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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Local Leak Detection and Health Monitoring of Pressurized Tanks
An optical gas-detection sensor safely monitors pressurized systems (such as cryogenic tanks) and distribution systems for leaks. This sensor system is a fiber-coupled, solid optical body interferometer that allows for the miniaturized sensing element of the device to be placed in the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Single-Antenna Temperature- and Humidity-Sounding Microwave Receiver
For humidity and temperature sounding of Earth’s atmosphere, a single-antenna/LNA (low-noise amplifier) is needed in place of two separate antennas for the two frequency bands. This results in significant mass and power savings for GeoSTAR that is comprised of hundreds of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Broadband Achromatic Phase Shifter for a Nulling Interferometer
Nulling interferometry is a technique for imaging exoplanets in which light from the parent star is suppressed using destructive interference. Light from the star is divided into two beams and a phase shift of π radians is introduced into one of the beams. When the beams are...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fine Guidance Sensing for Coronagraphic Obser vatories
Three options have been developed for Fine Guidance Sensing (FGS) for coronagraphic observatories using a Fine Guidance Camera within a coronagraphic instrument. Coronagraphic observatories require very fine precision pointing in order to image faint objects at very small distances from a...
Briefs: Information Technology
Ascent Heating Thermal Analysis on Spacecraft Adaptor Fairings
When the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is launched, the spacecraft adaptor (SA) fairings that cover the CEV service module (SM) are exposed to aero heating. Thermal analysis is performed to compute the fairing temperatures and to investigate whether the temperatures are within the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Prioritized LT Codes
The original Luby Transform (LT) coding scheme is extended to account for data transmissions where some information symbols in a message block are more important than others. Prioritized LT codes provide unequal error protection (UEP) of data on an erasure channel by modifying the original LT encoder. The prioritized algorithm...
Briefs: Information Technology
Fast Image Texture Classification Using Decision Trees
Texture analysis would permit improved autonomous, onboard science data interpretation for adaptive navigation, sampling, and downlink decisions. These analyses would assist with terrain analysis and instrument placement in both macroscopic and microscopic image data products. Unfortunately,...
Briefs: Information Technology
More-Accurate Model of Flows in Rocket Injectors
An improved computational model for simulating flows in liquid-propellant injectors in rocket engines has been developed. Models like this one are needed for predicting fluxes of heat in, and performances of, the engines. An important part of predicting performance is predicting fluctuations of...
Briefs: Information Technology
Improved Systematic Pointing Error Model for the DSN Antennas
New pointing models have been developed for large reflector antennas whose construction is founded on elevation over azimuth mount. At JPL, the new models were applied to the Deep Space Network (DSN) 34-meter antenna’s subnet for corrections of their systematic pointing errors; it...
Briefs: Information Technology
Observability and Estimation of Distributed Space Systems via Local Information-Exchange Networks
Spacecraft formation flying involves the coordination of states among multiple spacecraft through relative sensing, inter-spacecraft communication, and control. Most existing formation-flying estimation algorithms can only be supported via highly...
Briefs: Information Technology
In-Orbit Instrument-Pointing Calibration Using the Moon as a Target
A method was developed for in-orbit measurement of the relative pointing of spectrometer channels, and the relationship between the spectrometer channels and the spacecraft coordinate system. In this innovation, individual scans of the Moon, from the three channels, were used to...
Briefs: Information Technology
Constraint Embedding Technique for Multibody System Dynamics
Multibody dynamics play a critical role in simulation testbeds for space missions. There has been a considerable interest in the development of efficient computational algorithms for solving the dynamics of multibody systems. Mass matrix factorization and inversion techniques and the O(N)...
Briefs: Information Technology
Entanglement in Self-Supervised Dynamics
A new type of correlation has been developed similar to quantum entanglement in self-supervised dynamics (SSD). SSDs have been introduced as a quantum-classical hybrid based upon the Madelung equation in which the quantum potential is replaced by an information potential. As a result, SSD preserves the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Reliability of Ceramic Column Grid Array Interconnect Packages Under Extreme Temperatures
A paper describes advanced ceramic column grid array (CCGA) packaging interconnects technology test objects that were subjected to extreme temperature thermal cycles. CCGA interconnect electronic package printed wiring boards (PWBs) of polyimide were...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Six Degrees-of-Freedom Ascent Control for Small-Body Touch and Go
A document discusses a method of controlling touch and go (TAG) of a spacecraft to correct attitude, while ensuring a safe ascent. TAG is a concept whereby a spacecraft is in contact with the surface of a small body, such as a comet or asteroid, for a few seconds or less before...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Optical-Path-Difference Linear Mechanism for the Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer
A document discusses a mechanism that uses flex-pivots in a parallelogram arrangement to provide frictionless motion with an unlimited lifetime. A voice-coil actuator drives the parallelogram over the required 5-cm travel. An optical position sensor...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Electronic biosensing technology could someday displace the multi-welled microplate, long a standard tool in biomedical research and diagnostic laboratories. Essentially arrays of...
Briefs: Nanotechnology
Although the concept of nanotechnology (controlling matter on an atomic scale) dates back to 1959, it is only now becoming more commercially realized. It has the potential to challenge...
Briefs: Medical
The MDMouse system incorporates a pre-existing medical device into a conventional computer control mouse. The tool is designed to measure blood pressure outside of the medical environment, and to provide that...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Engineers have long been aware of the potential of laser sintering to create innovative and beneficial medical products. Because it is an additive (layer-by-layer) manufacturing process, laser...
Briefs: Medical
A prototype implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients is believed to contain the first complete millimeter-scale computing system. The pressure monitor is...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A lens that enables microscopic objects to be seen from nine different angles at once to create a 3D image has been developed. Other 3D microscopes use multiple lenses or cameras that...
Briefs: Lighting
Polymer nanofibers are nanoscale materials whose properties can be adjusted to provide desirable light management performance for high-efficiency solid-state lighting (SSL)...
Briefs: Lighting
Early phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) produced light with poor color characteristics in terms of color rendering index (CRI) and correlated color...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Grid-Tied Photovoltaic Power System
A grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) power system is connected directly to the utility distribution grid. Facility power can be obtained from the utility system as normal. The PV system is synchronized with the utility system to provide power for the facility, and excess power is provided to the utility.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
This miniature or micro-sized semi-conductor sensor design provides direct, nonintrusive measurement of skin friction or wall shear stress in fluid flow situations in a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Amperometric Solid Electrolyte Oxygen Microsensors With Easy Batch Fabrication
There is a great need for oxygen microsensors for aerospace and commercial applications. Current bulk or thick-film solid electrolyte oxygen sensors have the disadvantages of being large in size, high in power consumption, difficult to batch-fabricate, and high in cost.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A compact and portable target assembly (Fig. 1) has been developed to measure the boresite alignment of LRO’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument at the spacecraft...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Virtual Sensor Test Instrumentation
Virtual Sensor Test Instrumentation is based on the concept of smart sensor technology for testing with intelligence needed to perform sell-diagnosis of health, and to participate in a hierarchy of health determination at sensor, process, and system levels. A virtual sensor test instrumentation consists of five...
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