Award Data

Emergent Space Technologies proposes to develop a flexible, service-oriented Fault Management (FM) architecture for cluster fight missions. This FM architecture will include algorithms to be run on each cluster module for fault detection, isolation, and recovery, software to be used at a ground station to direct recovery actions, and protocols for communication of fault information between cluster ...

We propose a comprehensive and systematic contingency plan generation framework to deal with lost communication in UAVs. ATC regulations are explicitly incorporated into our system. Our proposed framework was motivated by our recent work for the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River. In should be noted that our earlier framework was very general, as we have designed a system which can deal with many ...

The AirCore is a simple and novel atmospheric air column sampler to validate satellite observation data of greenhouse gases, using a lightweight, inexpensive coated stainless steel coil. The simple design of the leads to cost savings during manufacture and operation. The addition of a UAV to the AirCore system provides much needed functionality and flexibility to the end user of the product: it r ...

A novel design for an in situ air sampling sensor for CO2 and trace gases is proposed. The sensor, named AirCore, provides the advantages of existing in situ sensors (e.g. high resolution) but eliminates possible biases in analysis that often originate from imperfect measurement condition. The AirCore provides a significant savings in cost and weight while increasing the capabilities of existing i ...

We propose a portable data acquisition and prognostic system that contains both hardware and software with several innovative ideas. First, our hardware system consists of a high speed data acquisition card and a portable lunchbox PC. The portable lunchbox PC has advanced prognostics algorithms and user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) for displaying component fault status and trends. Secon ...

Future space exploration missions require advanced thermal control systems (TCS) to dissipate heat from spacecraft, rovers, or habitats to external environments. We propose to develop a lightweight, reliable TCS to effectively maintain cabin and equipment temperatures under widely varying heat loads and ambient temperatures. The proposed system uses freeze-tolerant radiators, which eliminate the ...

This proposal is responsive to NASA SBIR Topic X10.01, specifically, the need for efficient small- to medium-scale hydrogen liquefaction technologies, including domestically produced wet cryogenic turboexpanders. Future NASA missions will require hydrogen liquefaction systems for spaceport, planetary, and lunar surface operations. A critical part of these systems is the cryogenic expansion turbi ...

The primary objective of this SBIR project is to develop a novel Hemispherical and Dynamic Camera(HDC), with unprecedented capability of optically unwrapping, thus can obtain directly the high resolution undistorted (unwrapped) 360?hemispherical video or still images without requiring any external computing resources for performing digital unwrapping. This novel technology would lead to ultra-comp ...

This SBIR project is to develop a novel Hemispherical and Dynamic Camera(HDC) with ultra-wide field of view and low geometric distortion. The novel technology we proposed would lead to ultra-compact, low-power, light weight, and high resolution hemispherical camera for EVAs. We successfully completed the Phase 1 project with a novel optical design, functional prototypes, extensive experimental r ...

Modern aircraft gas turbine engines utilize highly loaded airfoils in both the compressor and turbine to maximize performance while minimizing weight, cost, and complexity. However, high airfoil loading increases the likelihood of flow separation at lower mass flow rates. Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators have been shown to be a very promising technique for compressor stall con ...