NASA News Briefs
Aviation Technology Test Site Chosen
A public-private partnership, working to deve lop tools for a better Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS), has chosen Danville Regional Airport, Danville, Va., as the location to test technologies that could improve general aviation and make air travel more accessible to more people.
NASA and the National Consortium for Aviation Mobility are planning an operational demonstration at the airport in mid-2005 with aircraft equipped with new technologies developed by NASA´s SATS project. The goal of the demonstration is to show how emerging aviation technologies can be integrated into operations in an airport environment. This new capability may someday allow more small aircraft and airports to be used safely and reliably by more passengers. It is the culmination of the five-year SATS research project.
Researchers at NASA´s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and at SATS laboratories across the country are developing integrated airborne systems, cockpit displays and operating procedures for advanced 4- to 10-passenger aircraft. These technologies could help planes safely fly into underused rural and suburban airports, including many airfields that don´t have radar or air traffic control towers. About 93 percent of people in the United States live within 30 minutes of one of these airports.
SATS research is focusing on four operating capabilities that may permit people and goods to travel faster and farther, anywhere and anytime. These technologies will allow higher volume operations at airports that don´t have control towers or terminal radar, pilots to land safely in low-visibility conditions at minimally equipped airports, improved single-pilot performance and SATS aircraft to integrate seamlessly into the complex national airspace.
Many of the cockpit systems that enable the SATS operating capabilities are already being developed by NASA, its industry partners and other companies. SATS researchers are working to demonstrate that complex, sophisticated technology can be brought together as an effective, affordable system for smaller airplanes.
For more information, contact Elvia Thompson, Office of Public Affairs, NASA Headquarters, 202/358-1696.
Kennedy-Developed Scaling Device Benefits Law Enforcement
An innovation developed at NASA´s Kennedy Space Center to assess damage to the space shuttle following a hailstorm several years ago will now aid the investigations of law-enforcement officials.
Kennedy´s Technology Transfer Office successfully completed the negotiation and signing of a patent license with Armor Holdings Forensics, Jacksonville, Fla., for the manufacture and sale of the Scaling and Measurement Device for Photographic Images and the accompanying software.
Armor Holdings intends to use the technology in the law enforcement field. Jim Seidel, general manager of forensics at Armor Holdings, says, "We believe crime-scene investigators and traffic-accident investigators will find this device particularly useful in their work." The device has potential utility wherever remote scaling of a photographic image is required. In addition to investigators, the technology also benefits photographers and surveillance personnel, and has applications in homeland security and the military.
The device uses a laser that projects a known pattern into a camera´s field of view. When a photograph is taken, this pattern appears with the image of the object under investigation, allowing the viewer to quantify the size of the object. Accompanying software calibrates the pattern in the photo image and computes the distance scale for the entire image, saving valuable time in establishing and documenting measurements.
Armor Holdings has provided the forensics industry with tools needed to perform a job efficiently and safely for the past 68 years. Armor Holdings also publishes Minutiae, a free bimonthly newsletter for the benefit of law-enforcement professionals. It contains information on new products, including the scaling device, technical formulations and historic articles. Information on the scaling device and software is distributed to crime labs around the world. Society benefits from improved investigations and crime prevention as a result of the use of this technology.
For more information, contact Allen Miller, Forensic Technical Manager, Armor Holdings Forensics, 13386 International Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32218, 904/741-1787.
Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.
Magnetic Scanner Improves Business, Security
The ability to read hidden identification codes using a handheld magneto-optic imager could help businesses improve inventory management, enhance safety, improve security and aid in recall efforts of defective products.
Research at NASA´s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has resulted in a system that will do just that. A team led by Fred Schramm of the MSFC´s Technology Transfer Department, in partnership with PRI, Torrance, Calif., has developed a handheld device that can read special types of coded symbols — even if they are covered by up to six layers of paint. Through a license with NASA, another partner, Robotic Vision Systems Inc. (RVSI), of Nashua, N.H., will sell the imager on the commercial market. NASA continues to seek additional companies to license the product.
Two-dimensional Data Matrix symbols, which incorporate encoded letters and numbers, can be permanently etched on items for identification. The symbols, resembling small checkerboard patterns, are as reliable as traditional bar codes and more efficient, storing up to 100 times more information in the same amount of space.
Before this new technology was available, matrix symbols were read with optical scanners, and only if the codes were visible. But what happens if the symbols are painted over? "Once painted, matrix symbols can´t be read by an optical reader," Schramm says. This creates problems for users such as the Department of Defense and the airline industry, for example, because almost every product eventually gets painted.
"This latest improvement in digital Data Matrix technologies offers greater flexibility for businesses and industries already using the marking system," Schramm says. Paint, inks and pastes containing magnetic properties are applied in matrix-symbol patterns to objects with two-dimensional codes, and a magnetic imager reads the codes, even after being covered with paint or other coatings. The scanner combines PRI´s magneto-optic imaging technology with RVSI´s Data Matrix decoding techniques into a single handheld unit.
"The ability to read hidden matrix symbols promises a wide range of benefits in a number of fields, including airlines, electronics, healthcare and the automotive industry," Schramm says. Symbols have been applied to a variety of materials, including metal, plastic, glass, paper, fabric and foam—on everything from electronic parts to pharmaceuticals to livestock.
The portability of the handheld imager makes work faster and easier. It detects codes not only covered by paint, primers, laminates and other coatings but also under conditions that would render optical methods useless. It reads marks in darkness and under bright light that might interfere with optical reading of visible marks, and it can detect symbols obscured by discoloration or contamination.
"This method is not only for routine marking," Schramm adds. "There are many industries that would like to hide information on a part, so it can be read only by the party who put it there." For instance, the automotive industry uses direct parts marking for inventory control and tracking, but for aesthetic purposes the marks often need to be invisible.
The Data Matrix symbol was commercially developed in 1982. MSFC began studying direct parts marking with matrix symbols in 1987 to track the millions of parts used in the space shuttle. Joint efforts by Marshall researchers and industry partners are aimed at improving identification technology as part of NASA´s program to better life on Earth through technology designed for the space program.
Schramm notes that the flexibility, permanence and other advantages of marking with matrix symbols give the technology an edge over bar-code labeling for many items. "For instance, where products are too small to accommodate sticky labels, or those to which the labels won´t adhere," he says.
Before Data Matrix technology was available, computer chip manufacturers had less effective ways of marking products, and counterfeit and stolen chips flooded the market. The magnetic imaging is the first read-through-paint sensing technology to support industry needs for hidden, machine-readable marks.
For more information, contact Fred Schramm, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 256/544-0823, Fred.Schramm@nasa.gov.
Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.
NASA Develops Earth-Friendly Fire-Suppression Agent
Fire usually doesn´t come to mind when thinking of preserving the ozone layer and preventing global warming. However, at NASA´s Kennedy Space Center, those objectives were ever present in the development of a new fire-suppression agent.
KSC has filed a patent application for the dry-powder substance that combines the best properties of water and Halon fire extinguishing agents. The agent is made of microencapsulated water, which means it´s not evaporated into the atmosphere, making it a more powerful suppressant that´s also appropriate for the environment.
"This offers a replacement for Halons which are currently being used but are no longer manufactured because they are harmful to the environment. This is a new class of fire extinguishing agents that can compete effectively against other handheld systems," says the technology´s visionary, Dr. Clyde Parrish, senior chemist at KSC. Companies interested in further testing and development of the technology could license the technology and manufacture and test the agent. Once successful tests, approvals and studies have been completed, the companies could market the agent as a product, while KSC earns royalties. NASA would then have the option to purchase the commercial product for use.
"Locally, it can be used in firing rooms for electrical equipment and on board the shuttle," Parrish explains. Although the suppressants, in place at numerous KSC locations, are dated, it takes time to research and resolve issues and develop a better option. Knowing the need for a new agent, Parrish envisioned the concept and decided to begin development. After two years, working primarily with three lab associates, he realized the goal of creating the nontoxic fire-suppression agent. "It´s always good to see your ideas develop and have some value," Parrish says. "I think this has a lot of interesting potential."
For more information, contact Dr. Clyde Parrish, Kennedy Space Center, 321/867-8763.
Please mention that you read about it in Technology Innovation.
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