Award Data

This project team will fully develop and test AlphaBear 2, a vocabulary learning game for grade 4 to 7 students. Vocabulary is a prerequisite for academic success, as it is linked to stronger performance across academic subjects and improved reading comprehension. It is more difficult for students to participate in educational activities without understanding the key vocabulary associated with tha ...

In prior projects, including a 2015 ED/IES SBIR award, the team developed two immersive multiplayer virtual game environments. In Eco and Colony, middle school students collaboratively apply scientific practices within the virtual worlds to address challenges, such as the availability of resources and energy and maintaining clean water. With this Phase I funding, the team is developing a prototype ...

The Nonlinear Dynamic Flight Simulation (NL-DFS) system will be developed in the Phase II project by combining the classical nonlinear rigid-body flight dynamics model with an add-on nonlinear aeroelastic solver to compute the airframe response due to pilot input command and to identify the key aeroelastic coupling mechanisms between the structural dynamics and unsteady aerodynamics with classic r ...

Glacigen Materials proposes a novel technique for producing large-area sheets of functionally graded materials (FGM), which yield robust ceramic-metal interfaces capable of withstanding harsh environments that include high temperatures. Propulsion systems offer some of the harshest possible design conditions from a materials perspective and the demands placed on engineering materials will become m ...

The proposed effort will establish technical feasibility of an approach to optimizing a low-cost, fast-sweeping tunable laser for distributed sensing. Multiple approaches for performance optimization will be reviewed, modeled, and simulated. Subsystem prototypes will also be fabricated and analyzed to understand subsystem hardware manufacturing and performance limitations. This Phase I effort will ...

Robust Data Acquisition on flight applications enables Researchers to rapidly advance technology. Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) and Hybrid Electric architectures rely heavily on batteries to achieve fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions. DEP Aircraft of the future have demands for Energy Storage Systems with large counts of cells put in series and parallel to achieve needed voltage a ...

NASA has long used liquid hydrogen as a fuel and plans to continue using it in association with their advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology. Hydrogen fire detection is critical for rocket propulsion safety and maintenance. A significant fire at a rocket test or launch facility could be catastrophic to infrastructure or even worse, to human life. Detection monitoring is problematic as hydr ...

Innovative Imaging and Research proposes to develop a 21st Century color, high-speed extreme high dynamic range (Color-XHDR) video recording technology that will produce engineering-grade video to accurately document rocket motor firings at close range within a test cell without image saturation. This novel imaging system will include a compact, single focal plane array camera and end-to-end image ...

A key goal of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) from 2012 is to utilize the ISS for developing the systems and protocols necessary to humans to venture beyond low Earth orbit for extended durations, and with the push from Congress in 2015 to build a deep space habitat for a Mars mission by 2018, the goals of HEOMD are increasingly important to meet. The ERASMUS techn ...

Topic H3.01 captures the need for robust, multipurpose deployable structures with high packing efficiencies for next generation orbital habitats. Multiple launch and payload providers have expressed interest in repurposing pressure vessels as on-orbit habitats and require outfitting for secondary structure, floors and dividers, ECLS ducting, thermal control accommodation, radiation shielding, wiri ...