Award Data

Wideband Autonomous Cognitive Radios (WACRs) are advanced radios that have the ability to sense state of the RF spectrum and the network and self-optimize its operating mode in response to this sensed state. During the just finished Phase I STTR project, Bluecom Systems was able to develop a comprehensive design for realizing such a WACR and demonstrate the proof-of-concept operation in a hardware ...

Advances in computational capabilities for modeling the performance of advanced flight vehicles depend on verification measurements made in ground-based wind tunnels. As part of this process, the wind tunnels themselves must be well-calibrated and characterized. In particular to this project, the density, pressure and multi-component velocity of the air flow are of key interest. Southwest Sci ...

Our Phase I work focused on how improved information flow between actors in a flight deck environment can improve safety performance. An operational prototype was developed demonstrating how the Intelligent Information Processing System (IIPS) will operate in actual accidents/incidents. For Phase II, we propose the following operating environment extensions from the flight deck environment: NextG ...

The objective of the proposed innovation is to research and study the feasibility of using pontoons (based on Off the Shelf (OTS) equipment) to make an inflatable raft that will support a water-landed space capsule. The advantages of this approach over traditional methods are: 1) Provides stable platform to open hatch for Flight Crew access/egress in less than 1 hour from the time the recovery ves ...

NASA uses computer aided design (CAD) capabilities to produce space vehicle designs. One aspect of the vehicle design is utilizing enough shielding to minimize dose on personnel. NASA CAD models inherit errors and issues during their inception that prevent them from being used with NASA?s radiation transport code, High Z and Energy Transport (HZETRN). XL Scientific developed a ray tracing tool to ...

In brief, USNC's accident submersion safe drums are control drums where a small amount of fuel is added opposite to the neutron absorber and the drums impinge on the active core to substantially increase the shutdown criticality margin of the control drums. Phase 1 results indicate that the shutdown criticality margin is more than sufficient to maintain sub-criticality in the worst-case water sub ...

This project will develop an innovative, fast, sensitive and selective hydrazine measurement technology specifically designed for spacecraft cabin monitoring applications. The target instrument will be compact, robust and low-power with battery-powered option. The target hydrazine limit of detection is < 1 ppm, time response 30 s or better. The Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of t ...

We propose an innovative hybrid composite that combines the smart energy-absorbing shear thickening fluids (STF) with validated hard upper torso composite materials to create new STF composite structures with superior impact and damage resistance and self-healing functionality. The proposed innovation directly addresses the subtopic H04.01 need for thin, lightweight composite materials that can be ...

For Mars mission program managers, who need a robust, structurally efficient solar array system to autonomously deploy on the Martian surface, the Modular Extendable Terrestrial Array (META) is an extremely high performance and cost-effective deployable solar array system that will enable manned missions. LoadPath's approach adapts a demonstrated, high packaging-efficiency array folding architect ...

The goal of this project is to enhance the Optomec Aerosol Jet(R) technology for additive manufacturing by introduction of an Adaptive Laser Sintering System (ALSS) module to enable a fully automated system for printed electronics. The Optomec-Harding team seeks to reduce the localized laser sintering concept to practice by developing ALSS with in-situ automated adjustment of laser power and proce ...