Award Data

The US Navy faces daunting energy challenges that will further increase in severity, given the ever-increasing global demand for energy, diminishing energy supplies and demand for enhanced environmental stewardship. Additionally, noise is an important issue for the Navy due to the adverse effect it has on personnel and communities around naval air bases and training sites. Military combat aircraft ...

High-energy space radiation from Galactic Cosmic Rays and Solar Particle Events (SPEs) pose significant risks to equipment and astronaut health in NASA missions. Energetic particles from SPEs associated with flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) may adversely affect not only beyond-Low-Earth-Orbit missions, but also aircraft avionics, communications, and airline crew/passenger health. It is cru ...

Radiation detectors that sense gamma and neutron radiation are critical to the exploration of planetary surface composition. Among the key technological challenges is to have a suitable detector that not only can be used for both gamma ray and neutron detection, but also satisfy the many highly desirable and essential for spaceflight properties: good energy resolution, high efficiency, high radiat ...

To handle the so-called black start fault contingency, Energy to Power Solutions proposes the use of a novel hybrid cable design. The cable would be designed to handle the full 100 % electric power load under normal operating and battle conditions (i.e. a fully/partially functioning cryogenic cooling system operating at cryogenic temperatures ~ 50-60 K), and capable of handling 30 % of the rated p ...

We propose the design and development of LCS radar modeling for training a radar modeling engine that capture the effects of environment, weather, jamming/interference and operator actions on radar display. The purpose of this engine is to reduce or eliminate the need for live training by faithfully capturing the scenarios encountered by a radar operator. The primary target radars for the propose ...

One of the strategic goals of NASA's Planetary Science Mission is to advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere. The current STTR addresses this strategic goal. The proto-type AOTF-based SWIR spectropolarimetric imaging system developed in Phase I (which will be further optimized and integrated with optimal algorithm/software in Pha ...

Our goal in this Phase II effort is to construct and test a compact, robust testbed for generating laser-cooled strontium atoms on a mobile platform. The focus of the Phase I effort was designing and fabricating an ovenized strontium source that also serves as a 2D+ MOT cell. In Phase II, we will integrate the strontium source into an all-glass-and-silicon vacuum system maintained by a miniature i ...

Advanced turbomachinery components play a critical role in launch vehicle and spacecraft liquid rocket propulsion systems. To achieve desired efficiencies, extremely tight tolerances are often imposed between inducer blades and shrouds or other system components which sets up strong interactions that influence both the aerodynamics and the structural performance of blades and vanes. These transien ...

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 ...

Distributed Spacecraft Missions (DSM) have become increasingly important in the effort to extend the capabilities of instruments to gather critical Earth and Space science data. DSMs, which include constellations, formations and clusters, have already been employed and have been proposed for several future space science missions. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a current Solar-terre ...