Award Data

Accurate Automation Corporation proposes a three-pronged effort to build on the Phase I program to develop technologies in support of the NASA Hyper-X program and the X-43 series of research vehicles (X-43A, X-43B, and X-43C). The data and technologies developed under the proposed Phase II program will also support the development and testing of future hypersonic vehicles and reusable launch vehic ...

Thin film multilayers of nanometer scale thickness are fundamental to the future of electronics and communications technologies. Chemical depth profiling by ion etching techniques are critical to the characterization of these structures. A fundamental problem with current ion etching technologies is that typical ion energies (~1k eV to 20 keV) create extensive damage and intermixing of nanometer t ...

A low cost, high performance propulsion system does not exist that can support small and micro-satellite requirements, that is not burdened with severe hazard and toxicity issues. The VACCO Micro Propulsion System (MPS) represents a leap forward in the application of ChEMS? (metal MEMS) propulsion technology for nanosat and picosat missions, however its capability is limited by reliance on low-Isp ...

Drag reduction for aerial vehicles has a range of positive ramifications: reduced fuel consumption with the associated economic and environmental consequences, larger flight range and endurance and higher achievable flight speeds. Recent numerical results yielded solid evidence that very small disturbances in the form of a spanwise traveling force wave on a surface could reduce drag by 70%. Our pa ...

This proposal describes a plan for the Design and Development of line of sight area averaged rain measurements using microwave backscatter techniques. The line averaged (and area covered) could be made variable, from as low as 100m to several km. The individual units can thus be used for both local measurements as well as for extending the observation over rain-cells. The techniques might be exten ...

DSI will develop an integrated backplane/server solution for the SATS cockpit. The GAAINS (General Aviation Aircraft Information Network Server) solution will provide the foundation for tomorrows SATS cockpit. DSI believes in the spirit of SATS, and through the integration of COTS technologies combined with current open architecture standards, a new enabling platform will be developed which increa ...

NASA is interested in the development of highly advanced systems, subsystems and components to enable future robotic and manned missions. A key requirement for these challenging missions will be the development of high efficiency power conversion systems with increased power density. Ecotera Energy proposes an innovative gas turbine improvement, the Thermochemical Energy Conversion (TEC) engine, w ...

Next-generation smart machine tools are currently under research and development. Critical to the success of these tools will be the inclusion of smart sensors. These sensor suites will need to measure physical parameters such as temperature, vibration, pressure and so on. Luna Innovations has extensive experience in developing solar powered wireless systems to transmit sensor data. Luna proposes ...

A critical danger of space flight programs is contamination of the spacecraft environment. Assessing environmental health requires monitoring technologies to mitigate the risk of infectious disease among the crew before, during, and after flights. The danger of infectious diseases in space is amplified by the limited medical facilities available to the crew during a mission. The contained spacecra ...

The proposal approaches to a revolutionary new approach to providing very compact, lightweight, non-RFI/EMI ignition system to be integrated with pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) used for spacecraft attitude control. The design eliminates for the first time conventional discharge capacitor and electromagnetic transformers (heavy and EMI noisy) with a compact and highly efficient novel technology - the ...