Award Data

USING TECHNOLOGY NOW IN EXISTENCE AND NOW BEING DEVELOPED IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUILD A HIGH RELIABILITY, CRYOGENIC OXYGEN REFRIGERATOR. THE TEMPERATURE RANGE IN WHICH THE REFRIGERATOR WOULD FUNCTION WOULD BE CONTROLLABLE BETWEEN 70 AND 140 KELVIN. THE BASIS FOR THIS REFRIGERATION CYCLE WOULD BE CERAMIC ELECTROLYTE TECHNOLOGY BY WHICH OXYGEN CAN BE COMPRESSED USING AN ELECTRIC POTENTIAL ACROSS THE CER ...

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THIS EFFORT INVESTIGATES THE USE OF THE HIGH-SPEED ELECTRO-OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTALS (FLC) TO MAKE OPTICAL CROSSBAR SWITCHES. THESE SWITCHES WOULD PERMIT LARGE NUMBERS (HUNDREDS TO THOUSANDS) OF INPUT LIGHT BEAMS MODULATED AT GHZ RATES TO BE CONNECTED TO AN EQUALLY LARGE NUMBER OF OUTPUTS. FLC SWITCHES ALSO REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF LIGHT LOST BETWEEN INPUT AND OUTPUT TO A SM ...

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A SOLID STATE SWITCH FOR OPERATION AT CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURE IS BEING DEVELOPED THAT WILL PROVIDE MULTI-MEGAWATT POWER CONDITIONING IN THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING FIELD OF LOW TEMPERATURE ELECTRONICS. SINCE EXISTING CONTROLLED SWITCHES ARE NOT DIRECTLY SUITABLE FOR CRYOGENIC OPERATION, ONLY A FUNDAMENTAL APPROACH CAN DEVELOP STRUCTURES CAPABLE OF LOW LOSS AND RELIABLE OPERATION IN THE TEMPERATURE RANGE B ...

THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A SIMPLE YET ACCURATE APPROACH TO MEASURING THE POSITION AND ORIENTATION OF A ROBOT. THE MECHANISM CAN BE USED TO MAKE BOTH STATIC AND DYNAMIC MEASUREMENTS. TWO VERSIONS OF THE DESIGN ARE PROPOSED; THE FIRST VERSION HAVING HIGH ACCURACY OVER A SMALL WORK VOLUME,AND THE SECOND VERSION HAVING LOWER ACCURACY OVER A WORK VOLUME WHICH WOULD ALLOW POSE MEASUREMENT OVER THE ENTIRE ...

THE COOLING REQUIRED FOR THE PROPER OPERATION OF VARIOUS SENSORS AND INSTRUMENTS IS A KEY PROBLEM IN SPACE-BASED FACILITIES. A NOVEL CONCEPT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AT LONE PEAK ENGINEERING BASED ON THE COMPRESSION OF A GAS TO HIGH PRESSURES USING A SOLID ELECTROLYTE COMPRESSOR. RAPID EXPANSION OF THE COMPRESSED GAS (JOULE-THOMSON EFFECT) CAN BE USED TO COOL SPACECRAFT INSTRUMENTS AND EQUIPMENT. SOME O ...

THE DISSEMINATION OF TIMELY WEATHER DATA IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT AS THE POPULATION DENSITY OF THE UNITED STATES INCREASES. AS THE SOLE GOVERNMENT OPERATED RADIO SYSTEM PROVIDING DIRECT WARNINGS TO PRIVATE HOMES, THENOAA WEATHER RADIO (NWR) SYSTEM IS CRITICAL FOR DISSEMINATING NATURAL DISASTER WARNINGS AND THE TIMELY DISSEMINATION OF WEATHER DATA. THE NEED FOR A LOW COST, REAL TIME COVER ...

THREE ASPECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE INVOLVING VERY HIGH TROPICAL CLOUDS ARE: (1) WHETHER CHANGES IN HIGH CLOUD PARAMETERS LEAD TO POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE FEEDBACK IN CO2 EFFECTS ON CLIMATIC TEMPERATURE CHANGES; (2) DO CHANGES IN THE HEIGHTS OF CLOUD TOPS AND CLOUD AMOUNT, OR CLOUDS WHICH REACH TO THE TROPICAL TROPOPAUSE, AFFECT THE AMOUNT OFWATER VAPOR IN THE LOWER STRATOSPHERE AND INDIRECTLY THE ANTARCT ...

INFRARED SYSTEMS ARE NEEDED FOR A VARIETY OF DEFENSE RELATED APPLICATIONS, SUCH AS: SURVEILLANCE, TARGET DETECTION, ACQUISITION AND TRACKING, MISSILE GUIDANCE, ETC. FOR MANY APPLICATIONS SUCH AS THOSE INVOLVING COLD-DIM TARGETS, THESE SYSTEMS NEED TO OPERATE IN THE VERY LONG WAVELENGTH REGION OF THE INFRARED SPECTRUM, E.G. 15-35 MICRONS CUTOFF. IN THIS WAVELENGTH REGION, THE AVAILABILITY OF SUITAB ...