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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1983

Processing techniques for software based SAR processors

Software SAR processing techniques defined to treat Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B) data are reviewed. The algorithms are devised for the data processing procedure selection, SAR correlation function implementation, multiple array processors utilization, cornerturning, variable reference length azimuth processing, and range migration handling. The Interim Digital Processor (IDP) originally implemented for handling Seasat SAR data has been adapted for the SIR-B, and offers a resolution of 100 km using a processing procedure based on the Fast Fourier Transformation fast correlation approach. Peculiarities of the Seasat SAR data processing requirements are reviewed, along with modifications introduced for the SIR-B. An Advanced Digital SAR Processor (ADSP) is under development for use with the SIR-B in the 1986 time frame as an upgrade for the IDP, which will be in service in 1984-5.

Leung, K.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Multi-channel holographic birfurcative neural network system for real-time adaptive EOS data analysis

Viewgraphs on multi-channel holographic bifurcative neural network system for real-time adaptive Earth Observing System (EOS) data analysis are presented. The objective is to research and develop an optical bifurcating neuromorphic pattern recognition system for making optical data array comparisons and to evaluate the use of the system for EOS data classification, reduction, analysis, and other applications.

Liu, Hua-Kuang↗
NASA NTRS1992

Sensor fusion V; Proceedings of the Meeting, Boston, MA, Nov. 15-17, 1992

Topics addressed include 3D object perception, human-machine interface in multisensor systems, sensor fusion architecture, fusion of multiple and distributed sensors, interface and decision models for sensor fusion, computational networks, simple sensing for complex action, multisensor-based control, and metrology and calibration of multisensor systems. Particular attention is given to controlling 3D objects by sketching 2D views, the graphical simulation and animation environment for flexible structure robots, designing robotic systems from sensorimotor modules, cylindrical object reconstruction from a sequence of images, an accurate estimation of surface properties by integrating information using Bayesian networks, an adaptive fusion model for a distributed detection system, multiple concurrent object descriptions in support of autonomous navigation, robot control with multiple sensors and heuristic knowledge, and optical array detectors for image sensors calibration. (No individual items are abstracted in this volume)

Schenker, Paul S.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Going Up. A GPS Receiver Adapts to Space

Current plans for the space station call for the GPS receiver to be installed on the U.S. lab module of the station in early 2001 (ISS Assembly Flight SA), followed by the attachment of the antenna array in late 2001 (Flight 8A). At that point the U.S. ISS guidance and control system will be operational. The flight of SIGI on the space station represents a "coming of age" for GPS technology on spacecraft. For at least a decade, the promise of using GPS receivers to automate spacecraft operations, simplify satellite design, and reduce mission costs has enticed satellite designers. Integration of this technology onto spacecraft has been slower than some originally anticipated. However, given the complexity of the GPS sensor, and the importance of the functions it performs, its incorporation into mainstream satellite design has probably occurred at a very reasonable pace. Going from providing experimental payloads on small, unmanned satellites to performing critical operational functions on manned vehicles has been a major evolution. If all goes as planned in the next few months, GPS receivers will soon provide those critical functions on one of the most complex spacecraft in history, the International Space Station.

Lightsey, E. Glenn↗
NASA NTRS1988

The microwave spectrum of asteroid Ceres

This paper presents new measurements of the microwave flux of Ceres obtained at wavelengths between 3.3 mm and 20 cm using the 12 m Kitt Peak antenna and the Very Large Array. These new measurements are combined with previous measurements to confirm a substantial decrease in flux density at centimeter wavelengths compared to millimeter wavelength. Using a statistical technique adapted from terrestrial microwave remote sensing, this spectrum has been compared with that of various candidate materials and models for the subsurface structure of Ceres. It is concluded that Ceres is largely covered with a 3-cm-thick layer whose dielectric properties resemble dry terrestrial clay. This layer may have formed by micrometeorite impact on hydrothermally altered basic or ultrabasic rock or on carbonaceous chondrite material.

Webster, W. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Space power by ground-based laser transmission

A new method for providing power to space vehicles consists of using high-power CW lasers on the ground to beam power to photovoltaic receivers in space. Such large lasers could be located at cloud-free sites at one or more ground locations, and use large mirrors with adaptive optical correction to reduce the beam spread due to diffraction or atmospheric turbulence. This can result in lower requirements for battery storage, due to continuous illumination of arrays even during periods of shadow by the earth, and higher power output, due to the higher efficiency of photovoltaic arrays under laser illumination compared to solar and the ability to achieve higher intensities of illumination. Applications include providing power for satellites during eclipse, providing power to resurrect satellites which are failing due to solar array degradation, powering orbital transfer vehicles or lunar transfer shuttles, and providing night power to a solar array on the moon.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Simplifying applications software for vision guided robot implementation

A simple approach to robot applications software is described. The idea is to use commercially available software and hardware wherever possible to minimize system costs, schedules and risks. The U.S. has been slow in the adaptation of robots and flexible automation compared to the fluorishing growth of robot implementation in Japan. The U.S. can benefit from this approach because of a more flexible array of vision guided robot technologies.

Duncheon, Charlie↗
NASA NTRS2004

Self-Recovery Experiments in Extreme Environments Using a Field Programmable Transistor Array

Temperature and radiation tolerant electronics, as well as long life survivability are key capabilities required for future NASA missions. Current approaches to electronics for extreme environments focus on component level robustness and hardening. However, current technology can only ensure very limited lifetime in extreme environments. This paper describes novel experiments that allow adaptive in-situ circuit redesign/reconfiguration during operation in extreme temperature and radiation environments. This technology would complement material/device advancements and increase the mission capability to survive harsh environments. The approach is demonstrated on a mixed-signal programmable chip (FPTA-2), which recovers functionality for temperatures until 28 C and with total radiation dose up to 250kRad.

space vehicle electronics↗
NASA NTRS2012

Fast and Adaptive Lossless Onboard Hyperspectral Data Compression System

Modern hyperspectral imaging systems are able to acquire far more data than can be downlinked from a spacecraft. Onboard data compression helps to alleviate this problem, but requires a system capable of power efficiency and high throughput. Software solutions have limited throughput performance and are power-hungry. Dedicated hardware solutions can provide both high throughput and power efficiency, while taking the load off of the main processor. Thus a hardware compression system was developed. The implementation uses a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The implementation is based on the fast lossless (FL) compression algorithm reported in Fast Lossless Compression of Multispectral-Image Data (NPO-42517), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 30, No. 8 (August 2006), page 26, which achieves excellent compression performance and has low complexity. This algorithm performs predictive compression using an adaptive filtering method, and uses adaptive Golomb coding. The implementation also packetizes the coded data. The FL algorithm is well suited for implementation in hardware. In the FPGA implementation, one sample is compressed every clock cycle, which makes for a fast and practical realtime solution for space applications. Benefits of this implementation are: 1) The underlying algorithm achieves a combination of low complexity and compression effectiveness that exceeds that of techniques currently in use. 2) The algorithm requires no training data or other specific information about the nature of the spectral bands for a fixed instrument dynamic range. 3) Hardware acceleration provides a throughput improvement of 10 to 100 times vs. the software implementation. A prototype of the compressor is available in software, but it runs at a speed that does not meet spacecraft requirements. The hardware implementation targets the Xilinx Virtex IV FPGAs, and makes the use of this compressor practical for Earth satellites as well as beyond-Earth missions with hyperspectral instruments.

Aranki, Nazeeh I.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Feasibility of using the Massively Parallel Processor for large eddy simulations and other Computational Fluid Dynamics applications

The results of an investigation into the feasibility of using the MPP for direct and large eddy simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations is presented. A major part of this study was devoted to the implementation of two of the standard numerical algorithms for CFD. These implementations were not run on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) since the machine delivered to NASA Goddard does not have sufficient capacity. Instead, a detailed implementation plan was designed and from these were derived estimates of the time and space requirements of the algorithms on a suitably configured MPP. In addition, other issues related to the practical implementation of these algorithms on an MPP-like architecture were considered; namely, adaptive grid generation, zonal boundary conditions, the table lookup problem, and the software interface. Performance estimates show that the architectural components of the MPP, the Staging Memory and the Array Unit, appear to be well suited to the numerical algorithms of CFD. This combined with the prospect of building a faster and larger MMP-like machine holds the promise of achieving sustained gigaflop rates that are required for the numerical simulations in CFD.

Bruno, John↗
NASA NTRS1993

A class of hybrid finite element methods for electromagnetics: A review

Integral equation methods have generally been the workhorse for antenna and scattering computations. In the case of antennas, they continue to be the prominent computational approach, but for scattering applications the requirement for large-scale computations has turned researchers' attention to near neighbor methods such as the finite element method, which has low O(N) storage requirements and is readily adaptable in modeling complex geometrical features and material inhomogeneities. In this paper, we review three hybrid finite element methods for simulating composite scatterers, conformal microstrip antennas, and finite periodic arrays. Specifically, we discuss the finite element method and its application to electromagnetic problems when combined with the boundary integral, absorbing boundary conditions, and artificial absorbers for terminating the mesh. Particular attention is given to large-scale simulations, methods, and solvers for achieving low memory requirements and code performance on parallel computing architectures.

Volakis, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Liquid Crystal on Silicon Wavefront Corrector

A low cost, high resolution, liquid crystal on silicon, spatial light modulator has been developed for the correction of huge aberrations in an optical system where the polarization dependence and the chromatic nature are tolerated. However, the overall system performance suggests that this device is also suitable for real time correction of aberration in human eyes. This device has a resolution of 1024 x 768, and is driven by an XGA display driver. The effective stroke length of the device is 700 nm and 2000 nm for the visible and IR regions of the device, respectively. The response speeds are 50 Hz and 5 Hz, respectively, which are fast enough for real time adaptive optics for aberrations in human eyes. By modulating a wavefront of 2 pi, this device can correct for arbitrary high order wavefront aberrations since the 2-D pixel array is independently controlled by the driver. The high resolution and high accuracy of the device allow for diffraction limited correction of the tip and tilt or defocus without an additional correction loop. We have shown that for every wave of aberration, an 8 step blazed grating is required to achieve high diffraction efficiency around 80%. In light of this, up to 125 waves peak to valley of tip and tilt can be corrected if we choose the simplest aberration. Corrections of 34 waves of aberration, including high order Zernicke terms in a high magnification telescope, to diffraction limited performance (residual wavefront aberration less than 1/30 lambda at 632.8 nm) have been observed at high efficiency.

Pouch, John↗
NASA NTRS2005

Promising Results from Three NASA SBIR Solar Array Technology Development Programs

Results from three NASA SBIR solar array technology programs are presented. The programs discussed are: 1) Thin Film Photovoltaic UltraFlex Solar Array; 2) Low Cost/Mass Electrostatically Clean Solar Array (ESCA); and 3) Stretched Lens Array SquareRigger (SLASR). The purpose of the Thin Film UltraFlex (TFUF) Program is to mature and validate the use of advanced flexible thin film photovoltaics blankets as the electrical subsystem element within an UltraFlex solar array structural system. In this program operational prototype flexible array segments, using United Solar amorphous silicon cells, are being manufactured and tested for the flight qualified UltraFlex structure. In addition, large size (e.g. 10 kW GEO) TFUF wing systems are being designed and analyzed. Thermal cycle and electrical test and analysis results from the TFUF program are presented. The purpose of the second program entitled, Low Cost/Mass Electrostatically Clean Solar Array (ESCA) System, is to develop an Electrostatically Clean Solar Array meeting NASA s design requirements and ready this technology for commercialization and use on the NASA MMS and GED missions. The ESCA designs developed use flight proven materials and processes to create a ESCA system that yields low cost, low mass, high reliability, high power density, and is adaptable to any cell type and coverglass thickness. All program objectives, which included developing specifications, creating ESCA concepts, concept analysis and trade studies, producing detailed designs of the most promising ESCA treatments, manufacturing ESCA demonstration panels, and LEO (2,000 cycles) and GEO (1,350 cycles) thermal cycling testing of the down-selected designs were successfully achieved. The purpose of the third program entitled, "High Power Platform for the Stretched Lens Array," is to develop an extremely lightweight, high efficiency, high power, high voltage, and low stowed volume solar array suitable for very high power (multi-kW to MW) applications. These objectives are achieved by combining two cutting edge technologies, the SquareRigger solar array structure and the Stretched Lens Array (SLA). The SLA SquareRigger solar array is termed SLASR. All program objectives, which included developing specifications, creating preliminary designs for a near-term SLASR, detailed structural, mass, power, and sizing analyses, fabrication and power testing of a functional flight-like SLASR solar blanket, were successfully achieved.

Eskenazi, Mike↗
NASA NTRS2015

"Intelligent Ensemble" Projections of Precipitation and Surface Radiation in Support of Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation

Earth's climate is changing and will continue to change into the foreseeable future. Expected changes in the climatological distribution of precipitation, surface temperature, and surface solar radiation will significantly impact agriculture. Adaptation strategies are, therefore, required to reduce the agricultural impacts of climate change. Climate change projections of precipitation, surface temperature, and surface solar radiation distributions are necessary input for adaption planning studies. These projections are conventionally constructed from an ensemble of climate model simulations (e.g., the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5)) as an equal weighted average, one model one vote. Each climate model, however, represents the array of climate-relevant physical processes with varying degrees of fidelity influencing the projection of individual climate variables differently. Presented here is a new approach, termed the "Intelligent Ensemble, that constructs climate variable projections by weighting each model according to its ability to represent key physical processes, e.g., precipitation probability distribution. This approach provides added value over the equal weighted average method. Physical process metrics applied in the "Intelligent Ensemble" method are created using a combination of NASA and NOAA satellite and surface-based cloud, radiation, temperature, and precipitation data sets. The "Intelligent Ensemble" method is applied to the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 anthropogenic climate forcing simulations within the CMIP5 archive to develop a set of climate change scenarios for precipitation, temperature, and surface solar radiation in each USDA Farm Resource Region for use in climate change adaptation studies.

Taylor, Patrick C.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Effect of color on pilot performance and transfer functions using a full-spectrum, calligraphic, color display system

The use of blue and red color in out-of-window cockpit displays, in full-spectrum calligraphic computer-generated display systems, is studied with attention given to pilot stereographic depth perception and response to visual cues. Displays for vertical approach, with dynamic and frozen-range landing approach and perspective arrays, are analyzed. Pilot transfer function and the transfer function associated with the contrasted approach and perspective arrays are discussed. Out-of-window blue lights are perceived by pilots as indicating greater distance depth, red lights as indicating proximity. The computer-generated chromatic display was adapted to flight simulators for the tests.

Chase, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Tomographic methods in flow diagnostics

This report presents a viewpoint of tomography that should be well adapted to currently available optical measurement technology as well as the needs of computational and experimental fluid dynamists. The goals in mind are to record data with the fastest optical array sensors; process the data with the fastest parallel processing technology available for small computers; and generate results for both experimental and theoretical data. An in-depth example treats interferometric data as it might be recorded in an aeronautics test facility, but the results are applicable whenever fluid properties are to be measured or applied from projections of those properties. The paper discusses both computed and neural net calibration tomography. The report also contains an overview of key definitions and computational methods, key references, computational problems such as ill-posedness, artifacts, missing data, and some possible and current research topics.

Decker, Arthur J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Noise-Canceling Helmet Audio System

A prototype helmet audio system has been developed to improve voice communication for the wearer in a noisy environment. The system was originally intended to be used in a space suit, wherein noise generated by airflow of the spacesuit life-support system can make it difficult for remote listeners to understand the astronaut s speech and can interfere with the astronaut s attempt to issue vocal commands to a voice-controlled robot. The system could be adapted to terrestrial use in helmets of protective suits that are typically worn in noisy settings: examples include biohazard, fire, rescue, and diving suits. The system (see figure) includes an array of microphones and small loudspeakers mounted at fixed positions in a helmet, amplifiers and signal-routing circuitry, and a commercial digital signal processor (DSP). Notwithstanding the fixed positions of the microphones and loudspeakers, the system can accommodate itself to any normal motion of the wearer s head within the helmet. The system operates in conjunction with a radio transceiver. An audio signal arriving via the transceiver intended to be heard by the wearer is adjusted in volume and otherwise conditioned and sent to the loudspeakers. The wearer s speech is collected by the microphones, the outputs of which are logically combined (phased) so as to form a microphone- array directional sensitivity pattern that discriminates in favor of sounds coming from vicinity of the wearer s mouth and against sounds coming from elsewhere. In the DSP, digitized samples of the microphone outputs are processed to filter out airflow noise and to eliminate feedback from the loudspeakers to the microphones. The resulting conditioned version of the wearer s speech signal is sent to the transceiver.

Seibert, Marc A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Image processing using Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) technology

The need to increase the information return from space-borne imaging systems has increased in the past decade. The use of multi-spectral data has resulted in the need for finer spatial resolution and greater spectral coverage. Onboard signal processing will be necessary in order to utilize the available Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) communication channel at high efficiency. A generally recognized approach to the increased efficiency of channel usage is through data compression techniques. The compression technique implemented is a differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) scheme with a non-uniform quantizer. The need to advance the state-of-the-art of onboard processing was recognized and a GaAs integrated circuit technology was chosen. An Adaptive Programmable Processor (APP) chip set was developed which is based on an 8-bit slice general processor. The reason for choosing the compression technique for the Multi-spectral Linear Array (MLA) instrument is described. Also a description is given of the GaAs integrated circuit chip set which will demonstrate that data compression can be performed onboard in real time at data rate in the order of 500 Mb/s.

Miller, Warner H.↗