Award Data

Power electronic converters are essential in every MDA vehicle, with use in critical systems ranging from electric power management applications, to power distribution, to on-board servo motor/actuator drivers. Advancing state-of-the-art power electronics technologies through the use of SiC semiconductors will produce significant savings across the board in almost all areas of MDA power management ...

ORBITEC proposes to continue the development of MAELSTROM, an advanced hybrid rocket motor, to meet the demands of highly flexible boost propulsion for Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense applications. Key MAELSTROM features include: versatile energy management, high propulsive performance, inherent safety of a hybrid, non-toxic and insensitive propellants, and a long-term storable system. The benef ...

The objective of this proposal is to develop and validate first-principles modeling tools that will significantly advance the use of spectroscopic techniques for identifying materials present in hypervelocity impact events. Impact flash spectroscopy (IFS) has the potential to identify the presence of special nuclear materials (SNM) during the impact flash phase of hypervelocity interceptor-missil ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 project will develop novel devices capable of actively cooling high power electronics using ceramic micro-channel evaporatos. Microelectronics with demanding thermal management characteristics are usedpredominantly as microprocessors and power electronics (HDTV modules, higher power logic and power transmit/receive). The number of microprocessors so ...

Develop a rapid materials-selection strategy and demonstrate efficiency on critical high-energy laser components and vehicle structures.

Thermal managment of T/R modules requires new materials to reduce the thermal resistance between the high frequency amplifiers and the module cooling system. We are proposing to construct a heat pipe evaporator as the baseplate of a T/R module using a newcomposite material with low CTE and high thermal conductivity. Aligned fibers both within the composite material as well as within the heat pip ...

One Stop Satellite Solutions (OSSS) has been designing, building, testing and flying space structures to support small-satellite missions for over twenty years. Even with the use of 'Cold War' assets such as the Minotaur launch vehicle, lowering of launchcosts can only be achieved by fully loading the rocket with maximum payload. Small satellite payloads come in many shapes and sizes so the solu ...

A critical need is developing for precision nanopositioners that are very compact and very fast while maintaining reasonable range of motion and load carrying capability. The need is pervasive, cover-ing, for example, advanced forms of lithography and CDmetrology in the semiconductor industry; positioning of optical fibers, lasers, and electron sources in lithography and optical communication; tes ...

We propose developing a compact, optical fiber-based Raman scattering instrument for rapid, in-situ health monitoring and analysis of solid rocket motors and propellants relied on for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program. The instrument willincorporate diode laser-based, full-spectrum Raman scattering for continuous in-situ remote monitoring of the composite and propellant chemistry. ...