Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved circuits that generate high-voltage pulses for driv-ing Q-switched lasers have been devised. To extract maximum energy from a laser cavity in the form of consistent laser pulses, the Q-switch pulses must rise...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA's F-15B #836 is a two-seat version of the F-15, which is a high-performance, supersonic, all-weather fighter airplane. The F-15B is used as a test-bed aircraft for a wide variety of...
Briefs: Materials
The differential solubility of sulfur in ethanol and water could be exploited to separate ethanol from water. The energy that could be produced by burning the separated ethanol would be more than that required in the separation process. In contrast, the separation of a small amount of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A special-purpose multispectral video camera has been designed to provide an enhanced capability for viewing hydrogen fires. Hydrogen fires do not emit sufficient visible light to be seen...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Space structures in general experience free-free vibrational boundary conditions that are not readily replicable on the ground. To conduct vibration tests of such structures on Earth,...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A laboratory apparatus called a "vacuum damper investigation and performance evaluation robot" ("V-DIAPER") affords capabilities for vacuum dynamic testing of torsional dampers. The apparatus was...
Briefs: Software
The OMNI time and attendance system is a workstation software system for automated, centralized recording of work time and attendance, and for flexible scheduling of work by...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A technique for determining inhomogeneities in a specimen of a high-critical-temperature superconductor involves scanning a small eddy-current probe over a flat surface of the...
Briefs: Materials
Flexible thermal-insulation blankets made of ceramic fibers can be protected against weather and handling by attaching thin metal face sheets. In applications in which the blankets are exposed to gas...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Corrugated quantum-well infrared photodetector (C-QWIPs) arrays are sensitive and high-resolution thermal imaging devices. They are not only suitable for a wide range of conventional...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An automated heating/cooling laboratory apparatus enables the accelerated thermal-cycle life testing of thin-film samples and other small material samples. In the original application for which...
Briefs: Information Technology
A collection of four documents contains information on various aspects of the flight software of the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) spacecraft. The first document is part of a longer paper that presents design requirements for the software; the information in...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Up a creek without a paddle? Not if you're an International Space Station astronaut with a CRV. That's short for Crew Return Vehicle, and it's being developed following an innovative approach in the X-38...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A change in the design of the engine inlets of the T-38 airplane significantly reduces takeoff distances while increasing safety margins. Although the newer inlet design (see Figure 1) is based on well-known...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Some changes in the design and construction of the leading edges of metal airplane wings have shown promise as means to suppress laminar-to-turbulent flow transitions. The significance...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Scientists at White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) have devised a kit for extracting nitrosamines from aqueous solutions. In comparison with extractions according to the method recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), extractions by use of the kit are faster, cheaper and less...
Briefs: Motion Control
The linear motor was invented in the mid-nineteenth century, at much the same time as its brother, the rotating electric motor. Because the linear motor always has to effect a reversing movement -...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A telescope produces multiple video outputs representing coregistered images in multiple spectral bands that can range from ultraviolet through far infrared. Although the overall function of the telescope is...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) integrated-circuit video image detector of the active-pixel-sensor (APS) type has been designed to implement programmable...
Briefs: Information Technology
The Radiographic Imaging Performance Support System (RIPSS) is a developmental computer network intended to serve as (1) a central electronic archive for the storage, retrieval, and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A hand-held optoelectronic instrument has been designed to generate a quantitative indication of the loss of chlorophyll, and thus the level of stress, in plants. The instrument exploits...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Relatively inexpensive, lightweight biplates for methanol fuel cells have been proposed. The reductions in weight and cost, relative to biplates now used in methanol fuel cells, would be...
Briefs: Information Technology
The Pathcalc computer program estimates the time needed to execute a given application program on a parallel computer of given computation and network capabilities. Pathcalc can be used to analyze the effects of changes in such parameters as central-processing-unit (CPU) speed, network bandwidth,...
Briefs: Materials
Improved aerogel-based thermal insulation systems have been developed to provide cost-effective and easier-to-handle alternatives to various types of multilayer insulation (MLI) and evacuated...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Shuttle Projects Information Frontier (SPIF) Telemetry and Command Processor (TAC) is a personal-computer-based data-handling system that serves as part of an interface for transfer...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved membrane/electrode assemblies (MEAs) made partly from hydrogen form of sulfonated polyether sulfone (HSPES) have been developed for use in methanol fuel cells. In comparison with traditional fuel-cell MEAs made partly from a commercial perfluorosulfonic acid-based polymer, these MEAs...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The figure shows an oil tunnel and associated equipment used in experiments, using the full-flow-field tracking (FFFT) technique, to characterize flows in beds packed with poly (methyl...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Vespel parts are made from a unique polymer by DuPont that has been called a problem solver for the semiconductor industry. Vespel SPC is a new generation of Vespel polyimide...
Briefs: Unmanned Systems
The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been a partner in many uninhabited-aerial-vehicle (UAV) test programs. Our participation has largely been in the areas of...