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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
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 joint...
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 from...
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 exploratory...
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 their...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
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...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Compact transducer arrays that measure spatial distributions of force or pressure have been demonstrated as prototypes of tactile sensors to be mounted on fingers and palms of dexterous robot hands. The...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An effort is underway to develop improved biosensors of a type based on ion channels in biomimetic membranes. These sensors are microfabricated from silicon and other materials compatible with silicon. As...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An improved suspended-patch antenna has been designed to operate at a frequency of about 23 GHz with linear polarization and to be one of four identical antennas in a rectangular array. The...
Briefs: Transportation
Two electronic communication-and- control systems have been proposed as means of modifying the switching of traffic lights to give priority to emergency vehicles. Both...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
As high-end electronics become more and more pervasive, reliability and the need to minimize failure are top priorities for many manufacturers....
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
CHEM-Based Self-Deploying Spacecraft Radar Antennas
A document proposes self-deploying spacecraft radar antennas based on cold hibernated elastic memory (CHEM) structures. Described in a number of prior NASA Tech Briefs articles, the CHEM concept is one of utilizing open-cell shape-memory-polymer (SMP) foams to make lightweight structures that can...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Scalable Multiprocessor for High-Speed Computing in Space
A report discusses the continuing development of a scalable multiprocessor computing system for hard real-time applications aboard a spacecraft. "Hard real-time applications" signifies applications, like real-time radar signal processing, in which the data to be processed are generated at...
Briefs: Motion Control
Additional Drive Circuitry for Piezoelectric Screw Motors
Modules of additional drive circuitry have been developed to enhance the functionality of a family of commercially available positioning motors (Picomotor™ or equivalent) that provide linear motion controllable, in principle, to within increments ≤30 nm. A motor of this type includes a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optoelectronic pattern-recognition systems (optical encoders)for measuring positions of objects of interest at temperatures well below or well above room temperature are undergoing...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Tunable optical true-time delay devices that would exploit electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) have been proposed. Relative to prior true-time delay devices (for example,...
Briefs: Information Technology
The Control Architecture for Multirobot Outpost (CAMPOUT) is a distributed-control architecture for coordinating the activities of multiple robots. In the CAMPOUT, multiple-agent activities and...
Briefs: Unmanned Systems
The miniature autonomous submersible explorer (MASE) has been proposed as a means of scientific exploration—especially, looking for signs of life—in harsh, relatively inaccessible...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed class of lightweight exoskeletal electromechanical systems would include electrically controllable actuators that would generate torques and forces that, depending on specific...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Progress in Fabrication of Rocket Combustion Chambers by VPS
Several documents in a collection describe aspects of the development of advanced materials and fabrication processes intended to enable the manufacture of advanced rocket combustion chambers and nozzles at relatively low cost. One concept discussed in most of the documents is the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Indentured Parts List Maintenance and Part Assembly Capture Tool — IMPACT
Johnson Space Center’s (JSC's) indentured parts list (IPL) maintenance and parts assembly capture tool (IMPACT) is an easy-to-use graphical interface for viewing and maintaining the complex assembly hierarchies of large databases. IMPACT, already in use at JSC to support...
Briefs: Information Technology
Fast Query-Optimized Kernel-Machine Classification
A recently developed algorithm performs kernel-machine classification via incremental approximate nearest support vectors. The algorithm implements support-vector machines (SVMs) at speeds 10 to 100 times those attainable by use of conventional SVM algorithms. The algorithm offers potential...
Briefs: Information Technology
Engineers use a wide range of tools and techniques to ensure that the designs they create are safe. However, accidents sometimes happen and when they do, companies...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software Reduces Radio-Interference Effects in Radar Data
A computer program suppresses the effects of narrow-band radio-frequency interference (RFI) on the data collected by a wide-band radar system. The need for this program arises because some advanced wide-band synthetic-aperture radar systems utilize frequency bands that include frequencies...
Briefs: Information Technology
Coordinating Shared Activities Shared Activity
Coordination (ShAC) is a computer program for planning and scheduling the activities of an autonomous team of interacting spacecraft and exploratory robots. ShAC could also be adapted to such terrestrial uses as helping multiple factory managers work toward competing goals while sharing such common...
Briefs: Information Technology
Software For Use With Optoelectronic Measuring Tool
A computer program has been written to facilitate and accelerate the process of measurement by use of the apparatus described in "Optoelectronic Tool Adds Scale Marks to Photographic Images" (KSC-12201), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 6a. To recapitulate: The tool contains...
Briefs: Materials
A method of in situ remediation of soil contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents involves injection of nanometer-size iron particles. This method should not be confused with a...
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