Award Data

To help NASA achieve there current and future space explorationnbsp;goals, Geisel Software and University of Nevada, Las Vegas are proposing a solution that will allow for collaborative mobility and manipulation in a heterogeneous robotic environment. This includes the ability for robots to handle problem solving on their own, as well as both high-level and direct control from humans, when desired ...

Water recovery from wastewater sources is a key to long duration human exploration missions.nbsp; Regenerative systems are utilized on the International Space Station (ISS) to recycle water from humidity condensate and urine. However, two organic compounds, dimethylsilanediol (DMSD) and dimethyl sulfone (DMSO2), are problematic to water processor assembly (WPA) in the ISS. DMSD is a silicon-contai ...

Phytodetectors will design and engineer a synthetic biological pump circuit to increase the volume of water produced via photosynthetic desalination. This project builds off previous technology designed by Phytodetectors: a mangrove-inspired ultra-filter that allows plants to purify salt water as well as secrete water with properties comparable to bottled water. The partnership seeks to demonstrat ...

Food production, and in particular animal-derived meat products, are a major source of green-house gases, compounded by the remarkable inefficiency in biomass conversion (grain to dense muscle tissue in meat), along with growing challenges with food safety, quality and nutrition. To address this growing problem, we propose to exploit the emerging field of cellular agriculture (tissue engineering o ...

To address the need for thermal protection systems with reduced cost and reduced complexity, with continuity over large areas, thermoset resin nanocomposite materials that are compatible with additive-manufacturing process will be optimized for thermal shielding applications. Additive manufacturing offers significant possibilities for developing and fabricating a thermal protection system (TPS); a ...

CTEN Global Strategies, LLC, with a wealth of experience in aviation and business, focuses on investing in technology, and then looking for ways to implement that technology in the market place to bring solutions to truly challenging problems.nbsp;nbsp;A clear problem exists when teams of engineers are working to develop components of a complex system, from engine mounts, to an entire electrical g ...

For long duration space missions beyond LEO there is a wealth of COTS hardware that could potentially be implemented for non-critical tasks within heavily shielded spacecraft cabins. To employ COTS systems for such missions, we propose to use a simulation/experimental/statistical approach for risk acceptance Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) suitable for Cis-Lunar and Cis-Mars missions. The simul ...

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics systems operated in highly-shielded enclosures (HSE) will all require power supplies or DC/DC converters to power the signal processing electronics. nbsp;Most power supplies are based on switching converters that require power transistors, diodes, gate drivers, and control ICs that regulate the power. These components in a COTS assembly will all be unhar ...

Conventional lithium-ion batteries demonstrate great potential for energy storage applications but they face some major challenges such as low energy density and cycle life. It is meaningful to pursue alternative strategies to address these barriers. nbsp;In this project, we will design and develop high energy Li-metal battery using solid electrolytes that may lead to high energy density (300-400 ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and Auburn University propose to develop a smart sensor module (SSM) to enable wireless sensing capabilities in liquid propulsion systems. An SSM would increase NASArsquo;s capabilities by eliminating labor-intensive tasks such as routing and securing cables. It would also improve sensor accessibility in locations that are difficult to diagnose, and enable advanced com ...