Award Data

SixPoint Materials will create low-cost, high-quality vertical gallium nitride (GaN) substrates using a multi-phase production approach that employs both hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) technology and ammonothermal growth techniques to lower costs and maintain crystal quality. Substrates are thin wafers of semiconducting material needed for power devices. In its two-phase project, SixPoint Mate ...

We build upon our prior work applying subdivision surfaces (subdivs) to planetary terrain mapping. Subdivs are an alternative, multi-resolution method with many advantages over conventional digital elevation maps (DEM's) and fixed-resolution meshes. The proposed research is innovative in presenting a new setting for subdivs demanding novel extensions to subdiv algorithms, techniques and theory as ...

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 ...

Fibertek, Inc. in partnership with researchers at the Pennsylvania State University Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) are proposing to develop a state of the art, space-qualifiable laser transmitter that meets the requirements of the flash lidar transmitter defined in the 2016 STTR subtopic T9.01, Navigation and Hazard Avoidance Sensor Technolog ...

The team comprising OEwaves Inc. and UC Davis offers to develop and demonstrate a SiN-platform integrated photonic circuit suitable for a spectrally pure chip-scale tunable opto-electronic RF oscillator (OEO) that can operate as a flywheel in high precision optical clock modules, as well as radio astronomy, spectroscopy, and local oscillator in radar and communications systems. The effort comprise ...

Launch vehicles experience extreme acoustic loads dominated by rocket exhaust plume interactions with ground structures during lift-off, which can produce damaging vibro-acoustic loads on the vehicle and payloads if not properly understood and mitigated against. Existing capabilities for modeling the turbulent plume physics during early lift-off are too dissipative to accurately resolve the propag ...

NASA's strategic needs include those related to flexible instrumentation capable of monitoring remote or inaccessible measurement locations within Stennis Space Center (SSC) testing facilities. Looking to support the advancement of NASA SSC's infrastructure, American GNC Corporation (AGNC) and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are proposing the Through Wall Wireless Intelligent Sensor and ...

Laser & Plasma Technologies (LPT), teamed with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Lasers at the University of Virginia (UVA), proposes an advanced optical fiber coupled hybrid spectroscope for in situ characterization of organic compounds. The proposed approach provides information on organic compounds by analyzing spectra obtained from Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) an ...

We propose that the key to robotic automation in unstructured environments is compliant robotic manipulators that can tolerate, sense, and leverage contact in a feedback loop. We have demonstrated proof of concept of an instrumented end-effector capable of enhanced perception through observed and controlled contact in phase I. We will now expand the project to develop highly capable state and cont ...

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 ...