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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Applied photo interpretation for airbrush cartography

New techniques of cartographic portrayal have been developed for the compilation of maps of lunar and planetary surfaces. Conventional photo interpretation methods utilizing size, shape, shadow, tone, pattern, and texture are applied to computer processed satellite television images. The variety of the image data allows the illustrator to interpret image details by inter-comparison and intra-comparison of photographs. Comparative judgements are affected by illumination, resolution, variations in surface coloration, and transmission or processing artifacts. The validity of the interpretation process is tested by making a representational drawing by an airbrush portrayal technique. Production controls insure the consistency of a map series. Photo interpretive cartographic portrayal skills are used to prepare two kinds of map series and are adaptable to map products of different kinds and purposes.

Inge, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Robot Gripper With Signal Processing

Single-chip computer and sensor-circuit chips preprocess sensor data. Self-contained circuitry combines sensor signals for serial digital transmission. Gripping surfaces crossed with grooves for grasping differently shaped objects. Gripper cavities house sensors and preprocessing circuitry. Sensors and preprocessing circuitry in robot gripper reduce amount of data being transmitted between robot controller and gripper. Placement in gripper reduces signal delays and vulnerability to electromagnetic interference.

Killion, Richard R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Squeezing Every Last 'Bit' of Information from Enceladus Mass Spectrometry

Potential opportunities to return to Enceladus in Discovery and Flagship class missions inspire development of next-generation instruments and creative approaches to sample collection, sample analysis, and data analysis and transmission strategies. Mass spectrometers (MS) are ideally suited to future Enceladus missions due to their analytical power in identifying a range of molecular and ionic compositions – including complex organics – and potentially astrobiologically-important features such as isotope ratios, chirality, and enantiomeric excess. However, long communication delays from Enceladus and limited bandwidth limits the data transmission from these higher-data-volume instruments, likely delaying mission-related response to new data. We explore the utility of data science and machine learning (ML) on isotope ratio (IR)MS data collected from laboratory analogs of Enceladus to: 1) process data quickly for rapid ground-based analyses, 2) understand if compositional and biosignature information could be extracted from IRMS data, and 3) evaluate whether onboard ML techniques could improve sample analysis, cadence, and transmission prioritization. Laboratory analogs analyzed isotopes of volatile CO2 that interacted with seawaters of varying composition, and include both abiotic and biotic (microbially-influenced) experiments. Enceladus’s alkaline oceans promote speciation of carbon into multiple forms (e.g., H2CO3 / CO2, HCO3-, and CO32-), each of which could be isotopically fractionated by abiotic or biotic reactions. Large (>2‰) changes in carbon isotopes (δ13C) are observed from some biotic experiments inoculated with complex microbial ecosystems relative to the abiotic seawaters. ML training and classification suggests that microbial samples can be distinguished from abiotic samples, yet that a broad range of microbial experiments are necessary to train ML models to cover a range of complexities including disequilibria, and isotopic and compositional fractionation.

geochemistry↗
NASA NTRS1973

Evolution of the satellite telemetry data processing facility at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Data from scientific and application satellites managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are acquired through the world-wide Spacecraft Tracking and Data Network (STDN). These data are forwarded to a central telemetry data processing facility whose primary objective is the timely provision of the data to users in a form suitable for their analysis. In a successful evolution, a satellite data processing facility must adapt to changing support requirements while operationally supporting active spacecraft. Advances in the technology of data transmission, data storage systems, and file management make it feasible to implement a third-generation system which will be able to satisfy experimenter requirements for the next ten years.

Keipert, F. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Optical data processing study

An onboard coherent optical data processing system was designed to handle large information content of imagery at high speeds, reduce redundancy in picture transmission, and detect specific image features. Theoretically derived Fourier transform characteristics for simple but representative two dimensional images served as a basis for predicting expected features of actual target images. Fourier transformation and spatial filtering of coherent optical images was accomplished theoretically and in the laboratory. The effect of various parameters such as optical aperature, incidence angles, the transparency assumption, the thin lens approximation on resolution, and performance of the system are predicted and tested.

Pinson, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Pairwise Comparison of Voltage Sets

Optical preprocessor compares 16 incoming signals with reference voltages. Integrated optical substraction to take "vector difference" of two sets of analog voltages. Applications include satellite onboard processing of pictorial data so data not useful discardes; device recognizes presence of accessive cloud cover and signals hault to data transmission.

Verber, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Multi-rate demodulator architecture

A unique digital multi-rate demodulator (MRD) architecture is presented for onboard satellite communications processing. The multi-rate feature enables the same demodulator hardware to process either one wideband channel (WBC), or process up to thirty-two independent narrowband channels (NBC) that are time division multiplexed (TDM). The MRD can process many quadrature modulation format such as offset quadrature phase shift keying (OQPSK). Possible applications include voice and data transmission for commercial or military users.

Sherry, Michael A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Remote Sensing as a Landscape Epidemiologic Tool to Identify Villages at High Risk for Malaria Transmission

A landscape approach using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies was developed to discriminate between villages at high and low risk for malaria transmission, as defined by adult Anopheles albimanus abundance. Satellite data for an area in southern Chiapas, Mexico were digitally processed to generate a map of landscape elements. The GIS processes were used to determine the proportion of mapped landscape elements surrounding 40 villages where An. albimanus data had been collected. The relationships between vector abundance and landscape element proportions were investigated using stepwise discriminant analysis and stepwise linear regression. Both analyses indicated that the most important landscape elements in terms of explaining vector abundance were transitional swamp and unmanaged pasture. Discriminant functions generated for these two elements were able to correctly distinguish between villages with high ind low vector abundance, with an overall accuracy of 90%. Regression results found both transitional swamp and unmanaged pasture proportions to be predictive of vector abundance during the mid-to-late wet season. This approach, which integrates remotely sensed data and GIS capabilities to identify villages with high vector-human contact risk, provides a promising tool for malaria surveillance programs that depend on labor-intensive field techniques. This is particularly relevant in areas where the lack of accurate surveillance capabilities may result in no malaria control action when, in fact, directed action is necessary. In general, this landscape approach could be applied to other vector-borne diseases in areas where: 1. the landscape elements critical to vector survival are known and 2. these elements can be detected at remote sensing scales.

Beck, Louisa R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A miniaturized neuroprosthesis suitable for implantation into the brain

This paper presents current research on a miniaturized neuroprosthesis suitable for implantation into the brain. The prosthesis is a heterogeneous integration of a 100-element microelectromechanical system (MEMS) electrode array, front-end complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit for neural signal preamplification, filtering, multiplexing and analog-to-digital conversion, and a second CMOS integrated circuit for wireless transmission of neural data and conditioning of wireless power. The prosthesis is intended for applications where neural signals are processed and decoded to permit the control of artificial or paralyzed limbs. This research, if successful, will allow implantation of the electronics into the brain, or subcutaneously on the skull, and eliminate all external signal and power wiring. The neuroprosthetic system design has strict size and power constraints with each of the front-end preamplifier channels fitting within the 400 x 400-microm pitch of the 100-element MEMS electrode array and power dissipation resulting in less than a 1 degree C temperature rise for the surrounding brain tissue. We describe the measured performance of initial micropower low-noise CMOS preamplifiers for the neuroprosthetic.

Action Potentials/physiology↗
NASA NTRS2011

EOS MLS Level 1B Data Processing Software

This software is an improvement on Version 2, which was described in EOS MLS Level 1B Data Processing, Version 2.2, NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 33, No. 5 (May 2009), p. 34. It accepts the EOS MLS Level 0 science/engineering data, and the EOS Aura spacecraft ephemeris/attitude data, and produces calibrated instrument radiances and associated engineering and diagnostic data. This version makes the code more robust, improves calibration, provides more diagnostics outputs, defines the Galactic core more finely, and fixes the equator crossing. The Level 1 processing software manages several different tasks. It qualifies each data quantity using instrument configuration and checksum data, as well as data transmission quality flags. Statistical tests are applied for data quality and reasonableness. The instrument engineering data (e.g., voltages, currents, temperatures, and encoder angles) is calibrated by the software, and the filter channel space reference measurements are interpolated onto the times of each limb measurement with the interpolates being differenced from the measurements. Filter channel calibration target measurements are interpolated onto the times of each limb measurement, and are used to compute radiometric gain. The total signal power is determined and analyzed by each digital autocorrelator spectrometer (DACS) during each data integration. The software converts each DACS data integration from an autocorrelation measurement in the time domain into a spectral measurement in the frequency domain, and estimates separately the spectrally, smoothly varying and spectrally averaged components of the limb port signal arising from antenna emission and scattering effects. Limb radiances are also calibrated.

Perun, Vincent S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

High resolution and image processing of otoconia matrix

This study was designed to investigate patterns of fibrils organization in histochemically stained otoconia. Transmission electron microscope and video imaging were used. These data indicate that otoconia of the chick (Gallus domesticus) inner ear may have central cores in vivo. The data also show that the ultrastructural organization of fibrils fixed with aldehydes and histochemical stains follows trajectories that conform to the hexagonal shape of otoconia. These changes in direction may contribute to the formation of a central core. The existence of central cores is important for the in vivo buoyancy of otoconia. Packing of fibrils is tighter after phosphotungstic acid (PTA) stained otoconia than with other histochemical stains, which usually produce looser packing of fibrils and seemingly larger central core. TEM of tilted and untilted material showed that turning of fibrils occurs at the points where the face angles of otoconia form and where central cores exist. Video image processing of the images allowed reconstructing a template which, if assumed to repeat and change trajectories, would fit the pattern of fibrils seen in fixed otoconia. Since it is highly unlikely that aldehyde primary fixation or PTA stain caused such drastic change in the direction of fibrils, the template derived from these results may closely approximate patterns of otoconia fibrils packing in vivo. However, if the above is correct, the perfect crystallographic diffraction pattern of unfixed otoconia do not correspond to patterns of fixed fibrils.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗
NASA NTRS2015

Email-Based Informed Consent: Innovative Method for Reaching Large Numbers of Subjects for Data Mining Research

Since the 2010 NASA authorization to make the Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) and Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) data archives more accessible by the research and operational communities, demand for data has greatly increased. Correspondingly, both the number and scope of requests have increased, from 142 requests fulfilled in 2011 to 224 in 2014, and with some datasets comprising up to 1 million data points. To meet the demand, the LSAH and LSDA Repositories project was launched, which allows active and retired astronauts to authorize full, partial, or no access to their data for research without individual, study-specific informed consent. A one-on-one personal informed consent briefing is required to fully communicate the implications of the several tiers of consent. Due to the need for personal contact to conduct Repositories consent meetings, the rate of consenting has not kept up with demand for individualized, possibly attributable data. As a result, other methods had to be implemented to allow the release of large datasets, such as release of only de-identified data. However the compilation of large, de-identified data sets places a significant resource burden on LSAH and LSDA and may result in diminished scientific usefulness of the dataset. As a result, LSAH and LSDA worked with the JSC Institutional Review Board Chair, Astronaut Office physicians, and NASA Office of General Counsel personnel to develop a "Remote Consenting" process for retrospective data mining studies. This is particularly useful since the majority of the astronaut cohort is retired from the agency and living outside the Houston area. Originally planned as a method to send informed consent briefing slides and consent forms only by mail, Remote Consenting has evolved into a means to accept crewmember decisions on individual studies via their method of choice: email or paper copy by mail. To date, 100 emails have been sent to request participation in eight HRP-funded studies. The development of the Remote Consent process, the laws allowing transmission of consent via electronic means, total metrics to date, and remaining challenges (e.g., response issues, use of International Partner data, biospecimens/genetic data) for the research use of LSAH/LSDA data will be described.

Lee, Lesley R.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Design study report. Volume 2: Electronic unit

The recording system discussed is required to record and reproduce wideband data from either of the two primary Earth Resources Technology Satellite sensors: Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) camera or Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS). The camera input is an analog signal with a bandwidth from dc to 3.5 MHz; this signal is accommodated through FM recording techniques which provide a recorder signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 39 db, black-to-white signal/rms noise, over the specified bandwidth. The MSS provides, as initial output, 26 narrowband channels. These channels are multiplexed prior to transmission, or recording, into a single 15 Megabit/second digital data stream. Within the recorder, the 15 Megabit/second NRZL signal is processed through the same FM electronics as the RBV signal, but the basic FM standards are modified to provide an internal, 10.5 MHz baseland response with signal-to-noise ratio of about 25 db. Following FM demodulation, however, the MSS signal is digitally re-shaped and re-clocked so that good bit stability and signal-to-noise exist at the recorder output.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1978

A concept for a transparent data acquisition and distribution system for spaceflight applications

The paper describes the Modular Data System concept of the NASA End-to-End Data System program. Data from a single instrument along with the necessary ancillary data will be assembled into self-contained packets and subsequently transmitted over various communications links (space telemetry channel, ground communications circuits, etc.) to the experimenter's facility in real time; reliable error control coding will be included in each link transmission to protect the integrity of the data packets. A major objective is to make the entire data acquisition and distribution process transparent to the experimenter in the sense that the output terminal of the distribution system will be physically, logically and electrically identical to that of the experiment output channel.

Greene, E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Digital Electronic Still Camera

Digital electronic still camera part of electronic recording, processing, tansmitting, and displaying system. Removable hard-disk drive in camera serves as digital electronic equivalent of photographic film. Images viewed, analyzed, or transmitted quickly. Camera takes images of nearly photographic quality and stores them in digital form. Portable, hand-held, battery-powered unit designed for scientific use. Camera used in conjunction with playback unit also serving as transmitting unit if images sent to remote station. Remote station equipped to store, process, and display images. Digital image data encoded with error-correcting code at playback/transmitting unit for error-free transmission to remote station.

Holland, Samuel D.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Space Plasma Ion Processing of Ilmenite in the Lunar Soil: Insights from In-Situ TEM Ion Irradiation Experiments

Space weathering on the moon and asteroids results largely from the alteration of the outer surfaces of regolith grains by the combined effects of solar ion irradiation and other processes that include deposition of impact or sputter-derived vapors. Although no longer considered the sole driver of space weathering, solar ion irradiation remains a key part of the space weathering puzzle, and quantitative data on its effects on regolith minerals are still in short supply. For the lunar regolith, previous transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies performed by ourselves and others have uncovered altered rims on ilmenite (FeTiO3) grains that point to this phase as a unique "witness plate" for unraveling nanoscale space weathering processes. Most notably, the radiation processed portions of these ilmenite rims consistently have a crystalline structure, in contrast to radiation damaged rims on regolith silicates that are characteristically amorphous. While this has tended to support informal designation of ilmenite as a "radiation resistant" regolith mineral, there are to date no experimental data that directly and quantitatively compare ilmenite s response to ion radiation relative to lunar silicates. Such data are needed because the radiation processed rims on ilmenite grains, although crystalline, are microstructurally and chemically complex, and exhibit changes linked to the formation of nanophase Fe metal, a key space weathering process. We report here the first ion radiation processing study of ilmenite performed by in-situ means using the Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope- Tandem Irradiation facility (IVEM-Tandem) at Argonne National Laboratory. The capability of this facility for performing real time TEM observations of samples concurrent with ion irradiation makes it uniquely suited for studying the dose-dependence of amorphization and other changes in irradiated samples.

Christoffersen, R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Weather data dissemination to aircraft

Documentation exists that shows weather to be responsible for approximately 40 percent of all general aviation accidents with fatalities. Weather data products available on the ground are becoming more sophisticated and greater in number. Although many of these data are critical to aircraft safety, they currently must be transmitted verbally to the aircraft. This process is labor intensive and provides a low rate of information transfer. Consequently, the pilot is often forced to make life-critical decisions based on incomplete and outdated information. Automated transmission of weather data from the ground to the aircraft can provide the aircrew with accurate data in near-real time. The current National Airspace System Plan calls for such an uplink capability to be provided by the Mode S Beacon System data link. Although this system has a very advanced data link capability, it will not be capable of providing adequate weather data to all airspace users in its planned configuration. This paper delineates some of the important weather data uplink system requirements, and describes a system which is capable of meeting these requirements. The proposed system utilizes a run-length coding technique for image data compression and a hybrid phase and amplitude modulation technique for the transmission of both voice and weather data on existing aeronautical Very High Frequency (VHF) voice communication channels.

Mcfarland, Richard H.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Automation of review/approval cycle of MCAUTO CAD/CAM generated drawings and documents

The review/approval of MCAUTO/UNIGRAPHICS CAD/CAM generated drawings and documents is done through routing of hard copies of drawings and memos via mail, a process both time consuming and expensive. It is proposed that a set of procedures and the required software tools be designed for transmission, revision, and signing-off of such documents via electronic data transfer, while maintaining a sufficient degree of data integrity and individual security. A main resistance to such a technique will be the limited size of the display screen (19 inch class) and infrequent layer switching with the attendant time delay during the process of reviewing the drawing. Such opposition should diminish as the users become familiar with the hardwares and its operation. It is suggested that user profiles be set so that the protection class list of the originator of the drawing include at least one common class with each of the individuals who will be involved in the Revision/Approval cycle. In this way the originator will be able to tranfer a file for their review and also be able to copy back the file to make the necessary permanent changes. Individual security is maintained by restricted access to signature files and by restricting the list of individuals who will be authorized to sign off. This is accomplished through two software tools:LAYCOPY and SIGN. It is felt that these proposed procedures and techniques will adequately maintain both the file integrity and individual security during Review/Approval Cycle of MCAUTO generated drawings without the need for hardcopy routing.

Minn, H. S.↗