Award Data

The proposed innovation is a membrane bioreactor system to produce a biopolymer from methane gas that is applicable in outer space environments. This new methane fermentation process will expand and advance current gas delivery techniques to create affordable fermentation methods on Earth and beyond. Mango Materials is currently working to scale up and commercialize the production of polyhydroxyal ...

Next generation optical modems for NASA will be based on the RZ-DPSK modulation format. This modulation format is robust, delivers high quantum efficiency and allows burst-mode operation, key when using a power limited transmitter in combination with a fixed delay line DPSK demodulator. Freedom Photonics approach in this proposed program is to integrate the laser, modulator, and amplifier into a s ...

No existing commercial wireless sensor network option meets NASAs current needs for flexibility, size, mass and resilience to extreme environments. The proposed innovation is a MEIS network which combines any number and any type of sensors into a wireless sensor network (WSN), with each of the sensors being motes, or nodes, on the network. The network will be self-healing and self-configuring. Eac ...

Our Phase I results include a preliminary design for an advanced nanosat launch vehicle (NLV) upper stage that features several advanced propulsion technologies, as well as extensive empirical data from a series of pathfinding operations conducted at both the Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska on Kodiak Island and the Poker Flat Research Range. For Phase II, we are taking major steps, such as bui ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...