Award Data

Commercial marine aquaculture operators face many operational hazards including disease, predators, husbandry operations, and environmental changes. Most of theses risks are only identified with constant surveillance and physical presence at a farm site. However, human observation of risk factors is expensive, slow, and sometimes ineffective. Sensors are available to monitor individual environment ...

Our past success in developing what has proven to be a revolution in contamination control ? that of residue free, strippable polymer coatings for surface protection and cleaning has, so far, been limited use on substrates such as glass, fused silica and aluminum. These are the types of surfaces found on flagship projects such as the LIGO Gravitational Wave Observatory, the 10 meter class WM Keck ...

Reliance on fishmeal and fish oil is a significant constraint to aquaculture expansion in America, and globally. As U.S. marine fish farming expands, genetic improvements could increase economic performance and decrease ecological footprint. This is critically important to sustainability, scalability and profitability of the industry, and is key to attracting capital investment. Commercial opportu ...

NASA MSFC, GSFC and JPL are interested in Ultra-Stable Mirror Support Structures for Exoplanet Missions. Telescopes with Apertures of 4-meters or larger and using an internal coronagraph require a telescope wavefront stability that is on the order of 10 pico-meters RMS per 10 minutes. Interest is also for IR/FIR missions requiring 8-meter or larger diameter mirrors with cryogenic deformations

Sierra Engineering Inc. and Purdue University propose to develop a non-intrusive plume instrument capable of detecting and diagnosing combustion instability. This Stability Diagnostic System (SDS) will be designed, assembled, and tested during this effort. The SDS will include a high-speed video camera and multiple photodiode detectors for observing the plume. It will also include a software pa ...

The purpose of the Enhanced Brine Dewatering System (EBDS) is to provide an easily scalable means of completely recovering usable water from byproducts created by reverse osmosis water purification systems without the use of consumable wicks. Extended duration Lunar and Mars missions will require the conservation and recovery of water to allow for autonomous closed environments that in turn can dr ...

The proposed Plasma Air Decontamination System (PADS) is a trace contaminant control device based on non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma technology that operates at ambient pressure and temperature and has the potential to replace the existing Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) used on the International Space Station and future exploration vehicles. Non-thermal atmospheric plasma has been ...

Long-duration missions may one day present the most demanding situations ever encountered in manned spaceflight. Success will therefore depend on the knowledge and flexibility of the crew and the critical tools at their disposal. This Phase I proposes to combine intelligent tutoring with highly interactive 3D simulation software to create an on-demand situational training and operations support sy ...

Next generation General Aviation (GA) Sport Class air vehicles limited to 1200lbs, represent the first opportunity to overhaul the FAA certification process necessary to manufacture affordable aircraft. With propulsion representing over one-third of the direct manufacturing costs of the entire aircraft, dramatic reductions in aircraft engine costs must be achieved by design, economy of scale, and ...

The proposed PAVE propulsion system technology demonstration combines an innovative high-speed aero-diesel engine with a novel ducted fan assembly resulting in a low noise/cost and high performance propulsion system. The core engine makes extensive use of a novel self-injection, compression ignition/combustion system capable of high-speed operation on kerosene-based fuels without degradation due ...