Award Data

This Phase I program proposes to synthesize novel nanoengineered ultra low out gassing elastomers and formulate high temperature capable flexible thermal control coatings as well as adhesives based on the proposed chemistries that are stable in various space environments. We have envisioned nano-engineered clusters and the innovative synthesis of the poly carborane-polysiloxanes, to surpass the pe ...

Pursuits of highly efficient and reliable solar cells place high demands on the materials and processes used in their fabrication. For extraterrestrial cells, specific efficiency is of utmost importance, and thus the ability to reduce module weight without impacting efficiency is highly desirable. Flexible solar cells are a new direction in solar cell technology and robust substrates are required. ...

We will develop an efficient tool for formal verification of PowerPC 750 executables. The PowerPC 750 architecture is used in the radiation-hardened RAD750 flight-control computers that are utilized in many space missions. The resulting tool will be capable of formally checking: 1) the equivalence of two instruction sequences; and 2) properties of a given instruction sequence. The tool will automa ...

The hundreds of stream cores in the latest graphics processors (GPUs), and the possibility to execute non-graphics computations on them, open unprecedented levels of parallelism at a very low cost. We will investigate ways to efficiently exploit this parallelism in order to accelerate the execution of a Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solver. SAT has a wide range of applications, including formal ver ...

Determining the hazard classification of new propellant formulations is important for transportation safety and storage concerns. To avoid costly grain redesign and additional testing, a model that adequately predicts the shock sensitivity, including the outcome of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Large Scale Gap Test, of modern solid propellants is required. The goals of this proposal are to develop ...

The electron beam free form fabrication process (EBFFF) holds great promise for industry as a disruptive technology based on additive manufacturing of near net shape, high value engineered materials. The development efforts are structured to review and compare multiple process feedback systems for identifying molten pool characteristics and perform a series of open loop process parameter tests to ...

Electron Beam Free Form Fabrication has the potential to produce large titanium structures directly from 3D models eliminating or reducing the long lead times associated with designing, procuring, and implementing conventional forging tooling as well as reducing the amount of machining cost by producing near net shapes. Our proposal outlines an approach to demonstrate the use of this technology su ...

A team of CU Aerospace, the University of Illinois, and ManTech SRS Technologies proposes Phase II development of a 3 kg CubeSat spacecraft for initial flight test of a 20 m2 UltraSail, a next-generation high-risk, high-payoff solar sail system for the launch, deployment, stabilization and control of very large (km2 class) solar sails, enabling very high payload mass fractions for interplanetary a ...

We propose a low noise amplifier for receiver front ends in wideband communication systems. The circuit will exploit wide band noise reduction techniques such as active noise cancellation. High frequency, wide bandwidth signals have several advantages ranging from high data rate communications to high resolution RADAR. However, the biggest challenge in realizing these systems is the limitations in ...

This topic is designed by the Air Force to develop a self contained sensor system that autonomously detects and tracks objects in the vicinity of a host platform and prescribe collision avoidance maneuvers as appropriate.  In this proposal the platform will be a space platform, the sensor will be dual mode and the detection range will be short as a step toward longer detection range in the future ...