Award Data

Analogous to the CubeSat standardization of micro-satellites, the SPORE flight system architecture will utilize a modular design approach to provide low-cost on-orbit operation and recovery of small payloads. The Phase 1 investigation will evaluate a scalable flight system architecture consisting of a service module for on-orbit operations and deorbit maneuvering, and an entry vehicle to perform ...

ProtoInnovations, LLC and Carnegie Mellon University have formed a partnership to commercially develop localization and mapping technologies for planetary rovers. Our first aim is to provide a reliable means of localization that is independent of infrastructure, such as GPS, and compatible with requirements of missions to planetary surfaces. Simultaneously solving for the precise location of the r ...

Busek proposes to prove the feasibility of a Mg Hall effect thruster system that would open the door for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) based solar system exploration. Elemental magnesium has favorable thermophysical properties and is very easy to ionize. The estimated specific impulse for a high efficiency magnesium Hall thruster operating off of a standard 400 V power processing unit is 5 ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) together with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) proposes to demonstrate the improved fuel cell catalyst support durability offered by directly incorporating nitrogen functionality into graphitic carbon supports. In Phase I, PSI will utilize the functionalized carbon support in the construction of single cell fuel cells in order to demonstrate the performance and d ...

The proposed effort will develop a technology to wirelessly and efficiently transfer power over hundreds of meters via resonant inductive coupling. The key innovation of this approach is the use of dielectricless high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils to overcome the limitations in efficiency and range of existing solutions. This approach is informed by existing research models that predic ...

The Goal of this STTR is to develop a high speed, high power, waveguide based modulator (phase and amplitude) and investigate its use as a pulse slicer. The key innovation in this effort is the use of potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) waveguides making the high power, polarization based waveguide amplitude modulator possible. Furthermore because it is fabricated in KTP, the waveguide component w ...

We propose novel and real-time smart software tools to process spectroscopy data. Material abundance or compositional maps will be generated for rover guidance, sample selection, and other scientific missions. First, we propose a novel anomaly detector called clustered kernel Reed-Xiaoli (CKRX) algorithm. This tool was developed by us, is fast, and can achieve very high anomaly detection rate in ...

This proposal describes the preliminary development of surface acoustic wave (SAW) based hypergolic fuel sensors for NASA application to distributed wireless leak detection systems. SAW devices are a platform technology for passive wireless sensing of numerous possible measurands. ASR & D and its collaborators have demonstrated passive wireless sensors using SAW devices, for applications includi ...

The proposed project will develop a set of at least 100 passive wireless surface acoustic wave (SAW) RFID sensor-tags for near-simultaneous remote monitoring of groups of conventional sensors. Coded SAW sensor-tags have been demonstrated by ASR & D under NNX09CE49P to be capable of providing a passive wireless interface to external sensors, including switches, thermistors, and strain gages, as we ...

NASA is interested in advancing green technology research for achieving sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources for both terrestrial and space applications. It has been reported that thermo-electric power generation (TEPG) can contribute to electrical power generation scavenged from waste heat sources. Significant advantages to TE technology include: no moving parts, low-weight, mo ...