NASA Tech Briefs, September 2012

Topics covered include: Beat-to-Beat Blood Pressure Monitor; Measurement Techniques for Clock Jitter; Lightweight, Miniature Inertial Measurement System; Optical Density Analysis of X-Rays Utilizing Calibration Tooling to Estimate Thickness of Parts; Fuel Cell/Electrochemical Cell Voltage Monitor; Anomaly Detection Techniques with Real Test Data from a Spinning Turbine Engine-Like Rotor; Measuring Air Leaks into the Vacuum Space of Large Liquid Hydrogen Tanks; Antenna Calibration and Measurement Equipment; Glass Solder Approach for Robust, Low-Loss, Fiber-to-Waveguide Coupling; Lightweight Metal Matrix Composite Segmented for Manufacturing High-Precision Mirrors; Plasma Treatment to Remove Carbon from Indium UV Filters; Telerobotics Workstation (TRWS) for Deep Space Habitats; Single-Pole Double-Throw MMIC Switches for a Microwave Radiometer; On Shaft Data Acquisition System (OSDAS); ASIC Readout Circuit Architecture for Large Geiger Photodiode Arrays; Flexible Architecture for FPGAs in Embedded Systems; Polyurea-Based Aerogel Monoliths and Composites; Resin-Impregnated Carbon Ablator: A New Ablative Material for Hyperbolic Entry Speeds; Self-Cleaning Particulate Prefilter Media; Modular, Rapid Propellant Loading System/Cryogenic Testbed; Compact, Low-Force, Low-Noise Linear Actuator; Loop Heat Pipe with Thermal Control Valve as a Variable Thermal Link; Process for Measuring Over-Center Distances; Hands-Free Transcranial Color Doppler Probe; Improving Balance Function Using Low Levels of Electrical Stimulation of the Balance Organs; Developing Physiologic Models for Emergency Medical Procedures Under Microgravity; PMA-Linked Fluorescence for Rapid Detection of Viable Bacterial Endospores; Portable Intravenous Fluid Production Device for Ground Use; Adaptation of a Filter Assembly to Assess Microbial Bioburden of Pressurant Within a Propulsion System; Multiplexed Force and Deflection Sensing Shell Membranes for Robotic Manipulators; Whispering Gallery Mode Optomechanical Resonator; Vision-Aided Autonomous Landing and Ingress of Micro Aerial Vehicles; Self-Sealing Wet Chemistry Cell for Field Analysis; General MACOS Interface for Modeling and Analysis for Controlled Optical Systems; Mars Technology Rover with Arm-Mounted Percussive Coring Tool, Microimager, and Sample-Handling Encapsulation Containerization Subsystem; Fault-Tolerant, Real-Time, Multi-Core Computer System; Water Detection Based on Object Reflections; SATPLOT for Analysis of SECCHI Heliospheric Imager Data; Plug-in Plan Tool v3.0.3.1; Frequency Correction for MIRO Chirp Transformation Spectroscopy Spectrum; Nonlinear Estimation Approach to Real-Time Georegistration from Aerial Images; Optimal Force Control of Vibro-Impact Systems for Autonomous Drilling Applications; Low-Cost Telemetry System for Small/Micro Satellites; Operator Interface and Control Software for the Reconfigurable Surface System Tri-ATHLETE; and Algorithms for Determining Physical Responses of Structures Under Load

Alien Affects: Movement, Migration, and Landscapes of Citizenship

Alien Affects is a materialist examination of the ways citizenship landscapes are shaped by three mechanisms of control - extraterrestrial film, border security, and the legal apparatuses of the State - that accelerate flows of dominant national citizenship and hinder the movements of migrants. As bodies move through borders and through communities in the US, they are subjected to techniques of citizenship control that divide citizens from aliens. This political division maximizes the State\u27s capacity to benefit from the mobility of its preferred citizen groups while subjugating its alien groups - those who might be characterized as such because they have a different tone (skin tone, vocal tone, affective tone). These techniques channel alien groups into citizenship control apparatuses (surveillance, detention, and deportation) where there movements are limited; often-benefiting private detention apparatuses those invested in them. Alien Affects sets out to explicate the threefold relationship occurring within the cultural-military-industrial complex between cinema (namely extraterrestrial arrival cinema), migration control apparatuses, and the defense of constitutive citizenship laws. I am arguing that what connects each of these aspects of citizenship landscaping are the technologies of illumination (and those who develop them) that add layers of visibility to articulations of state power. The development of these technologies is funded by the US\u27s lawmakers and they are used to create filmic alien affects in today\u27s Hollywood alien arrival films. Bordering agents also adopt them to amplify alien affects on bodies moving through migration control apparatuses. The method used in this examination not only draws attention to the ways technologies are mobilized in each of these mechanisms, but also focuses on the flows that are moving between them

Wireless sensor networks for landslide monitoring: application and optimization by visibility analysis on 3D point clouds

Occurring in many geographical, geological and climatic environments, landslides represent a major geological hazard. In landslide prone areas, monitoring devices associated with Early Warning Systems are a cost-effective means to reduce the risk with a low environmental and economic impact, and in some cases, they can be the only solution. In this framework, particular interest has been reserved for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), defined as networks of usually low-size and low-cost devices denoted as nodes, which are integrated with sensors that can gather information through wireless links. In this thesis, data from a new prototypical ground instability monitoring instrument called Wi-GIM (Wireless sensor network for Ground Instability Monitoring) have been analysed. The system consists in a WSN made by nodes able to measure their mutual inter-distances by calculating the time of flight of an Ultra-Wide Band impulse. Therefore, no sensors are implemented in the network, as the same signals used for transmission are also used for ranging. The system has been tested in a controlled outdoor environment and applied for the monitoring of the displacements of an actual landslide, the Roncovetro mudflow in Central Italy, where a parallel monitoring with a Robotic Total Station (RTS) allowed to validate the system. The outputs are displacement time series showing the distance of each couple of nodes belonging to the same cluster. Data retrieved from the tests revealed a precision of 2–5 cm and that measurements are influenced by the temperature. Since the correlation with this parameter has proved to be linear, a simple correction is sufficient to improve the precision and remove the effect of temperature. The campaign also revealed that measurements were not affected by rain or snow, and that the system can efficiently communicate up to 150 m with a 360° angle of view without affecting precision. Other key features of the implemented system are easy and quick installation, flexibility, low cost, real-time monitoring and acquisition frequency changeability. The comparison between Wi-GIM and RTS measurements pointed out the presence of an offset (in an order that vary from centimetric to decametric) constant for each single couple, due mainly to the presence of obstacles that can obstruct the Line Of Sight (LOS). The presence of vegetation is the main cause of the non-LOS condition between two nodes, which translates in a longer path of the signals and therefore to a less accurate distance measurements. To go further inside this issue, several tests have been carried out proving the strong influence of the vegetation over both data quantity and quality. To improve them, a MATLAB tool (R2018a, MAthWorks, Natick, MA, USA) called WiSIO (Wireless Sensor network Installation Optimizer) has been developed. The algorithm finds the best devices deployment following three criteria: (i) inter-visibility by means of a modified version of the Hidden Point Removal operator; (ii) equal distribution; (iii) positioning in preselected priority areas. With respect to the existing viewshed analysis, the main novelty is that it works directly with 3D point clouds, without rendering them or performing any surface. This lead to skip the process of generating surface models avoiding errors and approximations, that is essential when dealing with vegetation. A second installation of the Wi-GIM system has been therefore carried out considering the deployment suggested by WiSIO. The comparison of data acquired by the system positioned with and without the help of the proposed algorithm allowed to better comprehend the effectiveness of the tool. The presented results are very promising, showing how a simple elaboration can be essential to have more and more reliable data, improving the Wi-GIM system performances, making it even more usable in very complex environments and increasing its flexibility. The main left limitation of the Wi-GIM system is currently the precision. Such issue is connected to the aim of using only low-cost components, and it can be prospectively overcome if the system undergoes an industrialization process. Furthermore, since the system architecture is re-adaptable, it is prone to enhancements as soon as the technology advances and new low cost hardware enters the market

Low-frequency Antennas, Transparent Ground Planes, and Transponders for Communication Enhancement in Unfavorable Environments

The communication environment has a major influence on the performance of wireless networks. Unlike antennas, receivers, processors, and other components of a typical wireless system, the designer has almost no control over the communication channel. Therefore, it is imminent that the adverse effects of the communication channel such as path-loss, multi-path, lack of a clear line of sight, and interference are among the most limiting factors in designing and operating wireless networks. Recent investments in infrastructures such as cell-phone towers, communication satellites, routers, and networking devices have been aimed at reducing the aforementioned adverse effects. However, wireless ad hoc networks (WANET) cannot rely on pre-existing infrastructures such as access points or routers. In this thesis, a number of solutions are presented to enhance communication and navigation in harsh environments. 1) At lower frequencies, the defects of the communication channel are less prominent, which has led militaries to use UHF and VHF frequency bands for communication. A number of optically transparent UHF antennas are developed and embedded in the windows of military vehicles to reduce their visual signature. 2) Direction finding at low frequencies using baseline method results in an exorbitantly large array of sensors. However, a vector sensor consisting of three orthogonal two-port loop antennas can be used. A simple and accurate circuit model for the two-port loop antenna is developed for the first time that can be used for direction of arrival estimation over a wide range of frequencies and angles. 3) Using a conventional radio repeater with ad-hoc systems requires a communication protocol and decreases the throughput by a factor of two for every repeater in the chain. A full-duplex repeater, capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving at the same frequency, is developed for the 2.4 GHz ISM band.PHDElectrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143898/1/manikafa_1.pd

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 3: Dual-Phase Module

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 3 describes the dual-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 252)

This bibliography lists 425 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in April 1990. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Design in Engineering: An Evaluation of Civilian and Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platforms, Considering Smart Sensing with Ethical Design to Embody Mitigation Against Asymmetric Hostile Actor Exploitation

This report is written in part-fulfilment of personal output criteria for the Visiting Research Fellowship (Sir Richard Grenville Fellowship) at the Changing Character of War Centre, Pembroke College, Oxford, and the Centre for Sea Power and Strategy, Britannia Royal Naval College, Plymouth University at BRNC, Dartmouth. In this report I undertook an extensive analysis of the maritime UAV platform systems sector of a wide range of upstream manufacturing industry and downstream end user stakeholders. I consulted a global range of military and civilian users, to inform discussions around civilian UAV platforms which could be modified by hostile non-state actors, with emphasis on the littoral maritime region. This has strategic relevance to the United Kingdom, being an island-state with over 10,000 miles of coastline, c. 600 ports, and nearly 300 off-shore oil and gas platforms. In addition the UK has 14 dependencies together with a combined EEZ of 2.5 million square miles, the fifth largest in the world

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 304)

This bibliography lists 453 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May 1994. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 276)

This bibliography lists 705 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Feb. 1992. Subject coverage includes: design, construction, and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics