Award Data

During the proposed Phase 1 research and development effort, the project team will design an innovative turbopump system for a target vehicle upper stage using “Green" liquid propellants that meet Missile Defense Agency's requirements. The use of a turbopump will result in an upper stage that has a greater than 50% improvement in delta velocity in comparison to a previously designed, pressure fe ...

Uncertainty Reduction in High Speed Flight Vehicle Modeling | Approved for Public Release 18-MDA-9707 (3 Jul 18)

One important challenge for the reliable prediction of liquid fuel effects on the combustion in aviation combustors and augmentors is the accurate modeling of underlying physical processes, involving the evaporation of fuels, preferential vaporization, scalar mixing and ignition. LES methodologies are required to accurately capture these transient and inherently unsteady combustion processes. In t ...

High G Aerodynamic Controls | Approved for Public Release 18-MDA-9707 (3 Jul 18)

As unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) become more prevalent there is an increasing desire to automate UAS navigation and control. To enable future UASs to perform a wider variety of missions, the they must be able to complete autonomous relative navigation to accomplish missions. Current technologies rely heavily on GPS measurements, which are undesirable since GPS signals may be unavailable in many ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is crucial to detect proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions from radioactive isotopes, and (b) cost-effectiveness for deployment of sensor networks across large storage facil ...

Modern electronic warfare (EW) employs agile, dynamic, convert waveforms. It has become challenging for legacy electronic intelligence (ELINT) receivers to intercept such waveforms. To cover a wide frequency band, many frequencies must be scanned rapidly. Therefore, the probability of intercepting by the super heterodyne receiver is limited by the intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth and tuning s ...

The proposed project will focus on qualifying amorphous-iron Particle Reinforced Metal Matrix Composite (PRMMC) coatings as replacements for Electrolytic Hard Chrome (EHC) and HVOF WC- Co wear and corrosion resistant coatings on high-strength steel components. These legacy coatings have been identified on the OSD Emerging Contaminants Watch or Action Lists, and future manufacture and maintenance o ...

Development of high-energy-density, low-loss capacitors for power conversion/conditioning systems is an enabling technology to achieve the objective of reducing size, weight, and cost of transmit and receive (T/R) modules in modern radar and electronic warfare transmitters. Among capacitor technologies available, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are receiving more attentions. At present, howe ...

Human analysts are presented with ever-increasing amounts of data to process, taxing the limitations of human cognitive capacity. This cognitive overloading leads to increased likelihood of errors and accidents, with costly consequences in mission critical operations. Consequently, there is a rising demand for more efficient processing of increasingly large amounts of intelligence. Transcranial di ...