Award Data

Current modeling of Lunar and Martian soil erosion and debris transport caused by rocket plume impingement lacks essential physics from the peculiar granular characteristics of highly irregular regolith particles. Current granular mechanics models are based on mono-disperse spherical particles empiricism unsuitable for capturing the poly-disperse irregularly shaped grain mechanics. CFDRC and the U ...

Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. (CRG), proposes to develop self-deploying, composite structures for lunar habitats, based on CRG's VeritexTM materials. These structures will provide a rigid, durable habitat that will reduce the risk of mechanical failure due to crew or environmentally induced damage compared with inflatable structures that are more susceptible to punctures and damage from microme ...

Small and micro-spacecrafts require the efficient, micro-propulsion systems. Chemical micro-propulsion is best suited for use as primary thrust, orbital insertion and attitude control because of its high energy density. When grouped into arrays for larger thrust applications, micro-propulsion devices provide high propulsive flexibility or can be used as igniters. The proposed effort will focus ...

The proposed innovation utilizes carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coated with pseudo-capacitive MnO2 material as nano-composite electrode and ionic electrolyte for the construction of ultracapacitors. This novel approach of using nano-structured CNTs architectures provides high surface area of attachment of MnO2 nano-particles to maximize the charge efficiency and power capacity and to reduce series resist ...

R-LAM (Rad-hard Location and Attitude Module), promises a new generation of both integrated navigation modules and stand-alone navigation subsystems including nav-grade IMU's, atomic-precision clocks and GPS units compliant with the Space Plug and Play Architecture (SPA) initiative. R-LAM leverages two active DARPA MTO programs. In the Navigation-Grade Integrated Micro-Gyroscope (NG-IMG) project ...

The Mars Sample Return mission is being planned to return samples of Martian rock, regolith, and atmosphere to Earth for scientific analysis. The Martian sample size is directly affected by the propulsion capabilities of the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and innovations are sought to enhance propulsion capabilities of the MAV for functions including primary propulsion from the Mars surface, orbit inse ...

Accurate real-time microbial monitoring of water environment is of paramount importance to crew health as well as to ensure proper functioning and control of the life support system during space exploration. The existing methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the devices used are bulky, consumable-hungry, and ill-suited for spacecraft deployment. We propose to develop and demonstrate ...

Thermal analysis is increasingly used in thermal engineering of spacecrafts in every stage, including design, test, and ground-operation simulation. Current high-fidelity modeling and simulation tools are computationally prohibitive and not fully compatible to integrated, multi-physics (e.g., thermal-structural-optical) analysis of spacecrafts, particularly in a single model topology currently bei ...

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop a computational tool with unique predictive capabilities for the aerothermodynamic environment around ablation-cooled hypersonic re-entry vehicles. The framework for this tool will be developed such that all relevant models can be coupled to the LeMANS code for nonequilibrium hypersonic flows and the MOPAR code for ablation material response, both develo ...

NASA space exploration projects require avionic systems, components, and controllers that are capable of operating in the extreme temperature and radiation environments of deep space. To design wide-temperature radiation-hardened (rad-hard) electronics and predict characteristics and reliability in space, advanced models and simulation tools are required at multiple levels. Analog and mixed-signal ...