Technology Opportunity Showcase highlights some unique technologies that NASA has developed and which we believe have strong potential for commercial application. While the descriptions provided here are brief, they should provide enough information to communicate the potential applications of the technology. For more detailed information, contact the person listed. Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
Technology Opportunity Showcase
Real-Time Monitoring
Nonvolatile Residue Monitor
o measure nonvolatile residues in clean-room environments for the protection of sensitive payloads during launch preparations, Femtometrics, Inc., of Costa Mesa, California, has developed a Real-Time Nonvolatile Residue Monitor under a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with Kennedy Space Center. A prototype instrument has been fabricated and field-tested at Kennedy. Tests have demonstrated the monitorŐs capability to accurately detect and quantitatively measure nonvolatile residue in real-time. This monitor is a completely self-contained, single unit that is designed for onsite or remote operation. It is based on a surface acoustic wave microbalance, which operates similarly to a piezoelectric crystal microbalance but has much greater sensitivity. The crystal is held at a constant temperature just below room temperature and thus accurately reflects conditions on the payload.
This system has potential for use in the airline, aircraft, and shipbuilding industries, by law enforcement agencies, by public utilities or in any repeatable process where data are collected, transferred and analyzed. Its benefits include real-time monitoring, improved data availability, the elimination of latency, paper-intensive inspection processes and the need to rekey data. Future research will involve calibration methods and instrument repackaging.
Surface Defect Monitoring
Kennedy Space Center also seeks a private industry commercial partner to transfer the NASA-developed Surface Defect Analyzer (SURDA) technology. The system, which has an industrial application, is being developed to provide an accurate method of evaluating the physical dimensions of surface flaws, defects and damage on critical surfaces of the Space Shuttle and related ground support equipment. SURDA will provide an alternative to the mold impression optical comparator or optical micrometry processes currently being used. Potential commercial applications include medical and dental measurements, materials analysis laboratories, aircraft, automobiles, precision tooling and appliance manufacturing.
SURDA uses the structured light microscopy technique as its basis and offers the benefits of real-time analysis and a permanent record of defect images, and it eliminates many labor-intensive functions required by other methods. The system consists of a 386-image acquisition and processing computer with a color display housed in a portable case. A 25-foot cable connects a handheld optical head containing the optics, television camera and line projector to the computer. The operator carries the unit to the vicinity of the test article and positions the optical head over the defect, using the small liquid crystal display "finder" screen provided at the optical head. Defects that need to be permanently recorded or analyzed in greater detail than possible with the relatively low-resolution liquid crystal display can be digitized and stored in the main computer. When digitized, defect images can be used to produce detailed, application-specific documentation of the defect using a built-in bubble jet printer. The overall field of view of the instrument in its present version is about 0.06 inch square. Its measurement resolution is better than 0.001 inch.
Remote Alarm Monitoring
NASA seeks to transfer the Remote Monitoring and Alarm System (RMAS) technology it is developing to private industry for use in industrial applications. The system is a diagnostic system for monitoring the health and status of wideband fiber-optic transmission equipment at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Station. It is designed to monitor the alarms and power supplies of the remotely located terminal equipment and provide the status to a display system for monitoring at a central site. The RMAS is unique in that no other known system provides for monitoring both power supply voltages and alarms specifically for fiber-optic transmission equipment. The system also allows for the reprogramming of the remote unit's nonvolatile memory from a central monitoring site. The Central Monitoring Unit provides the user with graphical and audio alarms when a fiber optic-based circuit problem occurs.
Potential industrial applications include telephone companies for monitoring remotely located switching equipment, the fiber-optic equipment manufacturing industry for monitoring production lines and automated equipment from remote locations, and conventional and nuclear power systems for monitoring the status of remote sensors, pumps, actuators and motors. The alarm offers such benefits as real-time status of all system power supplies, alarms and displays. It also provides hard-disk and time-dated, hard-copy records of alarm status, allows for an easy reconfiguration of the system from a central location and eliminates the time-consuming troubleshooting process.
For information on any or all of the above technologies, contact the
Technology Programs and Commercialization Office at Kennedy Space Center.
Call (407) 867-6226. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
