Award Data

THE OVERALL CYCLE EFFICIENCY (HENCE, INPUT POWER REQUIREMENTS) OF REVERSE-BRAYTON CRYOCOOLERS FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS IS HIGHLY SENSITIVE TO THE THERMAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HEAT EXCHANGERS. APPLICATIONS FOR THESE CRYOCOOLERS IN SPACE DICTATE THAT THESE HEAT EXCHANGERS BE AS SMALL AND LIGHT AS POSSIBLE. TO DATE, ONLYHEAT EXCHANGERS EMPLOYING ORGANIC MATERIALS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE THE HIGH THER ...

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We propose to continue development of power semiconductor devices (diodes and transistors) for power-management and actuator-control circuits operating at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic power electronics can provide important benefits both for space and commercial applications: higher efficiency, reduced size, weight and complexity, and improved system reliability. Of primary importance to spac ...

The innovative product from this project is an instrument to measure void fraction in packed-bed reactors using an impedance-based approach. As NASA pursues long-duration crewed missions, it will be necessary to adapt packed-bed chemical processing methods to reduced gravity to minimize the mass and volume of consumables hauled from earth. To develop design tools, accurate measurement of void frac ...

Exposure to microgravity results in a number of physiological changes including loss of bone and increased risk of kidney stone formation. Long duration spaceflight requires a near real-time of monitoring bone loss during flight to alert astronauts to the potentially debilitating problems and direct the use of countermeasures. Present technology requires post-flight measurement of urinary calciu ...

Turboelectric aircraft with gas turbines driving electric generators connected to electric propulsion motors have the potential to transform the aircraft design space by decoupling power generation from propulsion. Resulting aircraft designs such as blended-wing bodies with distributed propulsion can provide the large reductions in emissions, fuel burn, and noise required to make air transportati ...

We propose a novel technology to leverage rapidly evolving cloud based infrastructure to improve time constrained situational awareness for real-time decision making. Our "CloudTurbine" innovation eliminates the distinction between files and streams. Streaming and static data have long been considered separately. Whereas streaming data protocols continue to fragment, a great unification of appr ...

We propose to develop antimony-based focal plane arrays (FPAs) for NASA's imaging and spectroscopy applications in the spectral band from visible to shortwave-infrared (SWIR), viz. wavelengths from 0.5 - 2.5 microns. We will leverage recent breakthroughs in the performance of midwave and longwave infrared FPAs based on the InAs/GaSb/AlSb material system in which QmagiQ has played a key part. In th ...

Future NASA planetary science missions have very limited access to solar power and therefore reducing the cryocooling system power input is even more critical than for earth-orbiting satellites. On this program, Creare proposes to develop and demonstrate an innovative Stirling cryocooler that efficiently produces refrigeration at 30 K and rejects heat at about 150 K. A key component of the propo ...