Award Data

Having previously designed, built and successfully tested a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), GHKN Engineering proposes to evaluate the feasibility of RDRE technology for boost or upper stage propulsion for launch of small satellites to LEO. RDREs represent an innovative new rocket technology that harnesses the potential of continuous detonation combustion in elegant, compact, annular desi ...

Existing inspection techniques for corrosion detection and wall thickness monitoring on ICBM silo walls are highly inefficient. Guidedwave (FBS, Inc. d.b.a. Guidedwave) has developed a revolutionary guided wave phased array (GWPA) ultrasound technology for the efficient inspection of large-area structures for plate and weld defects. The patented GWPA technology performs rapid 360-degree volumetric ...

GPS denial is a growing threat to military and civilian operations around the world, both through active jamming and through anticipated failure of an aging GPS satellite constellation. While active jamming can be circumvented with specialized circuitry, obtaining position, navigation, and timing (PNT) during satellite failure remains an unsolved and growing problem. In collaboration with AFRL per ...

Theater Weather Imaging and Cloud Characterization Sensor (TWICCS) payload for the MetNet-1 Small Satellite will demonstrate the capabilities of a push-frame, multispectral imager in acquiring high quality weather data covering from the Visible through Longwave Infrared. Data products supported include Theater Weather Imaging products (ie. discrimination of ground fog, dust, and smoke, etc.) and C ...

Seawater contains about 3 parts per billion of uranium. With a total ocean volume of approximately 1.3109 km3, there is at least 4.5 billion tons of uranium in seawater which is about 1000 times the amount of uranium known to exist in terrestrial ores. Mining uranium from seawater is economically feasibility if an efficient, reusable and low-cost adsorbent could be developed. In the past year, ...

Multipactor is an incessant problem that plagues numerous commercial and military systems, including satellites and particle accelerator components such as klystrons, high-power radio frequency windows, and free electron lasers. Current solutions, including traditional coatings such as titanium nitride, or the use of magnetic systems to suppress secondary electron emission, are insufficient to sup ...

There is a clear and unmet need for technologies to improve power generation flexibility to enable cost effective and reliable high renewable energy fractions in modern grids. Specifically, gas turbine generator turndown ratio may be improved by extending combustion lean flammability limits. This project will deliver a prototype plasma reformer system integrated with gas turbine combustors to allo ...

Upcoming HEP projects require physical and electrical bonds between opposite points of thin parallel circuit faces which areless than 50 microns in pitch, but current methods, such as bump-soldering and anisotropic conductive adhesives (ACA) and films (ACF) cannot reach these resolution limits and furthermore require heat and pressure that damage delicate circuitry. SunRay ZTACH™ is an anisotrop ...

Small aerial unmanned vehicles (UAVs) are vital for a wide variety of military missions and have experienced increases in operational requirements that have outpaced their capabilities. The propulsion system is a key design constraint in any UAV, and current small gas turbines for these vehicles are limited by the conventional oil-lubricated rolling element bearings used to suspend their high-spee ...

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing a decentralized, scalable, rapidly deployable system to treat wastewater streams with high total suspended solids (TSS) content to: 1. Recover a clean, pathogen-free water output that meets potable drinking water standards 2. Recover a dried, pathogen-free solid material, and 3. Optionally recover a concentrated solution ...