Award Data

Spacecraft operations demand a high level of responsiveness in dynamic environments. During operations, it is possible for unexpected events and anomalies to disrupt the mission schedule, and in the case of critical faults, even threaten the health and safety of the spacecraft. Historically, it has been the responsibility of the mission operations team on the ground to issue command sequences and ...

TDA Research, Inc. is developing a compact, low power, Next-Generation Exercise Device (NGRED) that can generate any force between 5 and 600 lbf. We use a closed loop control system and a servo motor to smoothly and accurately simulate the gravitational and inertial loads of lifting a weight on earth. However, because the system uses a computer-controlled motor, the load can be varied independentl ...

High-power electric propulsion with Hall thrusters has been proposed as a strong candidate for Electric Path missions, but conventional power processing units (PPUs) are complicated and the mass of the discharge power converters needs to be reduced. Direct Discharge Power Processing Units (DDUs) have been proposed as an alternative due to their simplicity and low mass, but the achievable operating ...

Cryogenic propellants are important to NASA's missions. Improvements in cryogenic propellant storage and transfer are critical to future long duration NASA spacecraft and missions. Advanced Cooled Shield - IMLI (ACS-IMLI) is an innovative ultra high performance system in which an Advanced Cooled Shield is fully integrated into the IMLI layer structure, reducing mass, forming a single robust s ...

ITN proposes to create an innovative anode supported membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) that is capable of long-term operation at low temperature by the direct oxidation of dry methane or syngas fuel without coke formation on the anode. ITN's MEA is more efficient, durable, reliable, versatile and economical than the state of the art because it is made with t ...

Under this proposed effort, we plan to test the feasibility of adapting our terrestrial jammer locator system (JLOC) to locating jamming signals in space by adapting our previously developed GPS software defined radio (SDR) technology to provide an SDR waveform that can operate on spacecraft to allow detection and identification of GPS interference. We shall also experiment with this waveform to ...

High bandwidth communication links are needed between satellites and ground stations, inter-satellite, and to airborne assets. As data loads increase and satellites available payloads decrease keeping the information flowing becomes even more challenging. In this SBIR program we will design and demonstrate the feasibility of ultra-low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Micro-Laser Communications (M ...

Spacecraft charging and subsequent vacuum arcing poses a significant threat to satellites in LEO and GEO plasma conditions. Localized arc discharges can cause a flashover plasma expansion, that can lead to further discharge of charge stored on dielectric surfaces such as solar panel arrays, which can cause catastrophic events over large areas of the panel array surfaces. While spacecraft charging ...

Solar Electric Propulsion drives down the cost of space missions by using its high propulsion efficiency to step down from one launch class to another. As launch costs can be up to a third of total mission costs, stepping down to a smaller rocket can be a mission enabling technology in today's budget constrained environment.While missions such as Dawn have used this to visit multiple asteroi ...

Propellant densification systems for LH2 require compression systems that develop significant head. In the past this has required multiple stages of compressors running at high speed on grease-packed ball bearings with very limited life, large heat leak and questionable rotordynamic stability. This project will utilize foil bearings with an innovative feature that will greatly increase bearing l ...