Award Data

REQUIREMENTS FOR RAILGUN ARMATURES DICTATE MATERIALS PROPERTIES VALUESWHICH ARE DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN FROM CONVENTIONAL MATERIALS. THE NEED EXISTS FOR A MATERIAL WHICH HAS LOW DENSITY, HIGH MELTING POINT, HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY, LOW COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION, HIGH ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY, HIGH VALUES FOR STRENGTH, AND GOOD CHARACTERISTICS OF LUBRICITY. GRAPHITE FIBER GROWN FROM PYROLYSIS O ...

LASER ROCKET PROPULSION RESEARCH RECENTLY HAS DEMONSTRATED SUBSTANTIALPOTENTIAL FOR THE CONVERSION OF HIGH POWER LASER ENERGY INTO THERMAL PROPULSIVE ENERGY, USING EITHER CONTINUOUS OR PULSED MODE LASER SOURCES. IT IS NOW POSSIBLE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO DEVELOP PROTOTYPE DESIGNS FOR ACTUAL LASER PROPULSION THRUSTERS THAT CAN BE BUILT AND TESTED AT REALISTIC LASER POWERS. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, PREVIOU ...

We offer an approach to a multiple-order-of-magnitude processing speed/efficiency improvement in vector quantization (VQ) data/image compression, automatic target recognition/classification, and time signal/signature classification. We base our approach on an algorithmic breakthrough, the TABULAR NEAREST-NEIGHBOR ENCODER (TNE), which we discovered and partially developed last year. This algorithm ...

OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, THE EPA HAS DEVOTED MAJOR EF- FORTS TO IDENTIFY AND DOCUMENT THE MAGNITUDE OF THE RISKS OFENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION DUE TO LEAKING UDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS (UST). IN APRIL 1987, THE EPA PUBLISHED THE PROPOSED REGULATIONS FOR THE OWNERS AND OPERATORS OF UST, WHICH ARE EXPECTED TO BE FINALIZEDD IN EARLY 1988. THESE REGULATIONS INCLUDE REQUIREMENTS FOR TANK TIGHTNESS TESTS, ...

Conventional optoelectronic packaging technologies failed to provide low-loss coupling among various optoelectronic devices that are pivotal for BMDO-mission-related tasks. To bridge different effective apertures of various optoelectronic devices are the major bottleneck needs to be overcome. Radiant Research, Inc., proposes a drastically new idea to solve this problem by introducing a mode-matche ...

Conventional electrooptic materials failed to provide a polarization-insensitive switch unless an exotic electrode structure is employed. Such a drawback prohibits system insertion of electrooptic devices into an array of optical interconnection network. Radiant Research, Inc., proposes a novel electrooptic polymer-based domain inverted waveguide structure to eliminate such a bottleneck. A 2x2 ...

To further enhance the bandwidth promised by optics, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) scheme is becoming one of the major thrusts in photonics research. Most of the WDMs demonstrated are made out of glass and III-V compound semiconductor. The non-multiplexibility and the small index modulation of these inorganic materials result in severe restrictions that make WDM systems incapable of handl ...

Adaptive spatio-temporal filtering methods are proposed which are inherently suitable to utilizing many sensors and actuators to achieve superior control and monitoring of structures for vibration and shape control and damage detection. When utilizing large numbers of sensors and actuators, failure detection and failure recovery become important issues. The adaptive spatio-temporal filtering metho ...

Strait pointing accuracy for the antenna and reflector of spacecraft requires structural materials with excellent stiffness and dimensional stability. Carbon-carbon (C/C) composites are prime materials for space applications because of their unique properties. Current C/C processing techniques are very expensive and time consuming. This Phase I research proposes a new class, low-cost graphitic mic ...