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nLight proposes the development of high efficiency, high average power 1550-nm laser transmitter system that is based on Er-doped fiber amplifier resonantly pumped by high efficiency 1532-nm fiber-coupled diode laser pumps. To meet the efficiency requirement for space communication, nLight proposes to improve overall laser transmitter efficiency by (1) optimizing diode laser and fiber coupling fo ...

To enable future robotic exploration systems to have greater mobility, sensing, sampling, and communication capabilities on difficult terrain such as craters, cliffs, gullies, and skylights, Tethers Unlimited proposes to develop a "Sensing and Positioning on Inclines and Deep Environments with Retrieval" (SPIDER) system. This system employs an innovative lightweight 'orbital winch' with ...

Animal-borne electronic instruments (tags) are critical tools for monitoring the behavior and ecology of cetaceans, providing data needed for managing their populations and mitigating the threats they face. Although remote-deployment of tags onto cetaceans that cannot be captured has provided valuable data, attachment durations have been frustratingly short and variable. Our Phase II goal is to de ...

Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) and Western Washington University (WWU) propose to develop the ldquo;Resin Additive Manufacturing Processed Thermal Protection Systemrdquo; (RAMP TPS), an in-situ cured, additively manufactured, spacecraft heat shield material and process.nbsp;nbsp;RAMP TPS uses Direct Ink Writing (DIW) of an optimized benzoxazine resin-based compound, filled with carbon fibers, silic ...

Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) proposes to develop a software payload for the Astrobee free-flier to enable multi-agent collaborative robotics tasks for automation of human spacecraft, and robotic on-orbit servicing. AstroPorter is built on a mass property estimator capability and enables spacecraft to dynamically adjust its GNC parameters through the course of coupling to other robotic agents, pic ...

Maintaining consistent information flow between abstraction layers, from sensing to cognition, to ensure consistent decision-making is difficult. We are proposing an entirely new data structure, based on hypergraphs, to solve this problem. These hypergraph data structures will be developed in a domain specific language known as NodeLab and serve as a unified knowledge representation that can accep ...

The Venus or Titan EXploration (VORTEX) gimbal is a low Size, Weight, and Power, high performance pointing mechanism capable of supporting future aerobot exploration missions as well as other missions with extreme environments. Scaled from Tethers Unlimited Inc.rsquo;s (TUIrsquo;s) existing COBRA carpal-wrist gimbal, the VORTEX gimbal provides continuous full hemispherical-plus pointing with accur ...

The NASA objective of expanding the human experience into the far reaches of space requires regenerable life support systems. This proposal addresses the fabrication of structured (monolithic), carbon-based trace-contaminant (TC) sorbents for the space suit used in Extravehicular Activities (EVAs). The proposed innovations are: (1) the use of thin-walled, structured carbon TC sorbents fabricated u ...

REM has, in Phase 1, proven concept and fully developed a combinatory surface finishing process optimizing Chemical Milling and Chemically Accelerated Vibratory Finishing capable of uniformly removing .020rdquo; in less than 24 hours from the surface of Additively Manufactured (AM) Inconel-625 components, fabricated by selective laser sintering and by powder blown direct energy deposition. The as- ...

NASA uses a variety of tools to conduct its FM activities. However, these tools are varied and disjoint, and require manual intervention to transfer data from the output of one tool to the input of another. This process is tedious, error-prone and scales poorly for large, complex systems. In addition, these tools are often ldquo;silorsquo;edrdquo; to the singular functionality for which they were ...