Software

A SPICE module for the Satellite Orbit Analysis Program (SOAP) precisely represents complex motion and maneuvers in an interactive, 3D animated environment with support for user-defined quantitative outputs. (“SPICE” stands for Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, Camera-matrix, and...

A report discusses an algorithm for a new kind of dynamics based on a quantum-classical hybrid-quantum-inspired maximizer. The model is represented by a modified Madelung equation in which the quantum potential is replaced by different, specially chosen "computational" potential. As a result, the dynamics attains both...

Sponsored by COMSOL Recorded February 27, 2008 In this podcast, COMSOL Branch Manager, David Kan, speaks with NASA Tech Briefs Editorial Director, Linda Bell, about the wide range of challenging design problems that can now be easily tackled by applying multiphysics modeling and simulation techniques. Learn how...

COMSOL Multiphysics Ten Years of Unlimited Simulation Capabilities! In 1998 COMSOL Multiphysics® made its debut as the first commercial environment to enable scientists, engineers, and researchers to solve any system of coupled physics phenomena in the same simulation. Ever since, users have leveraged the insights of...

Simulation Tool for ASCTA Microsensor Network Architecture (STAMiNA) ["ASCTA" denotes the Advanced Sensors Collaborative Technology Alliance.] is a computer program for evaluating conceptual sensor networks deployed over terrain to provide military situational awareness. This or a similar program is...

OXIMAP is a numerical (FEA-based) solution tool capable of calculating the carbon fiber and fiber coating oxidation patterns within any arbitrarily shaped carbon silicon carbide composite structure as a function of time, temperature, and the environmental oxygen partial pressure. The...

This software provides internal, automated search mechanics of GIDEP (Government- Industry Data Exchange Program) Alert data imported from the GIDEP government Web site. The batching tool allows the import of a single parts list in tab-delimited text format into the local JPL GIDEP database. Delimiters from every part number are...

"Generic Spacecraft" is the name of an evolving library of software that provides for simulation of a generic spacecraft that can orbit the Earth and land on the Moon (and, eventually, on Mars). This library is incorporated into the Langley Standard Realtime Simulation in C++ (LaSRS++) software...

A computer program implements parallel processing for nearly real-time creation of panoramic mosaics of images of terrain acquired by video cameras on an exploratory robotic vehicle (e.g., a Mars rover). Because the original images are typically acquired at various camera positions and...

A computer program enables assessment of the quality of tie points in the image-correlation processes of the software described in the immediately preceding article. Tie points are computed in mappings between corresponding pixels in the left and right images of a stereoscopic pair. The mappings...

Flexcam software was designed to allow continuous monitoring of the mechanical deformation of the telescope structure at Palomar Observatory. Flexcam allows the user to watch the motion of a star with a low-cost astronomical camera, to measure the motion of the star on the image plane, and to feed...

Anyone who has worked with programs such as Linux, Firefox, and Open Office is familiar with the concept of open-source software. Essentially, open-source software distributes programs and all of the underlying code for free. It's an interesting concept that has become quite popular in the engineering world but, until now, is...

A software library implements a new methodology of detecting faults in numerical subroutines, thus enabling application programs that contain the subroutines to recover transparently from single-event upsets. The software library in question is fault-detecting middleware that is wrapped...

Strategic Assessment of Risk and Technology (START) is a user-friendly computer program that assists human managers in making decisions regarding research- and- development investment portfolios in the presence of uncertainties and of non- technological constraints that include budgetary...