Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Predicting turbulent flowfield and pressure drop in complex internal flows, such as valves, pumps, and turbines, is of great interest in many areas of...
Briefs: Software
A model describing supercritical-pressure, multi-species turbulent mixing has been developed to simulate situations prevailing in diesel, gas turbine, and HCCI (homogeneous charge compression ignition) engines. It is also a situation occurring in atmospheric planetary science,...
Briefs: Software
Elementary-reaction chemical kinetics of hydrocarbon oxidation consists of hundreds to thousands of species and thousands of reactions. As such, it is impossible to use it in models and codes involving turbulence because computations are unfeasible due to lack of memory and...
Briefs: Software
The FAA, using its CARI-6 program, provides galactic cosmic radiation dosage rates for any location on the Earth from ground up to 60,000 ft (≈18,300 m). One way to protect astronauts from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) on a Mars mission is to use...
Briefs: Software
The iSWA system is a Web-based dissemination framework for NASA-relevant space weather information that combines forecasts based on the most advanced space weather models with concurrent space environment information. A key design driver for the iSWA system is to generate and present vast amounts of...
Briefs: Software
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) surface operations require precise and accurate knowledge of rover position. A key means of establishing/verifying position is to match ortho-rectified mosaics from the MSL onboard cameras to orbital data. Manual localization by matching mosaics to HiRISE...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The SAM/MSL Terrestrial Background Spectral Library is one of the tools developed for identifying known terrestrial background for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) mission. The SAM instrument suite can detect trace elements in the ppb range and therefore requires a...
Briefs: Software
Spaceflight and planetary exploration place severe constraints on the available bandwidth for downlinking large hyperspectral images. Communications with spacecraft often occur intermittently, so mission-relevant hyperspectral data must wait for analysis on the ground before it can inform...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
When the space shuttle’s external tank (ET) was being filled with the cryogenic fuel components LOX and LH2, moisture from the surrounding atmosphere could condense onto the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Web Sockets is a network full-duplex communication channel that allows Javascript programs embedded in Web pages to establish connections to applications running on the server that provided the Web pages. Two-way communication is...
Briefs: Software
A mobile device application created by NASA visualizes recent global climate data from Earth science satellites, including air temperature, sea surface salinity, carbon monoxide, ozone, and water vapor, as well as gravity and sea level variations. This app is an Open GL simple 3D object viewer for the Apple IOS and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Mixed-initiative teams of robots and humans working side-by-side in close proximity to each other need to be capable of reasoning about the actions and activities of each other within a mission context. This capability requires the robotic agents to have a sense of self, and their...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
This software enables one to calculate elevation-dependent relative air mass. When imaging a setting or rising Sun on the ground or from space, the shape and the intensity distribution of a captured image are affected by the following three...
Briefs: Software
A software program analyzes data measured by the Vehicle Cabin Atmosphere Monitor (VCAM) and quantifies the concentrations of trace chemicals detected by VCAM. The software contains a unique way to quantify the signal measured by VCAM, to establish the concentration curve,...
Briefs: Software
The bundle adjustment, or more specifically, the colinearity math model it is based on, is undisputedly the most accurate method to perform 3D scene reconstruction from multiple images. It...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
MAPS is a suite of software tools used for pre-flight planning, real-time support, and post-flight analysis of spacecraft attitude and pointing for the International Space Station (ISS), HII Transfer Vehicle (HTV), Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), and other low Earth orbit (LEO)...
Briefs: Information Technology
The Global Elevation Data Adaptive Compression Algorithms (GEDACA) were developed to provide compression and rapid decompression of digital terrain maps (DTMs) in constrained computing...
Briefs: Software
Documents, such as reports that are consistent in format, are excellent candidates for automation. Autodoc was designed as a means to automate such reports in order to reduce the amount of labor necessary to produce reports, and to improve the accuracy...
Briefs: Software
The Exploration Visualization Environment (EVE) is a graphical environment for the visualization, analysis, and simulation of engineering data, specializing in aerospace and aeronautic concepts. EVE is based on the history and successful application of the Synergistic Engineering Environment (SEE) and provides...
Briefs: Software
The Mississippi Evacuation and Traveler’s Assistance (MSETA) system provides public assistance for emergency evacuation and tourism/travel. The MSETA system is composed of...
Briefs: Information Technology
In a crisis, up-to-date information is one of the most important commodities for decision-makers. Remote sensing data have been instrumental in regional scale damage...
Briefs: Information Technology
This software simulates Sun images observed on the ground and from space with an easy-to-use analytical approach and with high accuracy. It is a simple, analytical approach with the accuracy of a...
Briefs: Information Technology
For Orion Exploration Flight Test One (EFT-1), the unit-under-test for flight software verification has been chosen as the entire integrated flight software load. At the time of this reporting, the unit test tool, while powerful, operates on very small units, usually classes. This leaves a sizable...
News: RF & Microwave Electronics
Two major design trends, the push to provide more exotic human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and the march towards autonomous driving, are sparking interest in cameras not now...
Articles: Test & Measurement
Liquid crystal displays have rapidly gone from limited usage to mainstream, transforming human-machine interfaces (HMIs). Video images are being added to the diverse list of functions for these...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Linear motion systems are found inside countless machines including precision laser cutting systems, laboratory automation equipment, semiconductor fabrication machines, CNC machines,...
Articles: Motion Control
At first glance, the photo at the top is not appealing to any market — a pallet full of old gearmotors is not something one wants to think about after purchasing the necessary...
Articles: Motion Control
Permanent magnet brushless motors of various design architectures and power levels have been used since the late 1980s in industrial and commercial applications. Over the course of...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
Life-sized, hummingbird-like, unmanned surveillance aircraft weighs two-thirds of an ounce, including batteries and video camera.
The Nano Hummingbird is a miniature aircraft developed under the Nano Air...