Wibree is an innovative digital radio technology that can soon become a benchmark for the open wireless communication.

Working almost equivalent to the bluethooth technology, this modern technology functions within an ISM band of 2.4 GHz and amid a physical layer bit rate of 1 Mbps. Widely used in may appliances like the wrist watches, wireless keyboards, toys and sports sensors due to its key feature of very low consumption of power within the prescribed ranges of 10 meters or 30 feet using the low cost transceiver microchips, it can generate an output power ofm-6 dBm. Conceived by the Nokia company in 10-03-2006, it is today licensed and further researched by some of the major corporates that includes Nordic Semiconductor, Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson, Suunto and Taiyo Yuden. According to Bob lannucci, the head of Nokias research centre, this groundbreaking technology that is 10 times more capable than the bluethooth technology will soon replace it. Already the corporate giant Nordic Semiconductor is working on the technology so as to bring out the model chips by the mid of 2007.

Astrophotography is a specialised type of photography that entails making photographs of astronomical objects in the night sky such as planets, stars, and deep sky objects such as star clusters and galaxies. Astrophotography is used to reveal objects that are too faint to observe with the naked eye, as both film and digital cameras can accumulate and sum photons over long periods of time. Astrophotography poses challenges that are distinct from normal photography, because most subjects are usually quite faint, and are often small in angular size. Effective astrophotography requires the use of many of the following techniques:

Mounting the camera at the focal point of a large telescope Emulsions designed for low light sensitivity Very long exposure times and/or multiple exposures (often more than 20 per image). Tracking the subject to compensate for the rotation of the Earth during the exposure Gas hypersensitizing of emulsions to make them more sensitive (not common anymore) Use of filters to reduce background fogging due to light pollution of the night sky.

Gyrotrons are high powered electron tubes which emit a millimeter wave beam by bunching electrons with cyclotron motion in a strong magnetic field. Typical output powers range from 10s of kilowatts to 12 megawatts. Output frequencies range from about 20 to 250 GHz. Gyrotrons can be designed for pulsed or continuous operation. Gyrotron manufacturers include CPI (USA), Gycom (Russia), Thales Group (EU), and Toshiba (Japan). A prevalent application of gyrotrons is as a source of plasma heating in nuclear fusion research experiments. The gyrotron is a type of free electron maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). It has high power at millimeter wavelengths because its dimensions can be much larger than the wavelength, unlike conventional vacuum tubes, and it is not

dependent on material properties, as are conventional masers. The bunching depends on a relativistic effect. The electron speed in a gyrotron is slightly relativistic (comparable to but not close to the speed of light). This contrasts to the free electron laser (and xaser) that work on different principles and whose electrons are highly relativistic.

Brain fingerprinting is a technique that measures recognition of familiar stimuli by measuring electrical brain wave responses to words, phrases, or pictures that are presented on a computer screen. Brain fingerprinting was invented by Dr. Lawrence Farwell. The theory is that the suspect's reaction to the details of an event or activity will reflect if the suspect had prior knowledge of the event or activity. This test uses the Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted Electroencephalographic Response to detect familiarity reaction. The person to be tested wears a special headband with electronic sensors that measure the EEG from several locations on the scalp. In order to calibrate the brain fingerprinting system, the testee is presented with a series of irrelevant stimuli, words, and pictures, and a series of relevant stimuli, words, and pictures. The test subject's brain response to these two different types of stimuli allow the testor to determine if the measured brain responses to test stimuli, called probes, are more similar to the relevant or irrelevant responses. The technique uses the fact that an electrical signal known as P300 is emitted from an individual's brain approximately 300 milliseconds after it is confronted with a stimulus that has special significance to that individual (e.g. a murder weapon or a victim's face). Because it is based on EEG signals, the system does not require the testee to issue verbal responses to questions or stimuli.

ECHELON is a highly secretive world-wide signals intelligence and analysis network run by the UKUSA Community (otherwise described as the 'Anglo-Saxon alliance') [1]. ECHELON can capture radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes and e-mails nearly anywhere in the world and includes computer automated analysis and sorting of intercepts [2].

BrainGate was developed by the bio-tech company Cyberkinetics in 2003 in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands. Currently the chip uses 100 hair-thin electrodes that 'hear' neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activity is translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, thus moving the arm. According to the Cyberkinetics' website, two patients have been implanted with the BrainGate system.

What is WAP?

ABSTRACT WAP bridges the gap between the wireless mobile world and the internet. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) , is a collection of protocols and transport layers which allow mobile and portable communication devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), to receive information over the airwaves such as personal computers users obtain information over the internet. . WAP is simply a protocol- a standardized way that a mobile phone talks to a server installed in the mobile phone network. INTRODUCTION WAP is a hot topic that has been widely hyped in the mobile industry and outside of it. It has become imperative for all Information Technology companies in Nordic countries and beyond to have a WAP division. Many advertising agencies and dotcoms have announced WAP services. From the users perspective, using WAP is much like surfing the net on a personal computer; the mobile device is fitted with a small, or not so small, display which can be used just like a desktop browser. Information sources can be selected which are then downloaded and their content is displayed. Hyper Text links and buttons can then be pressed to move around from page to page in a very simple way. In this respect, there is very little difference between WAP browsing and desktop surfing, but, behind the scenes there are considerable differences because of the medium through which the information must travel, over radio waves rather than along hardwired or telephone lines. Importance of WAP It provides a standardized way of linking the Internet to mobile phones, thereby linking two of the hottest industries anywhere. Its founder members include the major wireless vendors of Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola, plus a newcomer Phone.com. Compared to the wired networks there are many constraints in this wireless world. * Less band width * More latency * Less connection stability * Less predictable availability Inorder to meet the requirements for mobile operations the solutions must be: 1) Inter operable - terminals from different manufacturers are able to communicate with

the services in the mobile networks. 2) Scalable - mobile network operators are able to scale services to customer needs. 3) Efficient - provides quality of services suited to the behavior and characteristics of the mobile world. 4) Reliable - provides a consistent and predictable platform for deploying services. 5) Secure - enables services to be extended over potentially unprotected mobile networks while still preserving the integrity of user data, protects the devices and services from security problems such as denial of service. WAP also has its detractors and controversies: It is very difficult to configure WAP phones for new WAP services, with 20 or so different parameters needing to be entered to gain access to a WAP service. Compared with the installed base of Short Message Service (SMS) compliant phones, the relative number of handsets supporting WAP is tiny. WAP is a protocol that runs on top of an underlying bearer. None of the existing GSM bearers for WAP- the Short Message Service (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) and Circuit Switched Data (CSD) are optimized for WAP. There are many WAP Gateway vendors out there competing against each other with largely the same standardized product. This has led to consolidation such as the pending acquisition of APiON by Phone.com. Other protocols such as SIM Application Toolkit and Mobile Station Application Execution Environment (MexE) are respectively already widely supported or designed to supercede WAP. WAP services are expected to be expensive to use since the tendency is to be on-line for a long Circuit Switched Data (CSD) call as the end user uses features such as interactivity and selection of more information. Without specific tariff initiatives, there are likely to be some surprised WAP users when they see their mobile phone bill for the first time after starting using WAP. The Wireless Application Protocol embraces and extends the previously conceived and developed wireless data protocols. Phone.com created a version of the standard HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) Internet protocols designed specifically for effective and cost-effective information transfer across mobile networks. Wireless terminals incorporated a HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language) microbrowser, and Phone.coms Handheld Device Transport Protocol (HDTP) then linked the terminal to

the UP. Link Server Suite which connected to the Internet or intranet where the information being requested resides. The Internet site content was tagged with HDML. This technology was incorporated into WAP- and renamed using some of the many WAP-related acronyms such as WMLS, WTP and WSP. Someone with a WAP-compliant phone uses the in-built microbrowser to: 1. Make a request in WML (Wireless Markup Language), a language derived from HTML especially for wireless network characteristics. 2. This request is passed to a WAP Gateway that then retrieves the information from an Internet server either in standard HTML format or preferably directly prepared for wireless terminals using WML. If the content being retrieved is in HTML format, a filter in the WAP Gateway may try to translate it into WML. A WML scripting language is available to format data such as calendar entries and electronic business cards for direct incorporation into the client device. 3. The requested information is then sent from the WAP Gateway to the WAP client, using whatever mobile network bearer service is available and most appropriate..

The telestrator is a device that allows its operator to draw a freehand sketch over a motion picture image. The telestrator was invented by physicist Leonard Reiffel, who used it to draw illustrations on a series of science shows he did for public television in the late 1960s. The user interface for early telestrators required the user to draw on a TV screen with a light pen, whereas modern implementations are commonly controlled with a touch screen or tablet PC. Today telestrators are widely used in broadcasts of all major sports. They have also become a useful

tablet PC is a notebook- or slate-shaped mobile computer. Its touchscreen or digitizing tablet technology allows the user to operate the computer with a stylus or digital pen instead of a keyboard or mouse. The form factor presents an alternate method of interacting with a computer, the main intent being to increase mobility and productivity. Tablet PCs are often used in places where normal notebooks are impractical or unwieldy, or do not provide the needed functionality. The tablet PC is a culmination of advances in miniaturization of notebook hardware and improvements in integrated digitizers as methods of input. A digitizer is typically integrated with

the screen, and correlates physical touch or digital pen interaction on the screen with the virtual information portrayed on it. A tablet's digitizer is an absolute pointing device rather than a relative pointing device like a mouse or touchpad. A target can be virtually interacted with directly at the point it appears on the screen. tool in televised weather reports SpaceWire is a spacecraft communication network based on the signaling system for IEEE 1355. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). Within a SpaceWire network the nodes are connected through low-cost, low-latency, full-duplex, point-to-point serial links and packet switching routers. The SpaceWire specification uses Low Voltage Differential Signaling and lightweight connectors. The modulation and data formats otherwise follow the differential electrical transmission (DS-DE) part of IEEE Std 1355-1995. Spacewire has a speed between 2 Mb/s and 400 Mb/s. IEEE-1355 describes modulation, bit formats, routing, flow control and error detection in hardware. IEEE-1355 is well-favored because it performs routing, error detection and flow control without software. IEEE-1355 also has very low error rates, very deterministic system behavior, and relatively simple digital electronics. Spacewire adds a low power signaling format (LVDS), lightweight cables and connectors, a wider set of speeds for data transmission, and some new features for automatic fail-over. The fail-over features let data find alternate routes, so a spacecraft can have multiple data buses, and be made fault tolerant. There is an effort underway to add SpaceWire as an annex to IEEE-1355.

Types of Spacecraft
A spacecraft is any piloted or unpiloted vehicle designed for travel in space. The systems and instruments a spacecraft must carry depends upon the data it will gather and the functions it will carry out. Their complexity varies greatly but all must endure the hostile environment of space. Spacecraft may be broadly categorized according to the missions they are intended to fly. Manned spacecraft: A piloted spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into space. Unlike an unmanned probe, it requires a crew compartment and life support systems. Manned spacecraft are either reusable, such as the Space Shuttle, or designed for one time use, such as Soyuz. The latter type is generally modular, such as consisting of a reentry module which houses the crew and a service module which contains propulsion, power supply and life support. Only the reentry module returns to Earth. Flyby spacecraft: A spacecraft which follows a continuous trajectory past a target object, never to be captured into an orbit. It must carry instruments that are capable of observing passing targets by compensating for the target's apparent motion. The spacecraft must be able to survive long periods of interplanetary cruise and must be able to downlink data at high rates. Examples of flyby spacecraft include Pioneers 10 and 11, and Voyagers 1 and 2. Orbiter spacecraft: A spacecraft designed to travel to a distant planet or moon and enter orbit. It must carry a substantial propulsive capability to decelerate it at the right moment to achieve orbit insertion. An orbiter spacecraft must endure periods during which it is

shaded from sunlight, thus it must be resistant to extreme thermal variation and will require power storage capacity if equipped with solar panels. Examples of orbiter spacecraft include Magellan, Galileo and Mars Global Surveyor. Atmospheric probe: A small instrumented craft which separates from the main spacecraft prior to closest approach to a planet to study the gaseous atmosphere of the body as it drops through it. It is equipped with an aeroshell to protect it during atmospheric entry and a parachute to slow its decent. Data is typically telemetered to the mother craft where it is recorded for later transmission to Earth. Atmospheric balloon package: An instrumented package suspended from a buoyant gas bag, deployed in a planet's atmosphere to study wind circulation patterns. It has a limited complement of spacecraft systems aboard. The minimum requirements include a power supply and telecommunications equipment to permit tracking. Lander spacecraft: A spacecraft designed to reach the surface of a planet or moon and survive long enough to telemeter data back to Earth. It may perform a powered descent and landing or may descend to the surface suspended from a parachute. Examples of lander spacecraft include Surveyor, Viking, Mars Pathfinder and the Soviet Venera. Surface penetrator: A probe designed to penetrate the surface of a body, surviving an impact of hundreds of g's, measuring and telemetering the properties of the penetrated surface. Data is typically telemetered to the mother craft for re-transmission to Earth. The Mars Polar Lander will deploy two penetrators upon its arrival at Mars. Surface rover: A semi-autonomous roving vehicle, steerable from Earth, deployed on the surface of a planet or other body, taking images and soil analyses for telemetering back to Earth. The Mars Pathfinder mission included a solar-powered, wheeled microrover named Sojourner.

Structural Subsystem
The spacecraft bus is a major part of the structural subsystem of a spacecraft which provides a place to attach components internally and externally, and to house delicate modules requiring a measure of thermal and mechanical stability. It is an integral card chassis for supporting the circuit boards of radio equipment, data recorders, computers, gyroscopes and other components. The bus also establishes the basic geometry of the spacecraft, and it provides the attachment points for appendages such as booms, antennas and scan platforms.

Power Supply and Distribution

Power supply systems are those that produce electricity for use by other onboard systems and instruments. The type of power system used on a spacecraft depends on factors such as the duration of the mission and location at where the spacecraft must operate. A spacecraft's electrical components can be switched on or off via command by using relays that connect or disconnect the component from the common distribution circuit, called a main bus. On some spacecraft it is necessary to power off some components before switching others on to keep the electrical load within the limits of the supply. Typically a

shunt-type regulator maintains a constant voltage from the power source. The voltage applied as input to the regulator is generally variable but higher than the spacecraft's required constant bus voltage. The regulator converts excess electrical energy into heat which is radiated away into space. Batteries: Devices with two or more connected cells that produce a direct current by converting chemical energy into electrical energy. Due to their short lifetime, batteries are only used when a very short operating life is required. They are often used in combination with solar panels to store power for use during times when the panels are shaded from sunlight. Photovoltaic cells: Crystalline wafers, called solar cells, which convert sunlight directly into electricity without moving parts. These cells are grouped into an array and cemented onto a substrate. The resulting assemblies are called solar panels or solar arrays. Solar power is practical for spacecraft operating no farther from the sun than about the orbit of Mars. Radioisotope thermoelectric generator: A device that converts the heat produced by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 into electricity by an array of thermocouples made of silicon-germanium junctions. They are used when a spacecraft must operate at significant distances from to sun (usually beyond the orbit of Mars). The Pu-238 is contained within a crash resistant housing. Fuel cells: Cells in which chemical reaction is used directly to produce electricity. The reactants are typically hydrogen and oxygen which results in water as a by-product. The water can then be used for cooling and human consumption. Fuel cells are generally used on manned spacecraft.

Telecommunications
Telecommunication components for a particular spacecraft are chosen in response to the requirements of the mission it will perform. Anticipated distances, planned frequency bands, data rates and available on-board transmitter power are all taken into account. High-gain antenna: A dish-shaped spacecraft antenna principally used for high rate communication with Earth. This type of antenna is highly directionally and must be pointed to within a fraction of a degree of Earth. It may be either steerable or fixed to the spacecraft bus. High-gain antennas are typically used on interplanetary spacecraft. Low-gain antenna: An omnidirectional spacecraft antenna that provides relatively low data rates at close range, several astronomical units for example. Many spacecraft include both a low-gain antenna and a high-gain antenna. Medium-gain antenna: A spacecraft antenna that provides greater data rates than a lowgain antenna, with wider angles of coverage than a high gain antenna, about 20-30 degrees. Transmitter: An electronic device that generates and amplifies a tone at a single designated radio frequency, called a carrier wave. The carrier wave can be sent from the

spacecraft to Earth as it is, or it can be modulated with a data-carrying subcarrier. The transmitter radiates the resulting signal, called downlink, from an antenna. Receiver: An electronic device that receives incoming radio signals, called uplink, and converts them to perceptible forms. The received uplink is stripped of its command-datacarrying subcarrier which is converted into binary code, which is then typically passed to the spacecraft's command and data subsystem. Frequently, transmitters and receivers are combined into one electronic device which is called a transponder.

Data Handling
The onboard computer responsible for overall management of a spacecraft's activity is generally the same one which maintains timing, interprets commands from Earth, collects, processes and formats the telemetry data which is to be returned to Earth, and manages high-level fault protection and safing routines. This computer is sometimes referred to as the command and data subsystem. For convenience that term will be used here, recognizing that other names may apply to similar subsystems or sets of subsystems which accomplish some or all of the same tasks. Spacecraft clock: A counter maintained by the command and data subsystem. It meters the passing of time during the life of the spacecraft, and regulates nearly all activity within the spacecraft systems. Many types of commands uplinked to the spacecraft are set to begin execution at specific spacecraft clock counts. Telemetry: The system for radioing information from a spacecraft to the ground. Telemetry is typically a mixture of science data from the experiments and spacecraft engineering or health data. Engineering or health data is composed of a wide range of measurements, from switch positions and subsystem states to voltages, temperatures and pressures. Telemetry may be transmitted in real time, or it may be written to a data storage device until transmission is feasible. Tape recorder: A mechanical device for recording digital information on magnetic tape and for playing back the recorded material. The stored data can be played back for downlink when receiving station resources are available. RAM: Random access memory, the solid-state equivalent of a tape recorder. Banks of RAM can store large quantities of digital information without any moving parts. Fault protection: Algorithms, which normally reside in more than one of a spacecraft's subsystems, that insure the ability of the spacecraft to both prevent a mishap and to reestablish contact with Earth if a mishap occurs and contact is interrupted.

Attitude and Articulation Control

A spacecraft's attitude, its orientation in space, must be stabilized and controlled so that its high-gain antenna may be accurately pointed to Earth, so that onboard experiments may accomplish precise pointing for accurate collection and subsequent interpretation of data, so

that the heating and cooling effects of sunlight and shadow may be used intelligently for thermal control, and so that propulsive maneuvers may be executed in the right direction. Spin stabilization: Stabilization accomplished by rotating the spacecraft mass, thus using gyroscopic action as the stabilizing mechanism. Thrusters are fired to make desired changes in the spin-stabilized attitude. Spin-stabilized spacecraft provide a continuous sweeping desirable for fields and particle instruments, but they may require complicated systems to de-spin antennas or optical instruments which must be pointed at targets. Three-axis stabilization: Stabilization accomplished by nudging a spacecraft back and forth within a deadband of allowed attitude error, using small thrusters or reaction wheels. Three-axis controlled spacecraft can point optical instruments and antennas without having to de-spin them, but they may have to carry out rotation maneuvers to best utilized their fields and particle instruments. Reaction wheels: Electrically-powered wheels mounted in three orthogonal axes aboard a spacecraft. To rotate the vehicle in one direction, you spin up the proper wheel in the opposite direction. To rotate the vehicle back, you slow down the wheel. Excess momentum that builds up in the system due to external torques must be occasionally removed from the system via propulsive maneuvers. Attitude and articulation control subsystem: The onboard computer that manages the tasks involved in spacecraft stabilization via its interface equipment. For attitude reference, star trackers, star scanners, solar trackers, sun sensors, and planetary limb trackers are used. Gyroscopes are carried for attitude reference for those periods when celestial references are not being used. The AACS also controls the articulation of a spacecraft's moveable appendages such as solar panels, high-gain antennas, and optical instrument scan platforms.

Propulsion Subsystems
In order to maintain or restore three-axis stability, to control spin, to execute maneuvers and make minor adjustments in trajectory, spacecraft are provided with sets of propulsive devices. These devices are typically of either the hypergolic bi-propellant type or the monopropellant type. Many if the activities of the propulsion subsystems are routinely initiated by the attitude and articulation control subsystem. Some or all may be directly controlled by or through the command and data subsystem. Engines: The larger of a spacecraft's propulsive devices, perhaps producing a force of several hundred Newtons, used to provide the large torques necessary to maintain stability during a solid rocket motor burn, or they may be the rockets used for orbit insertion. Thrusters: A set of small propulsive devices, typically generating between less than 1 N and 10 N, used to provide the delta-V required for interplanetary trajectory correction maneuvers, orbit trim maneuvers, reaction wheel desaturation maneuvers, or routine threeaxis stabilization or spin control. Propellant: The fuel and oxidizer burned to produce thrust in a rocket engine. Propellant subsystems include propellant tanks, plumbing, valves, and helium tanks to supply pressurization for the propellant tanks.

Pyrotechnic Subsystems
Pyrotechnics are electrically initiated explosive devices used to operate valves, ignite solid rocket motors, and explode bolts to separate from or jettison hardware, or to deploy appendages. They obtain their electrical power from a bank of capacitors which are charged from the main bus several minutes prior to the planned detonation of a device.

Environmental Subsystems
A spacecraft must operate and survive in the hostile environment of space and, in most cases, it must have a usable life of many years. Delicate Spacecraft components must be protected from this harsh environment. Environmental subsystems are those designed to protect spacecraft components from extreme thermal variations, micrometeoroid bombardment, and other space hazards. Passive cooling: The use of painting, shading, reflectors and other techniques to cool a spacecraft. Internal components are typically painted black to radiate heat more efficiently. White thermal blankets are used to reflect infrared radiation, helping to protect a spacecraft from excess solar heating. Critical components are generally shaded using gold or optical solar reflectors. Mechanical louvers are frequently used to control thermal radiation from within parts of a spacecraft. Active heating: The use of resistive electric heaters or radioisotope heaters to keep spacecraft components above their minimum allowable temperatures. Electric heaters can be controlled either autonomously or via command, while radioisotope heaters are used where it is necessary to provide components with a permanent supply of heat. Micrometeoroid protection: Shielding used to protect spacecraft components from micrometeoroid impacts. Interplanetary spacecraft typically use tough blankets of Kevlar or other strong fabrics to absorb the energy from high-velocity particles. Life support: The subsystems aboard a manned spacecraft or space station responsible for maintaining a livable environment within a pressurized crew compartment. Included are subsystems for providing oxygen, drinking water, waste processing, temperature control, ventilation and CO2 removal.

Landing Subsystems
A spacecraft designed to land on a planet or moon must be provided with subsystems to slow its descent and guide it to a soft landing. The craft may be equipped with propulsion for making a powered descent, or a parachute to retard free-fall. A piloted spacecraft, such as the Space Shuttle, may be equipped with wings for a glided landing. If the craft is to pass through an atmosphere it must be equipped with shielding to protect it from the high temperatures generated during atmospheric entry. Heat shield: A device that protects crew and equipment from heat, such as an ablative shield in front of a reentry capsule or atmospheric probe.

Parachute: An apparatus used to retard free fall, consisting of a light, usually hemispherical canopy attached by cords and stored folded until deployed in descent. Drogue: A small parachute used to slow and stabilize a spacecraft, usually preceding deployment of a main landing parachute. Descent engine: The rocket used to power a spacecraft as it makes a controlled landing on the surface of a planet or moon.

Science Instruments
Spacecraft designed to carry out scientific missions are typically equipped with a large complement of science instruments, covering large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and including both remote and direct-sensing components. Direct-sensing instruments interact with phenomena in their immediate vicinity, and register characteristics of them. Remote-sensing instruments record characteristics of objects at a distance, sometimes forming an image by gathering, focusing, and recording reflected light from the Sun, or reflected radio waves emitted by the spacecraft. When an instrument provides the illumination, as does radar, it is referred to as an active remote-sensing instrument.

Direct-Sensing Instruments
High-energy particle detector: A device for measuring the energy spectra of trapped energetic electrons, and the energy and composition of atomic nuclei. Low-energy charged particle detector: A device designed to characterize the composition, energies, and angular distributions of charged particles in interplanetary space and within planetary systems. Plasma detector: A device for measuring the density, composition, temperature, velocity and three-dimensional distribution of plasmas that exist in interplanetary regions and within planetary magnetospheres. Dust detector: A device for measuring the velocity, mass, charge, flight direction and number of dust particles striking the instrument. Magnetometer: A device for measuring the strength and direction of the interplanetary and solar magnetic fields. They typically detect the strength of magnetic fields in three planes. Plasma wave detector: A device for measuring the electrostatic and electromagnetic components of local plasma waves in three dimensions.

Remote-Sensing Instruments
Imaging instruments: Optical imaging is performed by two families of detectors: vidicons and the newer charged coupled devices. Although the detector technology differs, in each

case an image in focused by a telescope onto the detector where it is converted to digital data. Vidicon: An imaging device consisting of a vacuum tube, which produces a video signal based on the varying electrical potential measured as an electron beam is swept across a phosphor coating on the glass where the image is focused. Charged coupled device: An imaging device consisting of a large-scale integrated circuit which has a two-dimensional array of hundreds of thousands of charge-isolated wells, each representing a pixel. Infrared radiometer: An optical instrument that measures the intensity of infrared energy radiated by its targets. Polarimeter: An optical instrument that measures the direction and extent of the polarization of light reflected from its targets. Photometer: An optical instrument that measures the intensity of light from a source. Spectrometer: An optical instrument that splits the light received from an object into its component wavelengths by means of a diffraction grating; then measuring the amplitudes of the individual wavelengths. Scan platform: An articulated, powered appendage to the spacecraft bus which points in commanded directions, allowing optical observations to be taken independently of the spacecraft's attitude.

Active Sensing Instruments

Synthetic aperture radar: A radar imaging instrument which provides a penetrating illumination of radio waves, and is capable of imaging surfaces covered by clouds and haze. SAR images are constructed of a matrix where lines of constant distance or range intersect with lines of constant Doppler shift. Altimeter: A device that measures altitude above the surface of a planet or moon. Spacecraft altimeters work by timing the round trip of radio signals bounced off the surface.

Flexible Electronics for Space Applications

NASA is currently developing a host of deployable structures for the exploration of space. These include balloons, solar sails, space-borne telescopes and membrane-based synthetic aperture radar. Each of these applications is driven by the need for a thin, low mass, large area structure (e.g., polymer-based) which could not be implemented using conventional engineering materials such as metals and alloys. In each case, there is also the need to integrate sensing and control electronics within the structure. However, conventional silicon-based electronics are difficult to integrate with such large, thin structures, due to a variety of concerns including mass, reliability and manufacturing issues. Flexible electronics, particularly thin film transistors (TFTs), are a potentially key enabling technology that may allow the integration of a wide range of sensors and actuators into these types of structures. There are numerous challenges, however,

regarding the survivability of such devices during stowage and deployment of the structure, as well as during operation in the harsh environments of space. We have fabricated TFTs on polyimide substrates, and are investigating the durability of these devices with respect to relevant space environments. We are also developing flexible sensor technologies for the integration of distributed sensor networks on large area structures.

Space Shuttle uses QNX software for camera

Engineers at NASA needed a real-time operating system for cameras to monitor the space shuttles Return to Flight mission. They found a solution with Neutrino from QNX Software Systems in Ottawa, Ontario. The software manages a laser camera system (LCS) built by Neptec, in Houston, Texas. The crew of the space shuttle Discovery used Neptecs LCS to inspect the exterior of the shuttle during the 13 -day flight. The camera is attached to a boom at the end of the shuttles Canadarm, and uses a scanning mechanism to generate three-dimensional maps of the shuttles exterior surface in real time. During the mission, NASA used the generated images to identify even the smallest amount of damage to the outside of the spacecraft.

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The LCS is a critical element of NASAs Return to Flight mission and we have to be sure it is running on the most reliable operating system available, said Iain Christie, vice president of research and development at Neptec. Selecting the QNX Neutrino RTOS was an easy decision because we already know that the system can handle the extreme conditions found in space and that it meets our demands for ultrareliability. We will continue to use QNX technology in all of our real-time embedded projects.

Neptec also used the QNX RTOS for NASAs Advanced Space Vision System (ASVS), which helped guide the Canadarm in previous shuttle missions as well as on the International Space Station. For more information, see www.qnx.com

Electronic Nose To Return From Space Station

ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2009) Sniffing out any potential contaminants on the International Space Station where it was stationed for the last six months, the JPL-built electronic nose, or ENose, is homeward bound.

See Also: Space & Time Space Station NASA Space Exploration Matter & Energy Aviation Detectors Energy Technology Reference Phoenix (spacecraft) Near-Earth object Space Shuttle Columbia NASA

While on the space station, the ENose sampled the air with 32 sensors that can detect various odors and pinpoint which ones are dangerous to humans. The sleek, shoeboxsized ENose, the third generation of its kind, monitored the air for 10 contaminants continuously. "Our six-month test went very well. The ENose identified formaldehyde, Freon 218, methanol and ethanol, but all of them were at harmless levels," said Amy Ryan, principal investigator of the ENose at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Ryan built the ENose at JPL and has managed the project from its early

beginnings in 1996. "An instrument like this could one day remain on the Space Station and monitor air quality in real-time." In the future, the ENose could be used in monitoring crew cabins for vehicles to the moon and other destinations or be stationed on a moon base. Other potential applications include detecting a smoldering fire before it erupts, sniffing for unexploded land mines and monitoring for chemical spills in a work area. There are also possible applications in medical diagnosis. "A human nose is not always as sensitive to chemicals as the ENose and our noses cannot even detect some hazardous chemicals," said Ryan. "The ENose can smell trouble and give people advance warning before contamination levels cause harm." The ENose was flown to the International Space Station by the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 mission in December 2008. It is set to return home today on the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-128, after its 13-day flight.