Award Data

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop a predictive computational tool for the aerothermal environment around ablation-cooled hypersonic atmospheric entry vehicles. This tool is based on coupling the relevant physics models to the LeMANS code for hypersonic flows and to the MOPAR code for material response, both developed by the University of Michigan. In Phase I of this project, we developed ...

CFDRC and TRLA are proposing to develop, design and test a highly scalable, mass-optimized inflatable structure that makes maximum utilization of materials in providing tailored stiffness and rigidity for hypersonic entry vehicles. The proposed inflatable structure is a hybrid pressure restraint vessel employing an impervious cloth-reinforced barrier structure enveloped by an integrated array of h ...

NASA's future science missions to investigate the structure and evolution of the universe require highly efficient, very low temperature coolers for low noise detector systems. We propose to develop a highly efficient, lightweight Active Magnetic Regenerative Refrigeration (AMRR) system that can continuously provide remote/distributed cooling at temperatures in the range of 2 K with a heat sink a ...

Thermal analysis is increasingly used in the engineering of spacecrafts at every stage, including design, test, and ground-operation simulation. Currently used high-fidelity modeling and simulation tools at NASA are computationally prohibitive and not fully compatible with integrated analysis of spacecrafts. We propose to develop and demonstrate an innovative Model Order Reduction (MOR) software t ...

Future manned space exploration missions will require space suits with capabilities beyond the current state of the art. Portable Life Support Systems for these future space suits face daunting challenges, since they must maintain healthy and comfortable conditions inside the suit for long-duration missions while minimizing weight and venting no consumables. We propose to develop an innovative s ...

For a number of years Creare has developed, fabricated, and tested highly miniaturized, high vacuum pumps specifically designed for mass spectrometers used on NASA Mars missions. These pumps would also be useful on other missions to planets and satellites with atmosphere, such as Titan, as well as terrestrial applications on Earth. In order to allow these high vacuum pumps to operate in high-pr ...

NASA space exploration missions require the electronics for avionic systems, components, and controllers that are capable of operating in the extreme temperature and radiation environments of space and planetary surfaces. To design wide-temperature, radiation-hardened (rad-hard) electronics and predict the characteristics and reliability in these extreme environments, advanced models and simulatio ...

Accurate real-time microbial monitoring of water environment is of paramount importance to crew health as well as to ensure proper functioning and control of the life support system during space exploration. The existing methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the devices used are bulky, consumable-hungry, and ill-suited for spacecraft deployment. We propose to develop and demonstrate ...

Scientic, Inc. and Vanderbilt University propose to dramatically improve the performance of ultracapacitors to address several applications within NASA. As power-supply components, ultracapacitors provide extremely high power densities, fast recharging rates, and long cycle life; when used in tandem with batteries, they can greatly extend battery life. We note that ultracapacitors can assume almos ...

The innovation of our Phase II STTR program is to develop and provide to NASA automatic mesh generation software for the simulation of fluid flows using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes codes. As a result of the successful Phase I work, these new tools are now capable of generating high-quality, highly-stretched (anisotropic) meshes in boundary layer regions and transition smoothly to inviscid flow ...