seal wounds, binding the edges of the wound together using a biodegradable protein sealant or “solder.” This method could be used for...
Briefs: Medical
Stress-Driven Selection of Novel Phenotypes
A process has been developed that can confer novel properties, such as metal resistance, to a host bacterium. This same process can also be used to produce RNAs and peptides that have novel properties, such as the ability to bind particular compounds. It is inherent in the method that the peptide or RNA...
Briefs: Medical
Principles, Techniques, and Applications of Tissue Microfluidics
The principle of tissue microfluidics and its resultant techniques has been applied to cell analysis. Building microfluidics to suit a particular tissue sample would allow the rapid, reliable, inexpensive, highly parallelized, selective extraction of chosen regions of tissue for...
Briefs: Medical
Robotic Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering and Organ Growth
The aim of tissue engineering (TE) is to restore tissue and organ functions with minimal host rejection. TE is seen as a future solution to solve the crisis of donor organs for transplant, which faces a shortage expected only to increase in the future. In this innovation, a flexible and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Method for Accurately Calibrating a Spectrometer Using Broadband Light
A novel method has been developed for performing very fine calibration of a spectrometer. This process is particularly useful for modern miniature charge-coupled device (CCD) spectrometers where a typical factory wavelength calibration has been performed and a finer, more...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Atomic Oxygen Fluence Monitor
This innovation enables a means for actively measuring atomic oxygen fluence (accumulated atoms of atomic oxygen per area) that has impinged upon spacecraft surfaces. Telemetered data from the device provides spacecraft designers, researchers, and mission managers with real-time measurement of atomic oxygen fluence,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Catalytic Microtube Rocket Igniter
Devices that generate both high energy and high temperature are required to ignite reliably the propellant mixtures in combustion chambers like those present in rockets and other combustion systems. This catalytic microtube rocket igniter generates these conditions with a small, catalysis-based torch. While...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Stage Cylindrical Immersive Display
Panoramic images with a wide field of view intend to provide a better understanding of an environment by placing objects of the environment on one seamless image. However, understanding the sizes and relative positions of the objects in a panorama is not intuitive and prone to errors because the field of view is...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
In order to continue human exploration, habitat systems will require special shells to protect astronauts from hostile environments. This shell consists of multiple layers that can...
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
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Briefs: Information Technology
Surface Contact Model for Comets and Asteroids
A contact force model was developed for use in touch and go (TAG) surface sampling simulations on small celestial bodies such as comets and asteroids. In TAG scenarios, a spacecraft descending toward the surface of a small body comes into contact with the surface for a short duration of time, collects...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Dust Mitigation Vehicle
A document describes the development and demonstration of an apparatus, called a “dust mitigation vehicle,” for reducing the amount of free dust on the surface of the Moon. The dust mitigation vehicle would be used to pave surfaces on the Moon to prevent the dust from levitating or adhering to surfaces.
Briefs: Materials
Optical Coating Performance for Heat Reflectors of the JWST-ISIM Electronic Component
A document discusses a thermal radiator design consisting of lightweight composite materials and low-emittance metal coatings for use on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) structure. The structure will have a Thermal Subsystem unit to provide passive cooling to...
Briefs: Information Technology
SpaceCube Demonstration Platform
A document discusses how the HST SM4 SpaceCube flight spare was modified to create an experiment called the SpaceCube Demonstration Platform (SC DP) for use on the MISSE7 Space Station payload (in collaboration with NRL). It is designed to serve as an on-orbit platform for demonstrating advanced fault tolerance...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Aperture Mask for Unambiguous Parity Determination in Long Wavelength Imagers
A document discusses a new parity pupil mask design that allows users to unambiguously determine the image space coordinate system of all the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science instruments by using two out-of-focus images. This is an improvement over existing mask...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Spaceflight Ka-Band High-Rate Radiation-Hard Modulator
A document discusses the creation of a Ka-band modulator developed specifically for the NASA/GSFC Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This flight design consists of a high-bandwidth, Quadriphase Shift Keying (QPSK) vector modulator with radiation-hardened, high-rate driver circuitry that receives...
Briefs: Medical
Enabling Disabled Persons To Gain Access to Digital Media
A report describes the first phase in an effort to enhance the NaviGaze software to enable profoundly disabled persons to operate computers. (Running on a Windows-based computer equipped with a video camera aimed at the user’s head, the original NaviGaze software processes the user’s...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Spaceflight system electronic devices must survive a wide range of radiation environments with various particle types including energetic protons, electrons, gamma...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A test port designed as part of a fiber-optic-coupled laser altimeter receiver optical system allows for the back-illumination of the optical system for alignment verification, as well as...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Phase Retrieval System for Assessing Diamond Turning and Optical Surface Defects
An optical design is presented for a measurement system used to assess the impact of surface errors originating from diamond turning artifacts. Diamond turning artifacts are common by-products of optical surface shaping using the diamond turning process (a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Laser Oscillator Incorporating a Wedged Polarization Rotator and a Porro Prism as Cavity Mirror
A laser cavity was designed and implemented by using a wedged polarization rotator and a Porro prism in order to reduce the parts count, and to improve the laser reliability. In this invention, a z-cut quartz polarization rotator is used to compensate...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
'In Situ' Aerosol Detector
An affordable technology designed to facilitate extensive global atmospheric aerosol measurements has been developed. This lightweight instrument is compatible with newly developed platforms such as tethered balloons, blimps, kites, and even disposable instruments such as dropsondes.This technology is based on detection...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Electrical Connector Mechanical Seating Sensor
A sensor provides a measurement of the degree of seating of an electrical connector. This sensor provides a number of discrete distances that a plug is inserted into a socket or receptacle. The number of measurements is equal to the number of pins available in the connector for sensing.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multi-Parameter Aerosol Scattering Sensor
This work relates to the development of sensors that measure specific aerosol properties. These properties are in the form of integrated moment distributions, i.e., total surface area, total mass, etc., or mathematical combinations of these moment distributions. Specifically, the innovation involves two...
Briefs: Information Technology
Collaborative Clustering for Sensor Networks
Traditionally, nodes in a sensor network simply collect data and then pass it on to a centralized node that archives, distributes, and possibly analyzes the data. However, analysis at the individual nodes could enable faster detection of anomalies or other interesting events, as well as faster responses...

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