Award Data

A great number of technological advancements have been spurred by the unique properties of the rare earth elements (REE)- This widespread application has made the REE absolute necessities for sustaining healthy technological, scientific, and economic growth- In nearly all of these technologies, there are no currently viable substitutes for the REE with equivalent performance- Processes based on co ...

The next generation nuclear physics accelerator facility, the Electron Ion Collider (EIC), will accelerate and collide spin polarized electrons and ions focused to an unprecedented density at their point of collision- To achieve the desired electron/ion density at the focal point, random velocity variations in the ions will be reduced using the technique of electron cooling- In this technique, the ...

While renewable diesel and biodiesel production is projected to increase over the next several years, feedstock supplies are limited by mature markets for yellow grease and refined vegetable oils- Brown grease refers to organic fats, oils, and greases extracted from wastewater residuals- Brown grease has the potential to alleviate the shortage of biofuel feedstock, but it is dirty, inconsistent in ...

Mesa Photonics proposes to develop signal processing for timing used in X-ray free electron oscillators- This diagnostic will be able to provide sub-femtosecond relative timing between X-ray pulses and optical pulses at the pulse repetition rates of X-ray free electron laser oscillators- In this SBIR project, Mesa Photonics will develop signal processing for measuring the time arrival between opti ...

Traditional heavy-media methods of coal beneficiation are expensive and have inherent environmental liabilities- X-ray separation of coal is a promising new technology that cuts the cost from mine to market with no environmental liabilities- The efficiency of x-ray separation of coal should be improved by employing air valves with faster response times, but no data exists to quantify that improvem ...

With the continuous growth of hydraulic fracking the volume of fracking wastewater that needs to be treated prior to disposal is also growing and is a major challenge and concern for society- The improper treatment of wastewater prior to disposal has multiple consequences to the environment, including contamination to the soil and drinking water source- The recycling and reuse of water and chemica ...

Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is an emerging manufacturing technology in which materials, structures, devices, and finished goods are fabricated such that every atom is positioned at an exactly-specified location relative to the other atoms- However, one factor limiting this technology is the short lifetime of the probe that manipulates individual atoms- The key goal of this program is to ...

To ensure continued access to orbit for United States government and commercial payloads, attractive replacement candidates for foreign-made propulsion components must be identified and the associated technology matured. The innovation proposed herein will identify and further maturation of a domestically available, oxidation-resistant, high-temperature C/SiC material candidate for launch vehicle ...

For the entire spacecraft community including current and future developers and operators whose hardware is inherently at risk from catastrophic collisions with space debris, the Drag Removal by Autonomous Grapple (DRAG) is an autonomous payload system that docks to identified space debris and increases drag with a deployable sail to accelerate de-orbit times by at least an order of magnitude.Unli ...

This is a follow-on SBIR Phase II as a result of a fully executed SBIR Technology Transition Plan to transition MSI’s COgnitive Stochastic MOdeling System (COSMOS) in a microsystem hardware to increase reliability of systems and components which would reduce maintenance and increase operational availability, which reduces the number of aircraft needed to complete missions. ACC and the AFRL ...