Award Data

An interactive application that employs social interactions to teach key social conventions, including appropriate responses, reacting to body language and facial expressions, and the ability to ask for help to facilitate functioning in society

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 ...

ACI proposes a design for a Propulsor (Low Cost/Low Noise Variable Pitch Ducted Fan) that has wide application in all sectors of Aviation. Propulsor hardware of this low cost design can be integrated with a broad range of aircraft engines (e.g. existing piston engines, automotive derivative piston engines, new design turbine engines) for use in new design aircraft. The proposed Propulsor desig ...

A novel type of fuel providing high burning rate for hybrid rocket applications is proposed. This fuel maintains a hydrodynamically rough surface to radically enhance convective heat transfer rate, and hence the fuel burn rate. This is achieved by incorporating a particulate fuel material dispersed within a continuum phase polymer matrix. The dispersed fuel material is chosen to transition f ...

Biofilms are ubiquitous in the environment. Few surfaces resist biofilm formation, most promote it. Biofilm formation poses problems in water systems as they can clog pipes and pores, block filters, reduce heat transfer, and in general restrict flow. Their metabolic products can aid corrosion, even of stainless steel. In potable water systems, both their metabolic products and the bacteria or ...

NASA requires clear antistatic coatings that can withstand exposure to the rigors of the space environment. Agiltron proposes a coating consisting of inorganic conducting particles and space environment resistant polymer that shares the best features of inorganics and organics currently available. Such a coating could potentially be processed by common polymeric routes yet have the optical/electri ...

Air-Lock will deliver a final report based on the follwoing: 1. Historical summary of bearing design evolution throughout the life of the EMU Program 2. Material research to identify lightweight materials best suited for each beairng. 3. Redesign of current EMU bearings to lower bearing profile and mass.

An understanding of the basic cellular mechanisms organisms use to cope with extreme environments is important as we search for life in other parts of the universe and seek to adapt terrestrial life beyond earth. Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc. proposes to build an automated, high-throughput instrument to measure changes in protein expression levels in single living cells during passage in a sp ...

A new type of a photon-counting photodetector is proposed to advance the state-of the-art in deep space optical communications technology. The proposed detector would operate at 1064 and 1550 nm, and combine high speed of operation with very gain and ultra low noise. The minimal expected parameters are a bandwidth of over 500 MHz (10 GHz might be possible), internal gain of over 1000 (100,000 exp ...

It is desirable to develop a high-efficiency lighting source for large-area irradiation of space-based crops. The key requirements for such a system include high efficiency, light weight, easy and rapid deployment, compact storage, ruggedness, and low cost. Furthermore, in order to maximize the rate of photosynthesis, it is desirable that the light source deliver an emission spectrum that match ...