Tech Briefs

A comprehensive library of technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories covering all aspects of innovations in electronics, software, photonics, imaging, motion control, automation, sensors, test, materials, manufacturing, mechanical, and mechatronics.

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Briefs: Software
Processing TES Level-1B Data
TES L1B Subsystem is a computer program that performs several functions for the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES). The term "L1B" (an abbreviation of "level 1B"), refers to data, specific to the TES, on radiometric calibrated spectral radiances and their corresponding noise equivalent spectral radiances (NESRs),...
Briefs: Software
Processing TES Level-2 Data
TES Level 2 Subsystem is a set of computer programs that performs functions complementary to those of the program summarized in the immediately preceding article. TES Level-2 data pertain to retrieved species (or temperature) profiles, and errors thereof. Geolocation, quality, and other data (e.g., surface...
Briefs: Software
A further modification has been made in the algorithm and implementing software reported in “Modified Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data” (GSC-14681-1), NASA Tech...
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Briefs: Software
Using Heaps in Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data
speed has been made in the algorithm and implementing software reported in "Modified Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data" (GSC-14681-1), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 30, No. 6 (June 2006), page 51. That software performs recursive hierarchical segmentation of data having spatial...
Briefs: Software
MarsLS is a software tool for analyzing statistical dispersion of spacecraft-landing sites and displaying the results of its analyses. Originally intended for the Mars Explorer Rover...
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Briefs: Software
A computer program automates the process of selecting unbiased peer reviewers of research proposals submitted to NASA. Heretofore, such selection has been performed by manual searching of two large...
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Briefs: Software
Array-Pattern-Match Compiler for Opportunistic Data Analysis
A computer program has been written to facilitate real-time sifting of scientific data as they are acquired to find data patterns deemed to warrant further analysis. The patterns in question are of a type denoted array patterns, which are specified by nested parenthetical expressions....
Briefs: Software
Pre-Processor for Compression of Multispectral Image Data
A computer program that preprocesses multispectral image data has been developed to provide the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission with a means of exploiting the additional correlation present in such data without appreciably increasing the complexity of compressing the data. When used in...
Briefs: Software
Compressing Image Data While Limiting the Effects of Data Losses
ICER is computer software that can perform both lossless and lossy compression and decompression of gray-scaleimage data using discrete wavelet transforms. Designed for primary use in transmitting scientific image data from distant spacecraft to Earth, ICER incorporates an...
Briefs: Software
Flight Operations Analysis Tool (FLOAT) is a computer program that partly automates the process of assessing the benefits of planning spacecraft missions to incorporate various combinations of launch vehicles...
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Briefs: Software
In an improvement of the visual-targettracking software used aboard a mobile robot (rover) of the type used to explore the Martian surface, an affine-matching algorithm has been replaced...
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Briefs: Software
Software for Simulating Air Traffic
Future Air Traffic Management Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) is a system of software for performing computational simulations for evaluating advanced concepts of advanced air-traffic management. FACET includes a program that generates a graphical user interface plus programs and databases that implement...
Briefs: Software
Automated Vectorization of Decision-Based Algorithms
Virtually all existing vectorization algorithms are designed to only analyze the numeric properties of an algorithm and distribute those elements across multiple processors. This advances the state of the practice because it is the only known system, at the time of this reporting, that takes...
Briefs: Software
Grayscale Optical Correlator Workbench
Grayscale Optical Correlator Workbench (GOCWB) is a computer program for use in automatic target recognition (ATR). GOCWB performs ATR with an accurate simulation of a hardware grayscale optical correlator (GOC). This simulation is performed to test filters that are created in GOCWB. Thus, GOCWB can be used as...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A proposed free-space optical communication system would operate in a full-duplex mode, using a single constant-power laser beam for transmission and reception of binary signals at both...
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Briefs: Software
“One-Stop Shopping” for Ocean Remote-Sensing and Model Data
OurOcean Portal 2.0 (http:// ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov) is a software system designed to enable users to easily gain access to ocean observation data, both remote-sensing and in-situ, configure and run an Ocean Model with observation data assimilated on a remote computer, and visualize...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A scheme for stabilizing the frequency of a microwave signal is proposed that exploits the operational characteristics of a coupled optoelectronic oscillator (COEO) and related...
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Briefs: Software
The State Analysis Database Tool software establishes a productive environment for collaboration among software and system engineers engaged in the development of complex interacting systems. The tool embodies State...
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Optical oscillators that exploit resonantly enhanced four-wave mixing in nonlinear whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators are under investigation for potential utility as low-power,...
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Briefs: Software
Part of the Rover Analysis, Modeling and Simulation (ROAMS) software that synthesizes images of terrain has been augmented to make the images more realistic. [ROAMS was described in...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Narrow-band filters in the form of phase-shifted Fabry-Perot Bragg gratings incorporated into optical fibers are being developed for differential-absorption lidar (DIAL) instruments...
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Briefs: Software
Improving UDP/IP Transmission Without Increasing Congestion
Datagram Retransmission (DGR) is a computer program that, within certain limits, ensures the reception of each datagram transmitted under the User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol. [User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is considered unreliable because it does not involve a reliability- ensuring...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Photon, Inc., San Jose, California A common misconception is that beam collimation angle measurements must involve a least two or more beam size measurements along the beam path. For this reason,...
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Briefs: Software
FORTRAN Versions of Reformulated HFGMC Codes
Several FORTRAN codes have been written to implement the reformulated version of the high-fidelity generalized method of cells (HFGMC). Various aspects of the HFGMC and its predecessors were described in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles, the most recent being "HFGMC Enhancement of MAC/GMC"...
Briefs: Software
Program for Editing Spacecraft Command Sequences
Sequence Translator, Editor, and Expander Resource (STEER) is a computer program that facilitates construction of sequences and blocks of sequences (hereafter denoted generally as sequence products) for commanding a spacecraft. STEER also provides mechanisms for translating among various sequence...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Glasses that comprise rare-earth oxides and aluminum oxide plus, optionally, lesser amounts of other oxides, have been invented. The other oxide(s) can include SiO2, B2O3, GeO2, and/or any of...
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Briefs: Software
software prototype of BEAM (Beaconbased Exception Analysis for Multimissions) and successfully tested its operation in flight onboard a NASA research aircraft. BEAM (see NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26, No. 9;...
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Briefs: Software
Mission Scenario Development Workbench
The Mission Scenario Development Workbench (MSDW) is a multidisciplinary performance analysis software tool for planning and optimizing space missions. It provides a number of new capabilities that are particularly useful for planning the surface activities on other planets. MSDW enables rapid planning of a...
Briefs: Software
Marsviewer
Marsviewer is a multi-platform application designed to aid in quality control, browsing, and analysis of original science product images (Experiment Data Records, or EDRs) and derived image data products (Reduced Data Records, or RDRs) returned by the Mars Explorer Rover (MER) mission. Marsviewer offers an abstraction of the products'...

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