Award Data

Human exploration of Mars and unmanned sample return missions can benefit greatly from the resources available on Mars. The first major step of any Mars in-situ propellant production system is the acquisition of carbon dioxide and its compression for further processing. TDA Research Inc. proposes to develop a compact, lightweight, advanced sorbent-based compressor to recover high-pressure, hig ...

NASA uses an estimated 75 million standard cubic feet of helium (approximately $5M worth) each year for safely purging hydrogen systems before filling and after discharging, and while leak checking, pressurizing lines and blanketing liquid hydrogen storage tanks. Despite its expense, there is no substitute for helium in most of these applications because of its extremely low boiling point and uniq ...

An advanced Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) for long duration manned space missions ?such as planetary flight missions or planetary bases- requires an almost complete closure of all relevant material loops. Energy efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) removal and reduction systems are critical to reducing the power consumption of the spacecraft atmosphere revitalization systems. ...

Future robotic and human space exploration vehicles will be producing large quantities of data that needs transmitted between vehicles and to the ground stations. However, these vehicles will be tightly constrained in size, weight, and power sources. Traditional methods of using single function elements will not be able to meet these requirements. Therefore, advanced technologies that utilize st ...

A small deployable antenna is proposed with an offset-fed paraboloidal reflector for use between 8 and 100 GHz in CubeSat, NanoSat, and SmallSat applications. Apertures vary from 0.5 to 2 meters. For a 0.5 m aperture, the approximate dimensions of the stowed reflector are 6 cm in diameter and 8.86 cm in length, with an approximate mass of 0.25 kg. For a 1.2 m aperture, the approximate dimensions o ...

Plasma Controls, LLC will develop an iodine compatible hollow cathode for use in Hall-effect thrusters. Materials in current state-of-the-art electron emitters, and many of the materials used in mounting hardware, are not compatible in a high-temperature iodine environment. This includes cathodes that use inserts made from porous tungsten impregnated with ceramics containing barium oxide, which ca ...

Solid core Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) has been identified as the advanced propulsion concept which could provide the fastest trip times with fewer Space Launch System (SLS) launches for human missions to Mars. However, current environmental regulations require NTP engine exhaust filtering of radioactive halogens, noble gases and particulates to stay within safe limits. Particularly high effi ...

A lander on the surface of Venus is heated by the 460 C surface temperature, which, even with the best current designs using passive insulation, cause its electronics to fail in much less than a day. Active cooling concepts are not only exceedingly heavy but also exceedingly inefficient. TDA proposes a new insulation for the exterior of the lander that incorporates heat rejection mechanisms tha ...

In a prior program, Optical Engines was able to achieve 300 W average CW power in a Packaged Deep Space uplink transmitter delivered to JPL. In order to meet the stated JPL goal of 500W of average power with a 20% duty factor in a low data rate configuration, over 3kW of pump power will be required. In order to operate with the nested high data rate option, mj level pulse energies at high average ...

In response to NASA's need for compact, low-cost in-space modular construction components, Roccor proposes to develop structural elements designed for rapid in-space assembly and structural adaptation. The proposed invention, FASTEn (Fully Adaptive Slit-Tube structures with Electrically integrated smart joints), utilizes deployable composite slit-tubes in conjunction with electrically integrated ...