Award Data

ADEQUATE ELECTRICAL POWER FOR SPACECRAFT OPERATIONS IS A CRUCIAL MISSION TASK. THE ISOTOPE HEAT SOURCES USED IN RADIO-ISOTOPE-THERMOELECTRIC-GENERATORS FOR MANY NASA MISSIONS ARE EXPENSIVE. FOR A GIVEN ELECTRICAL POWER, THERMAL-TO-ELECTRIC CONVERSION WITH AMTEC RATHER THAN CONVENTIONAL THERMOELECTRIC CONVERTERS SHOULD PERMIT REDUCTION OF THE GPHS COMPLEMENT BY A FACTOR OF 3. THE ESTIMATED COST SAV ...

THE PROPOSED INNOVATION CONSISTS OF A PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT WHERE EXECUTION TAKES PLACE THROUGHOUT A (PERHAPS HETEROGENEOUS) NETWORK OF COMPUTING DEVICES. FROM THE PROGRAMMER'S POINT OF VIEW, THE LANGUAGE APPEARS AS AN ICONIC OBJECT FLOW LANGUAGE (SUCH AS PROGRAPH) WITH A FEW EXTENSIONS FOR ATTACHING SALIENCE TO SELECTED PROCESSES. NOKNOWLEDGE OF THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE OR PROTOCOL IS REQUIRED ...

COMMERCIAL AND GOVERNMENT SPACE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS DEPEND ON GROUND SUPPORT FOR NAVIGATION. THE GROUND SOLUTION CAN BE COSTLY AND MAY PROVIDE LESS ACCURACY THAN NEEDED. A GPS-BASED REAL-TIME AUTONOMOUS SPACECRAFT NAVIGATION SYSTEM IS PROPOSED. AN ALGORITHM WILL BE DEVELOPED WHICH COMBINES GPS-DERIVED POINT POSITION ESTIMATES WITH A PROPAGATED A PRIORI POSITION ESTIMATE. THE POINT POSITIONS ARE ...

BECAUSE BACTERIAL DISEASES ARE FREQUENTLY TRANSMITTED THROUGH CONTAMINATED WATER, THE DETECTION OF MICROBIOLOGICALCONTAMINATION IS IMPORTANT, TO ENSURE SANITARY WATER SUPPLIES. CURRENT TESTS ARE LABOR INTENSIVE AND TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO CONFIRM CONTAMINATION LEVELS. THIS PROJECT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF A UNIQUE, RAPID, WATER-QUALITY TEST FOR BACTERIA. PHASE I FOCUSES ON THE DEVELOPMENT ...

MICROBIOLOGICAL MONITORING WILL BE A CRITICAL FUNCTION IN THE BIOMASS-PROCESSING REACTORS OF THE NASA CONTROLLED ECOLOGICAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM (CELSS). MEASUREMENT OF CELLDENSITY AND CELL ACTIVITY IN SOME REACTORS WILL ALLOW FOR THE AUTOMATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES WITHOUT THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCED SKILLED PERSONNEL. IN OTHER REACTORS, MICROBIOLOGICAL DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZA ...

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A TELEROBOT-SENSOR PLANNING SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED BY COMBINING MATURE VISION-BASED GUIDANCE TECHNOLOGY, STANDARDIZED ROBOTIC PLATFORM INTERFACES, AND AN INTERACTIVEROBOT PLANNING SYSTEM INTEGRATED INTO A GRAPHICAL ROBOTIC VISUALIZATION SYSTEM. TO SUPPORT ADVANCED ROBOTIC SERVICINGOPERATED FROM THE GROUND (THROUGH TIME DELAYS AND BANDWIDTH LIMITATIONS), THIS TECHNOLOGY WILL ACCOMMODATE RAPID SER ...

THE GOAL OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO DEMONSTRATE A HIGH-RESOLUTIONACTIVE RANGING SYSTEM USING LOW-TEMPERATURE-GROWN (LTG) GAAS PHOTOCONDUCTORS AS DEPTH SENSORS. THESE NEWLY-DEVELOPED SOLID-STATE DEVICES ARE CHARACTERIZED BY AN EXCEPTIONALLY BROAD FREQUENCY RESPONSE (UP TO 375 GHZ @ -3 DB) AND A VERY HIGH SENSITIVITY (70% QUANTUM EFFICIENCY). TO REDUCE THE NOISE BACKGROUND THEY CAN BE GATED ON A PICOSECO ...

A HAND-HELD MEDICAL ULTRASOUND INSTRUMENT FOR CARDIOLOGY-WEIGHING 10 POUNDS, OCCUPYING 0.1 CUBIC FEET OF SPACE, AND COMPLETE WITH TWO-DIMENSIONAL IMAGING, EKG DISPLAY, DOPPLER, AND DIGITAL IMAGE STORAGE-IS A SIGNIFICANT INNOVATION IN DIAGNOSTIC DEVICES. CAPABLE OF IMAGING THE HEART, THE GREAT VESSELS, AND INTRA-ABDOMINAL ORGANS WITH PERFORMANCE COMPARABLE TO THAT OF A FULL-SIZED INSTRUMENT, THIS N ...