Award Data

The goal of this project is to develop a novel experimental protocol utilizing the fundamentals of cutting-edge materials science, chemistry, and advanced nanoengineering to create a first-of-its-kind multifunctional cementitious coating material that mitigates the detrimental effects of irradiation, heat, and corrosive in nuclear power plants. Capitalizing on our promising preliminary results, th ...

In this proposal, CompRex, LLC (“CompRex”) seeks to realize a transformational and disruptive advancement in heat exchange technology for high temperature and high pressure applications through 1) the use of advanced metal and ceramic composite material, 2) development of a new simplified manufacturing approach, and 3) optimization of heat exchanger design to maximize the performance benefits ...

Mezzo and its partners will design, manufacture, and test a supercritical CO2 recuperator designed for high pressure of 275 bar and high temperature of 800 0C. The recuperator will incorporate a new manufacturing approach (laser welded micro tubes) that offers potential to reduce cost. It is well known that recuperator costs are currently very high for applications that involve high temperature an ...

Through the proposed NASA STTR, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will design and empirically optimize an innovative, commercially scalable additive manufacturing process integrating reactively deposited HybridSil polyimide nanocomposites for next-generation Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) employed on human rated spacecraft. NanoSonicrsquo;s material technology and Virginia Techrsquo;s additive manufac ...

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 ...

Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) research is part of NASA effort to improve aircraft fuel efficiency, emissions, and noise levels. New secondary battery chemistries are required to meet the 500 ndash; 700 Wh/kg cell level specific energy needs of UAM, all-electric helicopters and regional passenger aircraft. The cycle life, currently at asymp; 1500 ndash; 3000 cycles, also needs substantial i ...

Technology currently used for terrestrial navigation is extremely limited in the challenging environments on icy moons and ocean worlds such as Europa. Autonomous platforms used to collect data from beneath these ice and ocean surfaces cannot depend on access to satellite or any other electromagnetic communication. Autonomous systems in these environments are required to perform highly-complex tas ...

IFOS proposes an innovative Brillouin sensing system ndash; B*Sensetrade; ndash; for enhanced, distributed strain and temperature measurements in harsh environments. Brillouin sensing provides both temperature and strain measurement along the entire length of fiber, allowing the entire fiber to act as a sensor. B*Sensetrade; will enable identification of defects, such as fatigue cracking or excess ...