Award Data

This Phase II proposal presents a scope of work to develop reliable Sense and Avoid for BVLOS Unmanned Aerial Vehicle [UAV] operations. We first analyze a) the requirement for avoidance based on the UAV's ability to get away from danger and b) the suite of candidate technologies needed to detect intruders with ample time to get away. To meet this need we will build a reliable FINE TRACKING sen ...

Within the context of this project, White Light Power Inc. (WLPI) will demonstrate prototype vertical GaN Schottky diodes for high-power rectification at W-band. To achieve this goal, WLPI will utilize it's experience of fabricating power rectifier diodes to enable highly cost-efficient selection of a wafer. The same experience will also be utilized in selecting and working with an epi-supplier to ...

No existing commercial wireless sensor network option meets NASAs current needs for flexibility, size, mass and resilience to extreme environments. The proposed innovation is a MEIS network which combines any number and any type of sensors into a wireless sensor network (WSN), with each of the sensors being motes, or nodes, on the network. The network will be self-healing and self-configuring. Eac ...

The objective of this Phase 2 proposal is to provide a new set of sensitivity analysis theory and codes, the Sensitivity Analysis for Design Optimization (SADO) software that integrates with the existing NASA O3 Tool. In this Phase II effort, the sensitivity codes developed in Phase I will add functionality to simplify Ground Vibration Test, or model tuning, by calculating a number of error metric ...

The proposed innovation is a membrane bioreactor system to produce a biopolymer from methane gas that is applicable in outer space environments. This new methane fermentation process will expand and advance current gas delivery techniques to create affordable fermentation methods on Earth and beyond. Mango Materials is currently working to scale up and commercialize the production of polyhydroxyal ...

Chemical contamination of spacecraft components as well as thermal and force loading from firing liquid propellant thrusters are critical concerns for in-space propulsion applications. Gas molecular contamination and liquid droplet deposition due to incomplete combustion threaten to damage surface materials, sensitive instruments and optical sensors, and poses major risks for mission success. Liqu ...

Next generation optical modems for NASA will be based on the RZ-DPSK modulation format. This modulation format is robust, delivers high quantum efficiency and allows burst-mode operation, key when using a power limited transmitter in combination with a fixed delay line DPSK demodulator. Freedom Photonics approach in this proposed program is to integrate the laser, modulator, and amplifier into a s ...

Eotron has introduced an improved illumination source for 3D IR Laser Time-of-Flight (ToF) systems based on its patented 3D silicon technology originally developed to improve efficiency and power of solid state lasers. Using proprietary design, fabrication and thermal management techniques, Eotron developed a highly efficient and compact silicon package / assembly for both IR VCSEL and Laser Diod ...

The sustainable orbital manufacturing with commercially viable and profitable operation has tremendous potential for driving the space exploration industry and human expansion into outer space. This highly challenging task has never been accomplished before. The current relatively high delivery cost of materials represents the business challenge of value proposition for making products on orbit. F ...

By the completion of Phase II, San Diego Composites, Inc. (SDC) will establish a closed-loop system and software for the structural health monitoring (SHM) and manufacturing quality control (MQC) of composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) at TRL 6, and with Phase III funding at TRL 8. The program will focus the use of measured performance of the structure to update finite element models to ...