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. Prior work on light (UV and visible) curing composite matrix resins for rigidizing inflatable spacecraft shows that there is ...

AeroAstro proposes decomposing nitrous oxide (N2O) as an alternative propellant to existing spacecraft propellants. Decomposing N2O can be used as either a high Isp, hot-gas monopropellant or as a low Isp, cold gas for ACS thrusters. AeroAstro further proposes to use an innovative technique to achieve N2O decomposition: gasdynamic resonance. Gasdynamic resonance will elevate the N2O to the acti ...

By examining the occurrence rates and types of actual on-orbit failures, a failure servicing industry can be projected. Similarly, by examining the lifetimes of working or recently retired spacecraft, a lifetime extension servicing market can be characterized. By examining actual historic servicing opportunities and combining this information with consideration of operational uncertainties, it i ...

AeroAstro proposes to develop a low-power, low-volume and lightweight, state-of-the-art digital radio capable of operating in a wide variety of bands, from VHF through Ka microwave, with data transceive capabilities of voice, telemetry, and high-resolution video. This device is intended for use in manned extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) in deep-space environments, on lunar and planetary surfaces ...

AeroAstro's innovative design approach for implementing reconfigurable electronics frees the spacecraft designer to concentrate on the mission at hand with significant assurance that single-point failures can be automatically corrected. It also uses dynamic reconfiguration to change circuit functions which will create the opportunity to conserve mass, volume, and power while providing capabilitie ...

Every day, turbulence has an adverse effect on aircraft operations and capacity of the NAS, costing the airline industry at least $100 million annually in operational inefficiencies, unscheduled maintenance, and injuries. A contributor to these costs is that controllers' and dispatchers' current tactical knowledge of turbulence hazards relies heavily on verbal pilot reports of turbulence, which a ...

Financial constraints and the need for improved operational efficiency are requiring airlines to emphasize "on-condition" maintenance over scheduled maintenance where possible. However, many of the specific conditions and events of interest to airline maintenance are not being monitored by automatic systems. Some of these events are detected through a subjective determination by the aircrew. Th ...

This proposal provides a breakthrough solution to realize a compact THz local-oscillator, which is phase-lockable and can tune 1-2 THz with flat output power in excess of 100 mW. The innovation is based on high efficiency intra-cavity difference frequency generation. A dual cavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is designed to generate two phase-locked optical beams with orthogonal polarizatio ...

Stereochemistry is an essential element of our organic life. Only certain enantiomers are useful as drugs for the human body. Raman Optical Activity (ROA) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) provide stereochemical information down to bond levels. Many biomolecules like proteins and DNA can be studied for understanding their structural chemistry and structure related dynamics. These method ...

RMD proposes to develop a MEMS based complete blood count (CBC) instrument that can be used aboard a spacecraft. We will produce a microfluidic scale combination cell counter-flow cytometer for CBC analyses that can be communicated to ground bases by telemetry. The blood analyzer will utilize innovative optical and fluidic designs on a modular platform that enable compactness, high sensitivity a ...