Award Data

Reduced mass materials are critical to the success of aerospace systems. Thus, large air and space structures can benefit from lightweight composite materials. However, their adoption is impaired by the lack of a robust, cost-effective fabrication process, principally because the autoclaves used to consolidate composite laminates are so expensive for large parts. This program develops for US aeros ...

DISCRETE ELEMENT X-RAY DETECTORS DEVELOPED FROM MEDICAL COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) ARE BEING APPLIED TO INDUSTRIAL X-RAY DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY (DR) AND CT IMAGING. A DR TECHNIQUE KNOWN AS SLIT RADIOGRAPHY, USING THESE DETECTORS, MAY HAVE SPECIAL APPLICATION FOR BOND LINE DEFECTS IN CYLINDRICAL ASSEMBLIES. SLIT RADIOGRAPHY CAN QUICKLY MAP DENSITY VARIATIONS WITHIN THE ROCKET MOTOR WALL ASSOCIATED WITH ...

AN ANODIC ALUMINUM OXIDE COATING HAS BEEN RECOMMENDED FOR THE SPACE STATION CREW SYSTEMS RADIATOR. CRACKING BY THERMAL FATIGUE IS ITS PROBABLE LONG-TERM FAILURE MECHANISM, BUT IT IS NOT CLEAR HOW TO PERFORM ACCELERATED THERMAL CYCLE TESTS TO GET A RELIABLE PREDICTION OF LIFETIME. WE PROPOSE TO MEASURE THE STRESS, AND TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF STRESS OF ANODIC COATINGS. A THERMAL STRAIN PARAMETER I ...

The recent performance increases in graphics processing units (GPUs) have made graphics cards an attractive platform for implementing computationally intense applications. With their numerous parallel computational pipelines and SIMD architecture, modern GPUs can outperform high-end microprocessors by one to three orders of magnitude, depending on the problem. Most work to date at EM Photonics a ...

NASA's next generation of x-ray observation missions require x-ray calorimeters with superior energy resolution. Semimetallic HgTe has already proven itself as an excellent soft x-ray absorber material due to its low heat capacity. Hg0.834Cd0.166Te was shown in Phase 1 to have a heat capacity superior to that of HgTe. Hence Hg0.834Cd0.166Te-based microcalorimeter arrays are expected to have an ene ...

The objective of this proposal is to study and demonstrate novel GaAsNP/GaP/AlGaP technology for use in extreme photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion. NASA and the scientific community are interested in solar missions that go as far as Saturn or even into near sun conditions. Such missions present a challenging problem for PV technology. In addition to the requisite high efficiency and reduced so ...

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL, COMBINED ELECTROMAGNETIC LEVITATOR/POSITIONER AND HEATER FOR COMMERCIAL MATERIALS PROCESSING IN A NON-CONTACT ENVIRONMENT IS DESCRIBED. THE STABILIZED ELECTROMAGNETIC LEVITATOR (SEL) IS A 3-AXIS SYSTEM WHICH WILL PROVIDE STABLE LEVITATION AND POSITIONING OF A WIDE VARIETY OF MATERIALS. THE USE OF COMPACT, BROADBAND POWER AMPLIFIERS WITH AN OPTIMIZED COIL DESIGN WILL ALL ...

CANS WILL BURST FROM OVER-PRESSURIZATION AS A RESULT OF THE AEROSOL CAN IS A CONSUMER CONVENIENCE ITEM USED FOR MANYYEARS. HOWEVER, SAFETY PROBLEMS HAVE EXISTED BECAUSE THE CANS WILL BURST FROM OVER-PRESSURIZATION AS A RESULT OF OVER-TEMPERATURE. THE PROBLEM IS MADE ACUTE BY THE INTRODUCTION OF FLAMMABLE PROPELLANTS AND SERIOUS CONCERNS EXIST FOR SAFE TRANSPORT OF THESE CANS IN AIRCRAFT CARGO COMP ...

The goal of this Phase II project is to deliver an integrated L-band transmit/receive (T/R) module which will be fabricated from a GaAs-based combined HBT/PHEMT epistructure. The T/R module will consist of a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, and two switches. The performance goal for the low noise amplifier is 30 dB gain with a less than 1.0 dB noise figure. The performance goal for the p ...

The Complex Event Recognition Architecture (CERA) provides five major innovations: (1) The ComplexEvent Description Language (CEDL): a declarative language for describing complex events: that is, eventsthat can occur across time, be sensed from multiple channels, and be composed of the conjunction, disjunctionor negation of other complex or simple events; (2) The Complex Event Recognition Language ...