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 ...

This proposal addresses the need for a new generation of water vapor DIAL transmitters. These transmitters must be UAV flight deployable and operate efficiently at a high repetition rate and low pulse energy. Aculight proposes to address this need with a compositionally tuned garnet laser that operates directly at the wavelength of interest. This quasi-four level laser material requires a very bri ...

The innovation addressed in this proposal is the development of a non-catalytic thruster for an attitude control system that employs an environmentally friendly (¿green¿) monopropellant. The thruster and tailored propellant blends developed during the course of this proposed program would eliminate the temperature-limiting catalyst beds that currently prevent the full realization of green monopr ...

For propulsion related applications, materials must be able to demonstrate excellent ablation and oxidation resistance at temperature approaching 3500?C, adequate load bearing capabilities, non-catastrophic failure modes, and ability to withstand transient thermal shock. Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc. (ACR) has developed low cost, flexible-manufacturing processes for Zr & Hf-based carbon fiber r ...

NASA has many needs for maintenance and repair technologies for long-duration human space missions. We propose to continue developing a compact, portable, vacuum-compatible, multi-axis Manipulator/Machining Center (M/MC) to satisfy many of NASA's needs. Our M/MC will provide complex manipulation during: layer-additive manufacturing; collection of geometric data for reverse-engineering; real-time ...

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 ...

STIRLING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY (STC) WILL BUILD AND DEMONSTRATEA PROPRIETARY STIRLING ENGINE PRESSURE STABILIZED HEATER HEAD (PSHH) WITH AN INTEGRATED HEAT PIPE WHICH OFFERS LONG LIFE, HIGH RELIABILITY, IMPROVED PERFORMANCE AND LOWER COSTSRELATIVE TO EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES. THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE HAS RECENTLY ISSUED A PATENT ALLOWANCE FOR THIS UNIQUE HEATER HEAD CONCEPT, AND EVALUATIONS OF THE PSHH BY ...

Freestanding metallized polyimide films have become a standard for soft x-ray filters. The strength and thermal stability of polyimide has been used to advantage in producing increasingly larger and thinner filters. To continue this trend and to improve the durability and throughput of filters for current instruments, it is proposed to develop a new generation of freestanding thin film filter desi ...

SiC based mirrors offer great potential for space-borne structures. Current support technology is limited due to poor fracture toughness of RBSiC. This proposal offers a novel, composite technology to produce near zero CTE structure exhibiting only 4 kg/m2 aerial density.

Ultra-light materials are enabling for producing space based optical components and support structures. Heretofore, innovative design using existing materials has been the approach to produce lightweight optical systems. Graphite fiber, because of its lightweight, reinforced composites have been a material of frequent choice to produce space based optical components. A novel and unique new approac ...