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Briefs: Medical
Stationary Apparatus Would Apply Forces of Walking to Feet
A proposed apparatus would apply controlled cyclic forces to both feet for the purpose of preventing the loss of bone density in a human subject whose bones are not subjected daily to the mechanical loads of normal activity in normal Earth gravitation. The apparatus was conceived for use by...
Briefs: Medical
Instrument Would Detect and Collect Biological Aerosols
A proposed compact, portable instrument would sample micron-sized airborne particles, would discriminate between biological ones (e.g., bacteria) and nonbiological ones (e.g., dust particles), and would collect the detected biological particles for further analysis. The instrument is intended...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved method has been devised for using directed, hyperthermal beams of oxygen atoms and ions to impart desired textures to the tips of polymethylmethacrylate [PMMA] optical...
Briefs: Materials
Turbine inlet guide vanes have been fabricated from composites of silicon carbide fibers in silicon carbide matrices. A unique design for a cloth made from SiC fibers makes it possible to realize the geometric...
Briefs: Materials
Thermoelectric Inhomogeneities in (Ag₁₋ᵧSbTe₂)ₓ(PbTe)₁₋ₓ
A document presents a study of why materials of composition (Ag1–ySbTe2)0.05 (PbTe)0.95 [0≤y≤1] were previously reported to have values of the thermoelectric figure of merit [ZT (where Z =α2/ρκ, α is the Seebeck coefficient, ρ is electrical resistivity, κ is...
Briefs: Materials
Membranes made of silanized alumina have been prepared and tested as prototypes of derivatized ceramic membranes that are both highly permeable to oxygen and hydrophobic....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Tool for Torquing Circular Electrical-Connector Collars
An improved tool has been devised for applying torque to lock and unlock knurled collars on circular electrical connectors. The tool was originally designed for, and used by, astronauts working in outer space on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The tool is readily adaptable to terrestrial...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A device denoted as a bumper assembly for a spacecraft payload container comprises an interior structure surrounded by skin or some other protective enclosure (see figure)....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
On Release of Microbe-Laden Particles From Mars Landers
A paper presents a study in which rates of release of small particles from Mars lander spacecraft into the Martian atmosphere were estimated from first principles. Because such particles can consist of, or be laden with, terrestrial microbes, the study was undertaken to understand their...
Briefs: Medical
An effort is under way to develop noninvasive neuro-electric interfaces through which human operators could control systems as diverse as simple mechanical devices, computers, aircraft,...
Briefs: Imaging
Phase Sensor for Aligning a Segmented Telescope Mirror
A phase sensor has been developed for use in aligning a segmented telescope mirror to within a fraction of a wavelength in piston. (As used here, "piston" signifies displacement of a mirror segment along the optical axis of the telescope.) Such precise alignment is necessary in order to realize...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A recently proposed boundary condition for atomistic computational modeling of semiconductor nanostructures (particularly, quantum dots) is an improved alternative to two prior such...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Prototype transducers based on integrated optical ring resonators have been demonstrated to be useful for detecting the protein avidin in extremely dilute solutions. In an experiment, one of the...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Semiconductor Bolometers Give Background-Limited Performance
Semiconductor bolometers that are capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation over most or all of the infrared spectrum and that give background-limited performance at operating temperatures from 20 to 300 K have been invented. The term "background-limited performance" as applied to a...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A multichannel dielectric-resonator oscillator (DRO), built as a prototype of a local oscillator for an X-band transmitter or receiver, is capable of being electrically tuned among and within...
Briefs: Software
Control Software for Advanced Video Guidance Sensor
Embedded software has been developed specifically for controlling an Advanced Video Guidance Sensor (AVGS). [As described in several previous NASA Tech Briefs articles, a Video Guidance Sensor is an optoelectronic system that provides guidance for automated docking of two vehicles (space-craft in...
Briefs: Software
Earth Observing System Data Gateway
The Earth Observing System Data Gateway (EDG) software provides a "one-stop-shopping" standard interface for exploring and ordering Earth-science data stored at geographically distributed sites. EDG enables a user to do the following:
Briefs: Software
Mercury Shopping Cart
Mercury Shopping Cart Interface (MSCI) is a reusable component of the Power User Interface 5.0 (PUI) program described in the immediately preceding article. MSCI is a means of encapsulating the logic and information needed to describe an orderable item consistent with Mercury Shopping Cart service protocol. Designed to be used...
Briefs: Software
Cassini Archive Tracking System
The Cassini Archive Tracking System (CATS) is a computer program that enables tracking of scientific data transfers from originators to the Planetary Data System (PDS) archives. Without CATS, there is no systematic means of locating products in the archive process or ensuring their completeness. By keeping a database...
Briefs: Software
Computing Fault Displacements From Surface Deformations
Simplex is a computer program that calculates locations and displacements of subterranean faults from data on Earth-surface deformations. The calculation involves inversion of a forward model (given a point source representing a fault, a forward model calculates the surface deformations) for...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
RedShift Systems, Waltham, Massachusetts
The desire to “see” in complete darkness or through obscurants such as smoke or fog has driven the development and adoption of thermal imaging...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optically driven deformable mirrors may eventually supplant electrically driven deformable mirrors in some adaptive-optics and active-optics applications. Traditionally, the mirror facets in electrically...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method of equipping fiber-optic-coupled laser diodes to evenly illuminate specified fields of view has been proposed. The essence of the method is to shape the tips of the optical fibers...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Coherent, Santa Clara, California
Ultraviolet lasers currently are used in a very diverse range of industries and applications. This is because their high-energy photons directly can break...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Composites are becoming the material of choice for the manufacture of large, complex aerostructures. The aft section of the jumbo Airbus A380 and the wings of the...
Briefs: Medical
A proposed method of surgical repair of fractured bones would incorporate recent and future advances in the art of composite materials. The composite materials used in this method...
Briefs: Transportation
An Alternative for Emergency Preemption of Traffic Lights
An electronic communication and control system has been developed as a prototype of advanced means of automatically modifying the switching of traffic lights to give priority to emergency vehicles. This system could be used alternatively or in addition to other emergency...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The purpose of this article is to describe, in more detail, the transponder installed in each vehicle that participates in the emergency traffic-light-preemption system described in the...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure shows an intersection monitor that is a key subsystem of an emergency traffic-light-preemption system that could be any of the systems described in the three immediately...
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