Award Data

THE NEED FOR INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF SPACE-BORNE SENSORS WILL REQUIRE DEVELOPMENT OF LONG-LIFE, HIGHLY EFFICIENT HELIUM LIQUIFIERS. CONVENTIONAL HELIUM LIQUIFIERS EMPLOY A JOULE-THOMSON EXPANSION VALVE TO EXPAND THE HELIUM AT TEMPERATURES BELOW ABOUT 10 DEG K. IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT GAINS OF UP TO 30% IN OVERALL CYCLE EFFICIENCY CAN BE OBTAINED IF THE JOULE-THOMSON VALVE IS REPLACED BY AN EX ...

Vadum will implement and test a novel Nonlinear Automated Measurement System (NAMS) instrument package designed in Phase-I to perform very high dynamic range RF two-tone measurements.The NAMS will be an integrated instrument with software for performing rapid, automated linear and nonlinear large signal RF measurements.The prototype instrument utilizes an active feed-forward canceller to achieve a ...

Development of accurate and effective new diagnostic and prognostic capabilities for JSF PHM will require extensive data on both health and faulted systems states. While healthy signatures can be collected quickly and easily, faulted systems are only observed rarely, and duplicating faulted conditions with seeded fault tests is time-consuming and expensive. Simulation models for faulted conditions ...

Bearing failure in satellite applications is related to lubricant starvation rather than fatigue, and health monitoring systems for these applications must be able to observe subtle changes related to lubrication state. Phase I included an experimental study to identify candidate monitoring approaches, and the data collected confirmed that cage motion characteristics and instability are highly sen ...

Insuring the safety and control of littoral waters is problematic because of the difficulties of surveillance. The preferred methods of surveillance in the ocean are acoustic. In littoral waters, acoustic methods fail because noise from the surf and reflections from the shallow bottom convolute acoustic signatures beyond our capacity to discern them. Water absorbs light, reducing the effectiven ...

Aircraft carrier control systems rely upon many sensors and signal processors to ensure safe and efficient aircraft launch and recovery. As one example subsystem, Digital End Speed Indicators (DESI) use reluctance sensors mounted within the catapult trough to determine aircraft end speed during launch. The DESI was developed in the 1980s, and recent reliability problems have highlighted the need f ...

Mentis Sciences Inc. proposes to develop Technical Data Packages and generate Source Approval Requests for critically needed components for the Air Launched Cruise Missile engine platform, the F107, which is no longer supported by the OEM. The supply of some spare parts may be exhausted as early as Oct 2018, on a system that is scheduled to remain in service through at least 2030.Mentis will work ...

Superconducting radio-frequency receivers, optical absorption energy sensors, and quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize digital communications for manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, (UAVs) and satellites. Development of low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) cryocooler technology is essential since these communication systems must operate at cryogenic temperatures. Turb ...

Corvid Technologies approach for improving munition technologies is to design an asymmetric shock propagation barrier (ASPB) with reactive composite materials (RCM) to enhance functional and lethality characteristics over traditional shock attenuation barriers. In Phase I, we teamed with Shock Transients Inc. (STI) to develop, evaluate, and fabricate a two-layer ASPB concept using MPXITM, an RCM d ...

Lithium oxyhalide batteries offer energy densities several times higher than thermal batteries. Like thermal batteries, lithium oxyhalide batteries have unactivated storage lives in excess of 20 years and are mechanically rugged. Some of the main advantages that lithium oxyhalide batteries offer are flat discharge voltage profiles and potentially long operating lives. However, battery performanc ...