SBIR Phase I Solicitation  SBIR Select Phase I Solicitation  Abstract Archives

NASA 2015 STTR Phase I Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Terves Inc.
24112 Rockwell Drive, Suite C
Euclid, OH 44117-1252
(216) 404-0053

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Pennsylvania State University
University Park
State College, PA 16108-4707
(816) 841-4700

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Andrew Sherman
asherman@tervesinc.com
24112 Rockwell Dr.
Euclid,  OH 44117-1252
(216) 404-0053

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Low cost access to space is essential for continued commercial exploitation of near-earth environments, and to support future science missions. A serious limitation on the cost of space access is the available propellants and propulsion system technologies for launch, orbital insertion, maneuvering and orbital reinsertion, and reaction and attitude control.This Phase I STTR program will validate ignition and performance parameters for a volumetrically-optimized, low cost, green, shippable hybrid propellant motor for low cost access to space. The program is specifically targeted at validating performance via fabrication and delivery of replacements for the current Nihka and PSRM-120 stages (stage 2 and 3) based on the Black Brandt sounding rocket vehicle testbed under the Nanolaunch 1200 program guidelines.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Potential Non-NASA Commercial Applications include commercial and university research SmallSat and CubeSat launch and propulsion, sensing satellites for weather and other applications, and small communications satellites.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Potential NASA applications include: SmallSat propulsion, CubeSat launch, upper stage Booster stage propulsion, in-space propulsion, orbital entry/re-entry, and Mars ascent.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Fuels/Propellants
Launch Engine/Booster
Maneuvering/Stationkeeping/Attitude Control Devices

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Parabilis Space Technologies, Inc.
1145 Linda Vista Drive
San Marcos, CA 92078-3820
(855) 727-2245

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Utah State University
4100 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-4100
(435) 797-2775

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Christopher Grainger
chris@parabilis-space.com
1145 Linda Vista Drive, #111
San Marcos,  CA 92078-3820
(855) 727-2245

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Parabilis Space Technologies, Inc. (Parabilis), in collaboration with Utah State University (USU), proposes a low cost, high performance launch vehicle upper stage using oxygen and a novel additively manufactured polymer fuel grain as propellants in response to solicitation T1.01, Affordable Nano/Micro Launch Propulsion Stages. This technology will fulfill the ever-growing mission demands of the CubeSat and NanoSat market by enabling dedicated launch for 5-6 kg class payloads. Comparable launch vehicle stages in this size class are not currently commercially available. The proposed green-propellant system will have significant advancements over alternative technologies in cost, safety, and mission capability. During Phase I, the development team's objectives include preliminary design of an upper stage and the test fire of a demonstration prototype. This innovative stage is designed such that it can integrate directly into NASA Marshall's NanoLaunch 1200 architecture.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Since 2000, there have been several hundred CubeSats launched, adding value to a variety of commercial, research, civil, and military applications. In 2014, the number of CubeSat lunches has surged in a large part due to the launch of PlanetLabs Flock 1 satellites. This increase in demand has created a backlog for CubeSats for ride along markets. This backlog, as well as the ever growing capability of CubeSats has created a market for dedicated CubeSat launch vehicles. Potential non-NASA customers include universities, small businesses, and research institutes. A number of universities have active CubeSat development programs that would benefit from having a dedicated launch vehicle. The proposed innovation is also an ideal solution to responsive space challenges. Additional commercial applications exist for the proposed 4th stage beyond that of a dedicated launch vehicle upper stage. The stages' compact size allows it to be used as a secondary payload post-deployment propulsion system on many launch vehicles. This will give CubeSats and MicroSats significant delta-V capabilities when launched as a secondary payload.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The availability of a dedicated CubeSat launch vehicle will provide NASA a solution for low cost payload insertion for their in-house CubeSats such as IceCube or FireFly. The proposed propulsion solution will offer a significantly higher degree of mission flexibility than is possible with rideshare delivery methods. The specific stages proposed for development would also be ideally suited for integration with current NASA launch vehicle efforts, such as NASA Marshall's NanoLaunch 1200. Either as an integrated component in this vehicle, or as part of another commercial package, the proposed launch vehicle stage will provide NASA the capability to expand programs for universities and research institutions such as the CubeSat Launch Initiative. This solicitation and proposed technology aligns with NASA's 2014 Strategic Plan Objective 3.2, providing access to space.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Space Transportation & Safety
Prototyping
Fluids
Exciters/Igniters
Fuels/Propellants
Launch Engine/Booster
Spacecraft Main Engine

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories, LLC
112 Mitchell Boulevard
Tullahoma, TN 37388-4002
(931) 455-7333

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Alabama in Huntsville
301 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35899-0001
(256) 824-2657

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Eric Jacob
eric.jacob@gtlcompany.com
112 Mitchell Boulevard
Tullahoma,  TN 37388-4002
(931) 455-7333

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed technology builds off GTL's advanced solid ramjet fuel. The method uses additive manufacturing methods to produce an innovative new type of fuel grain that regresses quickly and has a high Isp and combustion efficiency. With this technology, the performance of a liquid rocket engine can be had with a hybrid rocket system. This technology allows for a simple, low cost, high performance stage that is well suited for a nano-sat vehicle. Reducing complexity and parts count serves to decrease cost and increase reliability.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The technology of enhanced fuel grains was developed in response to a Navy need for high performance air-breathing ramjets. This proposal seeks to apply the same technology to hybrid rocket engines which are similar in nature. This technology will impact the development of low cost launch vehicles by providing a high performance and simple alternative to more complex and costly systems such as liquid rocket engines.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
High performance solid fuels are important in hybrid rocket engines. Hybrids have been selected for low cost manned sub-orbital missions due to their relative safety. A high performance hybrid engine would be of great use to manned missions as well as low-cost launch solutions. Reducing the parts count and complexity will provide significant advantages for low cost launch solutions of nanosat payloads.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Processing Methods
Fluids
Polymers
Smart/Multifunctional Materials
Structures
Fuels/Propellants
Launch Engine/Booster
Spacecraft Main Engine

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Garvey Spacecraft Corporation
389 Haines Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90814-1841
(562) 498-2984

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
903 Koyukuk Drive
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320
(907) 474-7558

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Christopher Bostwick
cbostwick@garvspace.com
389 Haines Avenue
Long Beach,  CA 90814-1841
(661) 547-9779

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The technical innovation proposed here is the design during Phase I of a high performance upper stage for a two-stage "20 / 450" Nanosat Launch Vehicle (NLV) that is configured to deliver up to 20 kg to a 450 km low Earth orbit (Figure 1). Parallel tasks prepare for the Phase II development and sub-orbital flight testing of a prototype vehicle that is directly traceable to the orbital-capable NLV. Furthermore, by teaming with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Space Corporation to pathfind the concept of operations at the latter's Kodiak Space Launch complex, we are taking a key step towards establishing dedicated launch access to polar orbits for the cubesat and nanosat communities.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Planet Labs Google / Skybox Imaging National Science Foundation DOD Space Test Program Office of Operationally Responsive Space Air Force Space Command, Army Space and Missile Defense Command National Reconnaissance Office

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
CubeSat Launch Initiative (CLI) Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) University-class Explorer missions Small Explorer missions Interplanetary CubeSat Missions

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Fuels/Propellants
Launch Engine/Booster

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
MicroXact, Inc.
1750 Kraft Drive, Suite 1007
Blacksburg, VA 24060-6375
(540) 394-4040

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
North End Center, Suite 4200, Virginia Tech 300 Turner Stree
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0244
(540) 231-5281

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Vladimir Kochergin
vkochergin@microxact.com
1750 Kraft Drive, Suite 1007
Blacksburg,  VA 24060-6375
(540) 394-4040

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Thermoelectric devices are critical to multiple NASA missions for power conversion with radioisotope sources. At present, commercially available TE devices typically offer limited heat-to-electricity conversion efficiencies, well below the fundamental thermodynamic limit, calling for the development of higher efficiency materials. The team of MicroXact Inc. and Virginia Tech is proposing to develop a revolutionary high efficiency thermoelectric material fabricated on completely new fabrication principles. The proposed material and device will provide NASA with much needed highly efficient (ZT>1.6), macroscopically thick (from 100s of micrometers to over a millimeter) thermoelectric material that will permit >15% conversion efficiency of thermoelectric generation when using high grade space-qualified sources. The proposed material is comprised of PbTe/PbSe three-dimensional "wells" of PbTe/PbSe quantum dot superlattices (QDS) fabricated by a conformal coating of a structured silicon substrate with electrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition (eALD). In Phase I of the project the feasibility of the approach will be demonstrated by proving ZT>1.6. In Phase II the team will fabricate the thermoelectric generator, and will demonstrate conversion efficiencies exceeding 15%. After Phase II, MicroXact will commercialize the technology.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed ultraefficient thermoelectric materials and devices are expected to find applications in automotive and aviation industry (to reduce the fuel consumption), as well as in electronic device cooling (microprocessors, focal plane arrays, etc.), food storage/processing (wine cellars, refrigerant-free refrigerators). Automotive applications are expected to be the most important market for the proposed technology due to both the large size and readiness of the market.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The largest immediate NASA application of the proposed thermoelectric materials is the radioisotope thermoelectric generator, already being used in a large number of NASA missions. The unmatched efficiency combined with the light weight of the proposed material will provide the competitive advantage to MicroXact sufficient for successful market penetration, and will result in significant savings to NASA. Other potential NASA applications include energy recovery from processors and other electronics. The proposed concept, when developed and commercialized, is expected to cause a significant impact on the cost, safety and reliability of future NASA missions.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Conversion
Sources (Renewable, Nonrenewable)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Solid State Ceramics, Inc.
136 Catawissa Avenue, Suite 30
Williamsport, PA 17701-4114
(570) 320-1777

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Pennsylvania State University
124 Land and Water Building
University Park, PA 16802-7000
(814) 865-6968

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Safakcan Tuncdemir
stuncdemir@solidstateceramics.com
136 Catawissa Avenue, Suite 30
Williamsport,  PA 17701-4114
(570) 320-1777

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
It is proposed to address the critical element in the NASA/NRC report that identifies the need for Energy Harvesting that 'can provide local power to improve efficiency, or even provide power to NASA's equipment in Extreme Environments where other power sources could not operate or would be too large or bulky or inefficient. The same devices will provide harsh environment compatible sensor capabilities enabling identification and prognostics functions. The solution uses high temperature ceramic materials in novel energy coupling designs and entirely new energy circuitry that provide very efficient high-energy power generation applicable to NASA Extreme Environments applications, particularly high temperature conditions such that occur during propulsion, high solar exposure, or elevated thermal loading conditions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Although there are many other potential commercial applications, our near term interest is on the oil & gas industry. Solid State Ceramics Inc, (SSC, Inc) has been working with the Oil & Gas industries in regard to transition of its high temperature withstand ceramic-based power technology. At this time, down well communications are very restricted due to the very high temperatures of operation, battery technology is generally unsafe at such temperatures, and not used. Ceramic energy harvesters could safely and reliably harvest the mechanical energy (there is lots), at the very elevated temperatures encountered during exploration and monitoring, to power remote communications. These same high temperature capable energy-harvesting devices can remain at these locations to power other sensors installed for monitoring normal energy extraction performance and incipient failures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed high temperature energy conversion ceramics will provide structural Energy Harvesting where other technologies fail due to high temperature or high radiation exposure conditions. These function in situations where other environmental energy conversion may not feasible. This can include installation in propulsive systems such as fuel tanks, engines or secondary launch systems – both primary and boost, during launch that are not normally exposed to solar, but have very substantial levels of mechanical (elastic) vibration energy that can be converted to electrical energy (with the further benefit of inducing structural damping. Boeing has already identified that the proposed technology could have direct application to several avionics programs that will encounter high temperatures (such as Venus) or high radiation (such as the Van Allen belts, Europa or Io) or on potential Heliosphere missions such as a Solar Probe Mission.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors)
Manufacturing Methods
Materials (Insulator, Semiconductor, Substrate)
Conversion
Generation
Prototyping
Smart/Multifunctional Materials
Acoustic/Vibration
Contact/Mechanical

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Prime Photonics, LC
1116 South Main Street
Blacksburg, VA 24060-5548
(540) 961-2200

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Virginia Tech
635 Prices Fork Road - MC 0238
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0001
(540) 231-7183

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
David Gray
david.gray@primephotonics.com
1116 South Main Street
Blacksburg,  VA 24060-5548
(540) 808-4281

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Monitoring of structural strain is a well-established method for assessing the fatigue life and operational loads of aerospace vessels, aircraft, bridges, and other load-bearing structures. Information from extensive instrumentation using 100's to 1000's of strain gages can be fed into a condition based maintenance (CBM) algorithm to improve structural health assessments, detect damage, and lower maintenance costs. Current methods for measuring strain are too cumbersome, bulky, and costly to be practical for a large scale dense network of strain sensors. Furthermore, existing piezoelectric-based vibrational energy harvesters are built around general purpose components designed for operation in low-temperature application spaces. To realize pervasive structural health monitoring across a wide range of thermal and vibrational environments, a low cost, minimally intrusive, low maintenance, and reliable technology is needed. Cutting edge microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for measurements of strain, acceleration, pressure, acoustic emission, and temperature are becoming increasingly available for use in CBM and structural health monitoring (SHM). While these sensors offer a promising future for wireless sensing networks (WSN), implementation for CBM remains cumbersome due to the lack of versatile, cost-effective powering solutions. Wiring external power to sensors is an unattractive solution given the required installation overhead and associated maintenance costs. Battery powered solutions are unreliable and battery maintenance for a dense network of thousands of sensor nodes is not practical. For this STTR effort, Prime Photonics proposes to team with Virginia Tech to develop a multimode vibrational-thermal harvester with effective energy capture and efficient conversion.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Prime Photonics will market the Energy Harvesting Wireless Strain Sensor (EHWSS) technology for use in support of US military mobile platforms (e.g. ships, aircraft), as well as commercial ships and other private sector industrial and structural monitoring applications such as infrastructure health monitoring (e.g. buildings and bridges) industrial equipment monitoring (e.g. mills and HVAC systems) and power generation equipment (e.g. wind turbines, steam turbines).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The initial NASA commercial application of the Energy Harvesting Wireless Strain Sensor (EHWSS) technology would be in support of advanced flight testing of low subsonic and high supersonic aircraft. The EHWSS system would facilitate monitoring of strain levels in key components of aircraft, particularly in areas that might prove problematic for traditional, wired sensing technologies. Refinement of power budgets and operation environments would allow for extension of EHWSS systems into NASA manned or unmanned space missions for spacecraft structural monitoring, including strain monitoring and/or damage event detection.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Condition Monitoring (see also Sensors)
Conversion
Sources (Renewable, Nonrenewable)
Ceramics
Acoustic/Vibration
Contact/Mechanical
Sensor Nodes & Webs (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport)
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)
Diagnostics/Prognostics

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
M4 Engineering, Inc.
4020 Long Beach Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90807-2683
(562) 981-7797

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Washington
433 Brooklyn Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98195-9472
(206) 543-4043

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Myles Baker
mbaker@m4-engineering.com
4020 Long Beach Boulevard
Long Beach,  CA 90807-2683
(562) 305-3391

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 6
End: 8

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose the development of a modern panel code for calculation of steady and unsteady aerodynamic loads needed for dynamic servoelastic (DSE) analysis of flight vehicles. The code will be especially tailored to be robust, reliable, and integrated with the NASA Object Oriented Optimization (O3) system through selection of analysis methods, file formats, and computing environment, allowing it to be efficiently applied to numerous problems of interest to NASA and industry.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
This technology is expected to have commercial applications to aircraft design of subsonic transports, supersonic vehicles, bombers, fighters, UAV's, and general aviation airplanes. As such, it is expected to have significant commercial applications in airplane structural design, primarily with DoD, NASA, and the prime contractors.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Potential NASA applications will include the use of the developed technology for design of any new generation aircraft or RLV system including complex and novel configurations such as blended wing-bodies, truss-braced wing configurations, low-boom supersonic configurations, etc.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Aerodynamics
Analytical Methods
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Systems Technology, Inc.
13766 Hawthorne Boulevard
Hawthorne, CA 90250-7083
(310) 679-2281

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Michigan
3003 S State Street, 1061 Wolverine Tower
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1274
(734) 764-7242

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Brian Danowsky
bdanowsky@systemstech.com
13766 Hawthorne Blvd.
Hawthorne,  CA 90250-7083
(310) 679-2281

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 1
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft have garnered increased interest in recent years as they can serve several purposes, including many of the objectives of satellites while incurring a fraction of the cost to deploy. Examples applications include Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, communications relay systems, and environmental and atmospheric sensing. The requirements for HALE aircraft dictate that they have very high lift-to-drag ratios, and are extremely lightweight, resulting in high aspect ratios with significant structural flexibility. This results in a dynamically nonlinear vehicle with highly coupled rigid body and aeroelastic structural dynamics. Atmospheric turbulence and gust loading of substantial variance can significantly impact the performance of HALE aircraft. Due to the vast importance of gust loading on these lightweight aircraft platforms, Systems Technology, Inc. and the University of Michigan propose the development of the Disturbance Observer for Gust Load Alleviation (DOGLA) where the gust loading will be actively estimated and subsequently rejected. DOGLA will be implemented on a nonlinear HALE aircraft model in conjunction with a robust primary flight control design. Both the disturbance observer and primary flight control designs will be implemented within a novel gain-scheduling framework to address nonlinear dynamics and varying flight conditions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
DOGLA has application to the worldwide aircraft manufacturing industry of both manned and unmanned aircraft, with focus on HALE aircraft. Current DoD programs that will benefit from DOGLA include the Boeing Phantom Eye and the DARPA Vulture, which are for long endurance advanced ISR, driven by current US military combat conditions. In the commercial market, HALE vehicles are garnering interest as communications relay systems. Both Google and Facebook are pursuing HALE technology to provide internet access to remote areas. Google and Facebook have recently purchased Titan Aerospace and Ascenta respectively, who have been developing solar powered HALE UAS for this purpose. Other companies that specialize in HALE aircraft that would benefit from DOGLA include Aurora Flight Sciences (Perseus and Theseus aircraft) and Solar Flight (Sunseeker and SUNSTAR solar powered aircraft). DOGLA has application to non-HALE flexible aircraft as well, and this includes airliners developed by both Boeing and Airbus.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
DOGLA falls under the NASA Aeronautical Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), which in 2014 announced six research thrusts. DOGLA applies to several of these thrusts. First, DOGLA directly contributes to the "assured autonomy for aviation transformation" thrust by allowing an automatic system to alleviate gust loading without impacting performance of the primary flight control system. The proposed innovation also supports the "real-time, system-wide safety assurance" and "ultra-efficient commercial vehicles" research thrusts. In terms of specific ARMD programs, DOGLA applies to: 1) the Fundamental Aeronautics Program wherein DOGLA provides an advanced technology to improve performance of current and future air vehicles; 2) Aviation Safety Program wherein the technology supports assurance of flight critical systems and assurance of safe and effective aircraft control under hazardous conditions; and 3) the Aeronautics Test Program wherein the technology can enhance test operations of new, novel technology demonstrators including the NASA Global Hawk HALE and the X-56A.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Air Transportation & Safety
Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Machines/Mechanical Subsystems
Structures
Vehicles (see also Autonomous Systems)
Acoustic/Vibration
Sensor Nodes & Webs (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation
90 Broadway, 11th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142-1050
(703) 369-3633

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077
(831) 459-1378

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Cory Kays
kays.cory@aurora.aero
90 Broadway, 11th Floor
Cambridge,  MA 02142-1050
(937) 723-9892

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Blended wing body (BWB) aircraft provide an aerodynamically superior solution over traditional tube-and-wing designs for a number of mission profiles. These platforms provide an all-lifting surface with a reduced wetted area, which lead to significant aerodynamic improvements over their conventional counterparts. However, due to their lack of a conventional tail surface with which to trim in pitch during low-speed operations, these aircraft suffer from a number of stability issues. Chief among these issues is the potentially catastrophic loss of feedback – normally a function of the tail surfaces – when the wing stalls at high angles of attack. This problem is further manifested through the large variation in stall behavior across the BWB's wingspan due to significant thickness differences between the payload-carrying centerbody and the aerodynamically efficient outer wing portions of the vehicle. Aurora Flight Sciences, in collaboration with Professor Mircea Teodorescu of the University of California at Santa Cruz, proposes an actively twisted compliant wing architecture for BWB aircraft that mitigates the stall concerns typically associated with these platforms while providing a significant increase in aerodynamic efficiency. The practical implication resulting from this novel approach is a state-of-the-art compliant wing architecture that provides active control of the twist along the span of the wing by sensing and appropriately responding to oncoming stall risks, thereby eliminating the need for outer wing washout and drastically improving the aerodynamic performance of the wing during cruise. These innovative concepts will be used to complete a preliminary design and build of the wing structure for proof-of-concept flight testing by the end of Phase I.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
After the active twist architecture has been thoroughly vetted through integration into Aurora products, Aurora will aim to sell both the compliant wing structure construction methodology and the active twist control system architecture to outside customers as a stand-alone product, as well as an integrated system. Aurora will act as both the manufacturer and as a value added reseller, customizing integration and installation methods and refining the onboard control algorithms as appropriate for the intended use of the active control technology. Depending on configuration selection, this system could be packaged a wing architecture to be retrofitted on existing aircraft or the wing technology could be incorporated early in the design process of a ground-up aircraft development. Additionally, the technology could be a customized system where Aurora partners closely with a customer to tailor the actively controlled compliant structure to specific aircraft needs, such as integration into a self-aware vehicle or for prognostic health monitoring systems. Finally, BWB platforms have been shown to meet the next-generation requirements of several military aircraft, including the tanker and the bomber. The active twist technology would be a crucial to realizing the full potential of such platforms; therefore, efforts could be made to partner with large contractors to integrate the active twist technology onto these next-generation military vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Retrofitting current NASA UAV platforms with the compliant wing technology would create revenue, both while opening compliant wing technology development for the next advanced aircraft, whether it be a transport-sized BWB platform or a smaller UAV system. NASA's efforts on the development of next generation commercial transport aircraft have shown a clear trend towards unconventional designs, including the strut-braced SUGAR concept and the Aurora/MIT D8 double bubble design configurations. While the BWB configurations could clearly benefit from the actively twisted compliant wing technology, the other unconventional platforms require enabling technologies in aeroelastic control and dynamic load alleviation to realize their full potential; the actively controlled compliant wing technology proposed for this effort – whether it be the fully integrated system or simply standalone components developed over the course of the effort – could be leveraged for integration into these next-generation platforms. Opportunities exist, through Aurora's heavy involvement with the development of the D8 concept, to implement the wing architecture on demonstrator programs for these next-generation concepts. These demonstration opportunities would allow a maturation of the technology, easing the transition to eventual fielding of the technology in the commercial or military sector, and providing NASA with an invaluable technical role in the development of this enabling technology.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Aerodynamics
Analytical Methods
Spacecraft Instrumentation & Astrionics (see also Communications; Control & Monitoring; Information Systems)
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Vehicles (see also Autonomous Systems)
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
2515 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4613
(412) 682-3282

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3815
(412) 268-6556

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
William Whittaker
red@cmu.edu
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh,  PA 15213-3815
(412) 268-1338

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed research will develop long-range terrain characterization technologies for autonomous excavation in planetary environments. This work will develop a machine learning framework for long-range prediction of both surface and subsurface terrain characteristics that: (1) indicate the excavation-value of the material and (2) describe how hazardous terrain is to a robotic excavator. Factors influencing importance include the mineral composition of the material and the presence and concentration of volatiles. Terrain hazards will include loose terrain that could cause wheels to sink or slip as well as the presence of surface and subsurface rocks that would inhibit excavation. This work will develop technologies for long-range terrain mechanical characterization and volatile prediction with high spatial coverage. Ground penetrating radars and neutron spectrometers provide reasonable accurate estimates of subsurface composition and volatile accumulation; however, they are limited in sampling range and area. Cameras and LIDAR will instead be used to measure reflected radiation, temperature, and geometry at long range with a wide field of view. From these measurements, the thermal properties and spectral reflectance curves of the terrain will be estimated, since both are correlated to terrain composition and traversability. These properties, along with geometry, will be fed into a machine learning framework for prediction of terrain characteristics. Priors will be generated based on data from orbital satellites. Measurements of material composition, volatile accumulation, and traversability will be generated from expert labeling, neutron spectrometers, and wheel slip measurements, respectively. These measurements will be used to train machine learning algorithms for long-range prediction of terrain mechanical characteristics and resource concentration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Development of terrain characterization technology for excavation robots will lead to commercialization opportunities in earthworking equipment. In terrestrial construction, excavation machines must still detect buried hazards and the traversability of soil. Sensing the physical characteristics of both the surface and the subsurface at long-range as in this research will increase the reliability, safety, and efficiency of autonomous terrestrial excavators. Reliable, long-range detection of loose terrain hazards will also lead to commercialization opportunities in military, search-and-rescue, agricultural, and consumer vehicles. In all cases, vehicles would benefit from safeguarding in the presence of non-geometric hazards in off-road situations. Astrobotic could package and sell the technology to vehicle manufactures for inclusion in ground vehicle development.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Regolith excavation is a fundamental need of government and commercial endeavors on the Moon and Mars in establishing habitats, landing zones, observatories, roads and resource utilization facilities. The specific proposed technologies will enhance prospecting and excavating missions by enabling better prediction of subsurface volatiles to determine the regions of greatest value for sample acquisition and excavation. This has the potential to enhance near term missions like Resource Prospector Mission and Mars 2020 and follow-ons that may include sample return or site preparation and in-situ resource utilization for a lunar or Martian base.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Perception/Vision
Robotics (see also Control & Monitoring; Sensors)
Image Analysis
Thermal Imaging (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Data Fusion
Resource Extraction
Visible
Infrared
Multispectral/Hyperspectral

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
2515 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4613
(412) 682-3282

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3815
(412) 268-6556

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Kevin Peterson
kevin.peterson@astrobotic.com
2515 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh,  PA 15222-4613
(412) 682-3282

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed program innovates subsurface prospecting by planetary drones to seek a solution to the difficulty of robotic prospecting, sample acquisition, and sample characterization at multiple hazardous locations in a single mission. Innovation focuses on a specific, challenging scenario: sub-surface access of multiple lava tubes by drones far enough from Earth for speed-of-light latency to preclude direct human control. The technology will be broadly applicable to resource prospecting in cold traps, dark craters, cryovolcanoes, asteroids, comets, and other planets. The technology is also applicable to Earth-relevant problems such as the detection of poisonous and explosive gases and flammable dust in mines; and surveying urban canyons; exploring bunkers and caves. The proposed innovation is the development of Anytime Motion Planners that can generate feasible guidance routines to accomplish subsurface prospecting by planetary drones. Anytime Motion Planners are algorithms that can quickly identify an initial feasible plan, then, given more computation time available during plan execution, improve the plan toward an optimal solution. In addition to Anytime Motion Planners, optimal guidance routines will also be innovated in this work by formulating the Generic Autonomous Guidance Optimal Control Problem (Problem G&C) (Pavone, Acikmese, Nesnas, & Starek, 2013) as a convex optimization problem and employing interior-point methods to solve the resulting problem to global optimality. This work will determine whether optimal solutions may be computed quickly enough to be useful in practice.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Astrobotic's proposed approach to reaching other commercial markets is to target the most likely candidates for market acceptance and profitability in Phase I and Phase II, particularly UAV application for defense and surveying. This technology may also be used for the detection of poisonous and explosive gases and flammable dust in mines; surveying urban canyons; and exploring bunkers and caves.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The immediate markets within NASA are for exploration and science missions to surface destinations on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. The proposed innovations in guidance improve mission capability by enhancing landing and flying precision; enabling access to previously inaccessible terrain; providing accurate autonomous target-relative navigation; modeling a target onboard a spacecraft; and providing a flight-ready, power efficient solution to TRN. Potential applications to NASA include: (1) Resource Prospector Mission, currently in Phase A with a target launch in 2019, has a $250M budget reserved. Science return is dependent on landing in an identified region with high volatile content and near regions of permanent dark. Polar terrain on the Moon is hazardous and lighting varies locally, so precise landing relative to terrain is exceptionally important. (2) The Mars Science Lab (total project budget of $2.5B with ~$550M expended on operations ) and Mars 2020 (budget $1.5B ). The technology developed by this research could enhance landing precision and enable landing at the location of highest value, enhancing mission science return. (3) At least six planned NASA missions – Asteroid Redirect, Comet Surface Sample Return, Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return, Lunar Geophyisical Network, Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (Max C), and Venus In-Situ explorer – could be enhanced by this technology.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Navigation & Guidance
Perception/Vision
Robotics (see also Control & Monitoring; Sensors)
Attitude Determination & Control
Image Processing
Data Fusion
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Astronautics)
Inertial (see also Sensors)
Optical

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Busek Company, Inc.
11 Tech Circle
Natick, MA 01760-1023
(508) 655-5565

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Alabama
Box 870104
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0104
(205) 348-7163

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
James Szabo
jszabo@busek.com
11 Tech Circle
Natick,  MA 01760-1023
(508) 655-5565

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed innovation is a spacecraft that could be used for lunar or asteroid prospecting missions. The mission plan would involve sending the spacecraft to an asteroid or other target, and analyzing the regolith for traces of water and other elements to be mined later for in-situ resource utilization. The system features multiple innovations. One is game-changing high delta V solar electric propulsion (SEP) system featuring a hall thruster flowing iodine propellant. Another is a small tethered satellite with an on-board propulsion system that can be used as a modular working arm for the main spacecraft. The proposed Phase I program includes mission analysis, spacecraft, bus, and propellant module design, and identification of sensors and tools to be used for prospecting and plume analysis. Phase I also includes development of an iodine plasma spacecraft interactions model, which is a necessary precursor to any deep space mission with iodine propellant. In Phase II, the entire system including the spacecraft interactions model will be brought to a higher technology readiness level. Both Phase I and Phase II will include plasma plume measurements to support model development and analysis.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed system can be adapted to non-NASA commercial applications. One is commercial prospecting and mining of space resources. Another application is a High impulse solar electric upper stage for commercial launch vehicles uses for the system include using the SOUL units as a way to attach to and repair satellites in orbit, or capture tumbling space debris. In addition, the system would be a valuable technology demonstrator for iodine-fueled hall thrusters. The spacecraft interactions model is a vital step toward commercial station-keeping and orbit maintenance applications with iodine plasma generators of all shapes and sizes.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed innovation is a low cost system for conducting prospecting missions at asteroids, Near Earth Objects (NEOs), planets, and their satellites. In one scenario, NASA could use the system to identify and analyze possible asteroid targets before sending a more costly mission to land on or capture one for mining purposes. The system can be altered to fit many different mission profiles. The high delta V iodine hall thruster makes it possible to choose between a variety of targets, including the moon, Mars, or an asteroid. The use of iodine in the propulsion system allows the system to be much lower cost than the typical xenon SEP system without sacrificing performance. The system can also function as an electric upper stage for small launch vehicles, or could be the basis for a technology demonstration in support of the Asteroid Retrieval Mission. The system may also be used to delivery CubeSats to high orbits, or for spacecraft servicing and recovery.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Fuels/Propellants
Spacecraft Main Engine
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Honeybee Robotics, Ltd.
Building 3, Suite 1005 63 Flushing Avenue Unit 150
Brooklyn, NY 11205-1070
(212) 966-0661

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Central Florida
4000 Central Florida Blvd
Orlando, FL 32816-3246
(407) 823-2000

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Philip Metzger
philip.metzger@ucf.edu
4000 Central Florida Blvd
Orlando,  FL 32816-3246
(407) 823-5450

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The paradigm of exploration is changing. Smaller, smarter, and more efficient systems are being developed that could do as well as large, expensive, and heavy systems in the past. The 'science' fiction becomes reality fueled by advances in computing, materials, and nano-technology. These new technologies found their way into CubeSats – a booming business in the 21st century. CubeSats are no longer restricted to aerospace companies. Universities and even High Schools can develop them. The World is Not Enough (WINE) is a new generation of CubeSats that take advantage of ISRU to explore space for ever. The WINE takes advantage of existing CubeSat technology and combines it with 3D printing technology and a water extraction system developed under NASA SBIR, called MISWE . 3D printing enables development of cold gas thrusters as well as tanks that fit perfectly within the available space within the CubeSat. The MISWE allows capture and extraction of water, and takes advantage of the heat generated by the CubeSat electronics system. The water is stored in a cold gas thruster's tank and used for propulsion. Thus, the system can use the water that it has just extracted for prospecting to refuel and fly to another location. This replenishing of propellants extends the mission by doing ISRU (living off the land) even during the prospecting phase. In Phase 1, we plan to test and investigate critical technologies such as (1) sample acquisition, (2) volatiles capture, and (3) 3D-printed cold gas thrusters that use water vapor including the organic and particulate contaminants that are inevitable during the early stages of asteroid mining. The engine is similar to a Solar Thermal Engine but scaled for a CubeSat. In Phase 2, we propose to develop a testbed of the critical systems and to demonstrate these onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The system could be used by several commercial companies that are interested in In Situ Resource Utilization for financial gain. These include Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries targeting asteroids. Bringing water from the asteroids could be very profitable given that launching water from space costs ~$20,000/liter. The major market for water could be human consumption and radiation shielding (e.g. once Bigelow Space Hotels are established) or refueling of existing satellites. The latter is of particular interest, since satellites come to the end of their life not because of electronics, or power, but because there are running out of fuel for station keeping. NASA and industry have been developing in space refueling technology, the first step in enabling refueling of satellites in space. The technology could also be applied to the Moon and used by Shackleton Energy Corp., company interested in mining water and delivering it for refueling spacecrafts at Geostationary Orbit and Geotransfer Orbit. The International Space University 2012 Summer School demonstrated the commercial viability of boosting spacecraft to Geostationary Orbit via water-based propulsion. With the advent of small satellites (nanosats and CubeSats) one can imagine that these satellites could be able to stop at an Asteroid, refueling, and continue exploring.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NASA can use this system to prospect for mining that will support Mars exploration missions. It can also use the system for any planetary exploration when there is a known water resource close to the surface. It can be used to explore the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, Main Belt Asteroids including protoplanet Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, Mars, Europa, Titan, etc. The water propulsion technology can be adapted by NASA for its Extreme Access project to mine the permanently shadowed craters on the Moon. NASA can also use the system to test water/thermal propulsion at ISS. The results of that testing may lead to a new class of space tugs to help accomplish missions in cis-lunar space until a full water electrolysis capability has been established.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Conversion
Sources (Renewable, Nonrenewable)
Characterization
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Prototyping
Resource Extraction
Isolation/Protection/Shielding (Acoustic, Ballistic, Dust, Radiation, Thermal)
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Advanced Space, LLC
4415 Laguna Place, Unit 207
Boulder, CO 80303-3783
(607) 316-1273

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
The Regents of the University of Colorado
3100 Marine Street Rm 479
Boulder, CO 80303-1058
(303) 492-6221

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jay McMahon
jay.mcmahon@colorado.edu
431 UCB
Boulder,  CO 80309-5004
(303) 492-3944

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 1
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This proposal will develop an innovative architecture and concept of operations that permits reliable, safe, and repeated sampling of small bodies. The Lofted Regolith Sampling (LoRS) architecture is based on advanced astrodynamics and autonomy that is robust to target-body uncertainties and is adaptive during operations. The LoRS architecture is based on several key phases that ultimately lead to a thorough characterization of the target body and collection of multiple samples while avoiding complex and highly unpredictable landing requirements. The first phase of this characterization is the estimation of the body's gravitational field and remote sensing of the NEO surface. After sufficiently characterizing the body, the second phase of the proposed architecture is to disturb material on the surface of the small body such that it is lofted into orbit about the body. This disturbance can be initiated with a variety of chemical explosions, kinetic impactors, or other forces which will be evaluated during the proposed effort. The third phase is to remotely characterize the lofted material to identify key attributes such as size and composition. The fourth phase of operations is for the orbiting spacecraft to approach a specific portion of the debris field and collect physical samples from the NEO. Once samples have been collected in orbit, the vehicle can further evaluate the samples on-board, identifying key constituents etc., and return this information to terrestrial scientists.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Beyond NASA, the LoRS architecture has the potential to assist other governments to explore the solar system. The prospecting function of the LoRS architecture is also expected to be of interest to commercial companies that have publicly stated an interest in mining asteroids in the future. This architecture is advantageous to current prospecting architectures in terms of cost and timeline, and so is expected to be readily adopted by these non-NASA entities.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The LoRS architecture will directly support infusion into NASA science and exploration programs that seek to characterize and obtain materials from asteroids and/or comets. These applications are strengthened by the LoRS architecture due to its increased flexibility and robustness. The LoRS architecture will also enable these types of missions in the near-term time horizon. Associated technologies in remote characterization and autonomy can be applicable to a large number of NASA related robotic endeavors.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Navigation & Guidance
Relative Navigation (Interception, Docking, Formation Flying; see also Control & Monitoring; Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Spacecraft Instrumentation & Astrionics (see also Communications; Control & Monitoring; Information Systems)
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems)
Sequencing & Scheduling
Telemetry/Tracking (Cooperative/Noncooperative; see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Astronautics)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Space Micro, Inc.
10237 Flanders Court
San Diego, CA 92121-1526
(858) 332-0700

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Univ of Arizona
1209 E. 2nd Street, Room 303
Tucson, AZ 85721-3030
(520) 621-5254

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Elettra Venosa
evenosa@spacemicro.com
10237 Flanders Court
San Diego,  CA 92121-1526
(858) 332-0700

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Space Micro and its partner research institution, the University of Arizona bring together innovations in channelization and network protocol development. Together, these innovations will provide improved hopping radios (with digital, rapidly reconfigurable implementation, wider bandwidth and reduced overhead penalty for hopping) and improved spectrum and link quality sensing. We will demonstrate how these improvements provide the basis for links and networks that rapidly adapt. During phase 1, we will prove the feasibility of our approach and quantify the potential improvements in throughput and robustness of the link. We anticipate that adaptively changing the center frequency, hopping pattern, modulation and data rate will lead to doubling of the energy efficiency of data downlink for nominal conditions by keeping the link margin relatively constant. We anticipate much larger improvements for conditions with severe interference due to increased communications opportunities. Space Micro has already developed unique and critically important technologies that solve many of these challenges. Space Micro's advanced software defined radio, which we call the Agile Space Radio (ASR) is capable of adjusting its transmitter's data rate, modulation type and center frequency on the fly. Moreover, it is capable of advanced spectrum sensing to support its situational awareness over the entire accessible bandwidth, currently configured to the entire STDN band. This software-defined platform is used as a multi-band, multi-waveform transponder. We propose to demonstrate the concepts described in this proposal using the ASR. We propose to market the end product as an ASR feature set, though it may be possible to also use the concepts/end products on other SDRs.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
This technology and evolving Space Micro products will also benefit many commercial space platforms, both LEO and GEO telecommunication satellites, such as Intelsat, Direct TV, XM radio, Orbcomm, and Iridium Next telecom constellation replenishment, plus standard industry busses including Lockheed's A2100, SSL LC-1300, ATK200-700, and Boeing's HS-702. Civil earth sensing applications such as weather/metrology applications e.g. (NOAA GOES and Landsat) can also benefit. The large DoD space industry, including USAF, MDA, NRO, and new Army nanosat programs at SMDC will directly benefit. Among these programs are AEHF upgrades, GPS follow-ons, MDA's STSS and PTSS, USAF TacSat family, EAGLE, Plug and Play (PnP) sats, Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), and Army SMDC nanosat family e.g. (Kestrel Eye). The entire CubeSat initiative including NRO's Colony program would benefit. This technology and space product will also address emerging MDA interceptor missile radiation threats. These programs include CKV, AKV, THAAD, AEGIS, MKV, and GMD for Blocks 2018 and beyond. Other military applications may include strategic missiles (Trident D5 and Air Force Minuteman and MX upgrades).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Virtually all NASA space programs have a demand for this technology and resulting space qualified product. NASA applications range from science missions, space station, earth sensing missions e.g. (EOS), and deep space missions. This device will enable improved docking, proximity operations, and landing missions. NASA programs/missions that will benefit include new lunar landers and orbiters, Mars missions (MAVEN), solar system exploration e.g. (Titan, Juno, Europa, comet nucleus return, New Discovery, and Living with a Star (LWS). NASA programs which hopefully will continue to be funded by Congress include the next generation heavy launch vehicle called SLS, the Orion Multipurpose Crew Exploration Vehicle, Commercial Crew Development Vehicle (CCDev2) and Commercial Orbiter Transportation Service (COTS) will benefit. Space products evolving from this SBIR , and marketed by Space Micro, would have been enabling for NASA programs such as RBSP, GRAIL, LADEE, IRIS, Dawn, SDO, Aquarius, Kepler, Ocean Vector Winds, and space interferometry (SIR). New future missions which hopefully will be funded include BARREL, CLARREO, GEMS, solar orbiter, Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission, Solar Probe Plus, and ILN.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Navigation & Guidance
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Architecture/Framework/Protocols
Transmitters/Receivers

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Bluecom Systems And Consulting, LLC
801 University Southeast, Suite 100
Albuquerque, NM 87106-4345
(505) 615-1807

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
The Regents of the University of New Mexico
1700 Lomas Blvd NE Ste 2200, MSC-01 1247
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
(505) 277-1264

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Christos Christodoulou
christos@unm.edu
ECE Department, University of New Mexico
Albuquerque,  NM 87131-0001
(505) 277-6580

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
There is growing recognition that success in a variety of space mission types can be greatly enhanced by making current communication transceivers and networks evolve towards networked communication systems that are intelligent, self-aware and thus can support greater levels of autonomy. This will be especially relevant as networked clusters of smaller-size satellites, made of CubeSats or microsatellites, are more and more used in place of a single monolithic satellite. The proposed wideband autonomous cognitive radios (WACRs) provide an ideal approach to achieving such autonomous and network-aware communications. The BlueCom team proposes to design and develop WACRs during the Phase I of this project by integrating a real-time reconfigurable radio front-end and a field programmable gate array implemented cognitive engine on to a software-defined radio (SDR) platform. WACRs will have the ability to sense state of the RF spectrum and network and self-optimize its performance in response to the sensed state. The cognitive engine is made of machine-learning aided algorithms to achieve this goal. The SDR platform coupled with a real-time reconfigurable RF front-end will allow the WACR to reconfigure its communication mode as directed by the cognitive engine. This will enable a WACR to overcome communications challenges encountered in space applications including interference, deep fading, waveform agility, delay and very low SNR by dynamically changing its mode of operation. This type of self-aware, autonomous and intelligent communication is what will be required to exploit the full benefits of networked clusters of satellites (e.g. CubeSats) in various mission types including earth monitoring and unmanned autonomous lunar/ planetary exploration. Phase I deliverables will include a detailed design of a WACR system architecture and a cognitive engine as well as development of cognitive algorithms and a real-time reconfigurable RF front-end/antennas.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Potential non-NASA applications of proposed wideband autonomous cognitive radios (WACRs) include military, homeland security and commercial applications. First, the proposed WACRs are in-line with the vision put-forth in the 2012 PCAST report for allowing coexistence of many different systems in larger spectrum bands without exclusive spectrum licensing. WACRs are an ideal technology to implement such spectrum coexistence. Thus, proposed WACRs can lead to a future universal radio device/system that may meet all communications needs of a user revolutionizing the consumer telecommunications. Moreover, cognitive radio technology can be utilized in many military applications such as broadband radar systems, directed energy diagnostic tools and covert communication. For example, the proposed filtenna technology can be integrated into the front-end of a radar to provide frequency agility and side-lobe suppression thereby increasing cross-range resolution. The filtenna technology can also be integrated into frequency selective screen sheets to provide frequency agile electromagnetic screens. Such screens can be placed around sensitive electronics and components to protect them from wideband RF threats. The WACRs can be also be used in unmanned aerial vehicles as well as for achieving reliable emergency/disaster/first-responder communications. The spectrum-, network- and self-aware operation of WACRs provide a robust solution for emergency and first-responder communications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Proposed wideband autonomous cognitive radios (WACRs) are an ideal technology to exploit full benefits of networked clusters of satellites (such as CubeSats). Clusters of satellites networked via proposed WACRs offer opportunities for both improving performance of current space communications links as well as exploring new communications paradigms. They can enable various cognitive cooperative communications techniques leading to new approaches to achieving mission success in certain situations. For example, cooperative relaying in a networked cluster of satellites can provide a data path for observing the night side of Mars. WACRs can also be ideal for achieving delay tolerant networking(DTN)in earth monitoring or unmanned lunar/planetary exploration missions: A networked cluster of satellites can provide either a time-sequenced observations of a single location or simultaneous ones at multiple locations. Cognitive cooperative communications enabled by WACRs can be used to link this data to a ground station reliably with minimum delay. Other applications include, a) facilitating higher bandwidth and fewer dropouts in imagery that is sent over "short" distances such as LEO spacecraft-to-ground, b) agility to avoid interference with other systems and to adapt waveforms, c) optimizing bandwidth within power limitations particularly at very long ranges such as interplanetary operations and d) reduction of interference behavior in reception-only modes such as radio astronomy.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Intelligence
Antennas
Architecture/Framework/Protocols
Network Integration
Transmitters/Receivers

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
N5 Sensors, Inc.
18008 Cottage Garden Drive, 302
Germantown, MD 20874-5820
(301) 257-6756

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030-4422
(703) 993-1596

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Ratan Debnath
rdebnath@n5sensors.com
9610 Medical Center Dr
Rockville,  MD 20850-6372
(301) 975-2103

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Extravehicular Mobility Units (EVU) are the necessary to perform elaborate, dynamic tasks in the biologically harsh conditions of space from International Space Station (ISS) external repairs to human exploration of planetary bodies. The EVUs have stringent requirements on physical and chemical nature of the equipment/components/processes, to ensure safety and health of the individual require proper functioning of its life-support systems. Monitoring the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) of the EVU in real time is to ensure the safety of the astronaut and success of the mission.N5 Sensors will demonstrate an ultra-small form factor, highly reliable, rugged, low-power sensor architecture that is ideally suited for monitoring trace chemicals in spacecraft environment. This will be accomplished by our patent-pending innovation in photo-enabled sensing utilizing a hybrid chemiresistor architecture, which combines the selective adsorption properties of multicomponent (metal-oxide and metal) photocatalytic nanoclusters together with the sensitive transduction capability of sub-micron semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) photoconductors. For the phase I project we will demonstrate oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ammonia sensor elements on a single chip. Innovative GaN photoconductor design will enable high-sensitivity, low power consumption, and self-calibration for the sensor current drift. The multicomponent nanocluster layer design enables room-temperature sensing with high selectivity, resulting in significant power saving and enhanced reliability. The fabrication of the sensors will be done using traditional photolithography and plasma etching. The nanocluster functionalization layer will be deposited using sputtering methods. The sensor testing will be carried out to determine sensing range, sensitivity, selective, and response/recovery times.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Measuring individual exposure in real-time can revolutionize air quality monitoring in communities everywhere. Such information would allow citizens to take preventive measures to reduce their exposures to air toxics, which would tremendously impact their health and quality of life. Mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablets represent a powerful infrastructure which could be leveraged to develop personal air monitors. However, traditional sensor technologies (such as electrochemical and photo-ionization detectors), commonly used for industrial safety monitoring, are big, power-hungry, and has limited sensitivity and life-time. Monitoring of NOx, SOx, H2S, O3, for individual pollutant monitoring. Monitoring the BTEX family around fracking sites and other affects industrial progess would provide hard data about the environmental effect industry has on the environment. Portable gas detection instruments have been used since the early days of mining (canaries, Davy's lamp). Today, almost all major industrial operations use gas detectors for safety of the personnel and infrastructure. The North American market for multi-gas portable industrial detectors are over $ 230 M (2016 - CAGR 7.2%, over 264,291 units sold, with average price~ $1K), with Oil and Gas, and Petrochemical and Chemicals industries being the most dominant users. World-wide hand-held detector market is over ~ $2 B.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
In addition to EVUs monitoring the proposed single-chip multianalyte sensors are ideally suited for in-flight monitoring of the trace chemical constituents, which is essential for crew health, safety, and systems operation. These sensors are low-power, rugged, and radiation-hard, making them ideally suited for integrated spacecraft monitoring networks. Due to their robustness these sensors can be also used for measuring trace gases such as CO, CO2, O2, NH3, CH4, and H2O for planetary environmental monitoring.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
Chemical/Environmental (see also Biological Health/Life Support)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Southwest Sciences, Inc.
1570 Pacheco Street, Suite E-11
Santa Fe, NM 87505-3993
(505) 984-1322

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Southwest Research Institute
1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300
Boulder, CO 80302-5142
(303) 546-9670

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Steven Massick
smassick@swsciences.com
1570 Pacheco Street, Suite E-11
Santa Fe,  NM 87505-3993
(505) 984-1322

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Southwest Sciences Inc. (SWS), in collaboration with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), will develop a reliable, ultra compact, low power diode laser multigas sensor to measure carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3), oxygen (O2) and water vapor (H2O) concentrations in the presence of saturated and condensable water concentrations appropriate for NASA's portable life support system (PLSS). A high sensitivity optical absorption technique known as wavelength modulation spectroscopy will be used in the sensor. The system will be light weight (<1 kg), low power (1 W), and fast (minimum 1 Hz measurement rate). The specifications of the proposed multigas sensor will provide reliable gas concentration measurements to ensure extended operation of the PLSS during extravehicular activities (EVA). The combined Phase I and Phase II project will provide NASA with a prototype sensor that will provide the same gas concentration data with equivalent or better accuracy as the current GS-300 and GS-322 sensors with the addition of an ammonia measurement not currently available in the PLSS.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Southwest Sciences and its licensing partners are developing numerous WMS instruments for use in both the private and government sectors. Both the compact cell design and the FPGA based electronics (hardware and algorithms) will greatly aid in manufacturability of future instruments. Government agencies interested in gas measurements include NASA, D.O.E, USDA, DOD and NSF. The private sector applications of the technology developed in this STTR project include gas sensing for environmental research, leak detection, process gas contaminant detection, breath gas analysis and packaging head space measurements. Our plan is to build these instruments on a custom manufacturing and sales basis. Our vision is to continue as a highly successful broad technology development company, commercializing promising technologies through licensing, small-scale in-house manufacturing, creating joint-ventures with partners, or creating spin-off companies as separate entities, depending on the type of technology and the intended market. Southwest Sciences has successfully commercialized eight products: five products via licensing to manufacturing companies, two products that are sold directly to the public, and one product sold under a sole-source supplier agreement to a major U.S.-based multi-national corporation. Five of these eight products were developed with the aid of SBIR funds. Southwest Sciences currently has four active, income generating licenses.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Carbon dioxide concentration measurements are used by the PLSS to trigger regeneration of the two adsorbent beds of the rapid cycle amine system (RCA) that remove CO2 and water from the spacesuit atmosphere. Several extravehicular activities (EVA) aboard the space station have been terminated prematurely due to faulty CO2 sensors. Without accurate CO2 concentration data the PLSS reverts to a conservative timed mode for RCA catalyst regeneration based on a high metabolic rate and the astronaut is typically advised to monitor their physical condition for symptoms high CO2 concentration. The technology developed for the PLSS can be extended to monitor cabin air quality.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
Health Monitoring & Sensing (see also Sensors)
Protective Clothing/Space Suits/Breathing Apparatus
Chemical/Environmental (see also Biological Health/Life Support)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Mesa Photonics, LLC
1550 Pacheco Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505-3914
(505) 216-5015

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Central Florida
12201 Research Parkway, Suite 501
Orlando, FL 32826-3246
(407) 823-3778

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Marwood Ediger
wediger@mesaphotonics.com
1550 Pacheco Street
Santa Fe,  NM 87505-3914
(505) 216-5015

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 6
End: 7

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Mesa Photonics, in collaboration with the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida, proposes to develop a spacesuit gas sensor based upon its Enhanced Raman Gas Sensor (ERGS) technology. The goal a moisture tolerant, drop-in replacement for the current CO2 sensor. Preliminary work achieved detection sensitivities for CO2, CH4, O2, and N2 of 1000, 300, 1000 and 1500 ppm, respectively. ERGS reports gas partial pressures directly and can operate tolerate pure oxygen. The response to all gases is linear from 0 to 100%. No consumable supplies are required and ERGS is self-calibrating. The ERGS technique is compact and robust and has low electrical power requirements. Its detection performance and physical characteristics make it well suited as a flight-capable system spacesuit gas sensor. ERGS detects gases by recording the Raman spectrum of a gas mixture flowing through a short length (~50 cm) of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). Sensitivity is more than 800 times better than conventional Raman spectroscopy since the gas and light confinement increases the Raman interaction length. This proposed STTR project is designed to bring ERGS technology from its current TRL 6 to TRL 8 or 9 at the end of Phase II. Phase I work by Mesa Photonics includes improving ERGS optical design, verifying gas measurement accuracy over a wide range of mixture compositions and total pressures, and testing response to condensing moisture. The CREOL team will design custom HC-PCF that is better matched to ERGS wavelength requirements and, possibly, have a larger diameter hollow core. In Phase II, Mesa will build, test, and deliver a prototype gas that will include custom fiber produced at CREOL based on the hollow-core designs from Phase I. The Phase II prototype will have a similar footprint to the existing Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) gas sensor.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
ERGS was initially developed for soil gas sensing in applications like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) sites. Since ERGS can sensitively measure CO2, O2, N2 and CH4 simultaneously in real-time, it can provide the gas partial pressure data necessary to discern naturally occurring CO2 versus any leakage in the containment system. The ability to account for all key environmental gases, unattended, with a small footprint and low power requirements and without the need for supplies or consumables make it an ideal solution for networks of sensors around CCS sites. Advancement to the technology achieved in the proposed project will have direct implications to the application of ERGS for CCS and other terrestrial gas sensing applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The primary end-use of the technology developed in this project is to replace currently under-performing gas sensor technology in NASA's Portable Life Support System. The ERGS-based sensor developed in this project is anticipated to meet mission requirements for current the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and the upcoming Advanced EMU. The ERGS sensor offers the advantage of simultaneous measurement of key breathing air constituents (CO2, O2 and N2) and advancements during the proposed project may enable measurement of ammonia and water vapor. The proposed ERGS platform will deliver accurate, precise measurements in a compact and robust package.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
Health Monitoring & Sensing (see also Sensors)
Protective Clothing/Space Suits/Breathing Apparatus
Fiber (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Photonics)
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Lasers (Measuring/Sensing)
Biological (see also Biological Health/Life Support)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Pressure/Vacuum
Visible

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc.
2520 West 237th Street
Torrance, CA 90505-5217
(424) 263-6300

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of North Texas
1155 Union Circle #305250
Denton, TX 76203-5017
(940) 565-3940

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jesus Delgado Alonso
jesusda@intopsys.com
2520 West 237th Street
Torrance,  CA 90505-5217
(424) 263-6321

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Advanced space suits require lightweight, low-power, durable sensors for monitoring critical life support materials. No current compact sensors have the tolerance for liquid water that is specifically required for portable life support systems (PLSS). Intelligent Optical Systems (IOS) will develop a luminescence-based optical sensor probe to monitor carbon dioxide, oxygen, and humidity, and selected trace contaminants. Our monitor will incorporate robust CO2, O2, and H2O partial pressure sensors interrogated by a compact, low-power optoelectronic unit. The sensors will not only tolerate liquid water but will actually operate while wet, and can be remotely connected to electronic circuitry by an optical fiber cable immune to electromagnetic interference. For space systems, these miniature sensor elements with remote optoelectronics give unmatched design flexibility for measurements in highly constrained volume systems such as PLSS. Our flow-through monitor design includes an optical sensor we have already developed for PLSS humidity monitoring, and an optical oxygen sensor, both of them based on a common IOS technology. In prior projects IOS has demonstrated a CO2 sensor capable of operating while wet that also met PLSS environmental and analytical requirements, but did not meet life requirements. A new generation of CO2 sensors will be developed to advance this sensor technology and fully meet all NASA requirements, including sensor life. The totally novel approach will overcome the limitations of state-of-the-art luminescent sensors for CO2. Additional sensors will be developed to monitor trace contaminants often found in the ventilation loop as result of material off-gassing or crew member metabolism. IOS has established collaboration with UTC Aerospace Systems to produce prototypes for space qualification, and will conduct extensive testing under simulated space conditions, ensuring a smooth path to technology infusion.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Compact high-performance gas sensors have a number of aeronautical applications. IOS has already negotiated with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to integrate the sensor probe to be developed in the proposed project into flight crew air supply systems. Because of its status as both an aircraft system integrator and a leading supplier of avionic and aeronautics subsystems, Lockheed Martin is in an excellent position to bring IOS sensor technology to the aeronautics market.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Advanced Extra-Vehicular Activity systems are necessary for the successful support of the International Space Station beyond 2020, for future human space exploration missions, for in-space microgravity EVA, and for planetary surface exploration. In collaboration with NASA personnel, IOS has identified several needs and potential applications of multiparameter probe sensors, particularly for space suits. These include the International Space Station (ISS) Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), the Orion-derived Launch Entry Abort (LEA), and future Advanced EMU development. The ISS EMU requirement is the highest priority, because problems have been reported in the CO2 sensor in use under conditions of liquid water condensation, and because solving problems reported in the CO2 scrubber system require a humidity sensor capable of withstanding water condensation. NASA guidance and the participation of UTC Aerospace Systems will ensure that the prototypes resulting from this project are compatible with the ISS EMU PLSS system. The proposed technology will also have application as a monitor for air quality in the pressurized cabins of crewed spacecraft, will significantly improve miniaturization, and has potential for distributed sensing.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Health Monitoring & Sensing (see also Sensors)
Chemical/Environmental (see also Biological Health/Life Support)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Predictive Science, Inc.
9990 Mesa Rim Road, Suite 170
San Diego, CA 92121-3933
(858) 450-6494

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University New Hampshire
8 College Road
Durham, NH 03824-2600
(603) 862-3451

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jon Linker
linkerj@predsci.com
9990 Mesa Rim Road, Ste 170
San Diego,  CA 92121-3933
(858) 450-6489

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Solar Particle Events (SPEs) represent a major hazard for extravehicular maneuvers by astronauts in Earth orbit, and for eventual manned interplanetary space travel. They can also harm aircraft avionics, communication and navigation. We propose to develop a system to aid forecasters in the prediction of such events, and in the identification/lengthening of "all clear" time periods when there is a low probability of such events occurring. The system leverages three recently developed technologies: physics-based models of the solar corona and inner heliosphere, robust CME modeling techniques, and empirical/physics-based assessments of energetic particle fluxes using the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module (EMMREM, University of New Hampshire). When completed, the proposed SPE Threat Assessment Tool, or STAT, will represent a significant step forward in our ability to assess the possible impact of SPE events.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
SPEs are of concern not only to NASA, but to many government and commercial entities dependent on satellites and aircraft. For example, NOAA SWPC provides space weather information to a range of customers, for many of whom the forecasting of SPEs is a top priority. The Air Force is also interested in mitigation strategies for SPEs. The fledgling private manned launch services industry may wish to develop their own forecasting capabilities, as opposed to solely relying on government services. Once we have successfully developed STAT for NASA applications, we can address the needs of these customers as well.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The CCMC, located at NASA GSFC, is presently testing different space weather models to assess their applicability for eventual operational settings. STAT would represent the coupling of two preeminent modeling capabilities at CCMC (CORHEL and EMMREM) to produce physics-based model predictions of SEP fluxes. STAT would also be of significant interest to NASA SRAG, which is charged with the difficult responsibility of ensuring that the radiation exposure received by astronauts remains below established safety limits. This requires identifying periods with a high probability of no SPEs, as well as recognizing the imminent threat of an SPE. STAT can aid SRAG in this endeavor by estimating particle fluxes and dose rates for possible eruptions when a threatening active region is identified.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Data Modeling (see also Testing & Evaluation)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Michigan Aerospace Corporation
1777 Highland Drive, Suite B
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2285
(734) 975-8777

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
The Regents of the University of Michigan
2455 Hayward St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143
(734) 647-4705

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Matthew Lewis
mlewis@michaero.com
1777 Highland Drive, Suite B
Ann Arbor,  MI 48108-2285
(734) 975-8777

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 6
End: 7

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Radiation hazards constitute a serious risk to human and robotic space operations beyond Low-Earth orbit. Primary contributors to space radiation include Solar Particle Events (SPEs) associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). Because the mechanisms that produce coronal mass ejections (CME) are exceedingly complex, no reliable deterministic methods for predicting eruptions are yet available, and the most successful approaches are phenomenological and probabilistic in nature. But predicting the eruption is only part of the problem. In order to forecast the time, location, flux, and the energy spectrum of a Solar Particle Event (in order to better model its effect on specific hardware and instruments, for example) we must also understand the intervening plasma environment, including the steady-state magnetic configuration, as well as the dynamic, eruption driven configurations that provide for the time dependent transport and diffusive acceleration of solar energetic particles. Progress has been made in the understanding of the solar atmosphere due to the increased availability of observational data and the development of analytical and numerical models of the solar wind. One aspect of this development is the construction of complex three-dimensional (3D) models, which can be validated with observations and further refined to improve the comparison. In order to improve SPE forecasts Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC) and the University of Michigan's department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science (AOSS) intend to cooperate on this STTR project, which seeks, over Phase 1 and Phase 2, to 1) Use data-driven statistical models to forecast the likelihood of solar eruptions; 2) Couple these predictions with eruption generation models in the context of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to forecast the likely time, location, flux, and energy spectrum of Solar Energetic Particles.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
This technology will use data-driven statistical models to forecast the likelihood of solar eruptions and couple these predictions with eruption generation models in the context of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to forecast the likely time, location, flux, and energy spectrum of Solar Energetic Particles. In principle, because the SWMF is publicly available, the forecasting technology described in this proposal could be developed by a into a commercial space weather forecasting product by a private company, available on a subscription (or other) basis to interested parties.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
This technology will use data-driven statistical models to forecast the likelihood of solar eruptions and couple these predictions with eruption generation models in the context of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to forecast the likely time, location, flux, and energy spectrum of Solar Energetic Particles. In principle, this technology could be developed by NASA into a commercial space weather forecasting product, available on a subscription (or other) basis to interested parties.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Space Transportation & Safety
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Development Environments

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
CFD Research Corporation
701 McMillian Way Northwest, Suite D
Huntsville, AL 35806-2923
(256) 726-4800

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
301 Sparkman Drive NW
Huntsville, AL 35899-1911
(256) 824-2657

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Ashok Raman
ashok.raman@cfdrc.com
701 McMillian Way NW, Suite D
Huntsville,  AL 35806-2923
(256) 726-4800

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
High-energy space radiation from Galactic Cosmic Rays and Solar Particle Events (SPEs) pose significant risks to equipment and astronaut health in NASA missions. In particular, energetic particles from SPEs associated with flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) constitute a highly dynamic and penetrating radiation environment that may adversely affect not only beyond-Low-Earth-Orbit missions, but also aircraft avionics, communications, and airline crew/passenger health. It is crucial to develop a capability to forecast SPEs and their effects on systems to guide planning of mission-related tasks and to adopt risk mitigation strategies for personnel and equipment. In this project, CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) propose to develop a comprehensive modeling capability - SPE Forecast (SPE4) - comprising state-of-the-art modules that individually address important aspects of the overall problem, integrated within a novel Python-language-based framework. SPE4 will include: (a) the MAG4 code for probability forecasts of flares/CMEs, and resulting SPEs, based on SDO/HMI magnetograms, interfaced to (b) the PATH code for transport of emitted particles through the heliosphere, interfaced to (c) Geant4-based transport calculations for particles through geomagnetic field modulation and atmospheric interactions (in low-Earth orbits), to finally yield spectra of SPE-induced energetic protons and heavy ions (and secondary particles) as a function of time and location. In Phase I, we will develop an SPE4 framework prototype, demonstrate automated execution and information flow between different codes, and validate against data for a known event. In Phase II, we will collaborate with Vanderbilt University to interface the resulting particle spectra with downstream codes to calculate single-event effects in electronics. The SPE4 framework, interfaces, and procedures will be optimized for rapid "event to effects" predictions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Dynamic variations in the high-energy, highly-penetrating solar particle environment can adversely affect aircraft (especially near the Poles), cause navigational and GPS equipment interference, disrupt spacecraft electronic systems, and cause disruption/equipment failure in communication systems. For DoD agencies and commercial entities with space-based or high-altitude assets, an efficient and accurate predictive capability for the radiation environment at desired locations or along preset trajectories, and resulting effects caused in systems (electronics, materials), will be a significant aid to mission planners for scheduling tasks and to adopt risk mitigation strategies for equipment. Changes in the Earth's ionosphere due to SPEs can modify the transmission path and even block transmission of High Frequency (1-30 MHz) radio signals. These frequencies are used by amateur (ham) radio operators, commercial airlines, and government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense. Terrestrial applications such as electric power transmission systems can be affected by SPE-induced changes to the geomagnetic field leading to blackouts. Induced stray currents leading to corrosion in above-ground oil pipelines (near the Poles) is another concern. In all these cases, a predictive capability for SPE-induced radiation spikes can help equipment managers intelligently manage operations and prevent catastrophic failures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed effort is aligned with the goals of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) program that is focused on developing a predictive understanding of solar activity and its effects on Earth and space-based assets. The newly developed and validated "event-to-effects" modeling capability will be synergistic to the strategic capability models available to the scientific community (e.g., via the Community Coordinated Modeling Center &#150; CCMC - at Goddard/GSFC). In fact, the MAG4 solar activity forecasting code within the overall SPE4 package is already (individually) available from CCMC. With the subsequent emphasis on linking with codes to calculate effects in electronics, optimizing SPE4 interfaces and calculation procedures, and continued validation, this project will also focus on transition towards operational use. This effort also addresses objectives outlined in NASA's Human Research Roadmap and OCT Technology Roadmap TA06 &#150; Human Health, Life Support, and Habitation Systems, specifically, the sub-technology area of Radiation, including Space Weather Prediction and Protection Systems. The SPE4 software will specifically address the limitations facing mission operational planning in terms of forecasting the occurrence, magnitude, and all-clear periods of SPEs. The SPE4 framework will also support interfaces to other downstream codes for radiation effects calculations (e.g., to analyze and design effective shielding materials).

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Isolation/Protection/Radiation Shielding (see also Mechanical Systems)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Verification/Validation Tools
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Wavefront, LLC
7 Johnston Circle
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-3741
(609) 558-4806

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Utah State University
Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-1415
Logan, UT 84322-1415
(435) 881-1800

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jie Yao
JieYao@WavefrontLLC.us
7 Johnston Circle
Basking Ridge,  NJ 07920-3741
(609) 558-4806

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose to develop a Photon-Counting Integrated Circuit (PCIC) mega-pixel focal plane array (FPA) imager with highest sensitivity, lowest noise and hence highest signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) among all imagers covering the shortwave infrared band, and to incorporate the prototype PCIC imager into a prototype imaging spectroscopy CAMM instrument for real-time operation on a planetary surface to guide rover targeting, sample selection (for missions involving sample return), and science optimization of data returned to earth, thus improving science return from instruments used to study the elemental, chemical, and mineralogical composition of planetary materials. During Phase I, we will develop and prototype a limited-size array of PCIC detector pixels as well as design and model the imaging spectrometer CAMM instrument. In Phase II, we will develop and prototype a mega-pixel PCIC focal plane array (FPA) imager as well as the imaging spectrometer CAMM instrument incorporating the PCIC imager.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Besides aerospace and defense applications, the proposed sensor technology also finds commercial applications in security, law enforcement, border patrol, scientific instruments, laser detection, laser eye protection, biomedical imaging, prosthetic vision aid, ecosystem monitoring and protection, manufacturing quality control and consumer electronics cameras. We will concentrate on our commercial medical device products at present.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed Photon-Counting Integrated Circuit (PCIC) mega-pixel focal plane array (FPA) imager will provide highest sensitivity, lowest noise and hence highest signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) among all imagers covering the shortwave infrared band for a wide range of instruments and missions. The proposed imaging spectroscopy CAMM instrument will improve real-time operation on a planetary surface to guide rover targeting, sample selection (for missions involving sample return), and science optimization of data returned to earth, thus improving science return from instruments used to study the elemental, chemical, and mineralogical composition of planetary materials.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Microfabrication (and smaller; see also Electronics; Mechanical Systems; Photonics)
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Infrared

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Q-Peak, Inc.
135 South Road
Bedford, MA 01730-2307
(781) 275-9535

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Hawaii
2440 Campus Road, Box 368
Honolulu, HI 96822-2234
(808) 956-7880

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Bhabana Pati
pati@qpeak.com
135 South Road
Bedford,  MA 01730-2307
(781) 275-9535

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In response to NASA's solicitation for light-weight and power efficient instruments that enable in situ compositional analysis, Q-Peak in partnership with the University of Hawaii proposes to develop a compact, robust, and efficient instrument to combine all laser based spectroscopies capable of performing imaging, Raman, Laser Induced Breakdown, Laser Induced Fluorescence and LIDAR The main advantage in using this suite of instruments is the collection of information from imaging to elemental composition of rock samples by simply directing a laser beam on remote targets of interest. Based on the success of the current Mars Science Laboratory rover instrument ChemCam, the first ever laser-based spectrographic system to be selected as an instrument on a NASA spacecraft, the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) has developed and tested a prototype instrument. This new instrument is capable of at least 10,000 times greater sensitivity than the ChemCam instrument, allowing faster measurements up to 8 m away with a focused laser beam. This integrated, compact remote instrument is called the Compact integrated instrument for Remote Spectroscopy Analysis (CiiRSA). Replacing the existing laser with the Q-Peak proposed laser will reduce CiiRSA's weight by 30 % and volume by 20 %. In Phase I, Q-Peak will design, develop and build a laser that will produce 1-2 mJ of energy in < 2 ns pulse duration at 1047 nm and our partner HIGP will characterize the CiiRSA instrument at the anticipated energy and wavelength of the full system (5 mJ at 523 nm) to understand the ranging and performance of the final system. In Phase II, Q-Peak is proposing an ultra-compact laser with 10 cm3 in volume that will produce > 5 mJ, < 2 ns duration pulses at 523 nm at repetition rates from single-shot to 100 Hz. The entire laser system will be integrated into a suite of instruments that our partner at HIGP has developed to reduce the overall SWaP of the CiiRSA system.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Commercial applications are in portable LIBS systems to replace the current bulky, inefficient, and less reliable lamp-pumped lasers now employed. LIBS, besides having numerous scientific applications in materials characterization, can also be used in industrial applications for process control through monitoring of exhaust streams, analysis of pharmaceuticals, profiling of metals, composition determinations of minerals in mining and detection of contamination in the environment. There are numerous applications for green lasers besides LIBS that require minimized SWaP. Green Illuminators with sufficiently high beam quality to enable long atmospheric transmission suffer from excess size and weight. The proposed laser would produce the required beam quality with a SWaP advantage of near factor 2. Green lasers can be use in the Non-Lethal Laser Dazzler field. Dazzlers, are most effective in green due to the eye's high sensitivity in the green spectral region but also require the most careful spatial beam profile control to insure that both spatially and temporally, the laser energy never reaches or exceeds the damage threshold of the eye. Q-Peak's advantage would be in having developed an extremely small, compact, simple, and rugged technology for generation of single mode laser pulse. This laser device will be much better suited for fieldable systems than present products both on SWaP, mode profile, and affordability considerations.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NASA applications are in systems requiring compact, efficient, reliable, moderate-energy, nanosecond-pulsed lasers. For planetary exploration, these applications are in LIBS/Raman/LIF systems used for planetary surface characterization and in lidar systems for atmospheric measurements of aerosol concentrations and distributions, as well as precision ranging for planetary surface mapping from satellites and other spacecraft. The laser we propose to develop is compact, efficient, rugged and reliable, making it ideal for planetary missions. Given the high sensitivity of launch requirements to SWaP considerations and to reliability, we feel that the proposed laser source is uniquely positioned for standoff LIBS based missions. Other NASA mission profiles or applications that would benefit from generically small, light- weight, low power laser sources would be equally well served.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Instruments (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Energy; see also Sensors)
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Navigation & Guidance
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
3D Imaging
Image Analysis
Lasers (Ladar/Lidar)
Lasers (Measuring/Sensing)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Brimrose Technology Corporation
P.O. Box 616, 19 Loveton Circle
Sparks, MD 21152-9201
(410) 472-2600

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Fisk University
1000 Seventeenth Avenue N
Nashville, TN 37208-3051
(615) 329-8516

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Henry Chen
hchen@brimrose.com
P.O. Box 616, 19 Loveton Circle
Sparks,  MD 21152-9201
(410) 472-2600

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose a spectrometer that employs a single room temperature semiconductor detector that can perform both gamma and neutron spectroscopy. The proposed detector is based on the novel mercurous halide materials, Hg2X2 (X=I, Cl, Br). The mercurous halides are new wide band-gap semiconductor detector materials that can provide radiation detection with low cost, high performance and long term stability. Despite years of research, no explored room temperature semiconductor detection candidates can satisfy all three features simultaneously. At Brimrose, we have successfully developed the growth procedures for high quality Hg2X2 crystals for long wavelength infrared (LWIR) imaging systems. Recently, we have been able to engineer our growth process toward gamma radiation detection and have demonstrated initial encouraging detector response from Hg2I2 to both gamma and alpha particle incident radiations. The focus will be on the material engineering aspect of the detector material itself (i.e., crystal growth and post growth processing), as well as on the detector fabrication and system design. The proposed mercurous halides-based nuclear instrument can be used onboard NASA's orbiters and landers for space planetology. Specifically, it can be used to determine surface and sub-surface composition of planetary bodies via both gamma spectroscopy and neutron spectroscopy.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The need for advanced room temperature semiconductor materials has always been of significant interest not only from Federal Agencies such as DOD, DHS, DOE, but also from the private sector. Non-NASA uses for a spectrometer with gamma/neutron detection are numerous and include (1) Homeland security applications (2) Space based applications for military agencies, (3) The medical community (SPECT, PET, Spectral-CT),(4) Various industrial markets (chemical, automotive, pharmaceutical and petrochemical), and (5) The research community. Commercial applications include elemental analysis, explosive detection, medical diagnostics, x-ray imaging, seismic activity detection, and radiation monitoring. The detection and identification of radionuclides from atmospheric nuclear tests has obvious military applications such as detection of nuclear non-proliferation, treaty verification, and nuclear materials control.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The primary commercial application for the proposed spectrometer capable of performing both gamma and neutron spectroscopy is for NASA's planetary exploratory missions. Specifically, the proposed spectrometer based on mercurous halides can be used onboard NASA's orbiters and landers to determine surface and sub-surface composition of planetary bodies via both gamma spectroscopy and neutron spectroscopy.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Instruments (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Energy; see also Sensors)
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Materials & Structures (including Optoelectronics)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
X-rays/Gamma Rays
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
NOUR, LLC
1500 Sheridan Road, Unit 8A
Wilmette, IL 60091-1880
(847) 491-7251

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Northwestern University
2220 CAMPUS DR RM 4051
Evanston, IL 60208-0893
(847) 491-7251

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Ryan McClintock
rmcclin@gmail.com
1500 Sheridan RD UNIT 8A
Wilmette,  IL 60091-0893
(847) 467-4093

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The infrared spectral range is of particular interest for remote planetary sensing of gaseous molecules, such as H2O, CO2, CH4, N2O, CO, NH3, and many other compounds. Infrared thermography can also be used to accurate measure minute variations in surface temperatures. High performance infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) allow rapid acquisition of a 2D surface maps--indispensable in planetary sciences. By using two different cut-off detectors integrated into a single FPA to simultaneously image a planet we can avoid atmospheric effect and much more accurately map minute variations in the surface temperature, or gain a clearer picture of the atmospheric composition. In recent years, Type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices have experienced significant development&#151;we have played a pioneering role in the rapid development of that technology. However, the full potential of Type-II superlattice has not been fully explored and alternate superlattice architectures hold great promise; one of the most promising is gallium free InAsSb/InAs Type-II superlattices. In this project, we propose to study strain-balanced nBn InAs1-xSbx/InAs Type-II superlattice-based photodetectors and mini-arrays for LWIR/LWIR dual-band detection. Using this new superlattice structure, it is expected to achieve longer minority carrier lifetime. Longer minority carrier lifetime results in lower dark current, lower noise, higher operation temperature, and higher quantum efficiency. Applying this superlattice design to dual-band LWIR/LWIR FPAs, it is expected to achieve higher quantum efficiency, lower dark current, higher specific detectivity (D*) and reduced Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD). This work will form the basis of the Phase II work in which we will use this new superlattice structure to develop and deliver LWIR/LWIR dual-band FPAs for planetary sciences.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
IR imaging sensors also find their use in commercial applications such as satellite imaging, weather modelling, geophysics, geology, remote environmental (pollution) IR monitering, law enforcement, search and rescue, firefighting, and emergency response. For its part, the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association estimates that the current infrared imaging market for military and law enforcement applications is about US$3 billion. The development of higher performance LWIR imagers and two color LWIR/LWIR imagers based on Type-II superlattices has the potential to eliminate the n eed for expensive mercury-cadmium-telluride materials and thus the potential to significantly reduce the operational cost of these sensors and thus potentially open up new lower cost commercial applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
LWIR is of special interest to NASA for planetary observation missions. The LWIR wavelength region is also an ideal wavelength to look at other planets, or look back at the earth from space, and accurately map minute variations in the surface and/or atmospheric temperatures. Furthermore, by using simultaneous measurements from two different LWIR wavelengths (i.e. a two-color camera) it is possible to better isolate the surface temperature from that of the atmosphere or vice versa. Using the infrared emission of the planetary body or active illumination via a laser source it is also possible to carefully look at the atmospheric absorption and perform chemical spectroscopy. Many molecules such as H2O, CO2, CH4, N2O, CO, NH3 have absorption lines in the infrared and the ability to compositionally map the concentrations of these and many other molecules. The large-format two color cameras we will be developing and delivering in Phase II of this program will be able to provide high resolution mapping of planetary bodies.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Materials (Insulator, Semiconductor, Substrate)
Thermal Imaging (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Materials & Structures (including Optoelectronics)
Interferometric (see also Analysis)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Thermal
Infrared
Long
Multispectral/Hyperspectral

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
ChromoLogic, LLC
1225 South Shamrock Avenue
Monrovia, CA 91016-4244
(626) 382-9974

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Caltech
1200 East California Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91125-0001
(626) 395-3339

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Tom George
tgeorge@chromoLogic.com
1225 Shamrock Ave
Monrovia,  CA 91016-4244
(626) 381-9974

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Chromologic (CL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) propose to develop and demonstrate a Multifunctional Environmental Digital Scanning Electron Microprobe (MEDSEM) instrument that transmits high-energy beams of electrons sequentially from a two-dimensional array of miniaturized electron probes into a planetary atmosphere, and these electrons will strike solid or liquid planetary surfaces to simultaneously generate a wealth of spatially-mapped compositional information. MEDSEM will simultaneously measure X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Backscattered Electron Spectra, Optical Spectra and Mass Spectra. Caltech will transfer to CL the microfabrication technology for vacuum-encapsulating, electron-transmissive SiN membranes, the key enabling component without which MEDSEM would not be possible. Caltech will also transfer the results of electron-optic simulations performed for optimizing the MEDSEM instrument configuration. The 12-month Phase I effort will be aimed at demonstrating the proof-of-principle for MEDSEM via an experimental setup made up of mostly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts: miniature electron sources, an x-ray detector and a double-chambered test setup. High-energy electrons will be generated in the first, evacuated chamber, and these electrons will pass through the Caltech-fabricated SiN membrane into the second chamber (maintained at Martian ambient pressure), to strike planetary analog samples thereby generating characteristic XRF. The XRF spectra will be captured by a COTS x-ray detector which is present in the second chamber. Contingent on a successful, follow-on, Phase II effort, the proof-of-principle experiment will be expanded to demonstrate the remaining simultaneous measurement modalities, namely the acquisition of Backscattered Electron Spectra, Optical Spectra and Mass Spectra. Microfabrication of the fully-integrated, field-emitter array of miniaturized electron probes will be pursued during Phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
In the field of materials science and engineering outside of NASA, there is a great need for capable, field-portable instruments that are rugged and reliable. As with NASA missions, size, weight and power consumption are of concern for humans transporting these instruments into remote locations for geological studies, environmental monitoring and oil exploration. An added concern is the overall cost of the instrument, especially for widespread acceptance and use. A successful MEDSEM instrument would open up numerous applications in the educational arena. At both the K-12 and college level, MEDSEM could be used for science demonstrations as well as for hands-on experimentation and research in chemistry, solid-state physics, geology and materials science laboratories. Although MEDSEM cannot match the spatial resolution of terrestrial laboratory instruments such as scanning electron microscopes (mm vs nm), still it could serve as a rapid screening device with the ability to answer basic composition-related questions. MEDSEM's primary advantage, of course, is its ability to simultaneously make multiple, different measurements on the samples being studied in ordinary room air. It is anticipated that MEDSEM will continue to evolve as an instrument, incorporating the latest advancements in micro- and nanotechnology.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
MEDSEM satisfies NASA's stated need for new and innovative scientific measurements for in situ planetary exploration. To date, although miniaturizing scanning electron microscopes has been a "holy grail" for developers of planetary instruments, an in situ electron microprobe instrument has never flown. Once successfully demonstrated, MEDSEM would be a strong candidate for planetary instrument payloads for NASA's future landed missions, as described by the National Research Council Committee on the Planetary Science Decadal Survey for future NASA missions from 2013 &#150; 2022. According to the Decadal Survey, primary planetary targets for landed missions include the moon, Mars, Venus and Europa.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Instruments (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Energy; see also Sensors)
Analytical Methods

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
NOUR, LLC
1500 Sheridan Road, Unit 8A
Wilmette, IL 60091-1880
(847) 491-7251

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Northwestern University
2220 CAMPUS DR RM 4051
Evanston, IL 60208-0893
(847) 491-7251

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Steven Slivken
s_slivken@hotmail.com
1500 Sheridan RD UNIT 8A
Wilmette,  ID 60091-1880
(847) 467-4093

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This proposal describes development of a new type of quantum-cascade laser for use as a local oscillator at frequencies above 2 THz. The THz source described is a single chip solution that operates at room temperature. In addition, a mechanism for wide tuning (2-4.7 THz) is described that requires no moving parts.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
There are many other target applications for this technology, including: drug detection/ pharmaceutical use, security screening, and medical imaging. The narrow linewidth characteristic can provide a higher resolution alternative to time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) techniques currently in use. The potential also exists for targeting specific resonances within target molecules or conformations, in combination with infrared or fluorescence spectroscopy, to help isolate very small concentrations in complex mixtures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Compact and reliable local oscillators at frequencies above 2 THz are highly sought after for environmental monitoring of planetary bodies. This is one of the primary components in the microwave limb sounder on the Aura satellite. There a multitude of environmentally relevant chemicals (e.g. OH H2S, HF, HBr) that can be monitored at frequencies >2 THz. This capability would be extremely useful to study the atmospheres of neighboring planets in our solar system. These frequencies are also sought after for monitoring molecular and atomic emission lines in the interstellar medium. In both cases, our compact THz source would provide a significant size, weight, and power (SWaP) savings over current gas laser-based solutions.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Materials & Structures (including Optoelectronics)
Infrared
Terahertz (Sub-millimeter)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Voxtel, Inc.
15985 Northwest Schendel Avenue, Suite 200
Beaverton, OR 97006-6703
(971) 223-5646

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Oregon State University
153 Gilbert Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-4003
(541) 737-2081

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Anmol Nijjar
anmol@voxtel-inc.com
15985 NW Schendel Avenue
Beaverton,  OR 97006-6703
(971) 223-5646

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Interest is rapidly growing in eye-safe solid-state lasers for range finding, LIDAR, infrared countermeasures, medicine, dentistry, and others. To address the need for compact, high efficiency lasers operating in this important spectral band, an ultra-compact turnkey, narrow-band, high-mode-quality, high-pulse-energy, and high-pulse-repetition-frequency (PRF), diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) pulsed laser system will be developed that, due to superior near infrared (NIR) absorption characteristics, high phonon energies, and good thermal characteristics, can be used in an optically thin configuration, which, when properly designed, including using a directly-mounted thermally conductive index matched window, allows for very high average power in the 1500 &#150; 1600-nm spectral band. The laser is based on a new material system. The new innovative laser will be shown to best satisfy NASA remote sensing, mapping, and navigation and hazard avoidance applications by offering 0.2 mJ &#150; 2 mJ (1550 nm) at pulse rates from 10 Hz to 100 KHz. In Phase I, existing analytical laser models will be updated, integrated with optical models, and a candidate laser design will be developed. The new laser material will then be configured in end-pumped passive- and actively-Q-switched laser designs, and the laser output as a function of pump power, pump energy, and pump repetition rate will be characterized.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Commercial applications include automobile collision avoidance systems, laser rangefinders, LIBS sources, scanned LADAR, gesture recognition systems, altimetry, LIDAR, and others.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Missions to solar systems bodies must meet increasingly ambitious objectives requiring highly reliable soft landing, precision landing, and hazard avoidance capabilities. Robotic missions to the Moon and Mars demand landing at predesignated sites of high scientific value near hazardous terrain features, such as escarpments, craters, slopes, and rocks, require ultra-compact or micro-chip lasers.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
3D Imaging
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Ranging/Tracking

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Voxtel, Inc.
15985 Northwest Schendel Avenue, Suite 200
Beaverton, OR 97006-6703
(971) 223-5646

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Dayton
300 College Park
Dayton, OH 45469-0001
(937) 344-3921

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Drake Miller
drake@voxtel-inc.com
15985 NW Schendel Avenue
Beaverton,  OR 97006-6703
(971) 223-5646

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A highly sensitive 640 x 480-element flash LADAR camera will be developed that is capable of 100-Hz rates with better than 5-cm range precision. The design is based on proven readout integrated circuit (ROIC) designs, shown to have very low noise, high frame rates, and superior range resolution, and proven high gain, low noise avalanche photodiode (APD) array technology, sensitive in the 1.0- to 1.6-micron wavelength range. These technologies are integrated into a robust, compact camera with real-time processing and data transmission. In Phase I, an existing 128 x 128-element InGaAs linear-mode (Lm) APD 3D flash LADAR camera will be demonstrated. The FPA allows for readout of multiple laser pulse echo amplitude and time-of-arrival data pairs, in windowed regions, at up to 20K frames per second. The demonstration will include either or both of Voxtel's APD technologies: Deschutes APD technologies, characterized by a mean gain of M = 20 and excess noise parameterized by k = 0.2; or Siletz family of APDs (M = 75; k = 0.02). The data measured on the InGaAs Lm-APDs, along with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis developed from measured data, will be used to develop a new 640 x 480-element ROIC that implements the NASA-communicated mission requirements. By completion of Phase I, the LADAR ROIC pixel circuits will be designed and simulated, and the performance of the new design will be documented.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Commercial applications include automotive collision avoidance, gesture recognition, LIDAR, altimetry, neonatal imaging, time-resolved spectroscopy, fluorescent decay measurements, single-photon detectors, auto- and cross-correlation.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Missions to solar system bodies must meet increasingly ambitious objectives requiring highly reliable soft landing, precision landing, and hazard avoidance capabilities. Robotic missions to the Moon and Mars demand landing at predesignated sites of high scientific value near hazardous terrain features, such as escarpments, craters, slopes, and rocks. Missions aimed at paving the path for colonization of the Moon and human landing on Mars need to execute onboard hazard detection and precision maneuvering to ensure safe landing near previously deployed assets. Other NASA applications include freespace optical communications, laser radar (LADAR), LIDAR, and time-resolved imaging.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
3D Imaging
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Ranging/Tracking

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Polaronyx, Inc.
2526 Qume Drive, Suites 17 and 18
San Jose, CA 95131-1870
(408) 573-0930

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
PO Box 808
Livermore, CA 94551-0808
(925) 422-1100

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jian Liu
jianliu@polaronyx.com
2526 Qume Drive, Suites 17 and 18
San Jose,  CA 95131-1870
(408) 573-0930

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Laser transmitters operating at a pulse repetition rate of 20 Hz to 50 Hz and with pulse energy from 30 - 50 mJ have been considered to be an enabling technology for CO2 measurement and optical communications. PolarOnyx proposes a novel approach targeting to make reliable high energy ultra large core fiber amplifier at 1.57 micron and employing our proprietary technologies in specialty fibers, spectral shaping and pulse shaping techniques. At the end of Phase 1, and simulation study will be carried out and feasibility experiment will be demonstrated in laying out the pathway towards over 30 mJ high energy. A prototype will be demonstrated at the end of Phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Other commercial applications include - Material processing. This includes (1) all types of metal processing such as welding, cutting, annealing, and drilling; (2)semiconductor and microelectronics manufacturing such as lithography, inspection, control, defect analysis and repair, and via drilling; (3) marking of all materials including plastic, metals, and silicon; (4) other materials processing such as rapid prototyping, desk top manufacturing, micromachining, photofinishing, embossed holograms, and grating manufacturing. - Medical and biomedical instrumentation. The high power laser can be applied to ophthalmology, refractive surgery, photocoagulation, general surgery, therapeutic, imaging, and cosmetic applications. Biomedical instruments include those involved in cells or proteins, cytometry, and DNA sequencing; laser Raman spectroscopy, spectrofluorimetry, and ablation; and laser based microscopes.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed high energy fiber amplifier approach is applied to CO2 measurement. It can also be used in other applications, such as space, aircraft, and satellite applications of LADAR systems and communications. PolarOnyx will develop a series of products to meet various requirements for NASA deployments.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Navigation & Guidance
Fiber (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Photonics)
Lasers (Communication)
Lasers (Guidance & Tracking)
Lasers (Ladar/Lidar)
Optical
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Infrared

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Fibertek, Inc.
13605 Dulles Technology Drive
Herndon, VA 20171-4603
(703) 471-7671

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Utah State University
1415 Old Main Hill - Room64
Logan, UT 84322-1415
(435) 797-1189

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Shantanu Gupta
sgupta@fibertek.com
13605 Dulles Technology Drive
Herndon,  VA 20171-4603
(703) 471-7671

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Fibertek proposes a configurable, multi-beam, 1.5 um Doppler Lidar sensor, enabled by high-speed non-mechanical beam steering (NMBS). NMBS uses state-of-the-art, high-speed liquid-crystal based components, to provide wide-angle (up to +/- 45 degree), large-aperture, optical beam steering, at speeds of up to 10 kHz. Furthermore, this is integrated into a very compact optical transmit/receive terminal, designed for coherent lidar operation. The proposed Doppler Lidar sensor is estimated to be 4X lower SWaP, and have 3X-5X improved range performance over the current design for entry, descent, landing (EDL) sensors under development at NASA. In addition, the configurable, high-speed, beam-scan pattern provides enhanced functionality for velocity/range/attitude estimate, and even for terrain mapping. The Doppler Lidar landing sensor model will be developed by our Research Institution partner, leveraging their related work on 3D-imaging ladar. The proposed effort targets a space-qualifiable roadmap, as we will leverage ongoing inter-disciplinary engineering development and qualification at Fibertek, for high-reliability, high-power, fiber laser transmitter and transmit/receive optical terminal for deep-space mission.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
(1) Agile, compact optical terminal for laser communication for hosted-payloads, small-satellite, and CubeSat platform, that are of interest to AF and NRO missions. (2) Enables space optical networking, and autonomous communication links for satellite constellation mission. (3) Enables optical time-transfer for accurate navigation, with potential for optically aided GPS (4) Precision steering for mosaic-tiled 3D Imaging Ladar application, for ISR missions. (5) Laser beam-steering, tracking and stabilization for directed-energy laser application.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
(1) Compact Doppler Lidar as a precision Entry, Descent and Landing sensor, for planetary/ lunar/asteroid missions. (2) Configurable, rapid-scan, multi-beam capability enabled by NMBS technology, provides for enhanced EDL sensor functionality, e.g. for terrain-mapping, hazard avoidance, and hazard relative navigation. (3) Relative navigation sensor for spacecraft constellation flying, enabled by lidar ranging sensors with NMBS technology (4) Laser beam pointing, stabilization, and scanning of any Lidar/Ladar based sensor, including for mosaic-tiled 3D-imaging ladar.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Navigation & Guidance
Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Fiber (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Photonics)
Lasers (Guidance & Tracking)
Lasers (Ladar/Lidar)
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Astronautics)
Optical
Ranging/Tracking

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Aries Design Automation, LLC
2705 West Byron Street
Chicago, IL 60618-3745
(773) 856-6633

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Oregon State University
116 Covell Hall, Office of Research and Economic Development
Corvallis, IL 97331-2409
(541) 737-6525

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Miroslav Velev
miroslav.velev@aries-da.com
2705 West Byron Street
Chicago,  IL 60618-3745
(773) 856-6633

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Testing is a critical activity in any software project. It is particularly important for intelligent and adaptive (autonomous) space robotics software, since the nature of autonomy is such that many behaviors in deployment will never be seen before, without extensive testing. The primary approach to testing such systems at present is manual testing, which is expensive, time-consuming and, most importantly, often ineffective. The best alternative to manual testing is automated generation of test cases. Current automated test generation tools are mostly academic prototypes. Many simply produce unit tests over all methods of a Java program, and have a single algorithm for testing. The most successful automated test generation efforts for real-world large systems have been custom work of experts with deep understanding of the application. At present, such experts using automated test generation end up writing the system in the language of the software under test, with little tool support. Such systems are brittle and cost prohibitive. Much labor is duplicated due to lack of tools. We will develop a full-featured language and tool chain for automated test generation development, based on the open source Template Scripting Testing Language (TSTL). We will produce a commercial prototype version based on TSTL that supports efficient C and C++ automated test generation and code verification. We will provide developers with prototypes of sophisticated test generation algorithms and fully documented example test systems on which to base their own efforts. The products of Phase I will be a revised TSTL language standard, a prototype tool for producing test systems for C and C++ code, prototype implementations of highly effective automated test algorithms, and documented examples of testing systems using TSTL.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Complex software systems require effective testing, especially as the everyday world increasingly relies on ubiquitous embedded software, and with the emergence of autonomous systems (like self-driving cars) as near-future possibilities. In addition to cyberphysical systems that have an impact on safety, many software systems have potential security problems with a high economic cost. Effective automated test generation is one of the most effective ways for companies faced with potentially disastrous software bugs to mitigate the risk of software failure. The tools developed in this project can provide a cost-effective way to apply more sophisticated testing techniques and improve software reliability without having to hire automated software testing experts. The languages chosen (C and C++) are widely used in embedded software systems, and are also the languages in which much security software is written (e.g., the recent Heartbleed and Goto Fail security flaws were C code errors), so effective testing tools for C/C++ are a driving commercial need. All companies that develop complex software in C/C++ will be potential customers.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Testing of complex software systems is a major activity in almost all NASA missions, particularly those involving unmanned autonomous robotic systems. These tools can be applied to improve the effectiveness and re-usability of NASA software testing systems, while reducing labor costs (or enabling more effort in test development with the same labor). The language chosen for implementation is C, the primary language of development of real-time embedded robotics systems at NASA. Use of automated test generation is a long-standing goal of NASA software development efforts, with major research initiatives at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Ames Research Center that we expect to be potential early adopters. The design of our system is informed by experience with building test automation tools for major NASA missions, so the applicability of the tools is likely to be high.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring)
Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Data Modeling (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Development Environments
Programming Languages
Verification/Validation Tools
Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
2515 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4613
(412) 682-3282

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3815
(412) 268-6556

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
William Whittaker
red@cmu.edu
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh,  PA 15213-3815
(412) 268-1338

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
On-the-ground confirmation of lunar ice will transform space exploration, as ice can provide fuel to support far-reaching exploration and enable commercial endeavors. Evidence from satellite observations strongly supports the presence of polar ice, but driving and excavation are required to confirm presence, measure distribution, and extract resources. In-situ resource extraction at the lunar poles is the precursor for permanent operations on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The most promising sites for lunar ice lie in the rugged terrain of the permanently shadowed regions at the poles. These destinations demand robust perception and navigation technologies that provide high position accuracy regardless of lighting conditions. Existing rover technologies are incapable of the types of perception and navigation required by the challenges of a dark environment that restrict the rover's ability to perceive its surroundings and overcome inherent positional uncertainty. Even the rover's own shadow can present a significant obstacle while operating in the glancing sunlight of polar regions. The proposed work will develop novel methods for sensing, mapping, and localization in and around the permanently dark regions of planetary bodies. The research will enable the exploration of previously inaccessible dark environments including pits, cold traps, and subterranean voids such as lava tubes and caves on the Moon and Mars. NASA's decadal science survey prioritizes exploration of ancient ices, highlighting a mission to study lunar volatiles in the permanent shadows on the lunar poles. The proposed work innovates perception and navigation technologies to make such polar missions possible.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The developed methods for perception and navigation in darkness will enhance perception in many terrestrial domains including, subterranean, night operations, enclosed spaces, and surveillance. The proposed technology applies broadly to terrestrial applications particularly those that are GPS-denied. Potential applications include driverless cars, search and rescue, mining, infrastructure inspection, military UGVs and UAVs, and agriculture. The developed technology will enhance the models created in these environments and provide higher resolution, more detailed, and more physically accurate models than are produced with existing methods. In addition, Astrobotic is continually engaged with the government and industrial entities interested in lunar exploration and development. This immersion in the relevant marketplace will enable Astrobotic to identify and market to non-NASA entities who would be interested in licensing use of the technologies developed during the proposed work in their own lunar systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed technologies enhance prospecting and excavating missions through enabling navigation in the dark. This has the potential to enhance near term missions like Resource Prospector Mission and follow-on missions for sample return or in-situ resource utilization. The developed technologies also unlock new mission destinations. Newly discovered pits on the Moon and Mars may provide entrance to lava tubes that could give us a deeper understanding of a planet's geologic, climatic, and even biologic history. They may also one day provide shelter to humans. Operation in caves requires dark perception and navigation. The proposed technologies enable activities that normally happen in sunlight to occur easily in darkness, including autonomous landing, rendezvous, docking, and proximity operations, and perhaps robotic satellite maintenance and mapping of comets or asteroids. Maturation and mission integration is benefited by Astrobotic's plans for a series of lunar expeditions to deliver commercial payloads. Technology for these missions is being developed in partnership with NASA as part of the Lunar CATALYST program and is funded by customer payments and investment. Demonstration on an early Astrobotic lunar mission will generate data to accurately evaluate and innovate technologies, a key step that enables others to confidently adopt the technology for their own systems.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Perception/Vision
3D Imaging
Image Analysis
Image Capture (Stills/Motion)
Image Processing
Thermal Imaging (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Data Fusion
Lasers (Ladar/Lidar)
Positioning (Attitude Determination, Location X-Y-Z)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
TRACLabs, Inc.
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520
San Antonio, TX 78216-1234
(281) 461-7886

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Carnegie Mellon University - Silicon Valley
NASA Research Park, Bldg 23
Moffett Field, CA 94305-2823
(650) 335-2823

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Debra Schreckenghost
schreck@traclabs.com
16969 N. Texas Ave, Suite 300
Webster,  TX 77598-4085
(281) 461-7886

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA's future human exploration missions will include remotely operated rovers performing surface exploration and science, as well as free-flyers to reduce the need for human Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA). As astronauts move deeper into space, it will be necessary for them to manage these robotic assets with less support from ground controllers. A flexible approach is needed to build and revise plans for semi-autonomous robots. A key requirement for such planning operations is the ability to accurately predict how much resource (e.g., time, power) is needed to perform planned tasks. TRACLabs and CMU propose to develop software to model resources for use in building and revising plans for semi-autonomous robots. The resource models will be used to estimate the duration of planned tasks based on historical plan performance. They will be updated periodically during a mission to improve model accuracy at a site. This software also will be used to provide actual resource data for annotating a map of the site when building. The resource modeling software will be designed for evaluation with the IRG Exploration Ground Data System planning software. Improved resource modeling produces more accurate predictions of the resources needed for planned tasks. More accurate resource estimates improves the likelihood that plans can be executed "as planned". When plans don't go as expected, these resource models can be used to determine how to modify robot plans within available resources. This should reduce the human workload needed to revise robot plans during plan execution and, when revisions are needed, to determine which subset of activities can actually be completed with remaining resources. Such resource modeling technology is enabling for remote operation and supervision of planetary robots with variable levels of autonomy (NASA Roadmap TA4).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Unmanned Vehicles, including UAVs, UGVs, and USVs are growing in their importance to DOD. Correspondingly, the need to ensure that soldiers can work effectively with these vehicles is also growing. As the number of vehicles grows the need to plan for the coordination of multiple robots will also grow. The proposed resource modeling software can be integrated with existing planning and procedure technology to deliver flexible multi-robot plans. There is renewed interest in remote operations and robot inspection and maintenance for the oil and natural gas drilling, extraction, and processing. Whether controlling robots that monitor and maintain off-shore rigs during an evacuation, or controlling Remotely Operated Vehicles underwater, or controlling robots that perform disaster response tasks in large refinery, the need for robotics in the oil and gas industry is growing. The proposed software for resource modeling is enabling to build plans for such robot operations.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed project will develop resource models for use when building robot plans that enable variable levels of robot autonomy (NASA Roadmap TA4). The technology for resource modeling has direct application in NASA missions such as the Resource Prospector Mission (RPM). An ongoing operational trade during plan execution for the RPM is whether to take a closer look for water in an area or to move on to prospect another area. The proposed resource models have potential to help the science team make better decisions about prospecting by providing more accurate estimates of how long it will take to perform the tasks within a robot plan. Other tests where resource modeling might improve robot and science mission planning include BASALT, AstroBee, and the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP).

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Man-Machine Interaction
Robotics (see also Control & Monitoring; Sensors)
Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
M4 Engineering, Inc.
4020 Long Beach Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90807-2683
(562) 981-7797

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Missouri University of Science and Technology
202 Centennial Hall, 300 West 12th St
Rolla, MO 65409-1330
(573) 341-4134

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Tyler Winter
twinter@m4-engineering.com
4020 Long Beach Boulevard
Long Beach,  CA 90807-2683
(562) 981-7797

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
M4 Engineering and Missouri S&T propose to investigate the viability of creating a multidisciplinary analysis and optimization architecture for analyzing spacecraft system models. The current approach will utilize commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software to alleviate acquisition hurdles for NASA (and public) technical monitors/reviewers. Next, a preliminary set of analysis modules will be developed including a CAD-based Geometry component capable of generating parametric geometry. Once the analysis modules are completed, integration within the OpenMDAO framework will commence. The MDAO tool will be developed to address the issues of being generic and scalable to larger spacecraft systems. Validation of the modules and the prototype tool will be carried out by constructing model problems to test various capabilities as well as a complete spacecraft system demonstration application with optimization of integrated multidisciplinary performance models.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
M4 Engineering has active relationships with several prime contractors who are likely users of this technology. These include Boeing Phantom Works, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. These provide excellent commercialization opportunities for the technology. The development of an integrated multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization tool leveraging commonly used commercial software is expected to find wide application to many aerospace and non-aerospace products. Examples include aerospace/defense, turbomachinery, automotive and alternative energy applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Potential NASA applications will include the use of the developed software with any complex integrated space system. Additionally, due to the modular nature of the tool and the use of widely available commercial software many different applications could be studied across most, if not all, of the NASA centers.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Michigan Engineering Services, LLC
2890 Carpenter Road, Suite 1900
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-1100
(734) 358-0792

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Michigan
3003 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2145
(734) 763-7343

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Geng Zhang
gengz@miengsrv.com
2890 Carpenter Road, Suite 1900
Ann Arbor,  MI 48108-1100
(734) 477-5710

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Entry vehicle design and aircraft design are just two examples of systems that are of interest to NASA, requiring interactions and exchange of information among multiple performance disciplines. Since any computational optimization process relies on simulation models for identifying the impact of design changes in meeting performance expectations and improving metrics of goodness, it is essential that the uncertainty quantification of these models is captured by the optimization. Fuzzy Logic (FL) provides a systematic approach for introducing linguistic articulation of mental perception into a mathematical framework. In the proposed project the FL approach will be used for introducing in an automated multidisciplinary optimization process the human judgment and the expert opinion associated with the credibility of the modeling and simulations (as stated in the NASA-STD-7009) which are utilized for making decisions. The proposing firm has developed a Decision Support Toolkit (DS Toolkit) which can be used for multidisciplinary design and for balancing many multiple competing performance objectives. The multidisciplinary analysis is done automatically due to specialized algorithms and capabilities which are embedded in the DS Toolkit; both discrete and continuous design variables can be defined. The proposed research will develop the ability to consider the credibility of the models and of the simulations which are used for evaluating the performance requirements and the performance metrics during the analysis. A Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) capability will be developed for this purpose. The membership functions in the FLS will be reflecting the credibility scores assigned by subject matter experts to each one of the eight credibility factors of a simulation. The rule bank in the FLS will capture the expert opinion of the decision makers on how the credibility of the simulations will influences the decisions which are made by the optimization process.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The new developments will be promoted to the shipbuilding, automotive, aircraft, space, and the military ground vehicle sectors. The common factors among these industries are: (i) all use multi-physics simulation models for assessing the performance of their products during design (ii) models of variable fidelity are used in the decision making process (iii) credibility of simulation results can only be considered by the decision makers and not by any automated multidisciplinary optimization process (iv) they all have needs for optimizing their designs while balancing performance in many conflicting disciplines (v) they all have needs for designing products based on economic viability and making the complex design optimization process easy to use Thus there is a significant commercial potential for the technology which will be developed by the proposed research.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed research will offer a new approach for multidisciplinary optimization that does not exist in any form in any of the current commercial or open source codes. It will offer a new capability to NASA Programs for conducting optimizations while accounting for uncertainty quantification associated with the credibility of models and simulations. Subject matter experts will be able to identify the credibility of each simulation which is used in the optimization by grading each one of the eight credibility factors prescribed in NASA-STD-7009. Decision makers will be able to provide their input in linguistic format on how to interpret the credibility scores when making design decisions. At that point it will also be possible to consider how critical each decision is to the success of a mission. Therefore, the end product will be of great value to all NASA Programs and to the aerospace community.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Aerodynamics
Analytical Methods
Entry, Descent, & Landing (see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry)
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Ceramics
Metallics
Structures
Vehicles (see also Autonomous Systems)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Tietronix Software, Inc.
1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300
Houston, TX 77058-2794
(281) 461-9300

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Houston-Clear Lake
2700 Bay Area Blvd.
Houston, TX 77058-1098
(281) 283-3568

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Marco Zambetti
marco.zambetti@tietronix.com
1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300
Houston,  TX 77058-2794
(281) 404-7238

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA has identified a need for a tool that will give a non-expert the ability to quickly create animation of a mission scenario. This type of depiction can be important during a mission's development phase. Animation can show things that are not possible to see in the physical world and can help explain difficult concepts. Animation allows visualization of the mission without having to understand all the physics required. The communication of any mission scenarios through the medium of video - be it live action or animation - requires a particular set of skills: most notably, a sense of timing and layout. The sense of timing in animation can be compared to that of music; length, rhythm and order are the crucial elements for an effective delivery of an idea or emotion. Professional animators acquire this knowledge through formal training, education and years of experience. Although it would be impossible to impart this knowledge instantaneously, with current technology it can be encapsulated within a set of "digital elements" that can be manipulated and arranged to form a coherent stream of images (video) with order and meaning. Our proposed innovation is to develop a set of tools that can be used by a non-expert to build a virtual mission scenario that can be used for analysis, presentations and outreach. We will create a method for developing a collection of elements (objects, actions) with initial focus, space mission specific. The toolset will have elements that have the animation expertise incorporated. This will reduce the need for the user to have animation experience.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
DoD - building mission scenarios for training and planning, troop deployment to a location, securing a building, etc. Oil industry applications could be drilling operations: sending the pipe into the earth, adding additional pipe, capturing a core sample, etc. Any industry with a need to allow the user to visualize an operation, a sequence of activities to fulfill a goal.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Outreach: Animated videos can be built by subject matter experts to illustrate a mission, for example a planetary research mission, to be used as part of an educational packages. These packages can be distributed to educational institutions or to the general public. Presentations: Engineers, mission planners and public affairs personnel can create animated videos to be used for press releases, or during government committees presentation, such as appropriation or science committees.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Mission Training
Outreach
Training Concepts & Architectures
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Display
Image Capture (Stills/Motion)
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
MetaMorph, Inc.
49 Music Square West Suite 210
Nashville, TN 37203-6643
(615) 585-2967

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Vanderbilt University
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37240-7749
(615) 322-2400

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Justin Knight
jknight@metamorphsoftware.com
49 Music Square W 210
Nashville,  TN 37203-6643
(615) 973-9915

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A comprehensive model-based approach will be enabled for space systems design via the work started on Phase I of this project. The OpenMETA toolkit is a cyber-physical modeling tool for the design and virtual integration of complex systems, developed under the DARPA AVM Program. OpenMETA will be leveraged and extended to support NASA/JPL goals for multi-physics, multi-domain modeling, analysis, optimization, and uncertainty quantification of spacecraft and space systems. Specific extensions include supporting preferred CAD tool (Siemens NX), FEA Meshing (FEMAP), and IMUQ uncertainty quantification. In addition, the use of external, configuration-managed databases will be supported to track design parameter evolution. The tool's utility will be evaluated and demonstrated via a set of use cases and end-to-end experiments.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Aerospace: Rapid analysis of mission requirements and mapping to feasible aircraft architectures can help to reduce system costs for commercial aircraft. The tools support rapid design progression from concept to prototype, allowing optimization of subsystems and systems at a much earlier phase in the design cycle. Full model-based analysis and sensitivity analysis prior to build will improve prototype quality and reduce development iterations. Uncertainty quantification methods will be applied to a wider range of systems, improving overall safety of life-critical systems. Automotive: Modeling of product line architectures and optimizing system design to marketplace requirements will be a valuable addition to automaker's toolbox. Reduced cost of sensitivity analysis will allow the technique to be applied across the board, helping to avoid manufacturing quality issues. Full uncertainty analysis to reduce black-swan errors and costly recalls. Electronics: Metamorph is already working modular mobile phones and configurable/modular phone components. Optimization and system modeling will help to rapidly tune systems against the highly constrained power/mass/performance requirements for commercial portable devices and assess deployment across mobile infrastructures and the impact of 3G&#8594;4G&#8594;5G changes

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
There are a number of potential NASA applications for the optimization framework: Rover Design and Optimization. Modeling of NASA extra-planetary explorer subsystems. Rapid evaluation of system architectures and parameters. Rapid assessment of system for requirement feasibility. Satellite Systems Design. Evolution of a systems concept, based on requirements to a fully detailed system design. Analysis and optimization of all performance aspects of the design prior to construction, reducing overall system design time and cost. Uncertainty quantification: UQ is needed for any critical system that NASA operates. Extending UQ in a cost effective manner to all designs will improve confidence for mission critical systems.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Prototyping
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Verification/Validation Tools
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Veraphotonics, Inc.
43967 rosemere dr
fremont, CA 94539-5967
(408) 802-7489

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
University of Miami
1251 Memorial Drive, McArthur Engineering Building, Rm. 325
Coral Gables, FL 33146-0630
(305) 284-3461

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
An-Dien nguyen
a.d.nguyen@veraphotonics.com
43967 rosemere dr
fremont,  CA 94539-5967
(408) 802-7489

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Pressurized systems and pressure vessels used in NASA ground-based and flight-based applications including fuel tanks, composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), and composite tankage commonly suffer from several types of degradation including fatigue, cracking, lack of bonding, and leakage. Veraphotonics proposes to develop a pressure vessel leak and damage detection system. In a large vessel, in-line inspection using health-monitoring sensors would provide structural integrity assessment, reduce maintenance, and eliminate potential points of failure. Acoustic Emission (AE) method is the most prevalent method that provides continuous monitoring for leak and damage detection as well as estimates the location of leak or damage in pressure vessels. In this SBIR Phase I project, the feasibility of a novel laser-based interrogation technique AE method for the detection of leak and damages in liquid-filled vessel instrumented with FBG sensors will be performed in laboratory and field vessels including COPVs. Based on laboratory and field test measurements, we will optimize the FBG sensors and the system to reduce or eliminate the acoustic background noise from the vessel environment. In Phase II all the FBG sensors will be integrated on a single optical fiber and interrogated using a compact, battery powered interrogation device with wireless data transmission capability.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Ultrasonic wave detection technology have immediate applications in civil engineering for monitoring and evaluating damages, corrosion, and fatigue in steel and concrete structures such as bridges, freeways, and buildings. High frequency ultrasonic signal detection method development can be utilized in ultrasonic testing, medical imaging, and other non-destructive testing

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The developed tool sets will be useful to predict the residual stress state limits of current and future NASA vehicles. Future generations of NASA vehicles will greatly benefit from advancements in made in advanced damage sensing, detection and analysis.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Fiber (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Photonics)
Detectors (see also Sensors)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Diagnostics/Prognostics

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Prime Photonics, LC
1116 South Main Street
Blacksburg, VA 24060-5548
(540) 961-2200

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Virginia Tech
Burruss Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0001
(540) 231-0745

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
David Gray
david.gray@primephotonics.com
1116 South Main Street
Blacksburg,  VA 24060-5548
(540) 808-4281

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A variety of nondestructive inspection (NDI) techniques are already available for detection of small defects within structures. These techniques, although useful, provide little insight in terms of the remaining useful life of components or structures. Furthermore, NDI techniques rely on statistical analyses of historical usage records and can often result in situations where maintenance schedules are occurring more often than necessary to insure safe operation. Intelligent monitoring of the state of constituent materials allows for operation at reduced sustainment costs without sacrificing mission safety. Prime Photonics, LC. proposes to develop a novel acoustic emission monitoring sensor as part of a larger structural health monitoring system capable of providing end-of-useful life determination. The designed acoustic emission spectrum (AES) system will combine constituent fatigue history with local impact events tp provide a complete view of component lifetime.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The Department of Defense (DoD) has made considerable investment in implementing condition based maintenance (CBM) throughout its fleet. Emphasis is placed on aerospace applications which prove expensive to survey but require long lifetimes to avoid costly replacement. Nondestructive verification systems for monitoring of critical infrastructure has also seen increases. With aging bridges and railways, an improved system for component lifetime and failure prediction is necessary.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The primary NASA application for the acoustic emission sensing system will be in structural health monitoring and leak detection. The system is well-suited for predicting end of useful life conditions for composite structural components, especially those in stable operational load regimes. The traditional acoustic emission component of the system will aid in detection and localization of impact events.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Acoustic/Vibration
Contact/Mechanical
Sensor Nodes & Webs (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport)
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)
Diagnostics/Prognostics

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Materials Research and Design, Inc.
300 East Swedesford Road
Wayne, PA 19087-1858
(610) 964-9000

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
1001 North Emmet St., PO Box 400195
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4195
(434) 924-4270

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Michael Dion
michael.dion@m-r-d.com
300 East Swedesford Road
Wayne,  PA 19087-1858
(610) 964-9000

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
As the power density of advanced engines increases, the need for new materials that are capable of higher operating temperatures, such as ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), is critical for turbine hot-section static and rotating components. Such advanced materials have demonstrated the promise to significantly increase the engine temperature capability relative to conventional super alloy metallic blades. They also show the potential to enable longer life, reduced emissions, growth margin, reduced weight and increased performance relative to super alloy blade materials. MR&D is proposing to perform a combined analytical and experimental program to develop a durability model for CMC Environmental Barrier Coatings (EBC). EBCs are required for CMCs in turbine exhaust environments because of the presence of high temperature water. The EBC protects the CMC and significantly slows recession. However, the durability of these materials is not well understood making life prediction very challenging. This program will be the first step in developing a tool to accurately evaluate the life of the EBC for a CMC turbine blade helping to facilitate their inclusion in future engine designs. This will be done by developing a custom, user defined element formulation for finite element modeling to simulate the kinetic reactions of the EBC with the turbine exhaust. It will be built on the back of earlier work developing such an element to model the oxidation of carbon fiber in reentry environments.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
In the commercial sector, the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 and Trent XWB engines are being developed for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, respectively. There are currently 1030 Boeing 787s on order or flying and 814 Airbus A350 XWBs on order. The Trent 1000 was the launch engine for the Boeing 787. These are large markets where the benefit of this technology will have a lasting impact in efficiency and cost. By working closely with Rolls Royce during the early stages of this development program, MR&D has ensured that the resulting products will meet the requirements of future customers. Rolls Royce has expressed a serious interest in this technology and, as demonstrated above, has a sizable market for its application. The aerospace industry is not the only potential beneficiary of this technology. The Department of Energy (DOE) is working hard to improve the efficiency of power generators. Just as with aircraft engines, power turbines' efficiency improves with higher operating temperatures. As an example, current turbines operate at 2600F, which provided a large improvement in efficiency over earlier models operating at 2300F. CMC turbine blades and stators will allow even higher temperature operation and is a topic which the DOE is currently investigating.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NASA Glenn has been directly involved in the effort to bring these materials to turbine hot section components. The NASA Ultra Efficient Engine Technology program (UEET) is focused on driving the next generation of turbine engine technology. One of the major thrusts is the development and demonstration of advanced high temperature materials which are capable of surviving the extreme environments of turbine combustion and exhaust.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Generation
Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation)
Ceramics
Coatings/Surface Treatments
Composites
Atmospheric Propulsion
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
CFD Research Corporation
701 McMillian Way Northwest, Suite D
Huntsville, AL 35806-2923
(256) 726-4800

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Sandia National Laboratories
PO Box 5800, MS-1322
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0701
(505) 844-0121

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Bryce Devine
bryce.devine@cfdrc.com
701 McMillian Way, NW, Ste D
Huntsville,  AL 35806-2923
(256) 726-4816

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are routinely used by NASA to optimize the design of propulsion systems. Current methods for CFD modeling rely on general materials properties to determine fluid structure interactions. This introduces uncertainty when modeling extreme conditions, where materials degrade and properties may change as a consequence. This also limits the use of CFD as a modeling tool to assist in material selection and specification. CFDRC in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories proposes to develop a computational materials model to simulate degradation of a ceramic matrix composite material under the high temperature, high velocity flow conditions of the propulsion environment. The objective is to provide a computational tool to assist NASA in the selection and optimization of propulsion system materials and to predict material degradation and failure throughout the service life in extreme conditions. During Phase I the team will demonstrate a mesoscale materials model based on peridynamics, a theory of continuum mechanics that can describe fracture and defect progression at the level of the microstructure. Peridynamics provides a theoretical framework to dynamically simulate fracture and mechanical erosion at the mesoscale, where properties such as tensile strength and toughness are affected by features of the microstructure and composite design. The proposed modeling scheme use CFD to establish the thermal-mechanical stresses imposed at the boundaries of the structure. Peridynamics simulations will be used to determine the evolution of the macroscale properties as a function of microstructure, damage and boundary conditions. Methods to link time and condition dependent materials properties with the CFD system will be evaluated.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
DoD supported programs such as the development of hypersonic systems involve the selection and incorporation of materials for extreme environments. Performance of energy systems for power generation and fossil energy extraction involve applications where material degradation limits the performance. The work established in this project can be transitioned to support these other applications. A reasonable extension of this model would be to model accumulated damage in cyclic fatigue applications which could substantially reduce maintenance cost of aircraft.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) has been identified as an enabling technology to both advance the development of new materials and to accelerate their incorporation them into commercial systems. The proposed modeling product falls within the scope of ICME as a means to link material features to product performance. This work product can be transferred as a modeling tool to assist material selection in any application where mechanical degradation limits performance such as ablative and high temperature materials for hypersonic environments.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Software Tools (Analysis, Design)
Composites
Joining (Adhesion, Welding)
Ablative Propulsion
Atmospheric Propulsion

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Nanosonic, Inc.
158 Wheatland Drive
Pembroke, VA 24136-3645
(540) 626-6266

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Colorado State University
601 South Howes Street
Fort Collins, CO 80523-2002
(970) 491-6335

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Jennifer Lalli
jhlalli@nanosonic.com
158 Wheatland Drive
Pembroke,  VA 24136-3645
(540) 626-6266

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NanoSonic has recently developed a hydrogen (H2) dispenser hose to realize H2 as a safe, reliable, and cost competitive replacement for gasoline. NanoSonic's ultra-low glass transition temperature (Tg of -100 ?C) is expected to meet the service requirement of 25,550 fills/year (70 fills/day for 2 years) at a combined ultra-high pressure of 875-bar and very wide service temperature range of -50?C to +90?C. This state-of-the-art lightweight hose (0.99 g/cc) is based on a unique fiber reinforced, high performance, cryogenically flexible polymer designed to resist hydrogen embrittlement, survive the Joule-Thompson effect thermal cycles, and endure mechanical wear and fatigue at the pump. This system is offered herein as large area panels that may be seamed via RF welding with our space partner, ILC Dover, to form inflatable habitat bladders. This superior class of low Tg polymers exhibited ultra-low air and H2 permeance (0.31 cc/100in2?Atm?day - post triple cold flex) before and after being subjected to the harsh, triple fold (180?) cold flexure (-50 ?C) test. Here, this non-electrically conductive polymer shall be reinforced herein with an engineered fiber design to dissipate static electricity and provide multifunctional radiation shielding. Additional multifunctionality shall be built in via NanoSonic's self-healing microspheres, while meeting the goal of < 6 oz/yd2 for a triply redundant bladder. NanoSonic shall work with our STTR partner, Colorado State University (CSU), Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LM SSC), and ILC Dover to qualify the advanced bladder material for space habitats.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Non-NASA applications for the low Tg TR&#153; inflatables include ultra-lightweight deployable polar habitats, high altitude airships (HAA), and rapidly deployable and reusable shelters. Additionally, the self-healing component within the multi-layer bladder will be transitioned as long-term H2 hoses, protective storage liners for food or other sensitive materials, self-sealing tires, anti-ballistic fuel tanks and life critical personnel protective equipment (PPE). The H2 hoses shall serve as a new standard for high-pressure hoses with the additional benefits of fire resistance and self-healing. These fuel, corrosion, ozone and UV-resistant, non-offgassing, non-metallic, yet grounding hoses shall also serve as a new class of materials for wiring and conduit for construction, aerospace, and space systems in need of all temperature, mechanically durable solutions to long-term survivable platform needs. It has the potential to revolutionize H2 as a green alternative energy source to gasoline and diesel fuels.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NanoSonic's Thoraeus Rubber&#153; materials will be primarily developed as the bladder assembly for inflatable, life-critical, NASA space habitats. The advanced lightweight bladder material offers superb cold temperature flexibility and durability to maintain low air permeability during handling and deployment in space. The puncture resistant material will be transitioned as the multi-layer, self-healing bladder system to ensure limited repair and maintenance. The multifunctional TR&#153; materials formed via NanoSonic's ESA process offer EMI and radiation shielding for enhanced long-term high altitude and space durability. Additional NASA platforms include Lunar systems, exploration vehicles, and satellites in LEO, GEO, and HEO.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Coatings/Surface Treatments
Composites
Joining (Adhesion, Welding)
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Smart/Multifunctional Materials
Textiles
X-rays/Gamma Rays
Microwave
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Keystone Synergistic Enterprises, Inc.
664 Northwest Enterprise Drive, Suite 118
Port Saint Lucie, FL 34953-1565
(772) 343-7544

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State
Mississippi State, MS 39762-1234
(662) 325-7404

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Bryant Walker
bryanthwalk@aol.com
664 NW Enterprise Drive, Suite 118
Port Saint Lucie,  FL 34953-1565
(772) 343-7544

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Use of additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are of interest as they can be used to create complex shaped rocket components in addition to the potential for multi-material, or functionally graded materials (FGM). The main technical challenge lies in the ability to deposit various materials at relatively large diameters with the desired properties while maintaining the overall structural integrity of the assembly. Use of interface materials can also assist in joining these very dissimilar metals ranging from Cu-based to Ni-based alloys. In response to this need, Keystone, in collaboration with MSU, is proposing a Phase 1 STTR project to demonstrate the feasibility of applying the Robotic Pulsed-Arc AM process to fabricate FGM Cu-to-Ni components in support of advanced engines for the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle. During the Phase II the Keystone team envisions maturing the processes to AM a 21-inch diameter cooled nozzle for delivery to the NASA for machining and preparation for hot fire testing by the NASA.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Rapid manufacturing methods for regeneratively cooled nozzles and skit extensions.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Rapid manufacturing methods for regeneratively cooled nozzles and skit extensions.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Prototyping
Processing Methods
Metallics
Structures
Spacecraft Main Engine

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Mound Laser & Photonics Center, Inc.
2941 College Drive
Kettering, OH 45420-1172
(937) 865-3730

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Wright State University
3640 Colonel Glenn Highway
Dayton, OH 45435-0001
(937) 775-5143

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Ahsan Mian
ahsan.mian@wright.edu
3640 Colonel Glenn Highway
Dayton,  OH 45435-0001
(937) 775-5143

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This STTR project seeks to develop a fast predictive model for selective laser melting (SLM) processes and then integrate that model with an SLM chamber that allows full control of process variables and is equipped with in-process sensors. The combination will create a closed loop in which the model suggests process parameter settings for test builds and the sensors provide feedback to the model. This creates a powerful tool for iterative process development far faster than is currently possible by standard simulation methods and accessible to a wide range of potential SLM innovators who are not simulation specialists. The key innovation will be the development of a simple set of empirical equations that relate SLM process inputs to actual build results. This is accomplished by a combination of finite element simulations and verification experiments whose process parameters are selected by a design-of-experiments methodology. The resulting easily calculable empirical functions (a.k.a. the fast predictive model) will replace arduous simulation and undirected trial-and-error as methods of SLM process development. A user-friendly interface will be written that links the fast predictive model to sensorized SLM chamber to allow easy, rapid and flexible SLM process development. The simplicity of the system, and relatively low cost of the SLM chamber will allow large numbers of new innovators and industries to enter the field of SLM and develop novel processes that meet their application needs, as well as help solve specific problems of NASA interest. Phase I activities include 1) development of the fast predictive model, 2) development of a control algorithm and user interface linking the model to the SLM chamber, and 3) demonstration of the integrated system for rapid development of novel SLM processes.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Aerospace commercial applications have high overlap with NASA applications including strong interest in fabrication of rocket engine components and a variety of other light-weighted structures. Apart from a desire for faster SLM process development, the commercial market also has a keen interest in in-process monitoring and closed loop process control. The use of feedback from in-process sensors both to develop the fast predictive model and conduct rapid process development entails concepts and techniques that are closely related to in-process control. (I.e., in-process control is essentially continuous, real-time, in situ process development.) Thus it is likely that fast predictive models, as developed under this project, can be implemented to facilitate or enable closed loop process control. Finally, we note that a key goal of this project is to provide a system that will make SLM process development accessible to a large number of new innovators and industries, allowing them to enter the field and create a wide range of applications that are currently unidentified.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The technology developed under this STTR will enable rapid development and optimization of SLM processes. The experimental process development chamber can be configured to simulate existing commercial SLM machines, and thus process developed with the proposed system can be exported to these machines (which are not themselves well designed for process development). This supports the goals of the SLM laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center as well as participation of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate in the Materials Genome Initiative. Implementation of the fast predictive model technology can improve the processes for SLM manufactured parts. This impacts a number of space platforms and terrestrial applications too long to list. Of particular interest to NASA is the use of in-process monitoring to verify build quality. Because the proposed system has in-process monitoring built into the process development methodology, it has a high likelihood of developing processes of which NASA engineers can be confident and for documentation of process quality can be compiled.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Analytical Methods
Process Monitoring & Control
Prototyping
Processing Methods
Metallics
Launch Engine/Booster
Thermal
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)
Simulation & Modeling

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Mound Laser & Photonics Center, Inc.
2941 College Drive
Kettering, OH 45420-1172
(937) 865-3730

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Wright State University
3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy
Dayton, OH 45435-0001
(937) 775-2425

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
John Middendorf
johnmiddendorf@mlpc.com
2941 College Drive
Kettering,  OH 45420-1172
(937) 865-3492

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Current selective laser melting additive manufacturing (AM) systems do not have adequate process control features for wide-spread adoption across NASA. In this project Mound Laser & Photonics Center (MLPC) will work with Wright State University (WSU) to implement a novel system for layer-by-layer in-process monitoring for AM. The key innovation in this work will be the use of a line-laser profilometer (LLP) for 3-dimensional, in situ, sub-micron profilometry on every layer during an AM process, both before and after the layer has been melted. Several advantages will be gained from this approach: (1) Measurements on the spread powder layers will determine powder distribution and quality, enabling correlation between powder distribution and finished part material properties such as microstructure and density; (2) Measurements on the melted layer profile will determine the geometric accuracy of the melted layer (both in depth and lateral dimensions), compared to the CAD file, and allow correlations between geometric accuracy to powder distribution, laser parameters, and material properties; and (3) simple layer defects will be easily identified before the next layer is spread. This technology could enable real-time process qualification, and eventually automatic powder re-spreading or layer re-melting to fix defects in the layer. In this project, the SBC (MLPC) will build test coupons in their custom-built, fully tunable, research-grade AM testbed and monitor the build process with the LLP. The RI (WSU), who has tremendous expertise in AM sample characterization, will then perform in-depth material analysis on the test coupons to determine material properties. At the time of this proprosal, MLPC has already determined that the LLP can measure the AM testbed with micron-scale accuracy. Therefore, achieving success with this approach is very likely, the primary needs for implementation are the development of experimental methods and process control correlations.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
(1) Commercial aerospace applications have a high overlap with NASA applications, including strong interest in fabrication of rocket engine components and a variety of other lightweighted structures. (2) The US Army Armament Research and Development Engineering Center (ARDEC) has expressed an interest in AM process control technology. They seek to use AM manufacturing to enhance munitions and weapon systems under development at Picatinny Arsenal. ARDEC hopes to implement a process monitoring solution on commercial AM machines (made by EOS and SLM Solutions GmbH) (3) Sensorized Process Development Cell (PDC) for general research: There is a general frustration in the market with the limitations of commercial AM machines. End users are typically constrained to given material types and build protocols. Several institutions have expressed interest in obtaining a PDC similar to the one MLPC has developed for its own research. Examples are Rolls-Royce North America, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Integration of the PDC with the LLP-based process monitoring system developed under this project will create a comprehensive, low cost tool for AM research. (4) Miniature AM processes: MLPC also has a direct interest in using the STTR sensor technology, integrated with its PDC, to develop miniature additive manufacturing techniques to make components for the medical device industry.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
(1) Improving SLM additive manufacturing processes: The in-process profilometry data collected in this STTR will be fully quantitative and useful for controlling AM processes. This will be possible through direct experimentation on the user's machine, experimentation across machines, or by supplying quantitative data to validate process modelling. (2) Non-Destructive evaluation (NDE) and part qualification: This project will provide verification and qualification of the build consistency, identify build errors layer-by-layer, and possibly enable inspectable 3D models of the built part constructed from the LLP measurements. (3) Materials Genome Initiative: The correlation of process parameters and sensor data to resultant material properties and microstructures would directly support NASA's role in this multi-agency initiative by providing better empirical methods to validate computational modeling of additive manufacturing processes. (4) Final inspection of part geometry: The LLP can measure the dimensions of finished parts. For dimensionally critical systems this is an important step, and using the same sensor for both in-process monitoring and post-process geometric verification will streamline the production process. (5) Closed-loop processing: Closed-loop process control could be realized by measuring each layer both before and after melting, and making automatic adjustments based on LLP feedback.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Process Monitoring & Control
Quality/Reliability
3D Imaging
In Situ Manufacturing
Joining (Adhesion, Welding)
Metallics
Lasers (Cutting & Welding)
Lasers (Measuring/Sensing)
Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics)
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT)

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN: (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
American GNC Corporation
888 Easy Street
Simi Valley, CA 93065-1812
(805) 582-0582

RESEARCH INSTITUTION: (RI Name, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Louisiana Tech University
P.O. Box 3168
Ruston, LA 71272-4235
(318) 257-4641

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER: (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/ZIP, Phone)
Francisco Maldonado
emelgarejo@americangnc.com
888 Easy Street
Simi Valley,  CA 93065-1812
(805) 582-0582

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
For this STTR project, American GNC Corporation (AGNC) and Louisiana Tech University (LaTECH) are proposing a significant breakthrough technology for improving embedded sensing, remote and wireless monitoring, and the capture of data, information, and knowledge (DIaK) at propulsion ground test facilities with the Integrated Monitoring AWAReness Environment (IM-AWARE). This system consists of smart sensors that interface with transducers measuring parameters such as heat flux, temperature, pressure, strain, and near-field acoustics. Low-level fault diagnostic autonomy is granted by advanced algorithms that not only extract features in measured data which are highly correlated with potential failure modes, but also take advantage of the interrelations in a large, complex system. High-level knowledge is infused into the environment with graph-based methods which allow describing cause and effect relationships. These core capabilities are then deployed in an innovative Enterprise networking infrastructure based on wireless and ubiquitous information sharing. Finally, at the front-end of IM-AWARE, graphical user interfaces (GUI) for both PCs and mobile devices deliver a complete picture of the monitored system and associated DIaK with real-time updates.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
One of the main objectives of this STTR is the commercialization of the project's research results and introduction of a commercialized product into the marketplace (both civilian and government). The IM-AWARE will provide an integral solution for embedded sensing and health monitoring for a variety of systems. Specific uses of the technology include, but are not limited to: (1) heating and cooling systems in large and expansive commercial facilities; (2) support systems in nuclear power plants (cooling lines, gas pressurization lines, and so on) as well as other power plant types (fossil fuels, geothermal power, hydroelectric, etc.); (3) industrial environments that require the proper operation of fluid flow systems (e.g. refrigerant for cooling, hydraulic power systems, etc.); (4) general manufacturing environments; and (5) natural gas pipelines and other gas delivery systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA APPLICATION(S) (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The Integrated Monitoring AWAReness Environment will directly support health monitoring and management within NASA propulsion and testing facilities. The integration of the system into NASA Stennis Space Center's rocket engine test stands will immediately benefit the Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) program by providing powerful embedded sensing with wireless networking. This includes the monitoring of leakage, fire, etc. in propellant or gas delivery systems, cooling water lines, etc. Another example is the remote monitoring of vacuum lines as part of the low pressure and low cryogenic temperature A3 test stand at NASA SSC. Possible applications outside of SSC involve the health monitoring of test facility support systems at Glen Research Center, for example, vacuum line monitoring at the zero gravity research facility, as well as usage in wind tunnel test facilities such as those at Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Condition Monitoring (see also Sensors)
Computer System Architectures
Data Acquisition (see also Sensors)
Data Fusion
Data Processing
Knowledge Management
Acoustic/Vibration
Sensor Nodes & Webs (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport)
Thermal
Diagnostics/Prognostics