Award Data

This effort will investigate the use MALDI (matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization)-TOF (time-of-flight) mass spectrometer as a platform for rapid analysis of biomarkers in operational and training environments. In Phase I samples, will be acquired from human subjects under stress. These samples will be processed for analysis using our prototype portable MALDI TOF mass spectrometer. Samples w ...

In recent years, the need for highly reliable, durable and non-intrusive systems for monitoring the health condition of naval structures becomes more and more recognized. Of particular importance is the condition based maintenance of Navy rotating machinery (motors, generators, pumps, gear systems, etc.). Such Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems should be able to detect failures in their ea ...

Sensatek Propulsion Technology, Inc. proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of a wireless, passive, nanoparticle-based sensor system. The sensor in its current form can be used to measure real time temperatures and pressures wirelessly without the need of an external energy source. It should be noted that the same sensing principle can be used for strain monitoring as well. It comprises of a micr ...

A broadband antenna, having more than a 100:1 bandwidth,is integrated with a high impedance surface that is compatible with the manufacturing processes associated with with Navy topside panel constructions and marine vehicle armor. The high impedance surface (also known as an artificial magnetic conductor, or AMC) can be tuned to discrete frequency bands using voltage-variable capacitors and the o ...

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 ...

Nanoscale, material sensitive, imaging techniques are critical for progress in many disciplines as we learn to master science and technology at the smallest dimensions — on the nanometer to atomic-scale. However, progress in both science and technology is becoming increasingly limited by the constraints of current imaging techniques and metrologies. Fortunately, by combining coherent extreme UV ...

Suppression of noise from aircraft is a vital NASA goal, especially important for the vision of Urban Air Mobility. Small urban aircraft may utilize Distributed Electric Propulsion along with advanced structural and electric motor/storage technologies to achieve the necessary flight capability. However, these aircraft utilize propellers or fans to achieve the necessary thrust, with attendant commu ...

Modern Directed Energy (DE) missions require target engagements at low elevation angles and long ranges.These engagement geometries require propagation through distributed-volume turbulence. To correct for distributed-volume turbulence effects, an estimation of the turbulence along the propagation path is required. Correcting for these image aberrations will improve the quality of the target image ...

Through the execution of our Phase 1 effort, Nutronics, Inc. and Montana State University developed an improved means to optimize the Pellizzarri cost functional for coherent imaging using digital holography. Our algorithm developed during the Phase 1 effort accelerates convergence times by a factor of 20-40 for the majority of scenarios evaluated. Our proposed Phase 2 effort has a two-fold focus: ...

Nutronics, Inc. and Montana State University propose to develop and evaluate computational methods for a Volume Digital Holographic Wavefront Sensor (VDHWFS).VDHWFS based imaging offers the potential to provide the equivalent of wide field of view adaptive optics (AO) compensated imaging, but without the added complexity of AO components and hardware.Recent result for coherent imaging developed by ...