Award Data

NASA has numerous requirements for in-space repair capabilities to aid future missions beyond earth orbit. A subset of these requirements is adhesive patch materials that provide permanent or temporary repair of a wide variety of surfaces with minimal surface preparation and that can operate in the space environment. This work will result in the production of a repair kit for in-space applicatio ...

The nature of human exploration missions to the Moon and Mars demands a frequency-agile, reconfigurable, durable digital radio delivering telemetry, ranging, voice, video, and data, with low Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP), and easy operation in the demanding space environment of Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA). AeroAstro and Virginia Tech propose to continue development of the EVA radio, building u ...

Modern electronic systems tolerate only as many point failures as there are redundant system copies, using mere macro-scale redundancy. Fault Tolerant Electronics Supporting Space Exploration (FTESSE) creates an electronic design paradigm using reprogrammable FPGAs to create swappable Circuit Object Blocks (COBs) – analogous to software objects – for the first time enabling redundancy on a micr ...

Financial constraints, government recommendations, and the need for improved operational efficiency are requiring airlines to review their "on-condition" maintenance practices. Many of the specific conditions and events of interest to airline maintenance are not being monitored by automatic systems, and some events are being identified through a subjective determination by the aircrew. This subj ...

The abrasive, reactive, and ubiquitous nature of lunar regolith created significant and serious problems during the Apollo moon missions. In this Phase I, Agave BioSystems, in collaboration with Dr. Randy Vander Wal of the Universities Space Research Association, propose to develop next generation smart filters using novel carbon nanotube (CNT)-based structures in electrostatic devices. Since CN ...

ATA has demonstrated the primary innovation of combining a precision MEMS gyro (BAE SiRRS01) with a high bandwidth angular rate sensor, ATA's ARS-14 resulting in a low-noise, high bandwidth hybrid sensor, or HYSENS in a Phase I SBIR. The primary emphasis in Phase I development was the implementation and real-time demonstration of the sensor fusion algorithms that combined the output from a MEMS g ...

Aurora Flight Sciences proposes to develop specialized algorithms and software decision-aiding tools for four-dimensional (4D) vehicle-centric, tactical trajectory management (TTM), derived from algorithms developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to perform similar functions in military scenarios. These algorithms, based on the concept of receding horizon mixed-integer linear ...

We propose the development of automated systems to improve radiobiology research capabilities at NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Current radiobiology experimentation at the NSRL is limited primarily by the amount of time required to manually move samples to/from the radiation target area. Additionally, the NSRL facility currently does not support p ...

Model-based machinery diagnostic and prognostic techniques depend upon high-quality mathematical models of the plant. Modeling uncertainties and errors decrease system sensitivity to faults and decrease the accuracy of failure prognoses. However, the behavior of many physical systems changes slowly over time as the system ages. These changes may be perfectly normal and not indicative of impendi ...

The proposed SBIR Phase I plan of research seeks to develop and demonstrate an integrated architecture designed to compensate for combined propulsion, airframe, effector, and structural damage caused by catastrophic system failure or an intentionally hostile act. Whereas prior damage-adaptive control work focused on reconfiguring from unforeseen aerodynamic changes (e.g., effector or airframe dam ...