Award Data

Li/CFx primary batteries are considered to be a superior choice for military applications that require long life, light weight and very low self-discharge. The high cost of current carbon monofluoride materials, however, adds significantly to the total cost of the battery. Reactive Innovations, LLC (RIL) proposes to develop a method to produce CFx materials with over a 50% cost saving. The process ...

Rip currents cause multiple drowning deaths each year as swimmers are often unaware of the location and strength of coastal currents. Currently, ocean safety officials do not have an affordable and reliable commercial system which can measure coastal currents. The goal of this Phase I study is to test a stereo camera system to measure the speed, direction, and location of alongshore currents and ...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere are primary drivers of global climate change and hence there is a crucial need to quantify their sources and sinks. A general technique to constrain source and sink strengths is the analysis of the relative proportions of isotopic variants of GHG's. These measurements must be performed with extremely high precision. The gold standard technique, i ...

There are currently no inexpensive observing systems that detect temperature, salinity and currents under the ocean's surface - all important factors in predicting the intensity of hurricanes. Boston Engineering proposes to develop the Multi-Purpose Above Surface/Below Surface Expendable Dropsondes (MASED). Our design builds on the highly successful air dropsondes already in use, combined with a ...

Commercial separators for Li-ion battery applications consist of microporous membranes that prevent contact between electrodes and enable free ion flow in the cell. Major drawbacks of these separators include their complex manufacturing process which adds cost to the battery and insufficient protection against thermal runaway reactions at elevated temperatures. This project addresses these limitat ...

NOAA can reduce costs and improve efficiency by remotely monitoring harbors, navigation channels and coastlines for bathymetric changes. This will aid NOAA and its mission to maintain waterways and assure maritime safety. This remote sensing can be accomplished by implementing a new radar derived bathymetry capability. Areté Associated proposes to implement an advanced algorithm to derive bath ...

During the Phase I program, Aurora conducted a comprehensive survey of potential platforms that included government owned and furnished UAVs and manned aircraft as well as Aurora’s Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA). The survey concluded, in part, that UAVs offer a significant improvement in data collection capability when compared to manned aircraft that are currently fielded by NOAA. ...

Buoy vandalism occurs all over the world for many different reasons, and costs NOAA and other buoy operators an estimated $1 million annually to replace and repair them. To deter vandals and report any vandal attempts to NOAA, McQ has developed the Buoy Guard System (BGS). BGS is a small, extremely low power sensor system that will detect the presence of intruders first approaching and then boa ...

This program addresses the need for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods for quality assessment and defect evaluation of thermal protection systems (TPS). Novel linear drive eddy current methods are proposed for NDE of carbon-based TPS materials, such as felts, rigid materials, and three dimensional woven fiber composites. Using a combination of physics-based models of layered media, includin ...

Heat shield technology is a critical component for both re-entry and hypersonic vehicles. The traditional manufacturing approach for designing heat shields consists of joining TPS tiles together with an adhesive that fills any gaps between them. This approach has significant challenges, including the reduction in thermal-mechanical performance as compared to that of acreage woven material. Nhung's ...