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Briefs: Materials
Straight-Pore Microfilter With Efficient Regeneration
A novel, high-efficiency gas particulate filter has precise particle size screening, low pressure drop, and a simple and fast regeneration process. The regeneration process, which requires minimal material and energy consumption, can be completely automated, and the filtration performance can be...
Briefs: Materials
Determining Shear Stress Distribution in a Laminate
A “simplified shear solution” method approximates the through-thickness shear stress distribution within a composite laminate based on an extension of laminated beam theory. The method does not consider the solution of a particular boundary value problem; rather, it requires only knowledge of...
Briefs: Materials
InGaP Heterojunction Barrier Solar Cells
A new solar-cell structure utilizes a single, ultra-wide well of either gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium-galliumphosphide (InGaP) in the depletion region of a wide bandgap matrix, instead of the usual multiple quantum well layers. These InGaP barrier layers are effective at reducing diode dark current, and...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
TRACK is a specialized controller for the All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer Robot (ATHLETE), which has six limbs with six kinematic degrees of freedom each. TRACK is a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A class of self-adjusting injectors for spraying liquid oxidizers and/or fuels into combustion chambers has been proposed. The proposed injectors were originally intended for use in rocket-engine...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A new sampler is similar to a common snow blower, but is robust and effective in sample collection. The brush wheels are arranged in a triangle shape, each driven by a brushless DC motor and planetary gearhead...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Handling Qualities Prediction of an F-16XL-Based Reduced Sonic Boom Aircraft
A major goal of the Supersonics Project under NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics program is sonic boom reduction of supersonic aircraft. An important part of this effort is development and validation of sonic boom prediction tools used in aircraft design. NASA Dryden’s...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Heterodyne Interferometer Angle Metrology
A compact, high-resolution angle measurement instrument has been developed that is based on a heterodyne interferometer. The commonpath heterodyne interferometer metrology is used to measure displacements of a reflective target surface. In the interferometer setup, an optical mask is used to sample the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Recently, there has been a considerable effort to study the Casimir and van der Waals forces, enabled by the improved ability to measure small forces...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Aligning Astronomical Telescopes via Identification of Stars
A proposed method of automated, precise alignment of a ground-based astronomical telescope would eliminate the need for initial manual alignment. The method, based on automated identification of known stars and other celestial objects in the telescope field of view, would also eliminate...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Generation of Optical Combs in a WGM Resonator From a Bichromatic Pump
Optical combs generated by a monolithic resonator with Kerr-medium can be used in a number of applications, including orbital clocks and frequency standards of extremely high accuracy, such as astronomy, molecular spectroscopy, and the like. The main difficulty of this approach...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Large-Format AlGaN PIN Photodiode Arrays for UV Images
A large-format hybridized AlGaN photodiode array with an adjustable bandwidth features stray-light control, ultra-low dark-current noise to reduce cooling requirements, and much higher radiation tolerance than previous technologies. This technology reduces the size, mass, power, and cost of...
Briefs: Information Technology
Analysis, Simulation, and Verification of Knowledge-Based, Rule-Based, and Expert Systems
Mathematically sound techniques are used to view a knowledge-based system (KBS) as a set of processes executing in parallel and being enabled in response to specific rules being fired. The set of processes can be manipulated, examined, analyzed, and used in a...
Briefs: Information Technology
Core and Off-Core Processes in Systems Engineering
An emerging methodology of organizing systems-engineering plans is based on a concept of core and off-core processes or activities. This concept has emerged as a result of recognition of a risk in the traditional representation of systems-engineering plans by a Vee model alone, according to which a...
Briefs: Information Technology
Digital Reconstruction Supporting Investigation of Mishaps
In support of investigations of mishaps like the crash of the space shuttle Columbia, a process based on digital reconstruction from recovered components has been developed. The process is expected to reduce the need for physical reconstruction from recovered parts, reduce the time and cost...
Briefs: Information Technology
Template Matching Approach to Signal Prediction
A new approach to signal prediction and prognostic assessment of spacecraft health resolves an inherent difficulty in fusing sensor data with simulated data. This technique builds upon previous work that demonstrated the importance of physics-based transient models to accurate prediction of signal...
Briefs: Software
The Navigation Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) at JPL, acting under the direction of NASA’s Office of Space Science, has built a data system named SPICE (Spacecraft Planet Instrument C-matrix Events) to assist...
Briefs: Software
SMART is a uniform automated discrepancy analysis and repair-authoring platform that improves technical accuracy and timely delivery of repair procedures for a given discrepancy (see figure a)....
Briefs: Software
A software program provides a Sensorweb architecture for alert-processing, event detection, asset allocation and planning, and visualization (see figure). It automatically tasks and...
Briefs: Software
SCRUB is a code review tool that supports both large, team-based software development efforts (e.g., for mission software) as well as individual tasks. The tool was developed at JPL to...
Briefs: Software
The Aerial Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System (AerOASIS) system provides autonomous planning and execution capabilities for aerial vehicles (see figure). The system is capable of...
Briefs: Software
An improved solution for curve fitting data to an exponential equation (y = AeBt + C) has been developed. This improvement is in four areas — speed, stability, determinant processing...
Briefs: Software
Deep space communications over noisy channels lead to certain packets that are not decodable. These packets leave gaps, or bursts of erasures, in the data stream. Burst erasure correcting codes...
Briefs: Software
Short-block low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes of a special type are intended to be especially well suited for potential applications that include transmission of command and control data, cellular...
Briefs: Software
Research has revealed distinct spatial and temporal distributions of lightning occurrence that are strongly influenced by large-scale atmospheric flow regimes. It was believed there were two flow systems, but...
Briefs: Software
GOATS - Orbitology Component
The GOATS Orbitology Component software was developed to specifically address the concerns presented by orbit analysis tools that are often written as stand-alone applications. These applications do not easily interface with standard JPL first-principles analysis tools, and have a steep learning curve due to their...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Qualification and Selection of Flight Diode Lasers for Space Applications
The reliability and lifetime of laser diodes is critical to space missions. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission includes a metrology system that is based upon laser diodes. An operational test facility has been developed to qualify and select, by...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
High-Speed Operation of Interband Cascade Lasers
Optical sources operating in the atmospheric window of 3–5 μm are of particular interest for the development of free-space optical communication link. It is more advantageous to operate the free-space optical communication link in 3–5-μm atmospheric transmission window than at the telecom...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Hybrid AlGaN-SiC Avalanche Photodiode for Deep-UV Photon Detection
The proposed device is capable of counting ultraviolet (UV) photons, is compatible for inclusion into space instruments, and has applications as deep-UV detectors for calibration systems, curing systems, and crack detection. The device is based on a Separate Absorption and Charge...
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