Award Data

This project will develop a new scientific instrument optimized for the advanced characterization of near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles that can exist as left- or right-handed structures (enantiomers). Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are the leading current example of such nanomaterials. Applied NanoFluorescence, LLC (ANF) proposes a novel multi-mode chiroptical spectrometer that can ...

Through the proposed NASA STTR, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will design and empirically optimize an innovative, commercially scalable additive manufacturing process integrating reactively deposited HybridSil polyimide nanocomposites for next-generation Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) employed on human rated spacecraft. NanoSonicrsquo;s material technology and Virginia Techrsquo;s additive manufac ...

We propose the development of a user-friendly software tool for estimating the electric field distributions within spacecraft enclosures based on the Power Balance (PwB) method and enhanced by a database of experimentally determined Absorption Cross-Sections (ACS) of common equipment, components and cables.The software will be built around an already developed PwB solver that determines the statis ...

Plasma Controls, LLC (SBC) and Colorado State University (RI) will mature an energy and species plasma diagnostic for use with plasma thrusters. The combined Energy and Velocity Analyzer for Distributions of Electric Rockets, or the lsquo;E-VADERrsquo;, is needed especially for characterizing the plasma plume of Hall thrusters, where researchers desire to know ion energies and charged species frac ...

Opterus proposes to develop braided thin ply composite tapes. The tapes will be braided from ultra-thin spread-tow unidirectional carbon and glass ribbons and will enable a new source and form factor for thin-ply textiles. The resulting tapes will be especially useful for thin high strain composite space deployable structures where they will allow bias plies in long parts without requiring seams. ...

Water recovery from wastewater sources is key to long duration human exploration missions. Without substantial water recovery, life support system launch weights are practically impossible. Water recovery systems currently used on the international space station (ISS) are complex, involving high temperature and pressures to recycle water from humidity condensate and urine.nbsp; The process also us ...

The aim of the proposed program is to design metasurface structures to manipulate electromagnetic waves of extremelynbsp;different frequencies, from visible light to THz.

The objective of this STTR research effort is to demonstrate the use of select metal-organic framework (MOF) constructs as active, multi-analyte sensing element in spacecraft water monitoring systems. MOFs are extended one, two, and three-dimensional coordination networks with uniform porosity and large surface area. The rational selection of both the metal cluster nodes and multi-dentate linkers ...

Metamaterial optics provide dramatic reductions in size and weight compared with traditional refractive optics. Nanohmics, Inc., and Andrea Alugrave;rsquo;s group at the City University of New York propose to develop ultrathin, light-weight, high-transmittance optics based on microfabricated gradient metagratings. A metagrating is an array of polarizable metamaterial particles with a period compar ...

As the desire to look deeper in space and image multiple objects simultaneously continues to grow, the need for larger telescopes is raised. With this increase in aperture size, the instrumentation size is increased proportionally and the cost of this instrumentation is proportionally squared. With advances in photonic technologies this can be accomplished on a fully integrated chip. Integrated ph ...