Award Data

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 ...

NASA's goals to explore deep space through manned missions requires development of self-sustaining life support systems. A diverse team from Freight Farms, Inc. have partnered with Clemson University to merge knowledge of sustainable farming with engineering expertise to create off-grid infrastructure for self-sustaining plant life that will assist NASA with their goals. Freight Farms' current pro ...

Fractionated spacecraft architectures to distribute mission performance from a single, monolithic satellite across large number of smaller spacecraft, for missions like close proximity inspection, sparse aperture arrays, robotic assembly, servicing, refueling, etc., can enable higher mission capability, reconfigurability and robustness. This distributed satellite architecture, with large numbers o ...

NASA recognizes the importance of conservation, smart utilization and reuse of resources for their deep space missions to address the need for regeneration of air, water and waste with highly reliable systems to reduce mission payload. Additionally, energy for life support and other systems needs to be obtained from renewable energy sources or waste streams. In order to address NASA's requirements ...

Busek, in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), proposes to develop a robotic resource prospecting mission to a near-Earth asteroid using a 6U CubeSat, nicknamed "AstroCube". This ambitious mission is enabled by Busek's iodine-fueled BIT-3 RF ion propulsion system that can deliver ~1mN of thrust and ~2200sec of total Isp with 65W nominal input power. With 1.6kg of solid iodine propell ...

Newly developed phase-engineered and low dimensional materials have opened the door to the design of materials structures that exhibit extremely efficient ionic transport. Recently, a new type of electro-filtration system designed to convert thermal power into purified water from salt water (or other ionic pollutants) has been demonstrated in the lab. The system is based on a bi-phasic nanoplate ...

Active dosimeters for astronauts and space weather monitors are critical tools for mitigating radiation induced health issues or system failure on capital equipment. Commercial spaceflight, deep space flight, and satellites require smarter, smaller, and lower power dosimeters. There are a number of instruments with flight heritage, yet as identified in NASA's roadmaps, this technology does not l ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), in collaboration Purdue University, proposes to develop a novel launch propulsion technology for rapid insertion of nano/micro satellites (~ 5-50 kg scale) into low earth orbit, with the potential to lower the current state-of-the-art launch stage cost by a factor of two. The technology employs a propulsion scheme comprising a storable liquid oxidizer and a unique sol ...

The proposed 9-month research project aims for the development of additive manufacturing techniques for the creation of electronic devices. It will develop an innovative additive manufacturing technique that combines the ink-based printing with laser melting technology to directly print a three-dimensional (3D) system with built-in electrical properties and functioning as an electronic device. Th ...