Award Data

CU Aerospace (CUA) and team partners San Jose St. University (SJSU) and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) propose to develop a robust epoxy resin regenerator capable of improving cryocooler efficiency by more than 30%, and to design an enhanced compressor motor capable of improving the cryocooler efficiency by more than 20%. LMSSC manufactures a space cryocooler that already meets most ...

Future MDA space missions will utilize small spacecraft with correspondingly small, advanced sensor systems. Cooling of these sensors is required to decrease detector noise and increase detector sensitivity by maintaining the detector at a reduced operating temperature. The cooling system comprises a mechanical cryocooler and its control electronics, both of which are critical technologies to enab ...

Diode-Pumped Alkali Lasers (DPALs) have great potential for high-energy lasers. Proper design of these systems is challenging because many interrelated processes impact their performance, and critical kinetic rate coefficients are not well known. In response, our team is developing a comprehensive physics-based analysis/design tool, and experimentally determining key kinetic rate coefficients. The ...

Reserve lithium oxyhalide and silver/zinc batteries are power sources of choice for many missiles and other weapons systems. These batteries achieve long shelf life by storing the liquid electrolyte separately in a reservoir. Upon activation, the electrolyte is injected quickly into the battery cells, most often using a pyrotechnic gas generator. The overall design of the activation system is a ...

High sensitivity HgCdTe focal plane arrays operating at 77 K can be tailored for response across the infrared spectrum. However, the cooling systems required to achieve the desired sensitivity makes them heavy and therefore unsuitable for the next generation of interceptor seekers. Reducing cooling requirements will allow the detector’s integration in lighter and more compact systems. Superior o ...

The objectives of this proposal are to develop and demonstrate a novel physics-based computational electromagnetics (CEM) algorithm for accurate and efficient predication of radar signatures of MDA objects of interest (MOIs) and to implement and demonstrate a robust stochastic collocation-based algorithm for efficiently quantifying the effect of geometrical and material uncertainties on the signat ...

Infrared photon sensors presently available for ballistic missile defense applications, with a cutoff wavelength ~10 micron, are based on HgCdTe. These suffer from a high non-uniformity and thus a high focal plane array cost. The most promising alternative is III-V compound semiconductor superlattices based on arsenides and antimonides, such as Type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices, which are expected ...

Future missile detection systems will require improved thermal management for cooling gimbal-mounted sensors and optics. Current systems utilize cryocoolers placed on the gimbal, which necessitates the cryocooler heat to be rejected directly from the gimbal. A superior approach in terms of payload mass would locate the cryocooler warm elements on the stationary platform near the spacecraft heat ...

QmagiQ and the University of New Mexico (UNM) propose to combine their respective strengths in focal plane array (FPA) design/fabrication and InAs/GaSb strained layer superlattice (SLS) material growth to develop high quantum efficiency very longwave infrared (VLWIR) FPAs with cutoff wavelength > 14 microns. UNM will optimize VLWIR SLS material growth and QmagiQ will focus on converting the UNM m ...

A precise measurement of a target’s temperature and emissivity will enhance a missile seeker’s ability to discriminate between harmless decoys and lethal payloads, thereby improving the effectiveness of the nation’s antiballistic missile defense systems. We propose to apply multi-color infrared radiometry to solve this problem. How sensitive is the technique to the target emissivity in eac ...