Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Process for Making Single-Domain Magnetite Crystals
A process for making chemically pure, single-domain magnetite crystals substantially free of structural defects has been invented as a byproduct of research into the origin of globules in a...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Rapid Injection Molding Offers Alternative to Conventional Prototyping
Now more than ever, technological advancements drive the product design process.Increasingly powerful CAD programs allow more complex product designs, which in turn drive...
Briefs: Information Technology
Real-Time Adaptive Color Segmentation by Neural Networks
Artificial neural networks that would utilize the cascade error projection (CEP) algorithm have been proposed as means of autonomous, real-time, adaptive color segmentation of images...
Briefs: Information Technology
Product Lifecycle Management System Aligns Manufacturer's Design and Development
Smiths Aerospace, a leading trans-Atlantic aerospace equipment manufacturer, has grown dramatically in recent years through a combination of strategic...
Briefs: Information Technology
Designing Application Software for DSP Chips
When it comes to building a digital signal processing (DSP) board, it is important not to neglect the requirements of the application code — the code that actually acquires and processes data to...
Briefs: Materials
Treated Carbon Nanofibers for Storing Energy in Aqueous KOH
A surface treatment has been found to enhance the performances of carbon nanofibers as electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors in which aqueous solutions of potassium hydroxide are used as the electrolytes. In the treatment, sulfonic acid groups are attached to edge plane...
Briefs: Materials
New Material for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
A chemical method of synthesis and application of coating materials that are especially suitable for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)has been developed.The purpose of this development is to facilitate the utilization of the inherently high sensitivity of SERS to detect chemicals of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Advanced Infant Car Seat Would Increase Highway Safety
An advanced infant car seat has been proposed to increase highway safety by reducing the incidence of crying, fussy behavior, and other child-related distractions that divert an adult...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Method of Calibration for a Large Cathetometer System
A method of calibration has been devised for a pair of mutually orthogonal two-axis cathetometers that, when used together, yield measurements of three-dimensional positions of objects...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Spaceborne Infrared Atmospheric Sounder
A report describes the development of the spaceborne infrared atmospheric sounder (SIRAS)—a spectral imaging instrument, suitable for observing the atmosphere of the Earth from a spacecraft, that utilizes four spectrometers to cover the wavelength range of 12 to 15.4 µm with a spectral resolution that...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Using Redundancy To Reduce Errors in Magnetometer Readings
A method of reducing errors in noisy magnetic-field measurements involves exploitation of redundancy in the readings of multiple magnetometers in a cluster. By "redundancy" his meant that the readings are not entirely independent of each other because the relationships among...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Lightweight, Low-CTE Tubes Made From Biaxially Oriented LCPs
Tubes made from biaxially oriented liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs) have been developed for use as penetrations on cryogenic tanks. ("Penetrations" in this context denotes feed lines, vent lines, and sensor tubes, all of which contribute to the undesired conduction of heat into the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Nanofluidic Size-Exclusion Chromatograph
Efforts are under way to develop a nanofluidic size-exclusion chromatograph (SEC), which would be a compact, robust, lightweight instrument for separating molecules of interest according to their...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved Measurement of Dispersion in an Optical Fiber
An improved method of measuring chromatic dispersion in an optical fiber or other device affords a lower (relative to prior such methods) limit of measurable dispersion. This method is a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Position-Finding Instrument Built Around a Magnetometer
A coarse-positioning instrument is built around a three-axis magnetometer. The magnetometer is of a type that is made of inexpensive hardware and is suitable for use aboard spacecraft orbiting no more than 1,000 km above the surface of the Earth. A data processor programmed with suitable...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Multifunction Imaging and Spectroscopic Instrument
A proposed optoelectronic instrument would perform several different spectroscopic and imaging functions that, heretofore, have been performed by separate instruments. The functions would be...
Briefs: Software
Controlling Distributed Planning
A system of software implements an extended version of an approach, denoted shared activity coordination (SHAC), to the interleaving of planning and the exchange of plan information among organizations devoted to different missions that normally communicate infrequently except that they need to collaborate on...
Briefs: Software
Activity-Centric Approach to Distributed Programming
The first phase of an effort to develop a NASA version of the Cybele software system has been completed. To give meaning to even a highly abbreviated summary of the modifications to be embodied in the NASA version, it is necessary to present the following background information on Cybele:
Briefs: Software
Initial Processing of Infrared Spectral Data
The Atmospheric Infrared Spectrometer (AIRS) Science Processing System is a collection of computer programs, denoted product generation executives (PGEs), for processing the readings of the AIRS suite of infrared and microwave instruments orbiting the Earth aboard NASA 's Aqua spacecraft. Following...
Briefs: Software
Verifying Diagnostic Software
Livingstone PathFinder (LPF) is a simulation-based computer program for verifying autonomous diagnostic software. LPF is designed especially to be applied to NASA's Livingstone computer program, which implements a qualitative-model-based algorithm that diagnoses faults in a complex automated system (e.g.,an...
Briefs: Software
Neuropsychological Testing of Astronauts
The Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) is a computer program that administers a battery of five timed neuro-cognitive tests.WinSCAT was developed to give astronauts an objective and automated means of assessing their cognitive functioning during space flight, as compared with...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Tool for Insertion of a Fiber-Optic Terminus in a Connector
A tool has been developed for the special purpose of inserting the terminus of an optical fiber in a cable connector that conforms to NASA Specification SSQ-21635. What prompted the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Multilayer Dielectric Transmissive Optical Phase Modulator
A multilayer dielectric device has been fabricated as a prototype of a low-loss, low-distortion, transmissive optical phase modulator that would provide as much as a full cycle of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Compact Instrument for Measuring Profile of a Light Beam
The beamviewer is an optical device designed to be attached to a charge-coupled-device (CCD) image detector for measuring the spatial distribution of intensity of a beam of light (the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Second-Generation Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer
A report discusses an early phase in the development of the MISR-2 C, a second, improved version of the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro Radiometer (MISR), which has been in orbit around the Earth aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft since 1999. Like the MISR, the MISR-2 would contain a "pushbroom"...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Concept for Multiple-Access Free-Space Laser Communications
A design concept for a proposed airborne or spaceborne free-space optical-communication terminal provides for simultaneous reception of signals from multiple other...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Variable Shadow Screens for Imaging Optical Devices
Variable shadow screens have been proposed for reducing the apparent brightnesses of very bright light sources relative to other sources within the fields of view of diverse imaging optical...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Improved Phase-Mask Fabrication of Fiber Bragg Gratings
An improved method of fabrication of Bragg gratings in optical fibers combines the best features of two prior methods: one that involves the use of a phase mask and one that involves...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Inter-Valence-Subband/Conduction-Band-Transport IR Detectors
Infrared (IR) detectors characterized by a combination of (1) high-quantum-efficiency photoexcitation of inter-valence-subband transitions of charge carriers and (2) high-mobility...
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