Award Data

This NASA sponsored STTR project will investigate methods for close-out of large, liquid rocket engine, nickel or stainless steel nozzle, coolant channels utilizing robotic laser and pulsed-arc additive manufacturing (AM)methods. Structural jacket to coolant channel land area interface strength will be quantified and metallurgical characterization completed.Process optimizations will be conducted ...

To address the urgent need for 3D flash-lidar technology for landing on solar system bodies and for spacecraft rendezvous and docking with satellites, an effort is proposed to fabricate, characterize, and test a versatile, high-sensitivity InGaAs APD 3D flash lidar and to advance the technology-readiness level (TRL) of lidar technologies suitable for NASA mission requirements. Leveraging an existi ...

N5 Sensors partnering with George Mason University (GMU) have demonstrated ultra-small, low-power gas sensors, ideally suited for integrated space suit monitoring. A single-chip carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2), and ammonia (NH3) sensors capable of operating at high-humidity conditions, different range of oxygen in the environment and with low-power consumption was demonstrated as a proof-of-conc ...

This STTR program will mature high density, high regression rate hybrid rocket motor technology through TRL6 through the design, fabrication, and testing of third and fourth stage nanosatellite motors, while preparing designs and sizing for booster stages.nbsp; Hybrid Rockets offer substantially lower cost compared to storable and cryogenic bipropellant systems, but currently suffer from poor pack ...

The proposed Phase II supports completion of the RINGS science missions on ISS using SVGS as real-time sensor for the EMFF maneuver. During Phase I, SVGS-based navigation of RINGS was developed and tested on a 3DOF ground-based platform, and mechanical and electrical integration of RINGS with the free-flying robotic platforms on ISS (Astrobee) was designed in detail. SVGS was deployed and tested o ...

Sensor networks embedded on structures, such as pipes, bridges, railways, aircraft wings and fuselage, among others, are required to transfer data related to the health of the structure. This data is typically sent to a central location where it can be processed, displayed, and analyzed. Typical Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) uses embedded ultrasonic transducers exclusively for non-destructive ...

Distributed Spacecraft Missions (DSM) architectures provide unique scientific and programmatic benefits including multipoint in-situ measurements, multi-angle viewpoints, and improved understanding of the connections between separately measured phenomena and their time variations. However, these missions impose significant operational demands on ground tracking resources and mission operators alik ...

We propose the development of a user-friendly software tool for estimating the electric field distributions within spacecraft enclosures based on the Power Balance (PwB) method and enhanced by a database of experimentally determined Absorption Cross-Sections (ACS) of common equipment, components and cables.The software will be built around an already developed PwB solver that determines the statis ...

Plasma Controls, LLC (SBC) and Colorado State University (RI) will mature an energy and species plasma diagnostic for use with plasma thrusters. The combined Energy and Velocity Analyzer for Distributions of Electric Rockets, or the lsquo;E-VADERrsquo;, is needed especially for characterizing the plasma plume of Hall thrusters, where researchers desire to know ion energies and charged species frac ...

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 ...