Award Data

Current agriculture and off-road equipment requires the use of lubricants to ensure efficient operation of integral hydraulic and gear driven systems. The lubricants, either oils or greases, aid in reducing friction, dissipating heat, prevent oxidation, and seal of water and debris from vital areas of the equipment. During operation, equipment may have slight leaks or suffer catastrophic failures ...

Abstract Optical Cherenkov video imaging of body anatomy and dose delivery can be used now to map out radiotherapy beam incidence upon the patient tissuedirectly visualizing the radiation dose deposition on the patient in real timeThis could serve as a non contact workflow tool for verification for daily fractionated radiation therapyallowing capture of all treatmentsall the timeDoseOptics has dev ...

An important NASA mission is to remotely analyze fires, such as wildfires and burning biomasses, for their chemical content. The chemical species of most interest have infrared spectral signatures at wavelengths ranging from 1.5 microns to 12 microns. A broadband infrared focal plane array (FPA) with that spectral coverage and high quantum efficiency is a key technology to enable this mission. Qma ...

To support development of atmospheric balloons and gossamer structures, NASA requires a capability for real-time, dynamic strain measurement in thin polymeric membranes during deployment and flight. This capability will provide quantitative test data to inform balloon design efforts, as well as enable real-time monitoring of material state during flight. Existing technologies include wired or wi ...

Future astrophysics missions require efficient, low-temperature cryocoolers to cool advanced instruments or serve as the upper stage cooler for sub-Kelvin refrigerators. Potential astrophysics missions include Lynx, the Origin Space Telescope, and the Superconducting Gravity Gradiometer. Cooling loads for these missions are up to 300 mW at temperatures of 4 to 10 K, with additional loads at higher ...

The innovation of the Agricultural SOil Moisture and Irrigation Status (A·SOM·IS) platform is the development of operational and moderate resolution mapping and assessment of soil moisture, irrigation status (irrigated vs not), and crop water stress metrics at field scale for agricultural decision support tools. The platform focuses on utilization of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and blends SAR ...

Reducing the inert mass of propulsion systems in sample return spacecraft will reduce their launch costs and increase opportunity for these missions. Compared to a pressure-fed system, a propellant pump-fed system can significantly reduce overall propulsion system mass, especially for a system with high propellant throughput. To address this need, we propose to develop a compact, lightweight elect ...

Refueling spacecraft in space offers tremendous benefits for increased spacecraft payload capacity and reduced launch cost. However, in a microgravity environment, acquiring vapor-free cryogenic liquid propellants from supply tanks and then transferring them to receiving tanks of a rocket engine is very challenging. To address this challenge, we propose to develop a robust, lightweight cryogenic s ...

The proposed project will test the adaptability of the existing commercial remote-control mobile target used by professional football teams to application as a cost-effective, multiple-capability training device for military personnel. The near-term application would be as a mobile, elusive shooting target that could also be engaged in hand-to-hand encounters and close-quarters reaction and decisi ...

Combustion instability is an ongoing concern for military propulsion systems such as augmented gas turbine engines. Augmentor screech can limit the performance of military aircraft, and can cause durability issues or even catastrophic failure if it occurs. Modern augmentors have close-coupled fueling using simple round injectors to minimize manufacturing cost. In a jet-in-crossflow injector, liqui ...