Award Data

Large space-deployed structures such as synthetic aperture radars, radiometers, and solar arrays are receiving a great deal of interest by NASA in the Earth Sciences program. These large structures by necessity must be ultra-lightweight and low stored volume. Inflatable or self-deployable approaches that become rigid after they reach the correct shape appear to be a promising approach for fabricat ...

There is an increasing need for large, reliable, and cost-effective inflatable space antennas for communications applications. This Phase I program will focus on the design and development of open-celled foams as structural elements in self-deploying antenna systems. Foams offer the following significant advantages over conventional materials for these applications: open cellular structure allowin ...

Performance requirements for polymer matrix composites (PMCs) in aerospace and transportation applications are generally quite stringent. Among these requirements are excellent thermal stability, high strength and high toughness. Easy processing is also desirable. Electron-beam (e-beam) curing has the potential to significantly reduce the overall cost of manufacturing PMC parts for use in aerospac ...

Performance requirements for polymer matrix composites (PMCs) in aerospace and transportation applications are generally quite stringent. Among these requirements are excellent thermal stability, high strength and high toughness. Easy processing is also desirable. Electron-beam (e-beam) curing has the potential to significantly reduce the overall cost of manufacturing PMC parts for use in aerospac ...

A System-Level Modeling Framework for electromagnetic modeling is proposed. The heart of the Framework is a rule-based, whole-object conversion process that takes Computer Aided Design (CAD) geometry and material data and transforms it into valid,electromagnetic geometry and material modeling elements. The CAD Converter creates an

This work will design, develop, and implement a system-level electromagnetic simulation framework that increases the productivity of all participants in an EM analysis of a complex system by providing a collaborative engineering environment in which theparticipants easily construct simulation models, share and re-use data, create computational capabilities that utilize a suite of EM modeling tools ...

Next generation design software will support fully associative geometric and physics-based analysis models throughout the entire product life-cycle. Most current CAD systems directly support finite element systems, but use proprietary database formats that do not promote diverse tool use and may not exist throughout the entire product life-cycle. Model sharing in common practice has been limited t ...

Next generation design software will support fully associative geometric and physics-based analysis models throughout the entire product life-cycle. Most current CAD systems directly support finite element systems, but use proprietary database formats that do not promote diverse tool use and may not exist throughout the entire product life-cycle. Model sharing in common practice has been limited t ...

Platforms for scientific instruments increasingly require attitude knowledge and optical instrument pointing at sub-arcsecond accuracy. No low-cost commercial system exists to provide this level of accuracy for guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) and precision instrument pointing. ATA proposes to introduce a small inexpensive inertial attitude reference system based upon magnetohydrodynamic (M ...

Certain weapons produce blast waves capable of trauma to gas-filled organs. There is an immediate need for a blast mitigation jacket to prevent lung damage when training with such weapons, and a similar need for combatants. Our first objective in PhaseII is to complete the research and development of fundamental blast mitigation concepts developed during Phase I. During Phase I, we used analyti ...