Award Data

Swarm robotics is one of the key enabling technologies for significantly extending mankind's reach beyond the Earth's surface. However, when bringing theory to practice, challenging problems related to the coordination and control of these swarms quickly arise. Vecna Robotics proposes a collaboration with MIT to extend existing autonomy behaviors and test platforms to address a class of pl ...

The MarsOasis™ cultivation system is a versatile, autonomous, environmentally controlled growth chamber for food provision on the Martian surface. MarsOasis™ integrates a wealth of prior research and Mars growth chamber concepts into a complete system design and operational prototype. MarsOasis™ includes several innovative features relative to the state of the art space growth chambers. I ...

Reducing the allowable concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in spacecraft is a critical need for NASA. The system now used on the International Space Station (ISS) is the carbon dioxide removal assembly (CDRA). While it has performed well on the ISS, managers have concluded that using the device to reach the new ppCO2 limit of 2.0 mm Hg is not practical and a new method is needed.In this projec ...

NASA has been investigating morphing aircraft for multi-mission capabilities and performance improvements in existing fixed-wing aircraft. In addition, the design of aeroelastic aircraft that can control the structural flexibility to their advantage, is an open area of research and development. In spite of the plethora of work on morphing aircraft and long slender wings, the goal of fielding such ...

In response to NASA’s topic T12.02 of “Extensible Modeling of Metallurgical Additive Manufacturing Processes”, Sentient proposes to incorporate its DigitalClone technique to develop a multiscale and multiphysics computational modeling suite to predict comprehensive outcomes from AM building processes, including geometrical accuracy, and resulting microstructure and defects. Figure 1 shows th ...

This proposal includes, for the first time, integrated theoretical models and experimental investigations to simulate and demonstrate femtosecond-laser-fabricated waveguides in crystalline dielectric materials. The numerical models will predict refractive-index changes potentially induced by self-focusing, heat accumulation, thermal stress, plasma formation and relaxation, and ablation. The influe ...

Opterus Research and Development, Inc. proposes to develop and validate multi-scale thin-ply High Strain Composites (HSCs) constitutive modeling tools for incorporation into commercial finite element analysis codes. The constitutive models will capture the time-temperature-load-deformation viscoelastic characteristics common to HSCs as well as the yielding or permanent deformation associated with ...

This body of research focuses on developing fundamental engineering qualification methods for Thin-Ply High Strain Composites (TP-HSCs). Roccor will collaborate with NASA and Dr. Kwok of the University of Central Florida to develop and validate a robust framework for engineering the viscoelastic behavior of highly strained thin-ply composites. The material systems studied will be highly focused on ...

Increasing the level of spacecraft autonomy for any future space mission will make it more affordable and capable, allowing NASA to do more science with less operations costs. For future Distributed Space Missions (DSMs) however, spacecraft autonomy is critical to reducing costs to make the missions affordable and practical. The use of multiple satellites to simultaneously sample science observati ...

TDA Research Inc.(TDA) in collaboration with University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez (UPRM is proposing to develop a highly efficient CO2 removal system based on UPRM proprietary strontium exchanged silico-alumino-phosphate (Sr-SAPO-34) sorbent for closed loop space craft cabin air re-vitalization during deep space missions. In the Phase I work, we successfully completed bench-scale proof-of-concep ...