Award Data

While aluminum casing materials provide some enhanced performance and thermal loading to explosive ordinance, their overall effectiveness is highly limited by incomplete combustion and long residence times. In order to reduce these problems, the casing material must be designed to facilitate rapid fragmentation through either specialized casing geometries or greatly refined initial particle sizes. ...

Deep-ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectroscopy is a powerful method to collect chemically specific information about complex samples because deep-UV (?? < 250 nm) excitation shows an over 200-fold greater efficiency compared to commonly used 785 nm excitation and has the ability to avoid fluorescence background in the Raman spectra. The availability of compact, robust, and reliable deep-UV laser source ...

PC Krause and Associates is partnering with Purdue University, EleQuant, and GridQuant to create a hybrid modeling capability. The combination of PCKA?s extensive dynamic modeling experience, Purdue?s work in electromechanical systems analysis, and GridQuant and Elequant?s development of the HELM algorithm uniquely positions the team to create this technology. HELM is a novel algorithm that solves ...

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 ...

Busek and University of Utah propose to develop novel metal organic framework (MOF) material to efficiently capture oxygen in spacecraft cabin environment. The proposed novel MOF is postulated to be capable of separating oxygen from ambient air with high efficiency, and at the same time, be stable to moisture and resistant to decomposition. In Phase I, our team shall synthesize the proposed MOF an ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

During Phase I, Aurora Flight Sciences and the University of Massachusetts Lowell propose to demonstrate the feasibility of enhancing a commercially available out-of-autoclave (OOA) carbon prepreg material system (e.g. IM7/5320) via embedded structural health monitoring (SHM) and self-healing capabilities, which can be manufactured by an automated fiber placement (AFP) machine. This proposed "sma ...

Silicon Carbide based ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) offer the potential to fundamentally change the design and manufacture of aeronautical and space propulsion systems to significantly increase performance and fuel efficiency over current metal-based designs. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and our team members at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) will develop, design and fabricat ...