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NASA NTRS1995

Nanoelectronics: Opportunities for future space applications

Further improvements in the performance of integrated electronics will eventually halt due to practical fundamental limits on our ability to downsize transistors and interconnect wiring. Avoiding these limits requires a revolutionary approach to switching device technology and computing architecture. Nanoelectronics, the technology of exploiting physics on the nanometer scale for computation and communication, attempts to avoid conventional limits by developing new approaches to switching, circuitry, and system integration. This presentation overviews the basic principles that operate on the nanometer scale that can be assembled into practical devices and circuits. Quantum resonant tunneling (RT) is used as the center-piece of the overview since RT devices already operate at high temperature (120 degrees C) and can be scaled, in principle, to a few nanometers in semiconductors. Near- and long-term applications of GaAs and silicon quantum devices are suggested for signal and information processing, memory, optoelectronics, and radio frequency (RF) communication.

Frazier, Gary↗

NASA NTRS1995

Microelectromechanical Systems

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) is an enabling technology that merges computation and communication with sensing and actuation to change the way people and machines interact with the physical world. MEMS is a manufacturing technology that will impact widespread applications including: miniature inertial measurement measurement units for competent munitions and personal navigation; distributed unattended sensors; mass data storage devices; miniature analytical instruments; embedded pressure sensors; non-invasive biomedical sensors; fiber-optics components and networks; distributed aerodynamic control; and on-demand structural strength. The long term goal of ARPA's MEMS program is to merge information processing with sensing and actuation to realize new systems and strategies for both perceiving and controlling systems, processes, and the environment. The MEMS program has three major thrusts: advanced devices and processes, system design, and infrastructure.

Gabriel, Kaigham J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Report of the Panel on Aerodynamics

Progress in aerodynamics over the past 50 years has been evidenced by the development of increasingly sophisticated and efficient flight vehicles throughout the flight spectrum. Advances have generally arisen in an evolutionary manner from experience gained in wind tunnel testing, flight testing, and improvements in analytical and computational capabilities. As a result of this evolutionary development, both military and commercial vehicles operate at a relatively high efficiency level. This observation plus the fact that airplanes have not changed appreciably in outward appearance over recent years has led some skeptics to conclude incorrectly that aerodynamics is a mature technology, with little to be gained from further developments in the field. It is of interest to note that progress in aerodynamics has occurred without a thorough understanding of the fundamental physics of flow, turbulence, vortex dynamics, and separated flow, for example. The present understanding of transition, turbulence, and boundary layer separation is actually very limited. However, these fundamental flow phenomena provide the key to reducing the viscous drag of aircraft. Drag reduction provides the greatest potential for increased flight efficiency from the standpoint of both saving energy and maximizing performance. Recent advances have led to innovative concepts for reducing turbulent friction drag by modifying the turbulent structure within the boundary layer. Further advances in this basic area should lead to methods for reducing skin friction drag significantly. The current challenges for military aircraft open entirely new fields of investigation for the aerodynamicist. The ability through very high speed information processing technology to totally integrate the flight and propulsion controls can permit an aircraft to fly with "complete abandon," avoiding departure, buffet, and other undesirable characteristics. To utilize these new control concepts, complex aerodynamic phenomena will have to be understood, predicted, and controlled. Current requirements for military aircraft include configuration optimization through a widened envelope from subsonic to supersonic and from low to high angles of attack. This task is further complicated by requirements for control of observables. These challenging new designs do not have the luxury of a large experimental data base from which to optimize for various parameter combinations. Consequently, there exists a strong need for better techniques, both experimental and computational, to permit design optimization in a complete sense.

Bradley, Richard G.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Developing Nationally Competitive NASA Research Capability in West Virginia

In May, 1995 West Virginia EPSCOR was awarded $150,000 to support activities to develop research capabilities in West Virginia in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These funds were used to support three projects: 1) Information Processing and the Earth Observing System, directed by Dr. Stuart Tewksbury of West Virginia University; 2) Development of Optical Materials for Atmospheric Sensing Experiments, directed by Dr. Nancy Giles of West Virginia University; and 3) Development of Doppler Global Velocimeter (DGV) for Aeronautical and Combustion Studies, directed by Dr. John Kuhlman of West Virginia University. The funding provides the means to develop capability in each of these areas. This report summarizes the technical accomplishments in each project supported under this award.

Calzonetti, Frank J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Learning in Artificial Neural Systems

This paper presents an overview and analysis of learning in Artificial Neural Systems (ANS's). It begins with a general introduction to neural networks and connectionist approaches to information processing. The basis for learning in ANS's is then described, and compared with classical Machine learning. While similar in some ways, ANS learning deviates from tradition in its dependence on the modification of individual weights to bring about changes in a knowledge representation distributed across connections in a network. This unique form of learning is analyzed from two aspects: the selection of an appropriate network architecture for representing the problem, and the choice of a suitable learning rule capable of reproducing the desired function within the given network. The various network architectures are classified, and then identified with explicit restrictions on the types of functions they are capable of representing. The learning rules, i.e., algorithms that specify how the network weights are modified, are similarly taxonomized, and where possible, the limitations inherent to specific classes of rules are outlined.

Matheus, Christopher J.↗

NASA NTRS1998

STS-90 Day 14 Highlights

On this fourteenth day of the STS-90 mission, the flight crew, Cmdr. Richard A. Searfoss, Pilot Scott D. Altman, and Mission Specialists Richard M. Linnehan, Dafydd Rhys Williams and Kathryn P. Hire, and Payload Specialists Jay C. Buckey and James A. Pawelczyk focus on the efforts of Neurolab's Neuronal Plasticity Team to better understand how the adult nervous system adapts to the new environment of space. Columbia's science crew -- Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Dave Williams and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey and Jim Pawelczyk -- perform the second and final in-flight dissections of the adult male rats on board. The crew euthanizes and dissects nine rats and remove the vestibular or balance organs of the inner ear; the cerebellum, the part of the brain critical for maintaining balance and for processing information from the limbs so they can be moved smoothly; and the cerebrum, one part of which controls automatic functions such as body temperature regulation and the body's internal clock, and the cortical region that controls cognitive functions such as thinking. The first dissection, which was performed on the second day of the flight, went extremely well, according to Neurolab scientists.

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NASA NTRS1997

The Neuroendocrinology of Thirst and Salt Appetite: Visceral Sensory Signals and Mechanisms of Central Integration

This review examines recent advances in the study of the behavioral responses to deficits of body water and body sodium that in humans are accompanied by the sensations of thirst and salt appetite. Thirst and salt appetite are satisfied by ingesting water and salty substances. These behavioral responses to losses of body fluids, together with reflex endocrine and neural responses, are critical for reestablishing homeostasis. Like their endocrine and neural counterparts, these behaviors are under the control of both excitatory and inhibitory influences arising from changes in osmolality, endocrine factors such as angiotensin and aldosterone, and neural signals from low and high pressure baroreceptors. The excitatory and inhibitory influences reaching the brain require the integrative capacity of a neural network which includes the structures of the lamina terminalis, the amygdala, the perifornical area, and the paraventricular nucleus in the forebrain, and the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN), the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), and the area postrema in the hindbrain. These regions are discussed in terms of their roles in receiving afferent sensory input and in processing information related to hydromineral balance. Osmoreceptors controlling thirst are located in systemic Viscera and in central structures that lack the blood-brain barrier. Angiotensin and aldosterone act on and through structures of the lamina terminalis and the amygdala to stimulate thirst and sodium appetite under conditions of hypovolemia. The NTS and LPBN receive neural signals from baroreceptors and are responsible for inhibiting the ingestion of fluids under conditions of increased volume and pressure and for stimulating thirst under conditions of bypovolemia and hypotension. The interplay of multiple facilitory influences within the brain may take the form of interactions between descending angiotensinergic systems originating in the forebrain and ascending adrenergic systems emanating from the hindbrain. Oxytocin and serotonin are additional candidate neuro- chemicals with postulated inhibitory central actions and with essential roles in the overall integration of sensory input within the neural network devoted to maintaining hydromineral balance.

Johnson, Alan Kim↗

NASA NTRS1997

Incongruity, Incongruity Resolution, and Mental States: The Measure and Modification of Situational Awareness and Control

Cognition and emotion combine to define mental states. Situational awareness depends on both knowledge of the environment and the mood of the individual. Cognitive scientists from William James and Sigmond Freud to contemporary theorists in artificial intelligence and neuropsychology have acknowledged the critical role of subjective state in determining the efficiency and flexibility of information processing. One of the most explicit computational models of mental states to incorporate both knowledge and arousal has been described. Knowledge is carried in a typical neural net with categorical nodes and probabilistic links. Arousal determines the focus among these nodes and links. High arousal results in a restricted range of activation. Low arousal causes a wider range of stimulation and a broader linking of categories or "ideas." From this model Gerlernter generates "creativity" in problem solving from a network that is widely active and the possibility of "fixation" from a highly aroused system.

Derks, Peter L.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Gravitational Influences on the Growth of Polydiacetylene Films by Ultraviolet Solution Polymerization

Technically, the field of integrated optics using organic/polymer materials as a new means of information processing, has emerged as of vital importance to optical computers, optical switching, optical communications, the defense industry, etc. The goal is to replace conventional electronic integrated circuits and wires by equivalent miniaturized optical integrated circuits and fibers, offering larger bandwidths, more compactness and reliability, immunity to electromagnetic interference and less cost. From the Code E perspective, this research area represents an opportunity to marry "front-line" education in science and technology with national scientific and technological interests while maximizing human resources utilization. This can be achieved by the development of untapped resources for scientific research - such as minorities, women, and universities traditionally uninvolved in scientific research.

Frazier, Donald O.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A Portable Battery for Objective, Nonobtrusive Measures of Human Performance

A need exists for a standardized battery of human performance tests in order to measure the effects of various treatments. The present paper reports on progress in such a program, funded jointly by NASA and the Navy. Three batteries are available which differ in length (7.5, 15, and 30 minutes), and number of tests in the battery (3, 10, and 15). All tests are implemented on a portable, lap-held, briefcase-sized microprocessor (NEC PC 8201A). Performances measured include information processing, memory, visual perception, reasoning, motor skills, etc. Current programs are underway to determine norms, reliabilities, stabilities, factor structure of tests, comparisons with marker tests, apparatus suitability, etc.

Kennedy, Robert S.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Validity Using Pump-Probe Pulses to Determine the Optical Response of Niobate Crystals

A variety of niobate crystals have found their places in nonlinear optical applications as well as in laser devices. In recent years much attention has been paid to study the ultrafast optical response in a variety of photorefractive crystals such as KTa(1-x)Nb(x)O3 and KNbO3 crystals, glasses, semiconductors and polymers for applications in optical switching, information processing, optical computing, and all-optical device systems. Third-order optical nonlinearity is the most important property for realization of all-optical switching. Therefore experiments have been performed on the third order susceptibility using a variety of techniques such as the third-order harmonic generation, EFISH and degenerate four-wave mixing(DFWM). The latter has been conducted with a variety of pump wavelengths and with nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond pulses. Niobate crystals, such as potassium niobate KNbO3, potassium tantalate niobate KTN family (KTa(1-x)Nb(x)O3), strontium barium niobate SBN (Sr(x)Ba(1-x)Nb2O6) and potassium-sodium niobate SBN (KNSBN) are attractive due to their photorefractive properties for application in optical storage and processing. The pulsed probe experiments performed on theses materials have suggested two types of time responses. These responses have been associated with an coherent response due to Chi(sup 3), and a long lived component due to excited state population. Recent study of DFWM on KNbO3 and KTN family reveals that the long lived component of those crystals depends on the crystal orientation. A slowly decaying signal is observable when the grating vector K(sub g) is not perpendicular to the C-axis of those photorefractive crystals', otherwise the optical response signal would be only a narrow coherent peak with FWHM equal to the cross-correlation width of the write beam pulses. Based on this understanding, we study the photodynamical process of a variety of niobate crystals using DFWM in a Kg perpindicular to C geometry with a ps-YAG: Nd laser operating at 532nm. However, the discrepancies in numerical estimations of Chi(sup 3) in these materials and other nonlinear optical media have resulted in a number of discussions. In order to better understand the photodynamical process of niobate crystals after an short pulse excitation we analyze the factors governing the coherent signal and present the DFWM spectra of niobate crystals.

Liu, Huimin↗

NASA NTRS2001

Worlds Smaller than Saturn

Computerized animations show the following: (1) an artist's conception of a Saturn-like extrasolar planet; (2) star and planet motion; and (3) young stellar disk and planet formation. Footage shows the outside of the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii and Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler inside while they are processing information. Then a press conference,'Worlds Smaller than Saturn', is seen. Anne Kinney, Origins Science Director, NASA Headquarters, introduces Geoff Marcy, Paul Butler, Alan Boss, and Heidi Hammel. They discuss the discovery of the two new Saturn-sized extrasolar planets that are orbiting the stars HD46375 and 79 Seti, giving details on the search technique and size distribution. They then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2000

On The Computational Capabilities of Physical Systems: Relationship With Conventional Computer Science - Part 2

In the first of this pair of papers, it was proven that there cannot be a physical computer to which one can properly pose any and all computational tasks concerning the physical universe. It was then further proven that no physical computer C can correctly carry out all computational tasks that can be posed to C. As a particular example, this result means that no physical computer that can, for any physical system external to that computer, take the specification of that external system's state as input and then correctly predict its future state before that future state actually occurs; one cannot build a physical computer that can be assured of correctly "processing information faster than the universe does". These results do not rely on systems that are infinite, and/or non-classical, and/or obey chaotic dynamics. They also hold even if one uses an infinitely fast, infinitely dense computer, with computational powers greater than that of a Turing Machine. This generality is a direct consequence of the fact that a novel definition of computation - "physical computation" - is needed to address the issues considered in these papers, which concern real physical computers. While this novel definition does not fit into the traditional Chomsky hierarchy, the mathematical structure and impossibility results associated with it have parallels in the mathematics of the Chomsky hierarchy. This second paper of the pair presents a preliminary exploration of some of this mathematical structure. Analogues of Chomskian results concerning universal Turing Machines and the Halting theorem are derived, as are results concerning the (im)possibility of certain kinds of error-correcting codes. In addition, an analogue of algorithmic information complexity, "prediction complexity", is elaborated. A task-independent bound is derived on how much the prediction complexity of a computational task can differ for two different reference universal physical computers used to solve that task, a bound similar to the "encoding" bound governing how much the algorithm information complexity of a Turing machine calculation can differ for two reference universal Turing machines. Finally, it is proven that either the Hamiltonian of our universe proscribes a certain type of computation, or prediction complexity is unique (unlike algorithmic information complexity), in that there is one and only version of it that can be applicable throughout our universe.

Wolpert, David H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

On the Computational Capabilities of Physical Systems: The Impossibility of Infallible Computation - Part 1

In this first of two papers, strong limits on the accuracy of physical computation are established. First it is proven that there cannot be a physical computer C to which one can pose any and all computational tasks concerning the physical universe. Next it is proven that no physical computer C can correctly carry out any computational task in the subset of such tasks that can be posed to C. This result holds whether the computational tasks concern a system that is physically isolated from C, or instead concern a system that is coupled to C. As a particular example, this result means that there cannot be a physical computer that can, for any physical system external to that computer, take the specification of that external system's state as input and then correctly predict its future state before that future state actually occurs; one cannot build a physical computer that can be assured of correctly 'processing information faster than the universe does'. The results also mean that there cannot exist an infallible, general-purpose observation apparatus, and that there cannot be an infallible, general-purpose control apparatus. These results do not rely on systems that are infinite, and/or non-classical, and/or obey chaotic dynamics. They also hold even if one uses an infinitely fast, infinitely dense computer, with computational powers greater than that of a Turing Machine. This generality is a direct consequence of the fact that a novel definition of computation - a definition of 'physical computation' - is needed to address the issues considered in these papers. While this definition does not fit into the traditional Chomsky hierarchy, the mathematical structure and impossibility results associated with it have parallels in the mathematics of the Chomsky hierarchy. The second in this pair of papers presents a preliminary exploration of some of this mathematical structure, including in particular that of prediction complexity, which is a 'physical computation analogue' of algorithmic information complexity. It is proven in that second paper that either the Hamiltonian of our universe proscribes a certain type of computation, or prediction complexity is unique (unlike algorithmic information complexity), in that there is one and only version of it that can be applicable throughout our universe.

Wolpert, David H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

General Aviation in Nebraska: Nebraska SATS Project Background Paper No. 1

The Nebraska SATS project is a state-level component of NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). During the next several years the project will examine several different factors affecting SATS implementation in Nebraska. These include economic and taxation issues, public policy issues, airport planning processes, information dissemination strategies, and systemic change factors. This background paper profiles the general aviation system in Nebraska. It is written to provide information about the "context" within which SATS will be pursued. The primary focus is thus on describing and providing background information about the current situation. A secondary focus is on drawing general conclusions about the ability of the current system to incorporate the types of changes implied by SATS. First, some brief information on the U.S. aviation system is provided. The next two sections profile the current general aviation aircraft and pilot base. Nebraska's system of general aviation airports is then described. Within this section of the paper, information is provided on the different types of general aviation airports in Nebraska, airport activity levels and current infrastructure. The fourth major section of the background paper looks at Nebraska's local airport authorities. These special purpose local governments oversee the majority of the general aviation airports in the state. Among the items examined are total expenditures, capital expenditures and planning activities. Next, the paper provides background information on the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics (NDA) and recent Federal funding for general aviation in Nebraska. The final section presents summary conclusions.

Smith, Russell↗

NASA NTRS1994

Design of Flight Vehicle Management Systems

As the operation of large systems becomes ever more dependent on extensive automation, the need for an effective solution to the problem of design and validation of the underlying software becomes more critical. Large systems possess much detailed structure, typically hierarchical, and they are hybrid. Information processing at the top of the hierarchy is by means of formal logic and sentences; on the bottom it is by means of simple scalar differential equations and functions of time; and in the middle it is by an interacting mix of nonlinear multi-axis differential equations and automata, and functions of time and discrete events. The lecture will address the overall problem as it relates to flight vehicle management, describe the middle level, and offer a design approach that is based on Differential Geometry and Discrete Event Dynamic Systems Theory.

Meyer, George↗

NASA NTRS1995

Nonlinear Control and Discrete Event Systems

As the operation of large systems becomes ever more dependent on extensive automation, the need for an effective solution to the problem of design and validation of the underlying software becomes more critical. Large systems possesses much detailed structure, typically hierarchical, and they are hybrid. Information processing at the top of the hierarchy is by means of formal logic and sentences; on the bottom it is by means of simple scalar differential equations and functions of time; and in the middle it is by an interacting mix of nonlinear multi-axis differential equations and automata, and functions of time and discrete events. The lecture will address the overall problem as it relates to flight vehicle management, describe the middle level, and offer a design approach that is based on Differential Geometry and Discrete Event Dynamic Systems Theory.

Meyer, George↗

NASA NTRS1995

Sensor Systems for Space Life Sciences

Sensors 2000! (S2K!) is a NASA Ames Research Center engineering initiative designed to provide biosensor and bio-instrumentation systems technology expertise to NASA's life sciences spaceflight programs. S2K! covers the full spectrum of sensor technology applications, ranging from spaceflight hardware design and fabrication to advanced technology development, transfer and commercialization. S2K! is currently developing sensor systems for space biomedical applications on BION (a Russian biosatellite focused on Rhesus Monkey physiology) and NEUROLAB (a Space Shuttle flight devoted to neuroscience). It's Advanced Technology Development-Biosensors (ATD-B) project focuses efforts in five principle areas: biotelemetry Systems, chemical and biological sensors, physiological sensors, advanced instrumentation architectures, and data and information management. Technologies already developed and tested included, application-specific sensors, preamplifier hybrids, modular programmable signal conditioners, power conditioning and distribution systems, and a fully implantable dual channel biotelemeter. Systems currently under development include a portable receiver system compatible with an off-the-shelf analog biotelemeter, a 4 channel digital biotelemetry system which monitors pH, a multichannel, g-processor based PCM biotelemetry system, and hand-held personal monitoring systems. S2K! technology easily lends itself to telescience and telemedicine applications as a front-end measurement and data acquisition device, suitable for obtaining and configuring physiological information, and processing that information under control from a remote location.

Somps, Chris J.↗