Award Data

The goal of this proposed program through Phase III is to build a space-worthy Drug Stability Analyzer that can determine the extent of drug degradation. It will be able to monitor the drug active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and its degradation product concentrations as a function of time, as well as determine if a drug is suitable for use. This will be accomplished by designing and building ...

The overall objective of this Phase I project is to develop a nonlinear trim module in FUN3D for enabling the determined and over-determined trim analyses to be performed by FUN3D with static aeroelastic effects. Based on an optimization formulation, the over-determined trim analysis can determine the optimum control surface scheduling of multiple control surfaces to achieve the best aerodynamic e ...

Given that SysML is becoming a standard for model-based systems engineering and Integration (SE&I), system health management (SHM)-related models will either be done in SysML, or be done outside of SysML but enabled by conversion, mapping, and traceability of information across SysML and SHM models. Given that current implementations of SysML are not particularly useful to perform analyses, and th ...

One cannot build a system-level Prognosis and Health Management (PHM) solution by cobbling together a bunch of existing prognostic techniques; it will have a very high rate of false-positive indications. On the other hand, if a system-level health management solution could identify the individual degradations and indictors associated with those degradations, and thereby decouple the problem into s ...

NASA missions for planetary exploration require high power, long-life Hall thrusters. However, thruster power and lifetime are limited by the erosion of plasma channel walls. Current plasma channel insulators, BN or Borosil, have the required low secondary electron emission (SEE) but are susceptible to xenon plasma erosion. AlN has exceptionally high plasma erosion resistance but suffers from hig ...

Systima Technologies, Inc. is developing a non-catalytic ignition technology for advanced green ionic salt monopropellants such as HAN-based monopropellant AF-M315E. Green (non-hazardous, low toxicity) monopropellants such as AF-M315E offer significant advantages in performance and reduced handling infrastructure for vehicles and payloads compared to traditional hydrazine systems. Systima's inno ...

High-value bearings are a critical part of the safety, reliability, cost and performance of modern aircraft. A typical passenger jet will have 100 to 175 high-valve bearings costing from $2,500 to $50,000 each for a total aircraft cost of $300,000 to $600,000. All gas turbine engine bearings are inspected at overhaul and typically 30-40% of there are rejected. For each engine overhaul, bearing re ...

In-situ analysis of solar system bodies plays a crucial role in understanding the evolution of our planet, setting the stage for life's origins. As has been demonstrated by several NASA interplanetary missions, there is no replacement for in-situ observations, like spectral imaging, that prove critical for understanding the context of solar system bodies. There is, however, a conflict between mo ...

Over the last decade, the CubeSat platform has emerged as a viable alternative for both innovative technology development and scientific investigation. However, to fully realize the platform's potential, propulsion capability is required. For low-cost spacecraft developers, this capability remains among the most resource intensive to successfully implement. Planetary Resources Development Corporat ...

Environmentally durable material systems capable of operating at temperatures from 1500 to 3000?C while maintaining structural integrity are enabling for future hot structure hypersonic vehicles. State-of-the-art ceramic matrix composite CMC's and other established refractories lack stability at these high temperatures. The plasma transferred arc (PTA) additive manufacturing (AM) process has dem ...