Electronics & Software

Net-centric networking environments are often faced with limited resources and must utilize bandwidth as efficiently as possible. In networking environments that span wide areas, the data transmission has to be efficient without any redundant or exuberant metadata.

A chance-constrained dynamic programming algorithm was developed that is capable of making optimal sequential decisions within a user-specified risk bound. This work handles stochastic uncertainties over multiple stages in the CEMAT (Combined EDL-Mobility Analyses...

Geospatial data servers that support Web-based geospatial client applications such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind must listen to data requests, access appropriate stored data, and compile a data response to the requesting client application. This...

A set of automated planning algorithms is the current operations baseline approach for the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) of the proposed Hyper spectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission. For this operations concept, there are only local...

NASA’s vision for an intelligent engine will be realized with the development of a truly distributed control system featuring highly reliable, modular, and dependable components capable of both surviving the harsh engine operating environment and decentralized functionality. A set...

A navigation technology known as LiAISON (Linked Autonomous Interplanetary Satellite Orbit Navigation) has been known to produce very impressive navigation results for scenarios involving two or more cooperative satellites near the Moon, such that at least one satellite must be in an orbit...

Development of the DeCoM comes from the requirement of analyzing the performance of a condenser. A component of a loop heat pipe (LHP), the condenser, is interfaced with the radiator in order to reject heat. DeCoM simulates the condenser, with certain input parameters. Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer...

The flight software (FSW) math library is a collection of reusable math components that provides typical math utilities required by spacecraft flight software. These utilities are intended to increase flight software quality reusability and maintainability by providing a set of consistent, well-documented, and tested...

High-performance computing (HPC) programming has become increasingly difficult with the advent of hybrid supercomputers consisting of multicore CPUs and accelerator boards such as the GPU. Manual tuning of software to achieve high performance on this type of machine has been performed by...

A report describes a model that estimates the orientation of the backup reaction wheel using the reaction wheel spin rates telemetry from a spacecraft. Attitude control via the reaction wheel assembly (RWA) onboard a spacecraft uses...

University of California, San Diego engineers have developed new image processing techniques for rapid exploration and characterization of fires by small, Segway-like robotic vehicles.

Today we are pleased to have a guest blog on embedded device security from Alan Grau, president of Icon Labs. In July of 2011, Bloomberg Business Week’s cover story was ”Cyber Weapons: The New Arms Race.” Media reports of cyber-attacks by China on military targets and military contractors are frequent and...

Norwegian research scientists will contribute to realizing the concept of storing electricity at the bottom of the sea. The energy will be stored with the help of high water pressure. The idea of an underwater pumped hydroelectric power plant may sound like Jules Verne fiction, but then it was...

A software method has been developed that is applicable for analyzing cylindrical and partially cylindrical objects inspected using computed tomography (CT). This method involves unwrapping and re-slicing data so that the CT data from the cylindrical object...

A Sensor Data Qualification (SDQ) function has been developed that allows the onboard flight computers on NASA’s launch vehicles to determine the validity of sensor data to ensure that critical safety and operational decisions are not based on faulty sensor...

A Web application facilitates collaborative development of the ground operations planning document. This will reduce costs and development time for new programs by incorporating the data governance, access control, and revision tracking of the ground operations...

The Application Programming Interface (API) for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Aerodynamic Database has been developed to provide the developers of software an easily implemented, fully self-contained method of accessing the CEV Aerodynamic Database for use in their analysis and...

This software implements softwaredefined radio procession over multicore, multi-CPU systems in a way that maximizes the use of CPU resources in the system. The software treats each processing step in either a communications or navigation modulator or demodulator system as an...

This software simplifies the process of having to set up an Eclipse IDE programming environment for the members of the cross-NASA center project, Ensemble. It achieves this by assembling all the necessary add-ons and custom tools/preferences.

This iPhone application, Space Junk Sammy, is intended to be an educational application designed for Apple iPhones and iPads. This new concept educates kids in an innovative way about how orbital debris affects space missions.

International Space Station Live! (ISSLive!) is a Web application that uses a proprietary commercial technology called Lightstreamer to push data across the Internet using the standard http port (port 80). ISSLive! uses the push technology to display real-time telemetry and mission timeline data from the space station in any common Web...

This software was developed for the NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) Preparatory Project (NPP) Science Data Segment. The purpose of this software is to compare HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format) files specific to NPP and report whether the HDF5 files are identical. If...