Award Data

New high performance materials, seamed with novel bonding methods, combined with advanced aerodynamic designs, will be employed to develop lighter, more compact parachutes and paragliders, with improved aerodynamic performance and stability.

Develop frequency-equalized Electro-Optic lithium niobate phase modulators with flat frequency response, low switching voltage-length product, and multi-decade environmental lifetime for use in strategic-grade high-precision inertial sensors.     New innovative approaches to improve phase modulator performance will be investigated and test structures fabricated to verify the new device concep ...

Systima is proposing the development of an integrated modular flare dispenser system capable of delivering multiple discrete busts of pyrophoric flare material through the dispense of a single unit from an AN/ALE-47 dispenser. The Phase I program will conduct significant static ground testing to enable a higher TRL level at the start of the Phase II program. This approach will retire risk early an ...

Tetramer Technologies, a specialty materials research company, aims to develop a more robust elastomer material for cushioned clamps used by the Navy. Cushioned clamps serve an important role in securing hydraulic, fuel, and electrical lines in Navy aircraft. The existing cushions have shown sporadic and unreliable breakdown in use, despite being rated to a rigorous MIL standard. Tetramer proposes ...

Waterjets are widely used to cut and trim composites and techniques have been developed to trepan and pierce materials without causing delamination or fiber break-out on the exit side. However, using waterjets to mill countersunk holes has not been demonstrated before. This project will use a patented waterjet milling process to show that waterjets can successfully mill countersunk holes in compos ...

SDI Engineering Inc. (SDI) will develop validated software tools for hose and drogue aerial refueling operations. This will result in a modeling, simulation and analysis capability that can be used to address issues related to aerial refueling operations. SDI has working software that was previously developed for the analysis of the refueling hose, reeling mechanism and probe. SDI’s software wil ...

The objective of this proposal is the development and demonstration of a cost-effective high-fidelity aeroacoustic design tool for future commercial supersonic nozzle designs and installations. Although eddy-resolving CFD methods for computing high-speed jet noise are available, such methods are computationally expensive and are currently deemed impractical for use in a design optimization loop. ...

With future missions of increasing complexity, duration, distance, and uncertainty, there has been a growing need for methods and tools that can permit the effective formation of early stage conceptual designs that are not only cost-effective, but also productive and resilient to failures. Current approaches are mostly tailored to evaluating independent systems but do not necessarily scale well to ...

The next generation of detectors for high energy observatories needs a significant improvement in filter technology, as identified in the SBIR solicitation and as a PCOS technology gap. We propose a two-fold change in the state of the art of thin film EUV and x-ray filters, using Al-Sc alloy in place of Al and adding Au nanoparticles to polyimide. Al-Sc alloys show smaller grain sizes that should ...

The concept describes a booster for a launch vehicle that is simpler to make, transport and launch than current launch vehicles. It is composed of two major components. The first being a booster structure and the second being a liquid rocket engine that uses a thermodynamic cycle that is a combination of two common cycles.Furthermore, the engine is actually fairly simple when compared to modern li ...