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Briefs: Medical
Neuro-Prosthetic Implants With Adjustable Electrode Arrays
Brushlike arrays of electrodes packaged with application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are undergoing development for use as electronic implants — especially as neuro-prosthetic devices that might be implanted in brains to detect weak electrical signals generated by neurons. These...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A tunable-bandwidth filter system (TBFS), now undergoing development, is intended to be part of a remote-sensing multispectral imaging system that will operate in the visible and near infrared spectral region...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Polarization Phase-Compensating Coats for Metallic Mirrors
A method of compensating for or minimizing phase differences between orthogonal polarizations of light reflected from metallic mirrors at oblique incidence, as, for example, from weakly curved mirrors, is undergoing development. The method is intended to satisfy a need to maintain precise...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method of noncontact, optical monitoring of the surface temperature of a tire has been devised to enable the use of local temperature rise as an indication of potential or impending...
Briefs: Information Technology
Methodology for Designing Fault-Protection Software
A document describes a methodology for designing fault-protection (FP) software for autonomous spacecraft. The methodology embodies and extends established engineering practices in the technical discipline of Fault Detection, Diagnosis, Mitigation, and Recovery; and has been successfully...
Briefs: Information Technology
Ground-Based Localization of Mars Rovers
The document discusses a procedure for localizing the Mars rovers in site frame, a locally defined reference frame on the Martian surface. MER onboard position within a site frame is estimated onboard and is based on wheel odometry. Odometry estimation of rover position is only reliable over relatively short...
Briefs: Materials
Polymers having low color and a favorable combination of other properties, including high glass-transition temperature (Tg) and high mechanical properties (strength, tensile modulus, and toughness)...
Briefs: Materials
Making Plant-Support Structures From Waste Plant Fiber
Environmentally benign, biodegradable structures for supporting growing plants can be made in a process based on recycling of such waste plant fiber materials as wheat straw or of such derivative materials as paper and cardboard. Examples of structures that can be made in this way include plant...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Dielectric Heaters for Testing Spacecraft Nuclear Reactors
Like the electrical-resistance heaters used heretofore for such testing, the dielectric heaters would be inserted in the reactors in place of nuclear fuel rods. A typical heater according to the proposal would consist of a rod of lossy dielectric material sized and shaped like a fuel rod...
Briefs: Software
Analyzing Power Supply and Demand on the ISS
Station Power and Energy Evaluation Determiner (SPEED) is a Java application program for analyzing the supply and demand aspects of the electrical power system of the International Space Station (ISS). SPEED can be executed on any computer that supports version 1.4 or a subsequent version of the Java...
Briefs: Software
X-Windows Information Sharing Protocol Widget Class
The X-Windows Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) Widget Class ("Class" is used here in the object-oriented -programming sense of the word) was devised to simplify the task of implementing ISP graphical-user-interface (GUI) computer programs. ISP programming tasks require many method calls to...
Briefs: Software
X-Windows Socket Widget Class
The X-Windows Socket Widget Class ("Class" is used here in the object-oriented -programming sense of the word) was devised to simplify the task of implementing network connections for graphical-user-interface (GUI) computer programs. UNIX Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) socket programming...
Briefs: Software
Simulating Humans as Integral Parts of Spacecraft Missions
The Collaborative-Virtual Environment Simulation Tool (C-VEST) software was developed for use in a NASA project entitled "3-D Interactive Digital Virtual Human." The project is oriented toward the use of a comprehensive suite of advanced software tools in computational simulations for the...
Briefs: Software
Processing Raman Spectra of High-Pressure Hydrogen Flames
The Raman Code automates the analysis of laser-Raman- spectroscopy data for diagnosis of combustion at high pressure. On the basis of the theory of molecular spectroscopy, the software calculates the rovibrational and pure rotational Raman spectra of H2, O2, N2, and H2O in hydrogen/air...
Briefs: Software
Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation
The Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (MAPSS) is a graphical simulation environment designed for the development of advanced control algorithms and rapid testing of these algorithms on a generic computational model of a turbofan engine and its control system. MAPSS is a nonlinear, non-real- time...
Briefs: Software
Generic Environment for Simulating Launch Operations
GEM-FLO (A Generic Simulation Environment for Modeling Future Launch Operations) is a computer program that facilitates creation of discrete event simulation models of ground processes in which reusable or expendable launch vehicles (RLVs) are prepared for flight. GEM-FLO includes a component,...
Briefs: Software
Infrastructure for Rapid Development of Java GUI Programs
The Java Application Shell (JAS) is a software framework that accelerates the development of Java graphical-user-interface (GUI) application programs by enabling the reuse of common, proven GUI elements, as distinguished from writing custom code for GUI elements. JAS is a software...
Briefs: Software
DCS-Neural-Network Program for Aircraft Control and Testing
A computer program implements a dynamic-cell-structure (DCS) artificial neural network that can perform such tasks as learning selected aerodynamic characteristics of an airplane from windtunnel test data and computing realtime stability and control derivatives of the airplane for use in...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Large Deployable Reflectarray Antenna
A report discusses a 7-meter-diameter reflectarray antenna that has been conceived in a continuing effort to develop large reflectarray antennas to be deployed in outer space. Major underlying concepts were reported in three prior NASA Tech Briefs articles: "Inflatable Reflectarray Antennas" (NPO-20433), Vol....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed device would remove bubbles of gas from a stream of liquid (typically water), accumulate the gas, and periodically release the gas, in bulk, back into the stream. The device is intended...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Modular, Microprocessor-Controlled Flash Lighting System
A microprocessor- controlled lighting system generates brief, precisely timed, high- intensity flashes of light for scientific imaging at frame rates up to about 1 kHz. The system includes an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are driven in synchronism with an externally generated...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Highly Efficient Multilayer Thermoelectric Devices
Multilayer thermoelectric devices now at the prototype stage of development exhibit a combination of desirable characteristics, including high figures of merit and high performance/cost ratios. These devices are capable of producing temperature differences of the order of 50 K in operation at or...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method has been proposed for extracting information on the rate of rotation of an aircraft, spacecraft, or other body from differential Doppler shifts of Global Positioning System...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A digital video camera system has been qualified for use in flight on the NASA supersonic F-15B Research Testbed aircraft. This system is capable of very-high-speed color digital...
Briefs: Software
Madsen Giersing, an Australian consulting engineering firm that specializes in marine engineering and construction solutions, was commissioned to design a new bulk liquids berth...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical resonators of a type now under development are designed to support few well-defined waveguide modes. In the simplest case, a resonator of this type would support...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Electrically Tunable Terahertz Quantum-Cascade Lasers
Improved quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are being developed as electrically tunable sources of radiation in the far infrared spectral region, especially in the frequency range of 2 to 5 THz. (Heretofore, the wavelengths of QCLs have been adjusted by changing temperatures, but not by changing...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A system of electronic instrumentation, constituting the equivalent of a two-port vector network analyzer, has been developed for use in on-wafer measurement of key electrical characteristics...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
PVM Enhancement for Beowulf Multiple-Processor Nodes
A recent version of the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) computer program has been enhanced to enable use of multiple processors in a single node of a Beowulf system (a cluster of personal computers that runs the Linux operating system). A previous version of PVM had been enhanced by addition of a...
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