Award Data

This program will develop an innovative Augmented Reality Navigation (ARNAV) application to help guide astronauts through important tasks within and about space habitats that require navigation and guidance capabilities. Using advanced vision and inertial processing combined with novel Rapidly-exploring Random Tree* (RRT*) algorithms for path planning and Random Finite Set (RFS)-based localization ...

This program will develop an innovative small spacecraft navigation system using X-ray energy band observations of celestial sources by measuring the photon flux change during the time of the horizon crossing due to occultation by a planetary body, referred to as Occultation X-ray Navigation (OXNAV). Previous work by ASTER Labs has demonstrated concept feasibility of X-ray navigation (XNAV) using ...

To explore and establish Urban Air Mobility (UAM) viability, researchers need to assess vertiport designs and the operational concepts that aim to maximize throughput of aircraft, passengers, and cargo while maintaining safety. Many of these future vertiports, especially those in urban areas, will have highly constrained airspace and limited area for surface operations. To understand how to create ...

In the United States, transportation is the leading source of emissions among major industries. This puts pressure on cities to optimize transportation infrastructures to meet decarbonization goals. City planners are required to ingest data from a variety of sources and balance a wide array of priorities ranging from mobility and equality to safety and sustainability. Making decisions for optimal ...

Renewable energy sources are experiencing a surge of growth due to rising power demand but suffer asynchronous production relative to societal needs. To balance the overproduction during low demand and underproduction during high demand, proton exchange membrane (PEM) based electrolyzers (capable of producing zero-carbon, green hydrogen) and fuel cells (for clean electricity generation and zero em ...

Plastics (polymers) are used widely in energy, industry, and defense sectors due to their low cost and weight, processibility, and electrical insulation properties. Unfortunately, this class of materials is also thermally insulating, which restricts their usefulness in applications where heat is generated and has a direct effect on the performance (e.g. electronics and computing, LED lighting, hea ...

Nuclear energy is one of the most favorable and cheapest alternatives to fossil fuels, and it can be scaled up to meet global energy demands. The mass deployment of nuclear energy as a low-emissions source requires the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel to recover fissile materials and mitigate radioactive waste. A major concern with reprocessing used nuclear fuel is the release of gaseous radionuc ...

NASA has identified a clear and pressing need for education of both local decision makers and the local flying and nonflying public to enable AAM operations to commence in a timely manner. The goal of this research effort is to develop a robust and cost-conscious capability to support local organizations and local decision makers with materials that support community education, engagement, and out ...

C53-22c-271119Meeting climate-stabilizing energy transition goals requires using hybrid-energy CO2 capture systems like Direct Air Capture (DAC) to remove billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Deploying this capacity will be difficult because it is complex and energy intensive infrastructure, and there must also be buy- in from communities living in locations best suited for it. The chall ...

Air quality data from top-of-the-line platforms, such as satellites, are difficult to obtain without a high- level of technical knowledge. For this reason, local air quality patterns and trends are often inaccessible to disadvantaged communities (DACs). Many technologies that will be used for deep decarbonization of industrial and power facilities have the added co-benefit of reducing non-CO2 poll ...