Award Data

EVA radio is an important integral part of lunar missions and beyond. To minimize power consumption and mass of an EVA radio, innovative solutions are needed for the design of various modules ranging from RF front end to networking protocols. In this protocol, a comprehensive design architecture that can achieve ultra-low power miniaturized EVA radio is proposed. Under this architecture, new MEMS- ...

Innovative network architecture, protocols, and algorithms are proposed for both lunar surface networks and orbit access networks. Firstly, an overlaying architecture is proposed to seamlessly integrate lunar surface networks and orbit access networks. Secondly, for lunar surface networks, a network architecture based on hybrid mesh networking technologies is developed to support both fixed and mo ...

The Micro Pulsed Inductive Thruster with Solid Fuel Option (µPIT_SF) is a high-precision impulse bit electromagnetic plasma micro-thruster. The µPIT prototype is a small (< 230 g) thruster that produces and accelerates plasma. In the solid fuel mode, µPIT_SF is able to substantially extend the performance of standard PPT systems by ionization and heating of the high density neutral gas produce ...

The Temperature Programmed Sensing (TPS) system developed at NIST presents many opportunities and unique challenges. The data output from the system can be quite complex and there are many opportunities to optimize the system for specific sensing scenarios. We propose a program aimed at characterizing the system so that potential problems (such as system drift) can be solved early so that the full ...

The proposed innovative insulation would greatly enhance the usability of, and reduce the inherent losses associated with, cryogenic fuel delivery and storage apparatus. The proposed insulation has been tested to yield a thermal conductivity value of 0.019w/mK @ one inch format @ an areal density

A new generation of Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counters (TEPCs) for micro-dosimetric measurements will be designed, incorporating recent advances in the electronics industry and a new detector configuration. The unit is projected to be 2.5x4.5x1 in, weigh less than 8 oz, and consume less than 100 mW of power. A detector configuration of thirteen half-inch spheres arranged in a 2-D array wi ...

In recent years, there has been a tendency to use ever-higher gas turbine inlet temperatures, resulting in ever-higher heat loads necessitating efficient cooling. Internal cooling designs have evolved from the use of simple curved ducts in early designs to very complex geometries. Similar complexities govern film cooling as well, leading to complex fluid-structure interactions and turbulence physi ...

NASA will fly x-ray microcalorimeters on several mission payloads scheduled within the next 5 years: New and improved IR/Visible blocking filters are urgently needed to realize the full potential and throughput of these missions. The innovation proposed, high transmission polyimide support mesh, will replace the nickel mesh used in previous blocking filter designs. Polyimide's composition affords ...

nLight has demonstrated highly-uniform APD arrays based on the highly sensitive InGaAs/InP material system. These results provide great promise for achieving the performance and uniformity requirements necessary to enable 3D LIDAR applications such as autonomous precision landing and hazard detection avoidance. The high degree of uniformity demonstrated offers the potential for biasing the entir ...

While conventional injection seeding sources (such as DFB diode lasers and rare-earth doped solid-state microchip lasers) are available at 1.5 microns, these sources typically lack the ultra-narrow (