Award Data

Nano forms of graphite and carbon, such as flakes, worms, and tubes, can significantly modify the properties of polymers when used as reinforcements. Challenges remain in processing composites with these nano-reinforcements in the form of attaining uniform dispersions. Many of these difficulties are due to a lack of wetting of the nano-reinforcements by the polymer. Poor wetting is caused by th ...

The proposed effort is concerned with the development of a novel optimization scheme and computer software for the effective design of advanced aerospace vehicles. Since such vehicles are characterized by unprecedented levels of areo-structural-controls-propulsion interactions, a multidisciplinary simulation is essential for their effective design. This can be accomplished by employing the common ...

Aircraft encounters with turbulence are the leading cause of injuries in the airline industry and result in significant human, operational, and maintenance costs to the airline community each year. A large contributor to the above injuries and costs is that flight crews do not have sufficient situational awareness of the location and severity of potential turbulence hazards to their aircraft. Ae ...

AI Signal Research, Inc. proposes to develop a Non-Intrusive Vibration Measurement System (NI-VMS) for turbopumps which will provide effective on-board/off-board fault detection diagnostic capabilities without relying on any intrusive installation of once per revolution (1/Rev) tachometer key phasor measurement. Many vibration signature analysis techniques use a key phasor signal to identify and ...

The proposed R&D is to develop a wireless data networking capability. A prototype capability will result from the Phase 1 and 2 contracts. The Versatile Wireless Data Net (VWDN) employs an 802.11x wireless protocol for a network of sensor, recording, and monitoring nodes. The concept combines extensive computational capability with a family of transducers in self-contained packages with an ele ...

The Command, Control, Communications and Information (C3I) environment will be significantly different for Constellation than for Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). Missions will operate not only in Near Earth round-trip latencies (RTLT) of seconds but also Near Mars RTLT of 10 to 40 minutes. New classes of collaboration services are required to support the spectrum of Constellation ...

As the complexity of flight controllers grows so does the cost associated with verification and validation (V&V). Current-generation controllers are reaching a level of complexity that pushes the envelopes of existing V&V approaches, and without improved approaches there is little hope for affordable V&V of next-generation intelligent systems. Unfortunately, controller complexity and controller v ...

In this research we will develop a system level tool to translate binary code of a general-purpose processor into Register Transfer Level VHDL code to be mapped onto FPGA-based reconfigurable hardware. We further plan to study techniques for performing hardware/software co-design on integrated systems-on-a-chip platforms consisting of embedded processors, memories and FPGAs. Finally we will dev ...

NASA's vision for Space Exploration aims for human interplanetary missions that have significant challenges on crew health and safety including fluid shifts, and post-flight orthostatic intolerance. A predictive software tool that advances the understanding of underlying biofluid dynamics is critical to affordably analyzing and designing protective systems and countermeasures. CFDRC proposes to d ...

Development of a candidate bi-propellant system consisting of a gelled hydrocarbon fuel coupled with a highly energetic gelled oxidizer suitable for outer planetary missions is proposed. Theoretical calculations suggest that this innovative combination can meet NASA's propulsion requirements for low power consumption (i.e. minimal use of heaters) while providing a vacuum specific impulse of ~ 360 ...