Award Data

Firefly, in collaboration with Rochester Institute of Technology, proposes an STTR program for the development of a wide-bandgap GaP-based space solar cell capable of efficient operation at temperatures above 300oC. Efficiency enhancement will be achieved by the introduction of InGaP quantum wells within the active region of the wide-gap base material. The introduction of these nanoscale features ...

Opterus Research and Development, Inc. proposes to develop and validate multi-scale thin-ply High Strain Composites (HSCs) constitutive modeling tools for incorporation into commercial finite element analysis codes. The constitutive models will capture the time-temperature-load-deformation viscoelastic characteristics common to HSCs as well as the yielding or permanent deformation associated with ...

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 ...

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 ...

For long duration space missions beyond LEO, the complexity of the missions and the latency of communications with Earth will require HPC systems that would be prohibitively expensive if qualified under traditional guidelines for high reliability space systems. There is a wealth COTS hardware that could potentially be used for HPC systems for non-critical tasks within heavily shielded spacecraft c ...

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 ...

The proposed work is directed towards the understanding and utilization of the relatively unexplored concept of ablative laser propulsion (ALP). The work will include direct measurements of the specific impulse imparted to solid targets under short-pulse laser irradiation. The purpose of the proposed work is to demonstrate the viability of the ALP concept and to develop a set of specific requireme ...

In this STTR Phase I program, Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) and Arizona State University (ASU) will develop a SiGeSn based light emitter device technology on Si, which will be a key ingredient for Si-based integrated photonics applications, such as in lab-on-a-chip integrated chemical and biological spectrometers for landers, astronaut health monitoring, front-end and back-end for re ...

Space presents a challenging environment for computing. Extended development times and radiation tolerance requirements leave hardware performance a decade or more behind the terrestrial state-of-the-art at the time of deployment. Additionally, once deployed, hardware changes are impractical, encouraging a trend towards increased software programmability. At the same time, topside pressure from ap ...

This program will develop a communication-less solution to decentralized control and task coordination for multi-agent systems (MAS). Reducing the operational burden of MAS swarms on human operators will greatly improve the capability of spacecraft constellations and distant planetary explorations. The proposed solution would guide the MAS towards a cost minimized set of actions by performing grad ...