Award Data

Locating objects that vibrate is a way to discern potential threats and locate targets. However, current vibrometry technology typically measures only the global vibration of target and cannot create an extended spatial measurement of the vibration profile of the target. These solutions cannot identify what the target is, nor can they locate potential weak spots on the target, because they lack sp ...

The research objective of the proposed work is to increase the efficiency of the laser return of a Sodium Guide Star Laser (SGSL) reflected off the sodium layer for increased reliability and applicability of the artificial guide star technique. During Phase I, we will demonstrate the concept of maximizing the SGSL signal returns using numerical simulations that account for the effects of atmospher ...

Large ground-based telescopes require adaptive optics (AO) to correct for distortions introduced by atmospheric turbulence. In order to function, the AO system must track a bright point source. Although a natural star may be used, full sky coverage requires an artificial beacon created with a laser. The most common type of laser guide star (LGS) employs the mesospheric layer of sodium atoms at an ...

New, innovative laser spectroscopy technology will be developed for performance quantification and combustion characterization in a Rotational Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). The effort will push the state of the art in tunable laser absorption spectroscopy to enable fast time response diagnostics of the extreme pressure and temperature conditions of an RDRE.

In Phase I, ISSI will design and demonstrate a laser absorption-based sensor for time-resolved measurements of combustion fuel/product concentrations (H2O, CO, CO2 and fuel) and gas temperature within the detonation channels and nozzle exit-plane of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). The goal of this STTR is to develop a single sided sensor that plugs into the outer wall of the RDRE simil ...

Spectral Energies proposes to design a multisensory diagnostic suite for measurements within elevated-pressure RDEs. This sensor will utilize tunable-laser absorption spectroscopy to measure temperature, pressure and H2O concentrations in the annulus of a rocket-RDE and background-oriented schlieren imaging system for flow density gradient imaging to provide time resolved information about the sho ...

Current techniques for supporting Multi-Level Security (MLS) on embedded devices rely on maintaining secure connections back to centralized servers or dedicated computers for managing authentication and access controls. To provide the embedded devices with the capability to handle content of differing security levels directly on device, the operating system (OS) must properly and securely isolate ...

The team at South 8 Technologies is the first to develop a novel and patented Liquefied Gas Electrolyte chemistry for rechargeable lithium metal batteries which meets these Air Force requirements. The proposed non-hazardous chemistry has already demonstrated world-record performance on the lithium metal anode (99.9% plating/stripping efficiency over hundreds of cycles) while maintaining high perfo ...

The research objective is to develop a tunable spatially-varying photonic crystal (SVPC) to achieve the optical propagation properties (reflection and transmission) of the light through the designed structure for the visible and near IR-bands. The light from this SVPC will be able to focus and bend as a function of the spatial variation of the refractive index, input angle, and state of polarizati ...

Carbon-carbon (C-C) composites are used in the fabrication of aeroshells and thermal protection systems (TPS) in hypersonic and atmospheric reentry applications because they maintain their strength at elevated temperatures and have desirable thermal conductivity properties. Although these materials have been used in mission-critical components for decades, the effects of variations in processing m ...