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Briefs: Materials
A sol-gel process has been developed as a superior alternative to a prior process for making platinum-ruthenium alloy catalysts for electro-oxidation of methanol in fuel cells. The starting...
Briefs: Aerospace
Stellar Gyroscope for Determining Attitude of a Spacecraft
A paper introduces the concept of a stellar gyroscope, currently at an early stage of development, for determining the attitude or spin axis, and spin rate of a spacecraft. Like star trackers, which are commercially available, a stellar gyroscope would capture and process images of stars to...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure depicts the planned Actuated Hybrid Mirror Telescope (AHMT), which is intended to demonstrate a new approach to the design and construction of wide-aperture spaceborne telescopes for astronomy and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A proposed thermoelectric device would exploit natural temperature differences between air and soil to harvest small amounts of electric energy. Because the air/soil temperature difference...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A broadband phase-contrast wave-front sensor has been proposed as a real-time wave-front sensor in an adaptive-optics system. The proposed sensor would offer an alternative to the Shack-Hartmann...
Briefs: Medical
Chamber for Growing and Observing Fungi
Unlike prior fungus growing apparatuses, this chamber makes it possible to examine a fungus culture without disrupting it. Partly resembling a small picture frame, the chamber includes a metal plate having a rectangular through the thickness opening with recesses for a top and a bottom cover glass, an inlet...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Chemical sensors based on optical ring resonators are undergoing development. A ring resonator according to this concept is a closed-circuit dielectric optical waveguide. The outermost layer of this...
Briefs: Medical
A prototype of an electroporation system for sterilizing wastewater or drinking water has been developed. In electroporation, applied electric fields cause transient and/or permanent changes in the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Algorithm for Identifying Erroneous Rain-Gauge Readings
An algorithm analyzes rain-gauge data to identify statistical outliers that could be deemed to be erroneous readings. Heretofore, analyses of this type have been performed in burdensome manual procedures that have involved subjective judgements. Sometimes, the analyses have included...
Briefs: Software
Solar-System Ephemeris Toolbox
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) generates planetary and lunar ephemeris data and FORTRAN routines that allow users to obtain state data for the Sun, the moon, and the planets. The JPL Solar System Ephemeris Toolbox, developed at Kennedy Space Center, is a set of functions that provides the same functionality in...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Flexible Metal-Fabric Radiators
Flexible metal-fabric radiators have been considered as alternative means of dissipating excess heat from spacecraft and space suits. The radiators also may be useful in such special terrestrial applications as rejecting heat from space-suit-like protective suits worn in hot work environments. In addition to...
Briefs: Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology breakthroughs are happening every day. NASA Tech Briefs' Nano 2005 nano engineering conference, November 10-11 at the Marriott Boston Newton, will help you keep pace with the engineering...
Briefs: Software
Upgrades of Two Computer Codes for Analysis of Turbomachinery
Major upgrades have been made in two of the programs reported in "Five Computer Codes for Analysis of Turbomachinery" (LEW-16851), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 11 (November 1999), page 28. The affected programs are:
Briefs: Information Technology
Condition Assessment and End-of-Life Prediction System for Electric Machines and Their Loads
An end-of-life prediction system developed for electric machines and their loads could be used in integrated vehicle health monitoring at NASA and in other government agencies. This system will provide on-line, real-time condition assessment and end-of-life...
Briefs: Software
Program Facilitates CMMI Appraisals
A computer program has been written to facilitate appraisals according to the methodology of Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). [CMMI is a government/ industry standard, maintained by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, for objectively assessing the engineering capability...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Program Computes Sound Pressures at Rocket Launches
Launch Vehicle External Sound Pressure is a computer program that predicts the ignition-overpressure and the acoustic pressure on the surfaces and in the vicinity of a rocket and launch pad during launch. The program generates a graphical user interface (GUI) that gathers input data from the user....
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Manufacturers of multiplexers, attenuators, amplifiers, and other fiber-optic components must characterize their products for parameters such as insertion loss and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
In one of the first real-world applications of photonic crystals, two companies partnered to produce a photonic crystal enhanced (PCE) micro-hotplate device with...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
GaAs QWIP Array Containing More Than a Million Pixels
A 1,024 × 1,024-pixel array of quantumwell infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) has been built on a 1.8 × 1.8-cm GaAs chip. In tests, the array was found to perform well in detecting images at wavelengths from 8 to 9 μm in operation at temperatures between 60 and 70 K. The largest-format QWIP...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Progress has been made in continuing efforts to develop optical flight-control and navigation sensors for miniature robotic aircraft. The designs of these sensors are inspired by the...
Briefs: Software
Data-Acquisition Software for PSP/TSP Wind-Tunnel Cameras
Wing-Viewer is a computer program for acquisition and reduction of image data acquired by any of five different scientific grade commercial electronic cameras used at Langley Research center to observe wind-tunnel models coated with pressure or temperature-sensitive paints (PSP/TSP).
Briefs: Software
Grid Visualization Tool
The Grid Visualization Tool (GVT) is a computer program for displaying the path of a mobile robotic explorer (rover) on a terrain map. The GVT reads a map-data file in either portable graymap (PGM) or portable pixmap (PPM) format, representing a gray-scale or color map image, respectively.
Briefs: Software
Updated Chemical Kinetics and Sensitivity Analysis Code
An updated version of the General Chemical Kinetics and Sensitivity Analysis (LSENS) computer code has become available. A prior version of LSENS was described in “Program Helps to Determine Chemical-Reaction Mechanisms” (LEW-15758), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 19, No. 5 (May 1995), page 66. To...
Briefs: Software
Avionics System Architecture Tool
Avionics System Architecture Tool (ASAT) is a computer program intended for use during the avionics-system-architecture- design phase of the process of designing a spacecraft for a specific mission.
Briefs: Software
Predicting Flutter and Forced Response in Turbomachinery
TURBO-AE is a computer code that enables detailed, highfidelity modeling of aeroelastic and unsteady aerodynamic characteristics for prediction of flutter, forced response, and bladerow interaction effects in turbomachinery.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A prototype optoelectronic system measures the three dimensional relative coordinates of objects of interest or of targets affixed to objects of interest in a workspace. The system includes a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Portable Airborne Laser System Measures Forest-Canopy Height
The Portable Airborne Laser System (PALS) is a combination of laser ranging, video imaging, positioning, and data-processing subsystems designed for measuring the heights of forest canopies along linear transects from tens to thousands of kilometers long. Unlike prior laser ranging...
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Inexpensive, lightweight array antennas on flexible substrates are under development to satisfy a need for large-aperture antennas that can be stored compactly during transport and deployed to full size...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Integrated circuits that exploit optical flow to sense motions of computer mice on or near surfaces (“optical mouse chips”) are used as navigation sensors in a class of small flying robots now...
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Quiz: Energy
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Blog: Data Acquisition
Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Advantages of Smart Power Distribution Unit Design for Automotive &...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Quiet, Please: NVH Improvement Opportunities in the Early Design...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
From Spreadsheets to Insights: Fast Data Analysis Without Complex...
Upcoming Webinars: Defense
Cooling a New Generation of Aerospace and Defense Embedded...
Upcoming Webinars: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Beyond AI-Copy-Paste Engineering: Advanced AI-Integration Success...
Upcoming Webinars: Power
