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This presentation is for the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) Technology Transfer Workshop. The content discusses materials research done to date, and research that is ongoing, applicable to OSAM applications. The talk includes content from the In-Space Manufacturing and Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology projects.
The mission of the NASA Langley Research Center is to increase the knowledge and capability of the United States in a full range of aeronautics disciplines and in selected space disciplines. This mission will be accomplished by performing innovative research relevant to national needs and Agency goals, transferring technology to users in a timely manner, and providing development support to other United States Government agencies, industry, and other NASA centers. Highlights of the major accomplishments and applications that were made during the past year are presented. The highlights illustrate both the broad range of the research and technology activities at NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States leadership in aeronautics and space research.
The mission of the NASA Langley Research Center is to increase the knowledge and capability of the United States in a full range of aeronautics disciplines and in selected space disciplines. This mission will be accomplished by performing innovative research relevant to national needs and Agency goals, transferring technology to users in a timely manner, and providing development support to other United States Government agencies, industry, and other NASA centers. Highlights are given of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made during the past year. The highlights illustrate both the broad range of the research and technology (R&T) activities at NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States leadership in aeronautics and space research.
Magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect is one of the best alternatives to compete with vapor-compression technology. Despite being already in its technology transfer stage, there is still room for optimization, namely, on the magnetic responses of the magnetocaloric material. In parallel, the demand for different magnetostrictive materials has been greatly enhanced due to the wide and innovative range of technologies that emerged in the last years (from structural evaluation to straintronics fields). In particular, the Gd 5 (Si x Ge 1–x ) 4 compounds are a family of well-known alloys that present both giant magnetocaloric and colossal magnetostriction effects. Despite their remarkable properties, very few reports have been dedicated to the nanostructuring of these materials: here, we report a ~800 nm Gd 5 Si 2.7 Ge 1.3 thin film. The magnetic and structural investigation revealed that the film undergoes a first order magnetostructural transition and as a consequence exhibits large magnetocaloric effect (–ΔS mMAX ~8.83 J kg –1 K –1 , ΔH = 5T) and giant thermal expansion (12000 p.p.m). The thin film presents a broader magnetic response in comparison with the bulk compound, which results in a beneficial magnetic hysteresis reduction. The ΔS mMAX exhibited by the Gd 5 (Si,Ge) 4 thin film makes it a promising candidate for micro/nano magnetic refrigeration area.
The Department of Energy Technology Transfer mission is to expand the commercial impact of DOE's portfolio of R&D activities, providing ongoing economic, security, and environmental benefits for all Americans. To advance this mission, Argonne National Laboratory has executed this Technology-to-Market (T2M) project funded by EERE-VTO. The objective of the project was to ideate an overall business model for a private entity with a mission to develop and deploy technology by identifying, de-risking, and moving scientific advances into commercial use.
There are two primary space transportation capabilities required to support both base programs and expanded mission requirements: earth-to-orbit (ETO) transportation systems and space transfer vehicle systems. Existing and new ETO vehicles required to support mission requirements, and planned robotic missions, along with currently planned ETO vehicles are provided. Lunar outposts, Mars' outposts, base and expanded model, ETO vehicles, advanced avionics technologies, expert systems, network architecture and operations systems, and technology transfer are discussed.
SpecTIR LLC, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, is recognized for innovative sensor design, on-demand hyperspectral data collection, and image-generating products for business, academia, and national and international governments. SpecTIR's current vice president of business development has brought a wealth of NASA-related research experience to the company, as the former principal investigator on a NASA-sponsored hyperspectral crop-imaging project. This project, made possible through a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract with Goddard Space Flight Center, aimed to enhance airborne hyperspectral sensing and ground-truthing means for crop inspection in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Areas of application for such technology include precision farming and irrigation; oil, gas, and mineral exploration; pollution and contamination monitoring; wetland and forestry characterization; water quality assessment; and submerged aquatic vegetation mapping. Today, SpecTIR maintains its relationship with Goddard through programs at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture campus in Beltsville, Maryland. Additionally, work continues on the integration of hyperspectral data with LIDAR systems and other commercial-off-the-shelf technologies.
This report outlines the 2015 Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase I, Phase II, and Post-Phase II opportunity contract award results associated with NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) for NASA Glenn Research Center. The report also highlights the number of Phase I, Phase II, and Post-Phase II contracts awarded by mission directorate. The 2015 Phase I contract awards to companies in Ohio and their corresponding technologies are also discussed.
The commercial space industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from the time when governments and very large space companies dominated the industry. A confluence of laws allowing commercial space companies to operate in unprecedented ways, new technologies enabling new commercial space applications, and an influx of risk capital has drastically changed the space industry landscape. As small and medium-sized companies enter the commercial space realm, they will seek a competitive advantage, and universities and the NASA space centers are positioned to offer such advantages. The commercial space industry has recently become an active area of technology partnering and licensing, even for technologies that have experienced poor licensing performance in the past. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is seeing unprecedented technology transfer activity in the areas of spacecraft navigation, mission design, space antennas, thrusters, radio occultation, and specialized satellites. Intellectual property rights and partnering play a crucial role in the ability of the private sector to invest in these technologies and to drive space technologies forward. Participants in this burgeoning field seek the most cutting-edge innovations to attain a competitive advantage, and it is crucial for those in the university and public sector to gain an understanding of the market forces that are driving the commercial space business.
The commercial space industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from the time when governments and very large space companies dominated the industry. A confluence of laws allowing commercial space companies to operate in unprecedented ways, new technologies enabling new commercial space applications, and an influx of risk capital has drastically changed the space industry landscape. As small and medium-sized companies enter the commercial space realm, they will seek a competitive advantage, and universities and the NASA space centers are positioned to offer such advantages. The commercial space industry has recently become an active area of technology partnering and licensing, even for technologies that have experienced poor licensing performance in the past. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is seeing unprecedented technology transfer activity in the areas of spacecraft navigation, mission design, space antennas, thrusters, radio occultation, and specialized satellites. Intellectual property rights and partnering play a crucial role in the ability of the private sector to invest in these technologies and to drive space technologies forward. Participants in this burgeoning field seek the most cutting-edge innovations to attain a competitive advantage, and it is crucial for those in the university and public sector to gain an understanding of the market forces that are driving the commercial space business.
The results are described of an application of multiattribute analysis to the evaluation of high leverage prototyping technologies in the automation and robotics (A and R) areas that might contribute to the Space Station (SS) Freedom baseline design. An implication is that high leverage prototyping is beneficial to the SS Freedom Program as a means for transferring technology from the advanced development program to the baseline program. The process also highlights the tradeoffs to be made between subsidizing high value, low risk technology development versus high value, high risk technology developments. Twenty one A and R Technology tasks spanning a diverse array of technical concepts were evaluated using multiattribute decision analysis. Because of large uncertainties associated with characterizing the technologies, the methodology was modified to incorporate uncertainty. Eight attributes affected the rankings: initial cost, operation cost, crew productivity, safety, resource requirements, growth potential, and spinoff potential. The four attributes of initial cost, operations cost, crew productivity, and safety affected the rankings the most.
Over the last five years, NASA has invested in development of sub-models to improve the current capabilities of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes utilized for cryogenic fluid management (CFM) predictions. The goal is for the submodels to be modular so that they can easily be implemented into NASA’s CFD codes such as ANSYS Fluent, Siemens STAR-CCM+, and Streamline Numerics Loci-Stream. These technologies are being developed through Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts under the CFM subtopic solicitation and funded by the CFM Portfolio Project. All contracts presented include cryogenic experiments to enable model validation. A sub-grid boiling model has been developed by Combustion Research and Flow Technology Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for cryogenic line chilldown predictions and has completed Phase III. A spray chill-and-fill model for cryogenic tankage is being developed by Combustion Research and Flow Technology Inc. and University of Connecticut and is currently in Phase II. Last, film condensation modeling to support cryogenic liquefaction was progressed through a Phase I contract with Combustion Research and Flow Technology Inc. and University of Connecticut. A summary of accomplishments for each contract is presented.
Biomanufacturing is a promising technology to convert in situ resources into essential products including enzymes, therapeutics, biopolymers and other chemicals required to support deep-space missions that may not be easily supplied or produced by alternative means. In addition to the biomass production operations, vital down-stream steps including biomass harvesting/concentration, cell lysis, protein capture and purification are needed to produce an application-ready product. Commercially available terrestrial processes commonly require complex, heavy equipment and highly trained operators, which are not practical in deep space environments. In this work, we aim to identify approaches required to produce an intracellular, His-tagged recombinant enzyme using E. coli at 1 L production scales within the constraints of a deep-space mission as a model use-case scenario. Based on extensive literature review and commercially available products, we identified candidate technologies and products that could be integrated for deep space biomanufacturing. Different preliminary designs were then compared in terms of total system impacts on up-mass, processing time, and consumables required. Our analysis indicated that a biomass concentrator would significantly reduce the processing time and consumables required for the overall system without a large increase in the total mass. We also identified viable technologies for other steps such as cell lysis and protein purification. Predictions from our trade study will be validated in the laboratory by testing the most promising products with the results used to optimize the design. This research will help transfer technology that is well developed on Earth to a space-ready format to produce biological products from a wide variety of microorganisms that can support deep-space missions.
NASA and DoD requirements and planning data were used in multidiscipline advanced planning investigations of space operations and associated elements (including man), identification of potential low cost approaches, vehicle design, cost synthesis techniques, technology forecasting and opportunities for DoD technology transfer, and the development near-, mid-, and far-term space initiatives and development plans with emphasis on domestic and military commonality. An overview of objectives and results are presented for the following studies: advanced space planning and conceptual analysis, shuttle users, technology assessment and new opportunities, standardization and program practice, integrated STS operations planning, solid spinning upper stage, and integrated planning support functions.
Kennedy Tech Transfer News is the semiannual magazine of the Innovative Partnerships Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This magazine seeks to inform and educate civil servant and contractor personnel at Kennedy about actively participating in achieving NASA's technology transfer and partnership goals. The contents include: 1) About IPP; 2) NTR corner; 3) Innovator Insights; 4) Licensing Success; 5) Partnership Success; 6) SBIR/STTR Success; 7) Events; 8) Trands in Innovation; 9) Q&A: Data Rights; and 10) Awards.
Kennedy Tech Transfer News is the semiannual magazine of the Innovative Partnerships Program Office at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This magazine seeks to inform and educate cMI servant and Contractor personnel at Kennedy about actively participating in achieving NASA's technology transfer goals:
Kennedy Tech Transfer News is the semiannual magazine of the Innovative Partnerships Program Office at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This magazine seeks to inform and educate cMI servant and Contractor personnel at Kennedy about actively participating in achieving NASA's technology transfer goals
Based on the R&D efforts of colleagues at FNAL, Cornell, and JLab, the LCLS-II project adopted a modification to the rather standard niobium SRF cavity surface processing protocol that incorporates a high temperature diffusion doping with nitrogen gas. This change was motivated by the resulting higher Q0 and the prospect of significantly lower cryogenic heat load for LCLS-II. JLab is responsible for managing the cavity procurement for the LCLS-II project. The first phase of the procurement action is to transfer the nitrogen-doping protocol to the industrial vendors. We also seek to exploit improvements in understanding of the niobium electropolishing process as part of the production processing of the TESLA-style LCLS-II cavities. We report on the technology transfer activities and progress toward the envisaged performance demonstration of vendor-processed cavities.