Award Data

NASA plans to use intelligent planetary rovers to improve the productivity and safety of human explorers. A key challenge in using robots for human exploration is orienting remote personnel about robot operations, as latency and communication constraints make eyes-on monitoring impractical. Summary measures are needed to identify what progress the robot has made and, when progress is impeded, to i ...

During our Phase I STTR effort, Balcones Technologies, LLC (BT) and The University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics (CEM) successfully achieved all Phase I objectives and developed concept designs for controlled Canfield Joint Systems (CJS) for numerous applications that currently employ two-axis gimbal systems, including flywheel energy storage systems, integrated flywheel energy st ...

It is often difficult to create autonomous robotic capabilities that match what can be achieved via teleoperation. Even though it is mechanically possible for a humanoid robot such as Robonaut 2 to perform complex coordinated tasks such as tying a knot, exchanging objects between end effectors, plugging in connectors, unscrewing a cap, opening a door, or grasping large objects with two hands, our ...

Research suggests that: (1) orbital debris has reached the point that, even with no future launches, collisions among large-body debris will lead to unstable growth in debris, and (2) removing as few as five large objects each year can stabilize debris growth. For large-body active debris removal (LB-ADR), new technologies are required to safely capture the target debris. The interactions of these ...

There exists a wide-range need in both industry and government for quantitative residual stress measurements. Generation 2 Materials Technology LLC (G2MT) will collaborate with partners from industry and government to calibrate and commercialize the eStress system to assess residual stress from mechanical damage and re-rounding. The industrial members, consortiums, and government laboratories who ...

Automation and autonomy technologies, such as automated planning software, are key elements in realizing the vision for space exploration. However, the major stumbling block to realizing the widespread use of automation tools for operations is capturing and maintaining the domain models -- the object types and subtypes, relationships among them and operational constraints -- needed to support su ...

Radiation-cooled, bipropellant thrust chambers are being considered for the ascent/descent engines and reaction control systems for NASA missions such as Mars Sample Return and Orion MPCV. Currently, iridium-lined rhenium combustion chambers are the state-of-the-art for in-space engines. NASA's Advanced Materials Bipropellant Rocket (AMBR) engine, a 150-lbf iridium-rhenium chamber produced by Pla ...

Non-toxic monopropellants have been developed that provide better performance than toxic hydrazine. Formulations based on hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) have superior performance as compared to hydrazine with Isp (261 seconds, 12% greater), higher density and volumetric impulse (60% greater density-impulse), lower melting point, and much lower toxicity (No self contained breathing apparatus requir ...

This Phase II SBIR proposes to develop high quantum efficiency (QE) and low dark current infrared epitaxy materials based on Type II Strained Layer Superlattice (SLS) for space-based sensor applications. The epi materials will be grown with Sb-capable multi-wafer production Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) reactor at IntelliEPI. The initial goal includes achieving QE of at least 50% with MWIR spectral ...

Invocon's Radiation Alert Immediate Disclosure (RAID) system is a miniature, low-power, real-time, active radiation badge. It is designed for monitoring personnel, equipment, and environments while minimizing complicated user interfaces. RAID's ability to determine characteristics and dose rate in addition to total dose provide significant advantages over other types of devices. A single sensor ...