Award Data

THE JOINED WING IS A NEW TYPE OF AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATION WHICH EMPLOYS TANDEM WINGS ARRANGED TO FORM DIAMOND SHAPES IN BOTH PLAN AND FRONT VIEWS. WIND TUNNEL TESTS AND FINITE- ELEMENT STRUCTURAL ANALYSES SHOW THAT THE JOINED WING PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING ADVANTAGES OVER A COMPARABLE CONVENTIONAL WING: LIGHTER WEIGHT AND HIGHER STIFFNESS, LESSINDUCED DRAG, LOWER WAVE DRAG, HIGHER TRIMMED MAXIMUM LIFT ...

RECENT SHUTTLE FLIGHTS HAVE SHOWN THAT SIGNIFICANT TEMPORARYOR PERMANENT DEGRADATION OF OPTICAL SURFACES CAN OCCUR IN FLIGHT. SEVERAL OSMIUM-COATED SAMPLES, FLOWN ON SHUTTLE FLIGHT STS 5, EXPERIENCED A PERMANENT LOSS OF REFLECTIVITY BY FACTORS OF 2-3 IN THE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET PORTION OF THE SPECTRUM. OTHER COATING MATERIALS AND WINDOWS CARRIED ABOARD EARLIER SHUTTLE FLIGHTS SUFFERED LESS OR EVEN N ...

THIS PROJECT EVALUATES THE USE OF RAYLEIGH SCATTERING TECHNIQUES FOR USE AS A TEMPERATURE MONITOR IN THE SEVERE ENVIRONMENT OF GAS TURBINES. POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES OF THIS TECHNIQUE OVER ALL OTHER PRESENTLY USED METHODS ARE HIGH ACCURACY (+/-10K), EASE OF INSTALLATION, HIGH SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION, AND NONINTRUSIVE OPERATION. THIS PHASEOF THE PROGRAM CONSISTS OF DETAILED FEASIBILITY CALCULAT ...

THIS PROJECT INVESTIGATES A CONCEPT FOR A CONTINUOUS REFRIGERATOR FOR OPERATION IN ZERO-GRAVITY WHILE COOLING SENSORS TO A TEMPERATURE DOWN TO 0.3 KELVIN. NO CAPABILITY SUCH AS THIS CURRENTLY EXISTS. THE CONCEPT ASSUMES A SUPERFLUID HELIUM DEWAR (1.5 KELVIN) AS THE HIGH-TEMPERATUREHEAT SINK. A SUPERFLUID HELIUM-4 STAGE, CALLED A "VORTEX" REFRIGERATOR, SERVES AS AN INTERMEDIATE COOLING SYSTEM TO IN ...

FOR MANY YEARS MERCURIC IODIDE HAS APPEARED TO BE AN IDEAL MATERIAL FOR USE AS AN UNCOOLED X-RAY AND GAMMA-RAY DETECTOR. IT HAS DEMONSTRATED EXCEPTIONAL ENERGY RESOLUTIONFOR LOW ENERGY X-RAYS AND HAS BEEN CONSIDERED FOR SEVERAL NASA SPACE MISSIONS. HOWEVER, MERCURIC IODIDE DETECTORS HAVE BEEN PLAGUED BY SEVERE INSTABILITY PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MERCURIC IOD ...

AN IMPORTANT GOAL OF THE NASA MEDICAL SCIENCES PROGRAM IS TO MAINTAIN THE HEALTH OF THE ASTRONAUTS BOTH BEFORE AND DURING THE SPACE MISSIONS. TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CLINICAL PARAMETERS ARE THE LEFT AND RIGHT HEART EJECTION FRACTIONS. THESE PARAMETERS, WHICH ARE SO CENTRAL TO GOOD VASCULAR PERFORMANCE ARE ALSO ONES WHICH COULD BE STRONGLY EFFECTED BY THE STRESS AND GRAVITY EFFECTS OF THE FLIGHTS ...

HEAT SHIELDS FOR EARTH ORBITING, REENTRY VEHICLES REQUIRE A LOW WEIGHT, DURABLE THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM THAT CAN OPERATE AT HIGH TEMPERRATURES IN AN OXIDIZING ATMOSPHERE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT IS TO INVESTIGATE A NEW CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITE MATERIAL THAT MAY MEET THOSE REQUIREMENTS. THE MATERIAL IS MADE BY INFILTRATING SILICON CARBIDE IN THE GAS PHASE INTO A CERAMIC REINFORCEME ...

CURRENTLY, AIRLINE AND MILITARY AIRSPACE USERS DO NOT HAVE COORDINATED NOR CONSISTENT METHODS OF GENERATING FLIGHT PLANS (PRE-FLIGHT ROUTE STRUCTURE DEFINITION). SOME USE ANTIQUATED METHODS OF ROUTE GENERATION. SOME USE WEATHER DATA OVER 24 HOURS OLD. NONE ACCOUNT FOR THE POSSIBLE EXISTENCE OF AN ON-BOARD FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (FMS). THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO CORRECT THESE PROBLEMS B ...

A NEW CAPABILITY FOR THE PREDICTION OF AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISITIC OF POWERED-LIFT VEHICLES IS THE GOAL OF THISPROJECT. A PRESENTLY AVAILABLE AERODYNAMIC ANALYSIS COMPUTERCODE, VSAERO, IS APPLICABLE TO POWERED-LIFT AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATIONS. THE PROGRAM INCLUDES A METHOD WHICH CAN TREAT THE DIFFICULT GEOMETRIC SHAPES ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH CONFIGURATIONS AND HAS COUPLED ITERATIVE ROUTINES FOR VISCOUS/ ...

SUBSONIC AND TRANSONIC AERODYNAMIC ANALYSIS PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR APPLICATION TO CIRCULATION CONTROL AIRFOILS. WHILE THESE METHODS PERFORM WELL IN COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTS FOR LOW BLOWING COEFFICIENTS, AT HIGH BLOWING COEFFICIENTS, WITH THE NOZZLES CHOKED AND PRODUCING UNDEREXPANDED SUPERSONIC JETS, THE RESULTING SHOCK CELL STRUCTURE CANNOT BE PREDICTED BY THE PRESENT ANALYSES. A S ...