Award Data

The proposed solution exploits recent advances in computer vision to conceive of a single-camera + gyro + accelerometer vision-based navigation solution such that the processing will be lightweight (requiring only a single optical flow sample per frame). Known landmarks (natural or artificial) will have absolute positions known to planetary exploration worker robots. The worker robot can identif ...

The proposed 9-month research project aims for the development of additive manufacturing techniques for the creation of electronic devices. It will develop an innovative additive manufacturing technique that combines the ink-based printing with laser melting technology to directly print a three-dimensional (3D) system with built-in electrical properties and functioning as an electronic device. Th ...

Fibertek, Inc. in partnership with researchers at the Pennsylvania State University Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) are proposing to develop a state of the art, space-qualifiable laser transmitter that meets the requirements of the flash lidar transmitter defined in the 2016 STTR subtopic T9.01, Navigation and Hazard Avoidance Sensor Technolog ...

Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) and University of Dayton (UD) will team on development of a non-mechanical beam steering (NMBS) subsystem for Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sensors. BNS will improve their current polarization grating (PG) technology which is capable of switching well over the +- 25 degree requirement called for in the solicitation. Advances to the PG technology specific to the ...

Launch vehicles experience extreme acoustic loads during liftoff driven by the interaction of rocket plumes and plume-generated acoustic waves with ground structures. Currently employed predictive capabilities to model the complex turbulent plume physics are too dissipative to accurately resolve the propagation of acoustic waves throughout the launch environment. Higher fidelity liftoff acoustic a ...

This NASA sponsored STTR project will investigate methods for close-out of large, liquid rocket engine nozzle, coolant channels utilizing robotic laser and pulsed-arc additive manufacturing methods. Copper to Nickel alloy interface strength will be quantified and metallurgical characterization completed. A thermal model based on Rosenthal?s analytical expression for a moving heat source, which has ...

The proposed μG-LilyPond is an autonomous environmentally controlled floating plant cultivation system for use in microgravity. The μG-LilyPond concept expands the types of crops that can be grown on a spacecraft in a flexible, efficient, low maintenance package. The μG-LilyPond features several innovations relative to state of the art, including passive water and nutrient delivery to floating ...

The innovative methodologies proposed in this STTR Phase 1 project will enhance Loci-STREAM which is a high performance, high fidelity simulation tool already being used at NASA for a variety of CFD applications. This project will address critical needs in order to enable fast and accurate simulations of liquid space propulsion systems (using propellants such as LOX, LCH4, RP-1, LH2, etc.). The pr ...

Using novel materials and device geometries unique to North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Third Floor Materials (3FM) this program will develop a detector technology that enables room-temperature multispectral IR imaging by exploring transduction pathways between infra red light and a measureable electric signal mediated by an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) mode. The research activity will use a c ...

Newly developed phase-engineered and low dimensional materials have opened the door to the design of materials structures that exhibit extremely efficient ionic transport. Recently, a new type of electro-filtration system designed to convert thermal power into purified water from salt water (or other ionic pollutants) has been demonstrated in the lab. The system is based on a bi-phasic nanoplate ...