Award Data

This project addresses two vital problems for long-term space travel activities: radiation shielding and hydrogen storage for power and propulsion. While both problems have been studied for many years, there is currently no satisfactory technology for providing adequate non-parasitic shielding. Even in low-Earth orbit, astronauts must be closely monitored for radiation exposure, and some mission ...

Embryos with predetermined sex will obviously double the female calving efficiency in dairy industry. The ultimate goal of the project is to development an efficient system for the large scale production of sex predetermined cattle embryos using several emerging technologies including sperm sorting by flow cytometry, IVF and rapid-cooling cryopreservation (vitrification) of embryos. Through Phase ...

Sub irrigation combats the waste of water and fertilizer in traditional overhead watering systems used in greenhouses for production of potted ornamental plants. However, current ebb and flow watering systems achieve nearly complete saturation of the root medium for each watering cycle. There is no ability to restrict the water provided to the plants. This may decrease plant quality and facilitate ...

The proposed innovation is a passive, self-regulating, gravity-independent Advanced Product Water Removal (APWR) system for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) primary fuel cell power plants that improves power plant efficiency and reliability, reduces reactant consumption, cost, weight and volume and simplifies the supporting system requirements in both near-term and advanced missions. Phase I p ...

Space exploration is a unique challenge with many difficulties in its implementation. With a goal of the return of man to the moon and travel to Mars, the stage has been set for the expansion of human knowledge beyond comprehension. Traveling to the moon and Mars, however, will require new and innovative technologies. Key to this will be system health management (SHM). For any given system of the ...

This subtopic solicited Phase I R&D for an advanced Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) system that would provide fast-scanning high resolution (3 scans/sec at 1cm-1 resolution), low noise, mid-infrared measurements for characterization of spray flames. In Phase I, Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR) demonstrated FT-IR emission/transmission (E/T) measurements from the NIST spray combustion faci ...

Inframat proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating high frequency soft magnetic/ceramic nanocomposites for significantly improved magnetic performance for NASA¿¿s electronic equipment applications. The improved properties will include a combination of higher magnetic permeability, higher electrical resistivity, and lower magnetic loss compared with conventional NiFe2O4 and Co2Z ferr ...

A new silicon microchannel plate technology is proposed that can significantly improve the performance of particle detectors, astronomical observation instruments and night vision systems. The silicon based technology allows many material systems to be used that cannot be used in traditional glass microchannel plates due to the temperature processing requirements. In particular, the silicon techno ...