Award Data

Engineers at NASA are faced with the challenge of understanding complex electromagnetic effects that can impact payloads and launch vehicle hardware located under rocket fairings. Approximate approaches for modelingnbsp;antennas that interact with rocket fairingsnbsp;assume a plane wave incident upon the fairing for external antennas or a simple representation of the antenna (e.g., Hertzian dipole ...

Soar Technology, Inc. (SoarTech) and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) will research and develop a digital assistant (quot;Adaquot;) that can help NASA experts search for and effectively use scientific and technical information (STI) in their work. Ada can provide cognitive support in high-effort search tasks, like examining details of more sources, and use tasks, like applying search results ...

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is at the forefront of near-term lunar and Martian missions.nbsp; While many technologies and program strategies focus in ISRU, propellant production substantially impacts the scope and duration of these missions.nbsp; Through ISRU, missions can benefit from substantial mass savings, and size reduction which, in turn, result in longer durations and larger payloa ...

After landing, the lunar lander liquid oxygen tank may contain as much as 5% residual oxygen that is pressurized with helium. TDA Research proposes to develop an oxygen recovery module which separates the helium from the oxygen so that the remaining high purity oxygen can be readily supplied to life-support equipment and fuel cells. The oxygen recovery module uses an advanced sorbent that has a hi ...

Multi-satellite swarms are becoming popular due to their low costs and short development time. Instead of large and costly monolithic satellites, small satellite swarms can be flown as distributed sensing applications for atmospheric sampling, distributed antennas, synthetic apertures among other exciting applications, delivering an even greater mission capability. This Phase-I project contributes ...

Water recovery from wastewater sources is a key to long duration human exploration missions.nbsp; Regenerative systems are utilized on the International Space Station (ISS) to recycle water from humidity condensate and urine. However, two organic compounds, dimethylsilanediol (DMSD) and dimethyl sulfone (DMSO2), are problematic to water processor assembly (WPA) in the ISS. DMSD is a silicon-contai ...

The ESCHER interface is part of a larger concept working to enable swarms of robots to autonomously perform difficult construction tasks while minimizing the cost and complexity of doing so. The interface, designed by Altius for use on Virginia Tech#39;s FASER Lab robots, will leverage existing switchable electropermanent magnetnbsp;(EPM) technology and Altius custom geometries to provide a high h ...

Human missions to the Moon and Marsnbsp;will require advanced systems to maintain an environment supporting human life. Smart greenhouses are necessary for fresh food supply in long term space missions. Through natural metabolic processes, plants can produce ethylene, which can accumulate in closed environments and have undesirable effects on the plants. These effects can include reduced growth, i ...

GTL?s SNS technology aids in the operation of new or existing structural health monitoring (SHM) systems by integrating data and power pathways into the structure. The use of this technology within a composite structure would allow engineers to place sensors from an SHM system directly where they are needed on a structure with instant power. GTL?s SNS technology offers the potential for developers ...

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 ...