Award Data

This effort will characterize the spatial structure and real world features of stressing atmospheric phenomena and develop techniques to efficiently represent these phenomena in optical/infrared background models. Our approach to this problem involves locating and identifying stressing backgrounds contained in measurements and extracting key clutter characteristics in a form that allows t ...

DTRA uses high-resolution mesoscale forecasts to drive HPAC, the DTRA dispersion modeling tool that generates critical forecasts of dosage resulting from releases of chemical, biological, or radiological agents. HPAC is designed to provide probablistic information based on estimates of the uncertainty of the input forecast fields of the meteorological variables (wind, temperature, etc.). ...

Leveraging on Agiltron's recent breakthrough in manufacturing low cost fiber optic digital delay lines and the drastic improvement in cost and performance of commercial optical transceivers, we propose to develop a practical fiber optic variable time delay based T/R integration module for microwave coherent distributed aperture and space-time coded phased array radars. The proposed approach overco ...

U.S. forces working in low-level radiation environments have unsatisfactory choices for monitoring radiation exposure. The currently available A/UDR-13 pocket dosimeter is able to meet sensitivity requirements, but is cost prohibitive at ~$400 per unit, and it fails in the high temperature environments faced our military. Careful monitoring and accurate reporting of the exposed dose will reduce t ...

Proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons is a serious threat in the world today. Prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency in recent years, especially since the events on September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. Gamma ray spectrometers are an important tool in checking the proliferation of the nuclear weapons. Important re ...

Aspen Systems Inc., proposes to investigate the feasibility of developing a protective coating material for ZnS that will have comparable mechanical properties of ALON, Spinel and Sapphire but will retain the extended regime transmission properties of multi-spectral ZnS. However, ZnS being a soft material with relatively poor mechanical strength and erosion resistance, it is essential to develop a ...

Conventional weapons rely on blast and fragmentation as the primary defeat mechanism, whereas non-energetic payloads rely on other means to defeat the target. Non-energetic weapons may defeat targets by the dispersion of aerosols (solid or liquid) or gases to interact with critical target elements. The objective is to cause some combination of denial, disruption, degradation, or destruction witho ...

For the Phase I effort, Busek developed a simple, integrated colloid thruster prototype capable of producing thrust of 100 µN at reasonable operating conditions. A unique geometry was chosen from several electrospraying sources tested. This thrust was conservatively estimated from measured beam current, accelerating voltage and could be significantly higher. As this was achieved from an area o ...

A new generation of high altitude airships (HAA) requires advanced materials and fabrication methods to achieve the weight, strength and durability requirement for long-term deployment. A new fabric joining approach is proposed to form strong, durable seams between textile components without incurring a large weight penalty. The new textile adhesive and application system are designed to perform ...

Missile defense takes place in an unpredictable, real-time environment and thus requires an adaptive approach to optimization that dynamically allocates sensors and their supporting resources in response to changing goals and constraints. Here, we propose a system for Sensor Network Optimization using Multi-Agent Negotiation (SNOMAN) to meet the challenge of this real-time resource allocation prob ...