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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 145 records · Page 8

Three-dimensional magnetic bubble memory system

A compact memory uses magnetic bubble technology for providing data storage. A three-dimensional arrangement, in the form of stacks of magnetic bubble layers, is used to achieve high volumetric storage density. Output tracks are used within each layer to allow data to be accessed uniquely and unambiguously. Storage can be achieved using either current access or field access magnetic bubble technology. Optical sensing via the Faraday effect is used to detect data. Optical sensing facilitates the accessing of data from within the three-dimensional package and lends itself to parallel operation for supporting high data rates and vector and parallel processing.

Stadler, Henry L.↗

Best Practices for the Application of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Operator State Sensing

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging neuronal measurement technique with many advantages for application in operational and training contexts. Instrumentation and protocol improvements, however, are required to obtain useful signals and produce expeditiously self-applicable, comfortable and unobtrusive headgear. Approaches for improving the validity and reliability of fNIRS data for the purpose of sensing the mental state of commercial aircraft operators are identified, and an exemplary system design for attentional state monitoring is outlined. Intelligent flight decks of the future can be responsive to state changes to optimally support human performance. Thus, the identification of cognitive performance decrement, such as lapses in operator attention, may be used to predict and avoid error-prone states. We propose that attentional performance may be monitored with fNIRS through the quantification of hemodynamic activations in cortical regions which are part of functionally-connected attention and resting state networks. Activations in these regions have been shown to correlate with behavioral performance and task engagement. These regions lie beneath superficial tissue in head regions beyond the forehead. Headgear development is key to reliably and robustly accessing locations beyond the hair line to measure functionally-connected networks across the whole head. Human subject trials using both fNIRS and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) will be used to test this system. Data processing employs Support Vector Machines for state classification based on the fNIRS signals. If accurate state classification is achieved based on sensed activation patterns, fNIRS will be shown to be useful for monitoring attentional performance.

Harrivel, Angela R.↗

Use of a Closed-Loop Tracking Algorithm for Orientation Bias Determination of an S-Band Ground Station

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed project completed installation and checkout testing of a new S-Band ground station at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015. As with all ground stations, a key alignment process must be conducted to obtain offset angles in azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL). In telescopes with AZ-EL gimbals, this is normally done with a two-star alignment process, where telescope-based pointing vectors are derived from catalogued locations with the AZ-EL bias angles derived from the pointing vector difference. For an antenna, the process is complicated without an optical asset. For the present study, the solution was to utilize the gimbal control algorithms closed-loop tracking capability to acquire the peak received power signal automatically from two distinct NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) spacecraft, without a human making the pointing adjustments. Briefly, the TDRS satellite acts as a simulated optical source and the alignment process proceeds exactly the same way as a one-star alignment. The data reduction process, which will be discussed in the paper, results in two bias angles which are retained for future pointing determination. Finally, the paper compares the test results and provides lessons learned from the activity.

ground station↗

Use of a Closed-Loop Tracking Algorithm for Orientation Bias Determination of an S-Band Ground Station

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed project completed installation and checkout testing of a new S-Band ground station at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015. As with all ground stations, a key alignment process must be conducted to obtain offset angles in azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL). In telescopes with AZ-EL gimbals, this is normally done with a two-star alignment process, where telescope-based pointing vectors are derived from catalogued locations with the AZ-EL bias angles derived from the pointing vector difference. For an antenna, the process is complicated without an optical asset. For the present study, the solution was to utilize the gimbal control algorithms closed-loop tracking capability to acquire the peak received power signal automatically from two distinct NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) spacecraft, without a human making the pointing adjustments. Briefly, the TDRS satellite acts as a simulated optical source and the alignment process proceeds exactly the same way as a one-star alignment. The data reduction process, which will be discussed in the paper, results in two bias angles which are retained for future pointing determination. Finally, the paper compares the test results and provides lessons learned from the activity.

reflector antenna↗

WINDII, the wind imaging interferometer on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

The WIND imaging interferometer (WINDII) was launched on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) on September 12, 1991. This joint project, sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency and the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, in collaboration with NASA, has the responsibility of measuring the global wind pattern at the top of the altitude range covered by UARS. WINDII measures wind, temperature, and emission rate over the altitude range 80 to 300 km by using the visible region airglow emission from these altitudes as a target and employing optical Doppler interferometry to measure the small wavelength shifts of the narrow atomic and molecular airglow emission lines induced by the bulk velocity of the atmosphere carrying the emitting species. The instrument used is an all-glass field-widened achromatically and thermally compensated phase-stepping Michelson interferometer, along with a bare CCD detector that images the airglow limb through the interferometer. A sequence of phase-stepped images is processed to derive the wind velocity for two orthogonal view directions, yielding the vector horizontal wind. The process of data analysis, including the inversion of apparent quantities to vertical profiles, is described.

Shepherd, G. G.↗

Particle displacement tracking for PIV

A new Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) data acquisition and analysis system, which is an order of magnitude faster than any previously proposed system has been constructed and tested. The new Particle Displacement Tracing (PDT) system is an all electronic technique employing a video camera and a large memory buffer frame-grabber board. Using a simple encoding scheme, a time sequence of single exposure images are time coded into a single image and then processed to track particle displacements and determine velocity vectors. Application of the PDT technique to a counter-rotating vortex flow produced over 1100 velocity vectors in 110 seconds when processed on an 80386 PC.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

New Space Domain Processing Technique for Pulsed Laser Velocimetry

A new and fast data processing technique for pulsed-laser-velocimetry data is described. A simplified cross correlation algorithm was developed which uses the time history information of the recorded particle images. It is shown that, the use of the particle time history information (which can be obtained using an electronic camera to record the particle exposures) facilitates high speed processing and unambiguous velocity vector information. It was found that a complex convection vortex flow can be recorded and completely processed in less than 2 min on a personal computer, producing a two-dimensional map of the flow field containing over 300 velocity vectors.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

VLSI Processor For Vector Quantization

Pixel intensities in each kernel compared simultaneously with all code vectors. Prototype high-performance, low-power, very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuit designed to perform compression of image data by vector-quantization method. Contains relatively simple analog computational cells operating on direct or buffered outputs of photodetectors grouped into blocks in imaging array, yielding vector-quantization code word for each such block in sequence. Scheme exploits parallel-processing nature of vector-quantization architecture, with consequent increase in speed.

Tawel, Raoul↗

Representation and display of vector field topology in fluid flow data sets

The visualization of physical processes in general and of vector fields in particular is discussed. An approach to visualizing flow topology that is based on the physics and mathematics underlying the physical phenomenon is presented. It involves determining critical points in the flow where the velocity vector vanishes. The critical points, connected by principal lines or planes, determine the topology of the flow. The complexity of the data is reduced without sacrificing the quantitative nature of the data set. By reducing the original vector field to a set of critical points and their connections, a representation of the topology of a two-dimensional vector field that is much smaller than the original data set but retains with full precision the information pertinent to the flow topology is obtained. This representation can be displayed as a set of points and tangent curves or as a graph. Analysis (including algorithms), display, interaction, and implementation aspects are discussed.

Helman, James↗

Particle-Displacement Tracking In Particle-Image Velocimetry

Particle images processed rapidly and automatically into velocity-vector maps. This technique requires no processing of photographic plates, no tedious visual recognition and manual designation of large numbers of image features for subsequent processing, little or no interruption by technician and is order of magnitude faster than any of prior techniques.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

On the Use of Mahalanobis Distance in Particle Image Velocimetry Post-Processing

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is a method of flow measurement that has become increasingly popular as an experimental tool. New technology has made high-speed and higher-dimension (stereoscopic, tomographic, etc) methods available to an ever-growing population of researchers. These advanced methods can provide significantly more data than traditional low-speed planar PIV, but these larger data sets also require more resources to process and store. A major time sink in the post-processing of large PIV data sets is the identification and rejection of “bad” or ”spurious” vectors that survive an initial processing step in commercial software, which attempts to identify spurious vectors on an image-by-image basis and not with respect to repeated trials. The Mahalanobis distance, an almost 100-year-old statistical function, was determined to be well suited for this task for its computational efficiency and higher-dimensional nature. This work includes a summary of the Mahalanobis distance and validation of its usefulness as a tool for outlier rejection in the post-processing of PIV data.

Experimental Methods↗

Two-dimensional particle displacement tracking in particle imaging velocimetry

A new particle imaging velocimetry data acquisition and analysis system, which is an order of magnitude faster than any previously proposed system, has been constructed and tested. The new particle displacement tracking (PDT) system is an all electronic technique employing a video camera and a large memory buffer frame-grabber board. Using a simple encoding scheme, a time sequence of single exposure images is time-coded into a single image and then processed to track particle displacements and determine two-dimensional velocity vectors. Use of the PDT technique in a counterrotating vortex flow produced over 1100 velocity vectors in 110 s when processed on an 80386 PC.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

On the interpretation of measured ion streams in the wake of the Shuttle Orbiter in terms of plasma expansion processes

Measurements of the flow vector and current density of ion streams between 11 and 18 m downstream in the near wake of the Shuttle Orbiter during the Spacelab 2 mission are compared with a one-dimensional, time-dependent plasma expansion model for wake filling. The model is based on the self-consistent plasma model of Singh et al. (1987) modified to simulate the one-dimensional expansion of counter-streaming plasmas. The results show good agreement between the model and the experimental results, suggesting that the measured streams can be interpreted in terms of collisionless plasma expansion.

Singh, N.↗

Autonomous reconfigurable GPS/INS navigation and pointing system for rendezvous and docking

This paper describes the results of an integrated navigation and pointing system software development effort sponsored by the NASA MSFC through a SBIR Phase 2 Program. The integrated Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS) implements an autonomous navigation filter that is reconfigurable in real-time to accommodate mission contingencies. An onboard expert system monitors the spacecraft status and reconfigures the navigation filter accordingly, to optimize the system performance. The navigation filter is a multi-mode Kalman filter to estimate the spacecraft position, velocity, and attitude. Three different GPS-based attitude determination techniques, namely, velocity vector matching, attitude vector matching, and interferometric processing, are implemented to encompass different mission contingencies. The integrated GPS/INS navigation filter will use any of these techniques depending on the mission phase and the state of the sensors. The first technique, velocity vector matching, uses the GPS velocity measurement to estimate the INS velocity errors and exploits the correlation between INS velocity and attitude errors to estimate the attitude. The second technique, attitude vector matching, uses INS gyro measurements and GPS carrier phase (integrated Doppler) measurements during a spacecraft rotation maneuver to determine the attitude. Both of these techniques require only one GPS antenna onboard to determine the spacecraft attitude. The third technique, interferometric processing, requires use of multiple GPS antennae. In order to determine 3-axis body attitude, three GPS antennae (2 no-coplanor baselines) are required.

Upadhyay, Triveni N.↗

Reduction of solar vector magnetograph data using a microMSP array processor

The processing of raw data obtained by the solar vector magnetograph at NASA-Marshall requires extensive arithmetic operations on large arrays of real numbers. The objectives of this summer faculty fellowship study are to: (1) learn the programming language of the MicroMSP Array Processor and adapt some existing data reduction routines to exploit its capabilities; and (2) identify other applications and/or existing programs which lend themselves to array processor utilization which can be developed by undergraduate student programmers under the provisions of project JOVE.

Kineke, Jack↗

CCD data processor for maximum likelihood feature classification

The paper describes an advanced technology development which utilizes a high speed analog/binary CCD correlator to perform the matrix multiplications necessary to implement onboard feature classification. The matrix manipulation module uses the maximum likelihood classification algorithm assuming a Gaussian probability density function. The module will process 16 element multispectral vectors at rates in excess of 500 thousand multispectral vector elements per second. System design considerations for the optimum use of this module are discussed, test results from initial device fabrication runs are presented, and the performance in typical processing applications is described

Benz, H. F.↗

Digital Image Velocimetry

Proposed technique for production of velocity maps from sequences of photographic video images of flows seeded with small particles. In digital image velocimetry, image analyzed by digital Fourier tranformation. Process free of noise, more precise, and consumes less time. Eliminates need to process photographs, indicates directions of velocity vectors unambiguously, and offers increased dynamic ranges. Because all processing performed electronically, eventually capable of mapping flow-velocity fields in real time.

Cho, Y. C.↗

Calibration of Predictor Models Using Multiple Validation Experiments

This paper presents a framework for calibrating computational models using data from several and possibly dissimilar validation experiments. The offset between model predictions and observations, which might be caused by measurement noise, model-form uncertainty, and numerical error, drives the process by which uncertainty in the models parameters is characterized. The resulting description of uncertainty along with the computational model constitute a predictor model. Two types of predictor models are studied: Interval Predictor Models (IPMs) and Random Predictor Models (RPMs). IPMs use sets to characterize uncertainty, whereas RPMs use random vectors. The propagation of a set through a model makes the response an interval valued function of the state, whereas the propagation of a random vector yields a random process. Optimization-based strategies for calculating both types of predictor models are proposed. Whereas the formulations used to calculate IPMs target solutions leading to the interval value function of minimal spread containing all observations, those for RPMs seek to maximize the models' ability to reproduce the distribution of observations. Regarding RPMs, we choose a structure for the random vector (i.e., the assignment of probability to points in the parameter space) solely dependent on the prediction error. As such, the probabilistic description of uncertainty is not a subjective assignment of belief, nor is it expected to asymptotically converge to a fixed value, but instead it casts the model's ability to reproduce the experimental data. This framework enables evaluating the spread and distribution of the predicted response of target applications depending on the same parameters beyond the validation domain.

Crespo, Luis G.↗