Award Data

The proposed μG-LilyPond is an autonomous environmentally controlled floating plant cultivation system for use in microgravity. The μG-LilyPond concept expands the types of crops that can be grown on a spacecraft in a flexible, efficient, low maintenance package. The μG-LilyPond features several innovations relative to state of the art, including passive water and nutrient delivery to floating ...

The RINGS project (Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation Systems) was a DARPA-funded effort to demonstrate Electromagnetic Formation Flight and wireless power transfer in microgravity. Integration inconsistencies in both hardware and software prevented the experiment from achieving its objectives during the planned test sessions. A later project supported by NASA ARC focused on the assessment, ...

Through the STTR program, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will create low-cost, reusable membranes that selectively capture and recycle nutrients (e.g., N, P, K) from urine in space. Urine is a readily available commodity in space that is rich in valuable nutrients for plant growth. Humans produce individually about 500 L of urine per year that contains ~7 g/L of nitrogen (N), ~1 g/L phosphorous (P) ...

Inflatable pressurized habitats are envisioned as a practical way to build shelters much larger than landing craft for astronauts and their scientific operations on Mars, the moon and elsewhere. These habitats maintain their inflated shape via high-strength Vectran webbing. The piezoresistive extensometers developed through this STTR program can be directly integrated into or onto Vectran webbing ...

Distributed Spacecraft Missions (DSMs) such as constellations, formation-flying missions, and fractionated missions provide unique scientific and programmatic benefits. Distributed mission architectures allow for multipoint in-situ measurements, multi-angle viewpoints, and considerably improved understanding of the connections between separately measured phenomena and their time variations. DSMs a ...