Development of supercritical pressure cryogenic storage and supply systems incorporating the radial bumper-discrete shield design Final report

Design of super critical pressure cryogenic storage and supply equipment with radial bumper shiel

Index to nasa tech briefs, issue number 2

Annotated bibliography on technological innovations in NASA space program

Index to 1981 NASA Tech Briefs, volume 6, numbers 1-4

Short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of NASA are presented. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This index for 1981 Tech Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes: subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief Number. The following areas are covered: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

Advance in Energy Harvesters/Nanogenerators and Self-Powered Sensors

This reprint is a collection of the Special Issue "Advance in Energy Harvesters/Nanogenerators and Self-Powered Sensors" published in Nanomaterials, which includes one editorial, six novel research articles and four review articles, showcasing the very recent advances in energy-harvesting and self-powered sensing technologies. With its broad coverage of innovations in transducing/sensing mechanisms, material and structural designs, system integration and applications, as well as the timely reviews of the progress in energy harvesting and self-powered sensing technologies, this reprint could give readers an excellent overview of the challenges, opportunities, advancements and development trends of this rapidly evolving field

Integration of Ultrasonic Consolidation and Direct-Write to Fabricate an Embedded Electrical System Within a Metallic Enclosure

A research project was undertaken to integrate Ultrasonic Consolitation (UC) and Direct-Write (DW) technologies into a single apparatus to fabricate embedded electrical systems within an ultrasonically consolidated metallic enclosure. Process and design guidelines were developed after performing fundamental research on the operational capabilities of the implemented system. In order to develop such guidelines, numerous tests were performed on both UC and DW. The results from those tests, as well as the design and process guidelines for the fabrication of an embedded touch switch, can be used as a base for future research and experimentation on the UC-DW apparatus. The successful fabrication of an embedded touch switch proves the validity of the described design and process parameters and demonstrates the usefulness of this integration

Micro-mechanical sensor for the spectral decomposition of acoustic signals

An array of electret-biased frequency-selective resonant microelectromechanical system (MEMS) acoustic sensors was proposed to perform analysis of stress pulses created during an impact between two materials. This analysis allowed classification of the stiffness of the materials involved in the impact without applying post-impact signal processing. Arrays of resonant MEMS sensors provided filtering of the incident stress pulse and subsequent binning of time-domain waveforms into frequency-based spectra. Results indicated that different impact conditions and materials yielded different spectral characteristics. These characteristics, as well as the resulting sensor array responses, are discussed and applied to impact classification. Each individual sensor element in the array was biased by an in situ charged electret film. A microplasma discharge apparatus embedded within the microsensor allowed charging of the electret film after all device fabrication was complete. This enabled electret film integration using high-temperature surface micromachining processes that would typically lead to discharge of traditionally formed electret materials. This also eliminated the traditional wafer-bonding and post-fabrication assembly processes required in conventional electret integration approaches. The microplasma discharge process and resulting electret performance are discussed within the context of the MEMS acoustic sensor array.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Allen, Mark; Committee Member: Brand, Oliver; Committee Member: Michaels, Jennifer; Committee Member: Michaels, Thomas; Committee Member: Ready, Jud W

The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) CubeSat: optomechanical design validation and laboratory calibration

Coronagraphs on future space telescopes will require precise wavefront correction to detect Earth-like exoplanets near their host stars. High-actuator count microelectromechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirrors provide wavefront control with low size, weight, and power. The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) payload will demonstrate a 140 actuator MEMS deformable mirror (DM) with \SI{5.5}{\micro\meter} maximum stroke. We present the flight optomechanical design, lab tests of the flight wavefront sensor and wavefront reconstructor, and simulations of closed-loop control of wavefront aberrations. We also present the compact flight DM controller, capable of driving up to 192 actuator channels at 0-250V with 14-bit resolution. Two embedded Raspberry Pi 3 compute modules are used for task management and wavefront reconstruction. The spacecraft is a 6U CubeSat (30 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm) and launch is planned for 2019.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figues. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Austin, Texas, US

Spacecraft sun sensors, NASA space vehicle design criteria /guidance and control/

Design criteria and performance specifications for spacecraft sun sensor

Index to NASA Tech Briefs, January - June 1966

Index to NASA technological innovations for January-June 196

Applications of Cement-Based Smart Composites to Civil Structural Health Monitoring: A Review

In recent years, cement-based smart composites (CSCs) doped with conductive filler have attracted increasing research interest because of their high potentiality as self-sensing materials for civil Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications. Nevertheless, several issues are still open and need further studies. This paper presents an extensive state-of-the-art in which investigations on CSCs are summarized and critically revised, with the primary aim of outlining the main limits and development points. The literature review first addresses in detail several specific issues related to fabrication and operation as sensing elements of CSC samples. State-of-the-art applications of CSCs to SHM of reduced-, medium- and full-scale structural prototypes are extensively reviewed afterwards, resulting in a database useful to critically revise the main trends and open issues of the research in this field