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Topics include: mechanical components, electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, computer programs, mechanics, machinery, manufacturing/fabrication, mathematics and information sciences, book and reports, and a special section of Federal laboratory computing Tech Briefs.
Crystal oscillators are extensively used in electronic circuits to provide timing or clocking signals in data acquisition, communications links, and control systems, to name a few. They are affordable, small in size, and reliable. Because of the inherent characteristics of the crystal, the oscillator usually exhibits extreme accuracy in its output frequency within the intrinsic crystal stability. Stability of the frequency could be affected under varying load levels or other operational conditions. Temperature is one of those important factors that influence the frequency stability of an oscillator; as it does to the functionality of other electronic components. Electronics designed for use in NASA deep space and planetary exploration missions are expected to be exposed to extreme temperatures and thermal cycling over a wide range. Thus, it is important to design and develop circuits that are able to operate efficiently and reliably under in these harsh temperature environments. Most of the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices are very limited in terms of their specified operational temperature while very few custom-made commercial and military-grade parts have the ability to operate in a slightly wider range of temperature than those of the COTS parts. These parts are usually designed for operation under one temperature extreme, i.e. hot or cold, and do not address the wide swing in the operational temperature, which is typical of the space environment. For safe and successful space missions, electronic systems must therefore be designed not only to withstand the extreme temperature exposure but also to operate efficiently and reliably. This report presents the results obtained on the evaluation of a new COTS crystal oscillator under extreme temperatures.
Electron radiation bombardment effect on optical properties of Nimbus satellite television camera lens
Electron beam application to welding spacecraft propulsion components
The Component Repair Experiment-1 (CRE-1) examines the capability for astronauts to perform electronics repair tasks in space. The goal is to determine the current capabilities and limits for the crew, and to make recommendations to improve and expand the range of work that astronauts may perform. CRE-1 provided two-layer, functional circuit boards and replacement components, a small tool kit, written and video training materials, and 1 hr of hands on training for the crew slated to perform the experiment approximately 7 months prior to the mission. Astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus performed the work aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in February and March 2009. The astronauts were able to remove and replace components successfully, demonstrating the feasibility of performing component-level electronics repairs within a spacecraft. Several unsuccessful tasks demonstrated areas in need of improvement. These include improved and longer training prior to a mission, an improved soldering iron with a higher operating temperature and steady power source, video training and practice boards for refresher work or practice before a repair, and improved and varied hand tools and containment system.
Electronic or electromechanical failure-prone component pinpointing using various nondestructive testing methods
Heat conduction plays an important role in the efficiency and life span of electronic components. To keep electronic components running efficiently and at a proper temperature, thermal management systems transfer heat generated from the components to thermal surfaces such as heat sinks, heat pipes, radiators, or heat spreaders. Thermal surfaces absorb the heat from the electrical components and dissipate it into the environment, preventing overheating. To ensure the best contact between electrical components and thermal surfaces, thermal interface materials are applied. In addition to having high conductivity, ideal thermal interface materials should be compliant to conform to the components, increasing the surface contact. While many different types of interface materials exist for varying purposes, Energy Science Laboratories, Inc. (ESLI), of San Diego, California, proposed using carbon velvets as thermal interface materials for general aerospace and electronics applications. NASA s Johnson Space Center granted ESLI a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop thermal interface materials that are lightweight and compliant, and demonstrate high thermal conductance even for nonflat surfaces. Through Phase II SBIR work, ESLI created Vel-Therm for the commercial market. Vel-Therm is a soft, carbon fiber velvet consisting of numerous high thermal conductivity carbon fibers anchored in a thin layer of adhesive. The velvets are fabricated by precision cutting continuous carbon fiber tows and electrostatically flocking the fibers into uncured adhesive, using proprietary techniques.
This is a generic tester developed in c++ for testing the power electronics components and its controls in the power system.
The Soldering in a Reduced Gravity Experiment (SoRGE) and Component Repair Experiment (CRE)-1 are tests performed on the International Space Station to determine the techniques, tools, and training necessary to allow future crews to perform manual electronics repairs at the component level. SoRGE provides information on the formation and internal structure of through-hole solder joints, illustrating the challenges and implications of soldering in reduced gravity. SoRGE showed a significant increase in internal void defects for joints formed in low gravity compared to normal gravity. Methods for mitigating these void defects were evaluated using a modified soldering process. CRE-1 demonstrated the removal, cleaning, and replacement of electronics components by manual means on functional circuit boards. The majority of components successful passed a post-repair functional test demonstrating the feasibility of component-level repair within the confines of a spacecraft. Together, these tasks provide information to recommend material and tool improvements, training improvements, and future work to help enable electronics repairs in future space missions.
Gripper handles electronic components without damaging them. Driven by dc motor, movable jaw gently clamps electronic component. Grips such electronic components as resistors, capacitors, and transistors without damaging them and holds them during soldering or other processing.
The observation of three distinct components of the electron distribution function measured in the intermediate ionized coma (IIC) and plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner is reported. It is believed that the cold component represents electrons produced close to the comet nucleus by ionization of cometary matter and subsequent cooling by Coulomb collisions. The second component also appears to be composed of electrons produced by photoionization of cometary neutrals, but sufficiently far from the nucleus that the distributions are largely unaffected by Coulomb interactions. The hot component is probably a population of electrons originating in the solar wind. Throughout the IIC, the electrostatic potential of the spacecraft was very low (less than 0.8 eV), implying that ICE generated very little impact-produced plasma during its passage.
This paper describes a practical new tool to improve the reliability of equipment. It uses a matrix form to help monitor anticipated component faults precisely. The tool provides the practical measures necessary to generate matrix tables that accurately display all causes of failure and all planned programmatic analyses, tests, processes, and inspections. When completed, the matrix tables give users in-depth visibility of the degree of protection against component failure that is provided by the program's preventive measure plans. The matrix form is an excellent technique for tracking, and thereby influencing, the reliability of nonelectronic spacecraft subsystems or components. No electronic applications have been tried, but the procedure can be useful in the electronics field, e.g., in integrated circuit production planning, and perhaps in process control, inspection or test lines for other electronic components. The drawing of forms, and the recording/manipulation of the data can be computerized.
Maintenance resupply is a significant issue for long duration space missions. Currently, the International Space Station (ISS) approaches maintenance primarily around replaceable modules called Orbital Replacement Units (ORU). While swapping out ORUs has served the ISS well keeping crew time for maintenance to a minimum, this approach assumes a substantial logistics capacity to provide replacement ORUs and return ORUs to Earth for repair. The ORUs used for ISS require relatively large blocks of replacement hardware even though the actual failed component may be several orders of magnitude smaller. The Component Level Electronics Assembly Repair (CLEAR) task was created to explore electronics repair down to the component level for future space missions. From 2006 to 2009, CLEAR was an activity under the Supportability project of the Exploration Technology Development Program. This paper describes the activities of CLEAR including making a case for component-level electronics repair, examination of current terrestrial repair hardware, and potential repair needs. Based on those needs, the CLEAR team proposes an architecture for an in-situ repair capability aboard a spacecraft or habitat. Additionally, this paper discusses recent progress toward developing in-space repair capabilities--including two spaceflight experiments-- and presents technology concepts which could help enable or benefit the same.
Energy flux of nuclear-active and electron-photon components of extensive air shower
A nonlinear filtering technique, called multiplicative homomorphic signal processing, is used to identify three groups of frequency components in electron content data. The first group of components results from the modulation of solar activity produced by the 27 day solar rotation. The second group is of lunar origin. The lunar frequencies are caused by nonlinear processes which probably occur in the dynamo region. The precise nature of these processes is not fully understood. The third group of frequency components, with a fundamental period of 13.9 days, has an unknown origin.
An apparatus and method for comparing internal voltage potentials of first and second operating electronic components such as large scale integrated circuits (LSI's) in which voltage differentials are visually identified via an appropriate display means are described. More particularly, in a first embodiment of the invention a first and second scanning electron microscope (SEM) are configured to scan a first and second operating electronic component respectively. The scan pattern of the second SEM is synchronized to that of the first SEM so that both simultaneously scan corresponding portions of the two operating electronic components. Video signals from each SEM corresponding to secondary electron signals generated as a result of a primary electron beam intersecting each operating electronic component in accordance with a predetermined scan pattern are provided to a video mixer and color encoder.
In view of the potential impact of power electronics on power systems, there is need for a computer modeling/analysis tool to perform simulation studies on power systems with power electronic components as well as to educate engineering students about such systems. The modeling of the major power electronic components of the NASA Space Station Freedom Electric Power System is described along with ElectroMagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) and it is demonstrated that EMTP can serve as a very useful tool for teaching, design, analysis, and research in the area of power systems with power electronic components. EMTP modeling of power electronic circuits is described and simulation results are presented.