Award Data

Through previous grant awards from IES, researchers developed Graspable Math, a tablet-based intervention where middle and high school students create and manipulate complex expressions for basic operations as well as equations and equations systems and inequalities. In this project, the team will develop a prototype of Graspable Math Activities, an app with novel kinds of algebra practice and ass ...

Sustainable Bioproducts (SB) proposes to develop an encapsulated biofilm-biomat reactor that will efficiently convert mission relevant feedstocks to usable products under zero gravity conditions. The bioreactor will be based on SB’s proprietary fermentation platform for converting a wide variety of waste streams into a multitude of usable products. SB’s bioreactor platform is simple, does not ...

This SBIR Phase I effort will be devoted to exploring possible improvements for the NASA ARCSTONE instrument. One possible improvement will be to utilize total internal reflection optics for the fore-optics of the system. Possible benefits include reduced polarization and smaller size. A second possible improvement will be to use an optical design that requires only one focal plane array for the e ...

To achieve the full potential of PMD/LAD technology for high performance space exploration missions mass reduction is essential. Screen channel acquisition devices are an interesting approach for future spacecraft using cryogenic propellants. However, traditional manufacturing techniques (i.e. metal-based) are heavy and have reliability issues. To achieve desired mass savings and screen reliabil ...

The overall goal of the SBIR effort is to develop a frequency-agile, stand-alone, space-hardened diode-based seed laser with options for locking and frequency agility to compensate for doppler shift during orbit. This US-manufactured platform will be applicable for seeding next generation Nd:YAG lasers currently being developed for high-priority-designated aerosol missions (single- and multi-chann ...

Radiative transfer properties of clouds play an important role in the energy balance of the Earth. Numerous NASA programs and experiments are directed to measuring these effects. In-situ measurements are critical for supporting satellite-borne instruments. While research aircraft carry the best in-situ instruments, the aircraft and instruments are too expensive to provide sufficient coverage. ...

This project researches, develops, and demonstrates the technical merit and feasibility of awearable device which (1) detects the direction of a sound source or motion, and (2) alerts the user viavibration, images, and captions to the direction of this sound source or movement relative to the currentposition of the individual. This provides the user with a sense of independence and personal safety ...

NASA aerocapture missions require an accurate evaluation of radiative thermal transport in order to simulate the aerothermal environment around space vehicles. However, present day computation of radiative transport in this complex multi-dimensional environment is frequently done using simple one-dimensional tangent-slab approximations or optically-thick approximations which compromise the accura ...

The purity of hydrogen fuel is important in engine testing at SSC. The hydrogen may become contaminated with nitrogen, argon, or oxygen. The hydrogen from the fuel tanks or feed lines is analyzed beforehand. Therefore, there is a need for a non-intrusive, on-line, near real-time monitor for H2. The analytical technique should measure various impurities (molecular and atomic) simultaneously and be ...

NASA captures and distributes operational knowledge in the form of procedures. These procedures are created and accessed by a range of people performing many different jobs. These people have different needs for procedure data and different ways of interacting with procedures. We propose an Procedure Integrated Development Environment which will present different editing modes and different views ...