Award Data

The cost of delivering payloads to remote destinations in space is extremely high, and even the smallest weight reductions can result in substantial cost savings. Consequently, systems that have been designed for low Earth orbit may not be suitable for a mission to Mars. One example of this is the system to recycle waste water. A system that utilizes vacuum distillation and catalytic oxidation (VP ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop novel flexible, transparent and photocurable nanocomposite barrier coatings to prevent the degradation of conducting polymers by oxygen and water vapor. Conducting polymer electronic devices can be made rapidly, low-cost, flexible, lightweight and mechanically more robust than inorganic electronics; the main limitation to ...

Silicon carbide fiber and carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide composites are being considered for reusable launch vehicle airframe components. Because the furnaces needed to make components are expensive, and furnaces of the size needed to make airframe components simply do not exist, we need a way to join these composites together to make complex and large shapes. TDA proposes to address this ...

Silicon carbide fiber and carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide composites are being considered for reusable launch vehicle airframe components. Because the furnaces needed to make components are expensive, and furnaces of the size needed to make airframe components simply do not exist, we need a way to join these composites together to make complex and large shapes. TDA proposes to address this ...

An advanced Environment Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) for long duration manned space missions -such as planetary flight missions or planetary bases- requires an almost complete closure of all relevant material loops. The recovery of oxygen from a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) offers significant advantage to long duration manned space missions by reducing the requirement for ...

Recent studies have shown that certain fluorosurfactants are toxic to aquatic life and tend to accumulate in the blood of animals and humans because they are persistent chemicals. As a consequence of this discovery, 3M decided to phase out some of their fluorosurfactants in May 2000. Among the phased-out products are 44 fire-fighting foams and foam components. At the present time, there is no repl ...

The system demonstrated effectiveness against bacterial spores in tests with the anthrax surrogate B. globigii. It was also effective against a surrogate for the CW agent HD (mustard). In Phase II we plan to continue development of the buildingprotection system, beginning with tests using BW and CW agent stimulants to establish the optimum conditions for use. We will then test the system with l ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project will develop plasticized poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanocomposites. PLA is a biopolymer derived from corn that is stiff at room temperature, but that can be made more flexible by adding significant amounts of plasticizers. Plasticizers are small, often volatile molecules that are incorporated, but not bound, into polymers to make them sof ...

70493 Although the Claus process is the dominant process used for recovering sulfur from natural gas, its conversion is limited by equilibrium, and two or three Claus stages are needed to recover most of the sulfur. In addition, expensive tail gas treatment processes are needed to bring large Claus plants under environmental compliance. This project will develop a novel catalyst that provide ...

The current expendable emergency oxygen generation systems in the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) are lightweight and work well. However, they could generate very high weight penalties when the number and duration of missions (and/or emergencies) are high (as in lunar or Martian explorations). TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) proposes a light-weight emergency unit using a novel regenerable sorbent. In ...