I found some cool images at NASA's Planetary Photojournal website and decided to downsize some of the big tif's to WUXGA jpegs.
These are all from the "Technology" section.
Below are thumbnails to the full size images. The images are upwards of a meg each.
I've also included text from the website describing what each photo is of.
Enjoy,
-Doc
These are all from the "Technology" section.
Below are thumbnails to the full size images. The images are upwards of a meg each.
I've also included text from the website describing what each photo is of.
Enjoy,
-Doc
Quote:
| This 3DANN-R (Three-Dimensional Analog Neuro Network - Revision Chip) cube is wire-bonded to the backside of the system circuit board. This demonstrates how the advanced chip is connected to an interface, which allows it to be loaded with instructions that enable it to perform complicated image processing tasks. It is especially good at searching for objects, such as craters on a planet or details of terrain on Earth. Low power consumption, combined with high performance are key attributes to this innovative technology. |
Quote:
| Tunable Diode Lasers (TDL) can be "tuned" like a radio to frequencies that allow them to look for specific gases. JPL's TDL can be used in the severe planetary environments, such as Mars, to look for water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), helping us understand seasonal and climatic changes. TDL gas sensing technology is particularly good at detecting low levels of gases at the parts per million or even parts per billion level. Back home on Earth, the sensors have applications for environmental monitoring, atmospheric science, medicine and communications. Tunable Diode Lasers offers greater speed, robustness, sensitivity and range compared to traditional sensors, all for a size that can fit in the eye of a needle. |
Quote:
| JPL and Hughes joined forces to develop a new breed of microgyros. These gyroscopes are designed for use in space flight qualified solid-state technology. They have no moving parts and provide the required long lifetime. They are able to replace gyroscopes with similar capabilities that are very expensive, power-hungry and bulky, weighing up to 20 pounds or more. The exclusive use of silicon helps to reduce costs, since this durable material is now routinely used for computer chips and it is thus more easily fabricated than other materials. |
Quote:
| Biological systems often serve as models for technology. The electronic nose - called "Enose" - got its name because it operates like a human nose by containing a large number of sensors. The difference is that the JPL ENose is an array of chemical sensors that swell and shrink, depending on what trace vapors may be present in the air. This variation is measured, and certain elements in the air identified. The need to measure such trace vapors is especially important in closed environments like the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. John Glenn went through a series of physiological tests as an astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle in October of 1999. The JPL Enose unit was there testing the air quality of the shuttle cabin on this same flight. This was the first analysis of Space Shuttle air quality during flight. The tests involving both John Glenn and Enose were a success. ENose technology has numerous medical, industrial and commercial applications in such fields as environmental monitoring, quality control, food processing, industrial environmental monitoring and medical diagnosis. |
Quote:
| For over 30 years, technologists have been working to create machines that can see in three dimensions, and make sense of what they observe. The ability to recognize items of interest against a highly cluttered background - a common challenge in planetary landscapes - requires a highly sophisticated system that can process what it perceives, then instantly turn it into useful information. A spacecraft headed for Mars might, for example, use a visual system to avoid dangerous terrain at a planned landing site, and help select a safer spot nearby. Currently, machine vision system development has barely reached a level similar to the visual processing capabilities of primitive insects. Fortunately, a new development promises to greatly enhance these abilities. Helping out is a 3D-stacked neuro-processor device, known as a 3-Dimensional Artificial Neural Network or 3DANN. It was created by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and sponsored by the VIGILANTE project. Advanced research by this organization has already demonstrated a new generation of sensors and processors for the next century's missile defense systems. 3DANN has led to unprecedented strides in machine vision potential, including dynamic orientation/scale/lighting-invariant recognition of targets against highly cluttered backgrounds. Modeled after the massively parallel neural networks in human brains, 3DANN is a low-power, analog-computing device capable of achieving human-like target recognition capability. A primary future benefit to NASA will be the creation of the visually intelligent robots necessary for effective completion of planetary exploration missions. |
Quote:
| JPL bolometers allow technologists to capture temperature variations of only 100-millionth of a degree (0.0001 C) in just a few seconds of observing time. The power from the cosmic microwave background, detectable by the sensors in one second of integration time, compares to the thermal radiation given off by a coffee maker at the distance of the moon. By measuring one small patch of sky after another over several days of observation, bolometers can plot a map of the cosmic background radiation, providing a snapshot of the universe when the radiation formed about 300,000 years after the Big Bang. At this time, regions with a higher density of matter and energy left a record in the background radiation. Wherever dense regions existed, they left a faint imprint of slightly higher temperatures. These fluctuations in the background serve as a kind of fingerprint, allowing scientists to discriminate between theories of cosmic development. Using advanced micro-machining techniques, each section of the bolometer's web - which looks like a classic spider web - was designed to be smaller than the millimeter wavelength of radiation streaming in from the cosmic microwave background. Created when the first atoms formed in the early universe, this cosmic microwave background has cooled a thousand times from its original temperature to the cold, faint radiation measured today. Bolometers have been able to reveal density patterns in the young universe that are consistent with an inflationary theory of cosmic development. This theory proposes that, in the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe went through a period of extreme, exponential inflation. The theory further predicts a flat geometry for the universe, because the immense stretching of space during an inflationary period would have removed any initially strong curvature in the smaller and denser early universe. |
