Electronics & Software

Software

Find the latest advancements in the software used in simulation software, CAD, CAM, CAE, and mathematical and scientific software. Access technical and application briefs from NASA and other major research labs.

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Briefs: Software
Simulation of Attitude and Trajectory Dynamics and Control of Multiple Spacecraft
Agora software is a simulation of spacecraft attitude and orbit dynamics. It supports spacecraft models composed of multiple rigid bodies or flexible structural models. Agora simulates multiple spacecraft simultaneously, supporting rendezvous, proximity operations,...
Briefs: Software
Integrated Modeling of Spacecraft Touch-And-Go SamplingIntegrated Modeling of Spacecraft Touch-And-Go Sampling
An integrated modeling tool has been developed to include multi-body dynamics, orbital dynamics, and touch-and-go dynamics for spacecraft covering three types of end- effectors: a sticky pad, a brush-wheel sampler, and a pellet gun.
Briefs: Software
Spacecraft Station-Keeping Trajectory and Mission Design Tools
Two tools were developed for designing station-keeping trajectories and estimating delta-v requirements for designing missions to a small body such as a comet or asteroid. This innovation uses NPOPT, a non-sparse, general-purpose sequential quadratic programming (SQP) optimizer and the...
Briefs: Software
Propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves generated by an electric dipole are used for a variety of applications, including geological mapping of mineral deposits on the ocean floor, cellular or...
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Briefs: Software
For a wide range of engineers and scientists, the sound generated by a vibrating structure represents a critically important phenomenon. These sounds can be of significance for accomplishing rapid, low-cost...
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Briefs: Software
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) is the highest- flux reactor-based source of neutrons for condensed-matter...
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Articles: Software
NASA’s Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH) and Boeing employees have won the 2008 NASA Software of the Year Award for the development of a general-purpose program used to perform trajectory optimization...
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Briefs: Software
Computer Code for Nanostructure Simulation
Due to their small size, nanostructures can have stress and thermal gradients that are larger than any macroscopic analogue. These gradients can lead to specific regions that are susceptible to failure via processes such as plastic deformation by dislocation emission, chemical debonding, and interfacial...
Briefs: Materials
Devices that could be characterized as acoustically driven molecular sieves have been proposed for filtering water to remove all biological contaminants and all molecules larger than...
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Articles: Software
The traditional engineering response to testing a new wireless standard often involves selecting a box instrument with the closest specifications. For automated test systems with...
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Blog: Automotive
Computer Program Warns Weary Drivers
Although less publicized than alcohol, driver fatigue is a major contributor to auto accidents in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 56,000 sleep-related road crashes occur annually in the U.S., resulting in 40,000 injuries and 1,550 fatalities. According to the...
Eye on Innovation: Software
We often hear a common story from small and mid-size manufacturers. The VP of sales nails a really big order that will secure the company’s future — if the...
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Briefs: Software
Terminal Descent Sensor Simulation
Sulcata software simulates the operation of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) radar terminal descent sensor (TDS). The program models TDS radar antennas, RF hardware, and digital processing, as well as the physics of scattering from a coherent ground surface. This application is specific to this sensor and is...
Products: Software
Jacobs Technology Group, Tullahoma, TN, offers Test SLATE test control and measurement software that enables users to create a data acquisition and test automation program using point-and-click...
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Briefs: Software
Service Management Database for DSN Equipment
This data- and event-driven persistent storage system leverages the use of commercial software provided by Oracle for portability, ease of maintenance, scalability, and ease of integration with embedded, client-server, and multi-tiered applications. In this role, the Service Management Database (SMDB)...
Briefs: Software
Converting CSV Files to RKSML Files
A computer program converts, into a format suitable for processing on Earth, files of downlinked telemetric data pertaining to the operation of the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD), which is a robot arm on either of the Mars Explorer Rovers (MERs). The raw downlinked data files are in comma-separated-value...
Briefs: Software
Estimating Relative Positions of Outer-Space Structures
A computer program estimates the relative position and orientation of two structures from measurements, made by use of electronic cameras and laser range finders on one structure, of distances and angular positions of fiducial objects on the other structure. The program was written...
Briefs: Software
Event Driven Messaging With Role-Based Subscriptions
Event Driven Messaging with Role-Based Subscriptions (EDM-RBS) is a framework integrated into the Service Management Database (SMDB) to allow for role-based and subscription-based delivery of synchronous and asynchronous messages over JMS (Java Messaging Service), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer...
Briefs: Software
Maneuver Automation Software
The Maneuver Automation Software (MAS) automates the process of generating commands for maneuvers to keep the spacecraft of the Cassini-Huygens mission on a predetermined prime mission trajectory. Before MAS became available, a team of approximately 10 members had to work about two weeks to design, test, and implement...
Briefs: Software
Geospatial Authentication
A software package that has been designed to allow authentication for determining if the rover(s) is/are within a set of boundaries or a specific area to access critical geospatial information by using GPS signal structures as a means to authenticate mobile devices into a network wirelessly and in real-time has been...
Briefs: Software
Auto-Generated Semantic Processing Services
Auto-Generated Semantic Processing (AGSP) Services is a suite of software tools for automated generation of other computer programs, denoted cross-platform semantic adapters, that support interoperability of computer-based communication systems that utilize a variety of both new and legacy communication...
Briefs: Software
The term “submillimeter confocal imaging active module” (SCIAM) denotes a proposed airborne coherent imaging radar system that would be suitable for use in reconnaissance, surveillance, and...
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Eye on Innovation: Software
As a career engineer, the need to coordinate large-scale design activity and all of the associated information has presented an ongoing challenge. In my opinion, one of the most exciting...
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Supplements: Software
Comsol News - 2009
COMSOL News 2009 is a collection of case studies on industrial multiphysics applications. Discover how GE, Waters, STMicroelectronics, ArcelorMittal and others are benefiting from using multiphysics tools by downloading your own copy of COMSOL News. Inside, you will find several examples of how your peers have cut costs, improved...
Eye on Innovation: Software
Product simplification is the discipline of merging the greatest performance functionality into the fewest number of parts using the most suitable and cost-effective materials and...
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Briefs: Software
Processing Ocean Images To Detect Large Drift Nets
A computer program processes the digitized outputs of a set of downward-looking video cameras aboard an aircraft flying over the ocean. The purpose served by this software is to facilitate the detection of large drift nets that have been lost, abandoned, or jettisoned. The development of this...
Briefs: Software
Spreadsheets for Analyzing and Optimizing Space Missions
XCALIBR (XML Capability Analysis LIBRary) is a set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) database and spreadsheet-based analysis software tools designed to assist in technology-return-on-investment analysis and optimization of technology portfolios pertaining to outer- space missions. XCALIBR...
Briefs: Software
Symbolic Processing Combined With Model-Based Reasoning
A computer program for the detection of present and prediction of future discrete states of a complex, real-time engineering system utilizes a combination of symbolic processing and numerical model-based reasoning. One of the biggest weaknesses of a purely symbolic approach is that it enables...
Briefs: Software
DSN Data Visualization Suite
The DSN Data Visualization Suite is a set of computer programs and reusable Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that assist in the visualization and analysis of Deep Space Network (DSN) spacecraft-tracking data, which can include predicted and actual values of downlink frequencies, uplink frequencies, and...

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