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Modular, Fault-Tolerant Electronics Supporting Space Exploration Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:26:45.000ZModern electronic systems tolerate only as many point failures as there are redundant system copies, using mere macro-scale redundancy. Fault Tolerant Electronics Supporting Space Exploration (FTESSE) creates an electronic design paradigm using reprogrammable FPGAs to create swappable Circuit Object Blocks (COBs) ? analogous to software objects ? for the first time enabling redundancy on a micro-scale. The result is an increased tolerance of point failures by several orders of magnitude over traditional approaches. In the FTESSE approach, FPGAs are partitioned into COBs (groups of gates), each performing a specific function. Bad areas can be mapped like the bad sector data on a disk drive, enabling COBs to be placed in areas of working gates to recover system performance. Hardware tested during Phase I verified point failures could be introduced into an example circuit and corrected. As in the Phase I model, circuits to be monitored reside on a Slave FPGA, and a Master FPGA monitors outputs of all COBs, sensing faults and mapping non-working gates on the Slave FPGA. The Master is a rad-hard, triple mode redundancy (TMR) FPGA, but the Slaves need not be, opening the doors to higher performance applications while maintaining high levels of fault tolerance.
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NLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 Monthly 0.125 x 0.125 degree V002
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T04:56:05.000ZThis data set contains a series of land surface parameters simulated from the Noah land-surface model (LSM) for Phase 2 of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2). The data are in 1/8th degree grid spacing and range from Jan 1979 to the present. The temporal resolution is monthly. The file format is WMO GRIB-1. The NLDAS-2 monthly Noah model data were generated from the NLDAS-2 hourly Noah model data, as monthly accumulation for rainfall, snowfall, subsurface runoff, surface runoff, total evapotranspiration, and snow melt, and monthly average for other variables. Monthly period of each month is from 00Z at start of the month to 23:59Z at end of the month, except the first month (Jan 1979) that starts from 00Z 02 Jan 1979. Also for the first month (Jan 1979), because the variables listed as instantaneous in the README file (http://hydro1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/s4pa/NLDAS/README.NLDAS2.pdf) do not have valid data exactly on 00Z 02 Jan 1979, and this one hour is not included in the average for this month only. Brief description about the NLDAS-2 monthly Noah model can be found from the GCMD DIF for GES_DISC_NLDAS_NOAH0125_H_V002 at http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/getdif.htm?GES_DISC_NLDAS_NOAH0125_H_V002. Details about the NLDAS-2 configuration of the Noah LSM can be found in Xia et al. (2012). The NLDAS-2 Noah monthly data contain fifty-two fields. The data set applies a user-defined parameter table to indicate the contents and parameter number. The GRIBTAB file (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/hydrology/grib_tabs/gribtab_NLDAS_NOAH.002.txt) shows a list of parameters for this data set, along with their Product Definition Section (PDS) IDs and units. For information about the vertical layers of the Soil Moisture Content (PDS 086), Soil Temperature (PDS 085), and Liquid Soil Moisture Content (PDS 151) please see the README Document at ftp://hydro1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/s4pa/NLDAS/README.NLDAS2.pdf or the GrADS ctl file at ftp://hydro1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/gds/NLDAS/NLDAS_NOAH0125_M.002.ctl.
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Solid-Solid Vacuum Regolith Heat-Exchanger for Oxygen Production Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:17:45.000ZThis SBIR Phase-1 project will demonstrate the feasibility of using a novel coaxial counterflow solid-solid heat exchanger to recover heat energy from spent regolith at 1050<SUP>o</SUP>C to pre-heat inlet regolith to 750<SUP>o</SUP>C, either continuously, or in 20kg batches. In granular solids the area of contacts between 'touching' grains is quite small. Thus, solid-solid conduction often plays only a minor role in heat transfer through granular solids (i.e., 'effective' conduction), and when an interstitial gas is present, heat transfer occurs primarily via conduction through the gas. If the granular solid is also flowing, then solids convection becomes a significant factor in overall heat transfer and effective 'conduction'. Under vacuum conditions, and at temperatures above 700<SUP>o</SUP>C, radiation will dominate most heat transfer processes; however, solids convection can also play a very significant secondary role. Utilizing judicious placement of radiation baffles, and a novel counterflow configuration, the approach proposed in this SBIR can accomplish the desired heat transfer between spent and fresh regolith with only one moving mechanical part, by making effective use of both radiative heat transfer and solids convection. Discrete-element simulations of regolith flow will be utilized to refine the concept. Utilization of an existing ~1.4 cubic meter partial-vacuum facility at the University of Florida will facilitate construction of feasibility demonstration prototypes during Phase-1 and/or Phase-2. The Phase-1 project will demonstrate the effectiveness of combining solids convection with radiative heat transfer to rapidly transfer heat from 1050C spent material to heat fresh regolith to 750C under vacuum conditions.
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High Torque, Direct Drive Electric Motor Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:10:03.000ZBear Engineering proposes to advance the development of an innovative high torque, low speed, direct drive motor in order to meet NASA's requirements for such devices. Fundamentally, all electric motors basically work on the same electromagnetic principle: a tangential electromagnetic force attracts the rotor to the stator. Just when the rotor field is closest to the stator field and the electromagnetic attraction is greatest, the power is interrupted and another set of magnetic poles repeats the cycle. Furthermore, the two magnetically attracted elements never make contact, which would otherwise offer the highest force of attraction. The proposed novel motor design, successfully demonstrated at TRL 4 in Phase 1, operates and behaves entirely differently from all other known electric motor designs and is capable of producing incredibly high, direct drive torques at low rotational speeds. Its operational performance is similar to that of a stepper motor with a 1000:1 gearhead attached, but the similarity ends there. The motor is configured such that its length to diameter aspect ratio is opposite that of traditional motors as it has a relatively large diameter and short axial length; this offers all new packaging opportunities. The design also allows for a single, large diameter bearing pair to be used for the motor's output shaft which renders it stiff enough to directly mount the driven elements. The need for additional bearing supports and bearing mounting structure is thus eliminated. By the end of Phase 2, the system will be designed, developed and tested at TRL 6 with Mars environmental conditions.
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An all MMIC Replacement for Gunn Diode Oscillators Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:36:37.000ZWe propose to replace the Gunn Diode Oscillators (GDOs) in NASA?s millimeter- and submillimeter-wave sensing instruments. Our new solution will rely on modern and reliable microwave integrated circuit technology. Specifically our systems will use highly developed microwave oscillators to achieve a low noise and highly stable reference signal in the 10 ? 30 GHz band. Compact amplifiers based on commercial MMIC chips will then increase the signal strength. Finally, our innovative integrated varactor multiplier circuits will be used to increase the frequency to the 60 ? 150 GHz frequency band with high efficiency and minimal added phase noise. With this technology we expect to achieve phase noise and stability comparable to the best Gunn diode oscillators and fundamentally improved output power and frequency agility. The millimeter-wave integrated circuit process and diode technologies are the critical innovative technologies that are required for this research. Through this SBIR project these innovative technologies will be extended to achieve highly compact multipliers for the 60 ? 150 GHz band. These new multipliers will be integrated with highly developed microwave components to achieve a robust and cost efficient replacement for the GDOs presently used in NASA?s Earth Science program.
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Software for Application of HHT Technologies to Time Series Analysis Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:27:16.000ZThe proposed innovation is a robust and user-friendly software environment where NASA researchers can customize the latest HHT technologies for the LISA (and LIGO) application. The proposed technology will include the latest discoveries and inventions not available in the state-of-the-art. Its taxonomy includes gravitational sensors and sources, expert systems, portable data analysis tools, software development environments, and software tools for distributed analysis and simulation. The disturbance caused by the passage of a gravitational wave is expected to be very small and will be measured with laser interferometry. The Hilbert-HuangTransform (HHT)and related analysis technologies developed since the original concept has been used successfully in other applications to extract non-linear and transient signal comonents of very small magnitude with respect to the measured signal. The proposed research and development team has participated in the latest cycle of technology development related to the HHT at the theoretical, implementation, and application levels. Not only will the creation of the proposed software contribute to the data analysis of the gravitational wave signals in the laser interferometry measurements (for both LIGO and LISA data), but also in other applications within and outside NASA's mission.
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Vibration-Free Cooling Cycle Pump for Space Vehicles and Habitats Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:26:51.000ZMainstream Engineering Corporation completed the design of a high-speed pump for International Space Station (ISS) Environmental Control and Life Support Systems and future spacecraft and extraterrestrial outpost applications. Specifications for this pump were derived from an existing pump currently operating as part of the thermal control loop on the ISS. The design includes magnetic bearings so that a vibration-reducing control algorithm can be implemented. A digital controller was designed, which measured and reduced vibration-causing fluctuations in shaft displacement due to rotor unbalance in multiple axes. The controller was tested over an operating speed range of 600 to 7200 rpm with excellent results. The controller reduced mean shaft displacement by 71% over the entire operating range, and reduced it by more than 80% at higher operating speeds where synchronous vibration was dominant. In Phase II the magnetic bearing equipped cooling loop pump designed in Phase I will be fabricated and tested. Mainstream will demonstrate the added efficiency, reliability, and low vibration of the system as compared with the existing pump. The pump assembly will undergo vibration characterization testing with support from Marshall Space Flight Center.
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Novel Versatile Intelligent Drug Delivery Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:23:14.000ZThis SBIR project will demonstrate and develop a novel micro-pump capable of controlled and selective chemical transport. Phase I will create, characterize, and model a robust and readily fabricated low-power miniaturized pump achieving "forceless" dissolved ion transport compatible with microgravity conditions. The compact technology will be extremely versatile, low-cost, stable, easily tailorable, and readily scaleable to higher fluxes via structure duplication and application in parallel. The device will be physically stable, chemically inert, and pH insensitive while its small dimensions result in lower power consumption and reduced mass. The result will be a more versatile and general pump capable of moving a variety of drugs. Phase I will explore the pump performance, stability, and design optimization using selected ionic compounds as model transport subjects by running designed experiments exploring pump operations as a function of key pump structural and operation variables. This data will determine the controlling variables, their effects on the system performance, and will be utilized with first-principles system physics analysis to develop a pump operation model. This model will allow rapid technology configuration exploration, operation performance refinement, and will provide critical insights into preferred, better optimized, structures to be evaluated during Phase II.
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Stable, Extreme Temperature, High Radiation, Compact. Low Power Clock Oscillator for Space, Geothermal, Down-Hole & other High Reliability Applications Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:30:08.000ZEfficient and stable clock signal generation requirements at extreme temperatures (-180C to +450C)and radiation (&gt;250 Krad TID) are not met with the current solutions.Chronos technology proposes to design and fabricate RTXO as a new, comprehensive and scalable solution that simultaneously addresses the attributes of a reliable clock source in extreme environments. RTXO offers very small form-factor 5X7mm surface mount device utilizing high-Q Quartz material and CMOS/SOI for the extreme cold temperatures of Mars surface up to +110C. For extreme high temperature (to +450C) it uses Silicon Carbide (SiC-4H) semiconductor technology, high quality Gallium Orthophisphate (GaPO4) piezo-electric resonator material in a non-adhesive configured innovative assembly. All the different elements and processes used in the RTXO technology have been investigated in phase I to comply with the intended performance. This includes the individual elements, packaging, interconnecting method and manufacturing processes. RTXO offers standard signal interface, wide operating voltage range, conventional microelectronic packaging, and industry standard and reliable metal to metal as well as glass to metal sealing processes. RTXO delivers its exceptional performance over a wide (application specific) frequency range to 100 MHz from a single supply voltage and requires very low power.
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TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) Gridded Oceanic Rainfall Product (TRMM Product 3A11) V7
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T04:52:56.000ZThe Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint U.S.-Japan satellite mission to monitor tropical and subtropical precipitation and to estimate its associated latent heating. TRMM was successfully launched on November 27, at 4:27 PM (EST) from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) is a nine-channel passive microwave radiometer, which builds on the heritage of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) instrument flown aboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) platforms. Microwave radiation is emitted by the Earth's surface and by water droplets within clouds. However, when layers of large ice particles are present in upper cloud regions - a condition highly correlated with heavy rainfall - microwave radiation tends to scatter at frequencies above 19 GHz. The TMI detects radiation at five frequencies chosen to discriminate among these processes, thus revealing the likelihood of rainfall. The key to accurate retrieval of rainfall rates by this method is the deduction of cloud precipitation consistent with the radiation measurement at each frequency. The TMI frequencies are 10.65, 19.35, 37 and 85.5 GHz (dual polarization), and 21 GHz (vertical polarization only). The TMI Gridded Oceanic Rainfall Product, also known as TMI Emission, consists of 5 degree by 5 degree monthly oceanic rainfall maps using TMI Level 1 data as input. Statistics of the monthly rainfall, including number of samples, standard deviation, goodness-of-fit (of the brightness temperature histogram to the lognormal rainfall distribution function) and rainfall probability are also included in the output for each grid box. Spatial coverage is between 40 degrees North and 40 degrees South owing to the 35 degree inclination of the TRMM satellite. TMI brightness temperature histograms at 1 degree intervals are generated based on the 19, 21 and 19-21 GHz combination channels obtained from the Level 1B (calibrated brightness temperature) TMI product. Monthly rainfall indices over the ocean are derived by statistically matching monthly histograms of brightness temperatures with model calculated rainfall Probability Distribution Functions (PDF) using the 19-21 GHz combination data. Retrieved monthly rainfall data must pass a quality test based on the quality of the PDF fit. The data are stored in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), which includes both core and product specific metadata applicable to the TMI measurements. A file contains 12 arrays of rainfall data and supporting information each of dimension 72 x 16, with a file size of about 40 KB (uncompressed). The HDF-EOS "grid" structure is used to accommodate the actual geophysical data arrays. There is 1 file of TMI 3A11 data produced per month.