Award Data

Reduced-mass polymer composite materials are crucial to the success of aerospace systems for reducing vehicle weight. But, composite material adoption is inhibited because the autoclave consolidation required is prohibitively expensive for the large tanks and skins contemplated in the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) Program. To remedy this, NASA-LaRC has been developing cost-effective, ...

Reduced mass composite materials are crucial to the success of aerospace systems, but their adoption is inhibited because they require autoclave consolidation, a process that is prohibitively expensive for large aerospace structure. To remedy this, NASA-LaRC has been developing cost-effective high-performance thermoplastic composite processing equipment that enables out-of-autoclave tape placemen ...

The purpose of this program is to develop a compact and efficient ultraviolet laser system for use in space-based uv-Raman instruments. The basis for this system will be a modulated diode seed laser followed by a fiber amplifier which is frequency-quadrupled to generate uv light at 245nm. The unique combination of a compact and efficient fiber amplifier with efficient harmonic generation will pro ...

Proposed is the development the extended depth of field (EDF) or confocal like imaging capabilities of a breakthrough multispectral high resolution imaging flow cytometer. This platform shall have unparalleled cellular analysis capabilities intended to further biological space research (fundamental, micro-gravity and radiation biology) and the potential capability of monitoring astronaut health. T ...

Ballutes, or inflatable decelerators, offer significant advantages over rigid shells for aerocapture of planetary spacecraft and for earth reentry of cargo by providing mass savings and simplified packaging features. Traditional ballutes, however, have provided little or no trajectory control. For new platform functionality, high drag must be accompanied by some degree of control; also, incorporat ...

The overall goal of this proposed project is the development of load bearing, structural building elements from oriented straw. Producting building elements from surplus staw will help provide low-cost housing in rural areas, and will help reduce greenhouse emissions associated with the production of typical construction materials. Producting building materials free from VOCs and other toxins wi ...

Quality vehicle health management systems are critical to the successful operation of modern sounding rockets, and other unmanned vehicles. Unfortunately, the software of these systems tends to be complex and rigid and thus expensive and failure-prone, especially given the several real-time constraints of rocketry. We propose to develop the ``Magic Bullet'' Adaptive Intelligent Vehicle Health Ma ...

The purpose of this project is to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a concept design for a low cost underwater threat detection system to protect critical shoreline and waterside infrastructure. For 26 years, BioSonics has designed and manufactured state-of-the-art digital scientific echosounder technologies for real-time detection, tracking, and classification of biological targets in ho ...

Current Technology for CO2 removal from enclosed air of spacecraft utilizes LiOH canisters for CO2 absorption. This absorption is irreversible so longer flights require more LiOH. For long duration flights it is essential that a small, lightweight system that recovers the CO2 be developed. This allows the CO2 to be used to regenerate O2 for re-use. Compact Membrane systems (CMS) has identified ...

The proposed project will develop a novel aerosol concentrator based on aerodynamic lens technology capable of achieving very high concentration factors in a compact device, fabricated using micro-fabrication methods to achieve low cost, compact size, high reliability, high throughput, and extremely high precision and repeatability. In this project we will develop Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) ...