Award Data

THE ABILITY TO CONTINUOUSLY CHANGE THE THERMAL REFLECTIVITY/EMISSIVITY OF EXTERNAL SPACECRAFT SURFACES AUTOMATICALLY THROUGH INTENSITY-INDUCED REFRACTIVE INDEX CHANGES IN A NONLINEAR OPTICAL LIQUID WITHIN A HOLOGRAPHIC FILM WITH NO MOVING PARTS WOULD HAVE CONSIDERABLE PERFORMANCE, RELIABILITY AND COST IMPACT ON FUTURE DOD, NASA AND COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT AND TERRESTRIAL VEHICLES. HAVING THE ENTIRE ...

1Advanced underwater vehicles currently require a thick outer coating of elastomer to dampen noise radiating from excited structures to seawater. This increases weight, size, drag and detectability if the coating is damaged. Foster-Miller proposes to reduce the acoustic coating requirement more than 60% by making the composite structures intrinsically energy-absorbing. In Phase I, we will combine ...

Diffractive elements for the subdivision, redirection or shaping of laser beams are an increasingly important component requirement for emerging laser-based technologies of optical computing, optical interconnects, and holographic data storage systems. To date, however, the software and fabrication methods to design and create them have been available only to a few researchers. A particular requir ...

Standard CRT display technology does not work well in Lofargram analysis. CRTs induce fatigue which reduces user effectiveness. This program proposes use of a new computer interface device which allows both the generation of more effective (data-rich) displays and faster more intuitive interaction between display and operator. The basis of the interface device is location of the operator\'s point ...

CURRENT OPERATIONAL METAL AIRCRAFT ARE GETTING OLDER AND NEWER ONES USE MORE COMPOSITE MATERIALS. THE DESIGN OF BOTH THE CURRENT AND NEW AIRCRAFT IS BASED ON A DAMAGE TOLERANT PHILOSOPHY. THIS IMPLIES THAT THE AIRCRAFT SHOULD SUSTAIN THE REGULATORY FAIL-SAFE LOADS IN THE PRESENCE OF DEFEATS, UNTIL DETECTED THROUGH INSPECTION OR MALFUNCTION. PRESENT NDE TECHNIQUES TYPICALLY REQUIRE GROUNDING OF THE ...

A typical aircraft requires extensive amounts of fasteners. Due to the harsh environment to which those fasteners are subjected locking systems for threaded connections are seriously critical to aircraft integrity. The most challenging environmental issue is the timperature range (-65F to +800F) in which the thread locking system must perform. Aircraft of mie-twentieth century design relied heavil ...

1In submarine electronics modules, heat dissipated by electronic devices is typically transported along the length of the heat sink (upon which ICs are mounted) to the water cooled side walls. The current pure copper SEM-D heat sink limits the power dissipation per card to 26W in order to maintain acceptable device junction temperatures. Foster-Miller will demonstrate an innovative Gr/Cu metal mat ...

The ability to continuously change the thermal reflectivity/emissivity of external spacecraft surfaces at will or automatically through a low voltage holographic film with no moving parts would have considerable performance, reliability, and cost impact on military and commercial spacecraft. Encompassing the external spacecraft surface as part of an active thermal management system will enable mor ...

Optical 3D data storage research has focussed on developing materials with little consideration given to basic system architecture questions. Basic design choices remain to be made; a key issue is bit versus wavefront recording schemes. These issues can only be resolved by demonstrating real architectures. Foster-Miller's holographic data recording system will be based on 3D optical storage materi ...

An advanced laser on the battlefield is no ordinary weapon. Nor is it one that is easily defended against. Intense, coherent radiation from lasers can damage delicate sensors, the so-called "eyes of battle" or blind human eyes in a matter of microseconds -- so quickly that targets are destroyed before they know what hit them. An ideal protection for satellite and battlefield optical sensors would ...