Award Data

NASA wants a cost-effective atmospheric remote sensing system providing accurate temperature and humidity profiles to least 10 km height in clear and cloudy conditions. Radiometrics Microwave Profiler (MP) products currently provide accurate temperature and humidity profiles in good agreement with radiosondes to 3 km height. Good agreement can be extended beyond 10 km height using variational retr ...

Solid rocket motor (SRM) design requires detailed understanding of the slag accumulation process in order to: predict thrust continuity, optimize propellant conversion efficiency, predict coning effects from sloshing, and to assess potential orbital debris (slag) hazard. Current state-of-the-art models for SRM environment do not have the capability to simulate the accumulation and dynamics of slag ...

Launch vehicles experience extreme acoustic loads dominated by rocket plume interactions with ground structures during liftoff, which can produce damaging vibro-acoustic loads on the vehicle and payloads if not properly understood and mitigated against. Existing capabilities for modeling turbulent plume physics are too dissipative to accurately resolve the acoustic propagation and detailed vehicle ...

A key goal of the current NASA ARMD Strategic Plan is to achieve Low Carbon Emissions through use of alternative propulsion systems such as electric/hybrid propulsion. In this regard, NASA’s STTR solicitation seeks innovative approaches in designing and analyzing Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) aircraft to support ARMD’s Strategic Thrust #3 (Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles) and #4 ( ...

This proposal focuses on the superconducting coils subsystem, a critical subsystem for the PFRC reactor and Direct Fusion Drive and other fusion and electric propulsion technologies. Our strategy for PFRC has evolved since our Phase I proposal, and we now propose a hybrid magnet approach: a combination of so-called “dry” conduction-cooled low-temperature (LTS) superconductor magnets and high-t ...

Regenerative space life support will undoubtedly require food production, to recover nutrients and close the carbon loop in a spacecraft habitat. Aquatic plants have enormous potential for edible biomass production but have been little studied as potential food crops for space applications. The proposed μG-LilyPond™ is an autonomous environmentally controlled floating plant cultivation system ...

"The next generation of very high field accelerator magnets (20 T or more) are expected to be made with high-temperature superconductors (HTS) along with conventional low-temperature superconductors (LTS) to reduce cost. The operation and protection of these magnets becomes very challenging particularly if the HTS coils are made with the tapes and operate at a much lower current than the LTS coils ...

To increase the utilization of electric vehicles, the US Department of Energy is seeking to reduce the cost of electric vehicle batteries to less than $125/kWh by 2022. To achieve this goal, the costs of cathode materials, which account for approximately 30% of the cost of vehicle batteries, must be reduced significantly. To address the challenge of lowering the costs of advanced lithium battery c ...

The landing surface damage and liberation of debris particles caused by rocket plume impingement flow during spacecraft propulsive landing on unprepared surfaces of Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies poses a high risk for robotic and human exploration activities. Simply determining whether the plume induced loads exceed the bedrock bearing capacity threshold is not sufficient. An integrated m ...

Spacecraft propulsive landings on unprepared regolith present in extra-terrestrial environments pose a high risk for space exploration missions. Plume/regolith interaction results in (1) the liberation of dust and debris particles that may collide with the landing vehicle and (2) craters whose shape itself can influence vehicle dynamics. To investigate such gas-granular interactions for large-scal ...