Summary

Description

We propose the detailed conceptual development of a device for analyzing key isotopic composition in surface materials without sample preparation. We will combine absorption spectroscopy with laser induced vaporization of solid samples for high-resolution isotopic measurements. An immediate focus is on Mars but our concept is also highly germane to other applications relevant to bio- and geochemical objectives. We will evaluate accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution of our technology for isotopic detection of the key elements associated with signs of life (C, S, H, O) in solid materials. All essential design components of the proposed analyzer have been separately developed and demonstrated in very compact form for other applications. We will demonstrate the overall performance of the proposed technique and build a breadboard prototype instrument. Commercial systems based on the Phase II prototype will be developed and marketed during Phase III.

Summary

Description

This Phase-I SBIR proposal proposes for the first time ever, the use of a new class of materials - Gallium Nitride-on-diamond - in the manufacture of very high power, high-temperature, Ka-band solid-state MMICs. In this particular Phase-I, the first ever 34-38GHz GaN-on-Diamond FETs will be demonstrated, exhibiting a record 5-10 W/mm at record efficiency and temperature levels. Arrays of these FETs will be used to form 10KWatt Power Amplifiers (PA) MMICs in Phase-II. Polycrystalline free standing CVD diamond ? nature's most efficient thermal conductor ? enables nearly perfect heat extraction from a "hot" device (Thermal conductivities of GaAs, Si, and SiC are 35W/m/K, 150W/m/K and 390W/m/K respectively; diamond ranges from 1200-2000 W/m/K depending on quality). In the proposed scheme, the device's active epitaxial layers are removed from their original host substrate and transferred to a specially treated low-cost CVD diamond substrate using a proprietary low-cost manufacturable scheme. The active junction rests just 20-nm from diamond. The semiconductor-on-diamond technology proposed here may be applied to GaAs, SiC, SiGe, etc. at up to 8" in wafer diameter.

Summary

Description

The exploration of space requires that new technologies be developed for long-term cryogenic propellant storage applications in-space, on the lunar surface, and on the Earth. The Altair (Lunar Lander) ascent stage requires LO2 and LCH4 storage durations of up to 14 days in LEO and up to an additional 210 days on the lunar surface. Long term storage (224 days) of LO2 cryogenic propellant on the lunar surface is required to support space power systems, spaceports, spacesuits, lunar habitation systems, robotics, and in situ propellant systems. Long term storage of LO2/ LH2/ LCH4 cryogenic propellants on the surface of the Earth with minimal propellant loss is required to support launch site ground operations. This SBIR Phase II proposal focuses on improving the strength of aerogels which are the best cryogenic insulation materials known and proposes to develop non-compacting aerogel insulation that could be used to insulate cryotanks on launch vehicles and Earth, and in-space cryogenic fuel storage tanks. During the Phase II effort, we will optimize and scale-up preparation of the crosslinked hybrid aerogels developed during the Phase I effort. The best aerogels will be thoroughly characterized and tested in a relevant environment to attain a TRL of 5.

Summary

Description

Based on our proposed innovations and accomplished work in Phase I, we will focus on developing the new MAC protocol and hybrid routing protocol for lunar surface networks and orbit access. The new MAC protocol includes a novel mechanism of TDMA overlaying CSMA/CA and ensures scalable throughput and QoS performance in the hierarchical multihop wireless mesh networks proposed for lunar surface networks. The new MAC protocol will be implemented on top of a reconfigurable 802.11 radio and is compatible to legacy 802.11 networks. It also includes advanced features like efficiency power management, adaptive channel width for improving receiver sensitivity and communication range, and error control for eliminate errors due to radiation and radio burst. The hybrid routing protocol combines the advantages of ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing and disruption/delay tolerant network (DTN) routing. Its performance is significantly better than AODV or DTN, and is particularly effective to wireless networks with intermittent links, as in lunar surface networks and orbit access. In this proposal a detailed prototyping plan to implement the developed protocols is also presented. By the end of Phase II, a prototype system will be available for demonstrating the delivered technical objectives proposed in this proposal.

Summary

Description

For the future spaceport and long-term storage of liquid hydrogen NASA requires cryocoolers that can provide cooling power in the range of 20 watts at 20 K. The closed-cycle cooling alternatives currently available for such applications are not well suited to the requirements. In many cases reliability is low and vibration high. In other cases coolers are too massive and inefficient. This proposal describes a two-stage pulse tube cryocooler that combines several innovative design features. The proposed pulse tube will be light-weight, efficient, reliable, vibration free, and easy to integrate with cryogenic dewars.

Summary

Description

In recent years, there has been a tendency to use ever-higher gas turbine inlet temperatures, resulting in ever-higher heat loads necessitating efficient cooling. Internal cooling designs have evolved from the use of simple curved ducts in early designs to very complex geometries. Similar complexities govern film cooling as well, leading to complex fluid-structure interactions and turbulence physics. These complexities make it impossible to obtain optimal cooling designs by intuition alone. In this project we propose to develop optimization software for the design and optimization of turbine blade cooling strategies. The objectives of Phase I are to (i) demonstrate the feasibility of accurate single-point physical modeling of internal and film cooling geometries using our CFD solver TETHYS, (ii) demonstrate the feasibility of sensitivity computation and uncertainty quantification using TETHYS, (iii) apply these sensitivity and uncertainty quantification approaches to turbine blade cooling and to demonstrate their advantage over single-point CFD simulations, and (iv) develop and demonstrate multivariate optimization of a chosen turbine blade cooling problem. Phase II will extend our methodology to geometry optimization, the improvement of physical models and numerical schemes, parallel processing on shared and distributed memory platforms and multicore architectures, as well as application to more complex optimization problems.

Summary

Description

This proposal seeks to investigate the use of a novel high strength nanostructured metal (Nanovate<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <sup>TM</sup> ) as a thin structural reinforcing shell on ultra-lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) propellant and cryogenic storage tanks. In the proposed project, Integran seeks to address the intrinsic deficiencies of CFRP by applying nanometal to the inside liner of the CFRP cryogenic storage tanks to provide a high strength pressure barrier with excellent mechanical performance and damage tolerance at cryogenic temperatures, thereby enabling the use of CFRP for cryogenic storage tanks. In addition, the nanometal liner will also provide increased surface durability, wear resistance and specific strength/stiffness of the CFRP substructure at cryogenic, ambient and elevated temperatures (temperatures at which conventional composites begin to soften). The high strength of the nanostructured material will allow a thin structural reinforcing coating, thus maintaining the overall lightweight nature of the component. The successful execution of this project will provide a proof-of-concept demonstration as well as baseline mechanical property data for nanometal/composite hybrid structures at a range of temperatures, thereby allowing engineering designers to incorporate the use of these structures into advanced engineering components, including cryogenic storage tanks.

Summary

Description

In response to NASA SBIR Subtopic O1.02 (Antenna Technology), Pharad proposes to create a new class of highly efficient body wearable antennas suitable for astronaut Extravehicular Activity RF communications. The Phase I versions of the antennas will be developed on low loss, flexible material that can be readily incorporated on the surface of, or integrated within, an astronaut's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. We will leverage our extensive experience in developing electrically small, flexible, wearable, radiators to create unobtrusive antennas that are compatible with the UHF frequency band for NASA lunar or Mars exploration missions. The key innovations of our proposed research effort are the development of several new technologies: small radiator technology based on slow-wave engineering principles; efficient, small Electromagnetic Bandgap structures; and the integration of these technologies with diversity techniques to create an efficient body wearable antenna platform suitable for EMU integration. Our new technology will provide an unobtrusive, high performance body wearable radiating platform that will facilitate the next generation of astronaut RF communication systems. Throughout this effort rigorous, full-wave electromagnetic simulation tools will be used to predict the performance of the new concepts and the resulting antennas will be fabricated and tested in our measurement facilities.

Summary

Description

This proposal presents the Ka-band SWOT Phenomenology Airborne Radar (KaSPAR) to support the surface water ocean topography (SWOT) mission for science and algorithm development and calibration and validation. KaSPAR is a modular system with multiple temporal and cross-track baselines to fully characterize the scattering and statistics expected from SWOT, provide data for developing classification algorithms, and understanding instrument performance and limitations over the vast variety of scene

Summary

Description

This SBIR Phase-1 project will demonstrate the feasibility of using a novel coaxial counterflow solid-solid heat exchanger to recover heat energy from spent regolith at 1050<SUP>o</SUP>C to pre-heat inlet regolith to 750<SUP>o</SUP>C, either continuously, or in 20kg batches. In granular solids the area of contacts between 'touching' grains is quite small. Thus, solid-solid conduction often plays only a minor role in heat transfer through granular solids (i.e., 'effective' conduction), and when an interstitial gas is present, heat transfer occurs primarily via conduction through the gas. If the granular solid is also flowing, then solids convection becomes a significant factor in overall heat transfer and effective 'conduction'. Under vacuum conditions, and at temperatures above 700<SUP>o</SUP>C, radiation will dominate most heat transfer processes; however, solids convection can also play a very significant secondary role. Utilizing judicious placement of radiation baffles, and a novel counterflow configuration, the approach proposed in this SBIR can accomplish the desired heat transfer between spent and fresh regolith with only one moving mechanical part, by making effective use of both radiative heat transfer and solids convection. Discrete-element simulations of regolith flow will be utilized to refine the concept. Utilization of an existing ~1.4 cubic meter partial-vacuum facility at the University of Florida will facilitate construction of feasibility demonstration prototypes during Phase-1 and/or Phase-2. The Phase-1 project will demonstrate the effectiveness of combining solids convection with radiative heat transfer to rapidly transfer heat from 1050C spent material to heat fresh regolith to 750C under vacuum conditions.

Summary

Description

Global Aerospace Corporation proposes to develop a hypersonic control modeling and simulation tool for hypersonic aeroassist vehicles. Our control and simulation testbed will be focused on the particularly important problem of a lifting, towed ballute for planetary aerocapture. The importance of this technology innovation is in the understanding it can provide NASA on the control of hypersonic vehicles, in particular, of lifting towed ballutes. Lift control of a towed ballute will enable the use of smaller and lighter-weight ballutes for planetary orbit capture, which will make ballutes more attractive and feasible for missions to planets such as Neptune where high heating rates require extremely large ballutes for ballistic capture. The application of the comprehensive tool, to be developed in later phases, will be extensive including, but not limited to, control studies for entry and descent, aerocapture, and aero-gravity-assist with a range of hypersonic aeroassist systems (e.g. rigid and deployable aeroshells, waveriders, etc.). This proposal responds directly to the request in subtopic A2 to "leverage the foundational research to develop technologies and analytical tools focused on discipline-based solutions." In addition, in the hypersonic focus arena, we are responding directly to the interest in "system dynamic models incorporating the essential coupled dynamic elements with varying fidelity for control design, analysis and evaluation" and "simulation test beds for evaluating hypersonic concept vehicle control."

Summary

Description

To address the NASA Earth Science Division need for spatial filter arrays for amplitude and wavefront control, Luminit proposes to develop a novel Integrated Spatial Filter Array (iSFA) comprising integrated waveguides mapped with a pair of commercial lenslet arrays. Thousands of precisely spaced waveguides can be mass-produced with state-of-the-art photonic fabrication technology, which eliminates the tedious and error-prone alignment of up to a 1000 individual optical fibers in legacy fiber bundle SFA. The integrated waveguides are inherently polarization preserving. In Phase I, we designed and fabricated a 16-waveguide iSFA and demonstrated 22 dB polarization extinction ratio and superior coupling efficiency and uniformity over legacy fiber bundle SFA. In Phase II, we will tailor waveguide array parameters for optimum coupling with commercial lenslet arrays and fabricate a fully functioning prototype iSFA with 1,000 buried single-mode waveguide channels operating in a broad wavelength range in the 400-1,000 nm visible band. The iSFA will benefit NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission for detection of earth-like planets, climates, habitability and life beyond our solar system.

Summary

Description

The development of magnesium diboride (MgB2) superconducting wires makes possible the potential to have much lighter weight superconducting stator and rotor coils for heavy aircraft motors and generators than with any other metal or ceramic superconductor. The MgB2 superconductor can be cooled to 20 K by liquid hydrogen fuel or conductively with a cyrocooler. The lighter weight coils, especially in the stator, will enable a lighter weight motor/generator. In a NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II program we want to develop low AC loss MgB2 superconductors for the stators of synchronous motors or generators. For turbo-electric aircraft propulsion systems, it is desirable to have very light weight superconducting wires that can operate at greater than 1.5 T field and 500 Hz electrical frequency with input power between 10 and 100 kW. This SBIR Phase I aims to design, fabricate, and characterize AC-tolerant superconductors with a targeted loss budget less than 10 W/kA-m. This will be accomplished by reducing the hysteretic losses in MgB2 superconductors by fabricating wires with very small filaments, reducing the eddy current component of AC losses in MgB2 superconductors, and characterizing the transport current and AC losses of MgB2 wires.

Summary

Description

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has successfully developed a silicon whisker and carbon nanofiber composite anode for lithium ion batteries on a Phase I program. PSI has demonstrated a technology readiness level of 3 with an anode composite capacity of greater than 1100 mAh/g for over 200 cycles (100% depth-of-discharge) at 1C using 2 mAh cells. This anode provides high capacity, high power, and improved cycle life at a competitive cost. Silicon is low cost and has a theoretical capacity of 4200 mAh/g but it has a limited cycle life. The nanocomposite design provides a synergistic improvement in reversible capacity and electrochemical cycling as a result of the unique silicon architecture and structural reinforcement provided by the nanofibers. In the Phase II program, PSI will increase cell size to 2.5 mAh and optimize cell design to further improve cycle life. PSI will deliver to NASA 2.5 Ah lithium ion cells with an energy density greater than 220 Wh/kg that is required by NASA's future robotic and human exploration missions. In collaboration with a battery manufacturer, PSI will also demonstrate that this anode technology is scaleable to reach industrial production level.

Summary

Description

The LFMG instrument is used to make extremely high resolution scalar magnetic field and difference measurements at the Earth
fs surface. The Phase 1 effort included development of a conceptual design and established the feasibility of designing, fabricating and demonstrating in Phase 2 two prototype LFMG instruments for use in a gradiometer configuration. The Phase 1 LFMG conceptual design includes a technical plan for approaching 10 fT/
cHz resolution in the LFMG prototype. The breadboard LFMG demonstrated measurements of scalar field variations with a resolution of 45 fT/
cHz in Phase 1. The LFMG has stability required to measure vector gradients (difference of scalar measurements between two LFMG instruments on the Earth
fs surface) with very high stability over distances of the order of kilometers. The LFMG prototype will have a dynamic range of 25,000 nT to 75,000 nT, and achieves an accuracy and stability necessary to perform common mode noise rejection between two LFMG instruments. This advance in the state of the art represents an increase in sensitivity of more than an order of magnitude, and will permit new high performance gradiometer measurements for use in innovative exploratory research into the effects producing temporal variations in the magnetic field over the Earth
fs surface.

Summary

Description

Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation and partner, Draper Laboratory, propose to develop an on-orbit immuno-based label-free white blood cell counting system using MEMS technology (OILWBCS-MEMS) for human spaceflight experimental and medical monitoring practices. Our proposed system is designed to meet NASA's requirements for a microgravity compatible, miniaturized, light weight peripheral blood cell counting instrument capable of on-orbit cell counting, without high energy lasers, requiring minimal sample volume or exogenous (sheath) fluid, and generating minimal bio-hazardous waste: SBIR topic X14.02 "On Orbit Cell Counting and Analysis Capability". The proposed detection technology leverages changes in optical transmission through a surface due to molecular binding (e.g., antibody-antigen binding). Antibodies specific to the white blood cell surface protein markers (antigens) are pre-coated on the sensor surface to recognize specific white blood cell types with inherently high specificity and sensitivity. In Phase I we developed surface chemistry and demonstrated surface chemistry sensitivity and specificity for total white blood cells and two lymphocyte subtypes (B-cells, CD4+ T-cells). During phase II we will develop a functional prototype of the OILWBCS-MEMS device to demonstrate that end-to-end operations from sample-in to signal-out produces clinically relevant results. The OILWBCS-MEMS design will include single-use replaceable cartridges for fluid loop and sensor components.

Summary

Description

By drastically reducing the physical footprint of a mass spectrometer to the size of a beverage can, Ceramitron could set a new performance/price standard in the miniaturized MS market. To do this, we propose eliminating the turbomolecular and roughing pumps in favor two chemical sorption pumps (a non-evaporable getter (NEG) and an ion pump), both integrated into the spectrometer's self-contained vacuum enclosure. Ceramitron's patented double-focusing 90<SUP>o</SUP> magnetic-sector unit comprises three printed circuit boards, sandwiched together to form a vacuum-tight enclosure containing a dual-filament EI source, ion slits, a photo- lithographically-deposited energy analyzer, lenses and I/O pins, continuous-dynode electron multiplier and the sorption pumps. Target parameters: 200 daltons mass range, 200 resolving power, 5x10-5 Amps/Torr sensitivity, <2kg total weight, <10 watts power consumption. Sample pressure through a pulsed-gas inlet, with flow restrictor, is ~1E-5 Torr. Internal pumps maintain ~1E-6 Torr with no in-flow. Units will be optimized for harsh operating environments.

Summary

Description

The proposed effort advances the design of an innovative core sampling and acquisition system with improved core break-off, retention and ejection features. Phase 1 successfully demonstrated, at TRL 4, the ability of the system to acquire rock core samples that are 10 mm diameter and 100 mm long. The proposed innovation employs a different drill tube design in the vicinity of the core that does not impose any loads on the core and does not rotate relative to the core. This novel technique actually envelopes and protects the core as it is generated. The benefits are two fold; first, the integrity of the core is maintained and second, core ejection is much easier which greatly reduces, if not eliminates the risk of the core jamming within the drill tube/bit. These improvements can be obtained without increasing the annulus of the drill bit that would otherwise require more down force, torque, power and bit wear. By the end of the proposed Phase 2 effort, a prototype design of the improved coring system will be tested at TRL 6 with Mars ambient conditions.

Summary

Description

A directly immersible cryogenic MEMS pressure sensor will be developed. Each silicon die will contain a vacuum-reference and a tent-like membrane. Offsetting thermal effects allow the device to operate over a wide temperature range. Using a patented, proven design the device is capable of continuous low-power operation and provides accuracies as low as 0.002 % of reading.

Summary

Description

Touchstone Research Laboratory, Ltd. (Touchstone) has developed a novel and innovative Out-of-Autoclave (OOA) composites manufacturing process with an electrically heated carbon foam tooling system. Electrically Heated Tooling (EHT) utilizes a coal-based carbon foam (CFOAM<SUP>REG</SUP>) core that serves as both the tool substrate and the heating source for a composite part being cured. The tool heating is a result of flowing current through the carbon foam, which results in heating. This approach to self-heated tooling is a potentially enabling technology for manufacturing large composite structures by eliminating the need for autoclaves and large curing ovens, as well as by reducing costs, weight, and improving composite part quality. The overall objective of the NASA Phase 2 program will be to optimize critical factors for thermal uniformity in a CFOAM Electrically Heated Tool (EHT) and to validate the electrically heated cure process with current state-of-the-art OOA materials. The data generated will be used to produce a Scaled Composite Shroud (SCS) cylindrical mandrel EHT that will be designed, fabricated, tested, and used to cure a large composite part without an autoclave or oven. The SCS demonstration tool will be up to an 8' diameter and 12' length mandrel, which will be approximately one-forth of the scale as a tool necessary for an ARES V composite structure.

Summary

Description

The work proposed herein focuses on waste subsystems with emphasis on odor control associated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The development of efficient odor removal systems for use inside lunar architectures is one of NASA's critical needs (2008 SBIR Topic X2.03). Because of the limited space and resources in both exploration vehicles and non-moving habitats, a treatment system must be compact, lightweight, and robust, and have low energy and material input requirements, with focus on reducing equivalent system mass (ESM). We have developed a novel, robust, and highly effective Silica-Titania Composite (STC) technology capable of adsorbing and oxidizing VOCs to harmless byproducts when irradiated with UV light. The effectiveness of the technology for removal of ethanol from air when irradiated continuously with UV was proven under Phase I. This Phase II proposal will focus on the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a prototype employing the STC technology with UV LEDs as the light source, challenged with several VOCs simultaneously. The prototype will be designed based on the requirements of the Lunar Habitat in NASA's Lunar Outpost mission. Revised ESM calculations will be completed after system optimization, and a final prototype will be delivered to NASA for future testing.

Summary

Description

The paper-based manual crew procedures that formed the basis of mission management for the manned space program are being replaced by electronic procedure representations and execution engines that support adjustable autonomy. Adhering to the conventions of the legacy procedures makes procedure authoring intuitive and less error prone than approaches that require the author to program in a formal planning language. However, this approach also preserves a drawback of the paper-based procedure: inflexibility in execution due to a lack of information about constraints implicit in the procedure. We propose to develop the Procedure Authoring with Constraints Tool (PACT), an intuitive graphical drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG authoring environment that preserves the conventions of the paper-base procedure, but adds the capability to capture timing and ordering constraints with minimal additional effort. During this Phase I project, we will specify user interface and functional requirements, create representative use cases, design the Phase II system, and develop and evaluate a proof-of-concept prototype to illustrate our approach and demonstrate its utility and feasibility.

Summary

Description

The development of a polymer laminate with water and oxygen barrier properties suitable for food packaging and preservation on 3-5 year manned space exploration missions is proposed. The laminate is a multilayer structure comprising polymer and inorganic dielectrics that will provide near-hermetic encapsulation of food items for the duration of these missions. In Phase I, flexible polymer barriers with an oxygen transport rate of <0.005 cc/m2-day and water transport rate of <0.005 g/m2-day were developed. The barriers contain no metal foils, have a areal density of <34 g/m2 for a 40 micron thick film, and tolerate high temperature sterilization treatments. The polymer laminates are mechanically robust exhibiting a 165MPa yield strength, 200MPa tensile strength, 550MPa tensile modulus, and 3% elongation to yield. In Phase II, we propose to optimize barrier properties to reduce weight, minimize ash on incineration, develop heat-sealing methods, and expand the testing to include heat sealed enclosures. The Phase II effort also includes a collaboration with a potential high-volume manufacturer of the barrier films for aerospace applications.

Summary

Description

In order to implement the monolithic high power narrow linewidth pulsed all fiber-based laser transmitter by using a MOPA configuration for NASA's active remote sensing spectroscopy, NP Photonics propose to develop the high SBS-threshold, single-mode (SM), polarization maintaining (PM), high power amplifiers for the sub-microsecond pulses with transform-limited linewidth, leveraging on NP's proprietary patented large core SM PM highly Er/Yb co-doped phosphate glass fibers (LC-EYPhF). We will use our proprietary patented single-frequency Q-switched fiber laser seed that we have developed recently in order to make the whole high power narrow linewidth pulsed fiber laser transmitter compact and expandable to spaceborne or UAV platforms. In Phase I, one new SM PM LC-EYPhF fiber with large core of 25 micron will be fabricated and two power amplifier stages using NP's large core highly co-doped Er/Yb phosphate glass fibers will be implemented in order to demonstrate 5-kW peak power and 2.5-mJ pulse energy with SBS-free for NASA's active remote sensing fiber laser pulses at 765 nm by using NP's SINGLE-MODE phosphate fiber amplifiers.

Summary

Description

This Phase I SBIR program is directed toward the development of a novel low-voltage (~10V) AlGaN-based multi-quantum well (MQW) avalanche photodiode (APD) on low-cost substrates. The high-gain, high-speed and low-noise operation of the proposed device allow the replacement of bulkier and more fragile photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for many UV photon-counting and imaging applications. In particular, reduction in size and weight in addition to improvements in reliability and ruggedness compared to PMTs, make this technology very suitable for some of the NASA's planned space missions as well as other civilian and defense applications that require high-sensitivity, solar-blind UV detection.