Award Data

As the unmanned exploration of Mars and Venus becomes more of a focus area at NASA, inflatable, rigidizable wings will become an enabling technology. The successful development of this type of wing will also have significant military applications in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Rigidization of inflatable wings provides several potential advantages, including reducing the vulnerability to punct ...

A miniature, specialized Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) will be designed, built, and evaluated that is responsive to the requirements of NASA exobiology flight experiments. The helium-based Ion Mobility Spectrometer previously developed for NASA by the key personnel making this proposal provides the universal response and ppb sensitivity required. However, the minimal resources available onboard ...

A phase I program establishing the feasibility of using a diaphragm pressure gauge (DPG) to measure the loads on a survivable shield that is an element of a debris mitigation system for Plasma Radiating Sources (PRS). These loads on a survivable shield have not been measured. DMS performance analyses have emphasized the criticality of such measurements. Simulator, e.g. Decade Half, performance ...

A new modular solar powered rocket engine is proposed to provide a few milligrams to a few kilograms of thrust at 1100-1600 seconds of specific impulse by heating hydrogen propellant to average temperatures ranging from 2750 to 3250K. The proposed design utilizes one or several sunflower-like clusters of non-imaging concentrators coupled to optical fiber bundles that guide the solar energy with a ...

Electrostatic discharge control is vital for the health of any spacecraft. Exposure to charged particles in a space enviroment can lead to large charge differences across the craft, that, if no mechanism for controlled discharge is present, can destroy mission critical equipment. The preferred way of ESD control is to use conducting thermal control coatings. These coatings combine the ability to r ...

Inflatable or self-deployable systems offer the only practical way to achieve space deployed antennas with low mass at large aperture. In this Phase I program, open-celled rigid polyurethane foams were developed for use in self-deploying antenna structures. Advantages of such a system relative to current systems include high volumetric efficiency of packing, inherent restoring force, low (or no) o ...

AJT proposes to develop a low-cost, engine test-stand system for small (500 pound) thrust engines using gaseous, liquid or cryogenic propellants. This test stand would incorporate automated propellant transfer and automated propellant line purge systems. The engines would be configured to a standard test-stand interface, greatly reducing the time required to install and remove various engines. Thi ...

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 ...

Filters don't exist that are capable of removing virus and bacteria at high enough flow rates to be practical either for space systems or for domestic consumption. In Phase 1 we demonstrated feasibility that our nano ceramic fiber filter could produce sterile water at high flow rates. In Phase 2 we propose to develop performance data on such filters that would provide NASA with the capability for ...

The proposed research is intended to develop a new analysis for stresses and displacements in aerospace structures based on the combined conventional Displacement (Stiffness) Method and on a new formulation of the Force Method developed by the principal investigator. Since some of the elements used currently in the Displacement Method violate equations of stress equilibrium, an additional analysis ...