Award Data

Advanced pump inducer design technology that uses high inlet diffusion blades, operates at a very low flow coefficient, and employs a cavitation control and stability device. A preliminary scoping inducer test with this technology indicated a doubling of the suction specific speed capability over current inducers. A three to four fold increase over current technology is the goal of this research ...

Advances in high power, photovoltaic technology has enabled the possibility of reasonably sized, high specific power, high power, solar arrays. New thin film solar arrays have demonstrated specific powers of over 4000 W/kg (exceeding the current SOA of ~130 W/kg). At high specific powers, power levels ranging from 50 to several hundred kW are feasible for communication satellites. Coupled with ...

The proposed innovation is the replacement of existing test stand and parking lot fixtures with current SSL LED technology. The replacement fixtures will reduce energy consumption, generate less heat and provide maintenance free operation for over 50,000 hours. An explosion-proof fixture is capable of containing an internal combustion event without allowing flames or hot gasses to escape to the s ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is for the development of an asymmetric supercapacitor that will have improved energy density and cycle life. Supercapacitors that utilize an aqueous electrolyte are limited to a maximum voltage of 1 volt due to the decomposition of water. Methods used to increase voltage include use of an organic electrolyte, which introduces additional comp ...

We propose to demonstrate key elements of feasibility for a single-sided time-domain terahertz reflection holographic tomographic imaging (TD-THz RHT) nondestructive evaluation (NDE) system which will provide high quality three dimensional images of the interior of complex aerospace composite structures. Time-domain terahertz imaging in the 0.1 to 3 THz spectral range is currently being used to c ...

The ability to restore large amounts of vented gaseous helium (GHe) at rocket test sites preserves the GHe and reduces operating cost. The used GHe is vented into the atmosphere, is non-recoverable, and costs NASA millions dollars per year. Helium, which is non-renewable and irreplaceable once released into the atmosphere, is continuously consumed by rocket test facilities at NASA centers such a ...

Computational tools that accurately predict the performance of electric propulsion devices are highly desirable by NASA and the broader electric propulsion community. Large investments in running the long duration test programs (> 20 kHrs) at NASA GRC can be reduced with computer models and allow more focus on exploring the NEXT ion thruster design for future space missions. The current state of e ...

The NASA Constellation program has a need to non-destructively test (NDT) non-metallic materials (foams, Shuttle Tile, Avcoat, etc) for defects such as delaminations and voids. While imaging systems at terahertz frequencies (0.3 to 3 THz) have been demonstrated for 2D imaging of similar materials, they have not yet demonstrate full 3D volumetric imaging. To meet this need, LongWave Photonics pro ...

The innovation proposed here is a high performance, high fidelity simulation capability to enable accurate, fast and robust simulation of unsteady turbulent, reacting flows involving cryogenic propellants (such as LOX/LH2 and LOX/LCH4). The key features of this proposed capability are: (a) Hybrid RANS-LES (HRLES) methodology, and (b) flamelet modeling for turbulent combustion incorporated in a pr ...

With the capacity and performance of FPGAs suitable for space borne applications continuously increasing, the design of FPGAs is becoming increasingly complex involving trading off or simultaneous optimization of space, speed, and power. RNET and ANL are proposing to develop software infrastructure that facilitates automatic performance tuning of FPGAs in terms of speed, power, and size. We introd ...