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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed mobile robot, denoted the amorphous rover, would vary its own size and shape in order to traverse terrain by means of rolling and/or slithering action. The amorphous rover was conceived as a robust, lightweight...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The space-frame antenna is a conceptual antenna structure that would be lightweight, deployable from compact stowage, and capable of deforming itself to a size, shape, and orientation required for a specific use. The...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The space-frame lunar lander is a conceptual spacecraft or spacecraftlike system based largely on the same principles as those of the amorphous rover and the space-frame antenna described in the two immediately...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Traditionally, infrared (IR) space instruments have been focused by iterating with a number of different thickness shim rings in a thermal vacuum chamber until the focus meets requirements. This...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This actuator design allows the extension and contraction of turnbuckle assemblies. It can be operated manually or remotely, and is extremely compact. It is ideal for turnbuckles that are hard to reach by...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Two packaged monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) mixers have been designed to operate as subharmonically pumped frequency down-converters in receivers of satellite- or...
Briefs: Materials
Statistical Sampling of Tide Heights Study
The goal of the study was to determine if it was possible to reduce the cost of verifying computational models of tidal waves and currents. Statistical techniques were used to determine the least number of samples required, in a given situation, to remain statistically significant, and thereby reduce...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multiparallel Three-Dimensional Optical Microscopy
Multiparallel three-dimensional optical microscopy is a method of forming an approximate three-dimensional image of a microscope sample as a collection of images from different depths through the sample. The imaging apparatus includes a single microscope plus an assembly of beam splitters and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Sub-aperture interferometers — also called wavefront-split interferometers — have been developed for simultaneously measuring displacements of multiple targets. The terms “sub-aperture” and...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Vacuum-Compatible Wideband White Light and Laser Combiner Source System
For the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) Spectrum Calibration Development Unit (SCDU) testbed, wideband white light is used to simulate starlight. The white light source mount requires extremely stable pointing accuracy ( lights were coupled to a photonic crystal fiber (PCF).
Briefs: Physical Sciences
In the process of connecting widely distributed antennas into a coherent array, it is necessary to synchronize the timing of signals at the various locations. This can...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Optical Tapers as White-Light WGM Resonators
A theoretical analysis has revealed that tapered optical waveguides could be useful as white-light whispering-gallerymode (WGM) optical resonators. The compactness and the fixed-narrow-frequency- band nature of the resonances of prior microdisk and microsphere WGM resonators are advantageous in...
Briefs: Imaging
Utilizing a Compact Color Microscope Imaging System (CCMIS), a unique algorithm has been developed that combines human intelligence along with machine vision...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Objective Lens Optimized for Wavefront Delivery, Pupil Imaging, and Pupil Ghosting
An interferometer objective lens (or diverger) may be used to transform a collimated beam into a diverging or converging beam. A typical objective lens is optimized to deliver a diffraction-limited beam to an optic or optical system under test. Often, imaging...
Briefs: Imaging
CMOS Camera Array With Onboard Memory
A compact CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) camera system has been developed with high resolution (1.3 Megapixels), a USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 interface, and an onboard memory. A compact design of a 2×4 in. (≈5×10 cm) multilayer PCB (printed circuit board) was designed that contains the...
Briefs: Imaging
Processing Images of Craters for Spacecraft Navigation
A crater-detection algorithm has been conceived to enable automation of what, heretofore, have been manual processes for utilizing images of craters on a celestial body as landmarks for navigating a spacecraft flying near or landing on that body. The images are acquired by an electronic camera...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A special image-data-processing technique has been developed for use in experiments that involve observation, via optical microscopes equipped with electronic cameras, of moving boundaries...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A Deep Space Network Portable Radio Science Receiver
The Radio Science Receiver (RSR) is an open-loop receiver installed in NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which digitally filters and records intermediate-frequency (IF) analog signals. The RSR is an important tool for the Cassini Project, which uses it to measure perturbations of the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Using GPS to Detect Imminent Tsunamis
A promising method of detecting imminent tsunamis and estimating their destructive potential involves the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) data in addition to seismic data. Application of the method is expected to increase the reliability of global tsunami-warning systems, making it possible to save lives...
Briefs: Information Technology
Stream Flow Prediction by Remote Sensing and Genetic Programming
A genetic programming (GP)-based, nonlinear modeling structure relates soil moisture with synthetic-apertureradar (SAR) images to present representative soil moisture estimates at the watershed scale. Surface soil moisture measurement is difficult to obtain over a large area due to a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Very-Long-Distance Remote Hearing and Vibrometry
A proposed development of laserbased instrumentation systems would extend the art of laser Doppler vibrometry beyond the prior limits of laserassisted remote hearing and industrial vibrometry for detecting defects in operating mechanisms. A system according to the proposal could covertly measure...
Briefs: Information Technology
Low-Complexity Lossless and Near-Lossless Data Compression Technique for Multispectral Imagery
This work extends the lossless data compression technique described in “Fast Lossless Compression of Multispectral-Image Data,” (NPO- 42517) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 30, No. 8 (August 2006), page 26. The original technique was extended to include a...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Reconfigurable, Bi-Directional Flexfet Level Shifter for Low- Power, Rad-Hard Integration
Two prototype Reconfigurable, Bidirectional Flexfet Level Shifters (ReBiLS) have been developed, where one version is a stand-alone component designed to interface between external low voltage and high voltage, and the other version is an embedded integrated...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Compact, Miniature MMIC Receiver Modules for an MMIC Array Spectrograph
A single-pixel prototype of a W-band detector module with a digital backend was developed to serve as a building block for large focal-plane arrays of monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) detectors. The module uses low-noise amplifiers, diode-based mixers, and a...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Magnetic-Field-Tunable Superconducting Rectifier
Superconducting electronic components have been developed that provide current rectification that is tunable by design and with an externally applied magnetic field to the circuit component. The superconducting material used in the device is relatively free of pinning sites with its critical current...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Waveguide Transition for Submillimeter-Wave MMICs
An integrated waveguide-to-MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) chip operating in the 300-GHz range is designed to operate well on highpermittivity semiconductor substrates typical for an MMIC amplifier, and allows a wider MMIC substrate to be used, enabling integration with larger MMICs...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method of pilotless frame synchronization has been devised for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Heretofore, it has been conventional practice to add pilot symbols, which serve...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Modulation Based on Probability Density Functions
A proposed method of modulating a sinusoidal carrier signal to convey digital information involves the use of histograms representing probability density functions (PDFs) that characterize samples of the signal waveform. Although almost any modulation can be characterized as amplitude, phase, or...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An architecture for arraying microwave antennas in the next generation of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) involves the use of all photonic links between (1) the antennas in a given...
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