NASA 2003 SBIR Phase 2 Solicitation

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kurt J. Linden
klinden@spirecorp.com
One Patriots Park
Bedford, MA 01730-2396
(781)275-6000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This Phase II SBIR proposal is aimed at developing a non-invasive, optical method for monitoring crew member state of awareness in operational environments. All active devices used in this monitoring system will consist of commercially available components. Continuous monitoring of the mental state of personnel engaged in critical activities could provide a means of protection against human performance lapses resulting from unforeseen circumstances. If a deterioration of the state of awareness of an individual can be detected before that individual's performance is affected, serious accidents or lapses in operator performance could be avoided. A computer-controlled four-wavelength breadboard cerebral oxygen monitor was designed, fabricated, and demonstrated during Phase I. Using phantoms with controlled blood-oxygenation levels, high sensitivity and motion artifact rejection by proper algorithm use was demonstrated. Based on these successful Phase I results, Phase II will miniaturize the system size to a wearable format, and optimize the system performance. The new cerebral oxygen monitor performance will be evaluated, and more refined algorithms to eliminate motion artifacts will be developed. A portable, prototype version of this crew cerebral oxygen monitor will be designed, fabricated, evaluated, and delivered to NASA at the completion of the program.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The benefits of the proposed technology are expected to be of importance to the government, industry, transportation and medical sectors of the economy. For example, transportation crew members are often subject to stress, increasing the possibility of operator mistakes or oversight. It is important to monitor crew state of awareness so that accidents or lapses in operator performance can be avoided. The proposed crew cerebral oxygen monitor could be used by truck drivers, airline pilots, train operators, ship captains and respective crew members. Similar applications exist in other public and private sector industries where staff performance is critical.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications specifically revolve around real-time, non-invasive monitoring of crew performance and state of mental awareness. This is of major importance to mission safety and performance. Brain activity measurements, as determined by direct measurement of cerebral blood oxygenation, are expected to directly monitor crew health, stress level, state of duress, and general performance. The proposed crew cerebral oxygen monitor holds the potential for providing a completely non-invasive, optical method for achieving reliable, low-cost, monitoring of crew health, providing data that supplements current methods of obtaining related crew health data.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Robert Shaw
fciassoc@aol.com
1 1/2 South Central Avenue
Fairborn, OH 45324-4716
(937)253-4110
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The objective of this proposed Phase II SBIR effort is to continue Phase I efforts to develop and assess the feasibility of an innovative new flight instrument proposed to replace the traditional Turn Coordinator (or Turn-and-Slip Indicator) currently found in most general aviation (GA) aircraft. The primary innovation is the inclusion of climb-dive information and gyroscopic heading, in addition to the turn-rate information now available, in one low-cost display. In essence, this new "r-Gamma" display concept will "fuse" flight information on one display that the pilot must now gather and correlate from among five separate indicators whenever the aircraft experiences loss of the Attitude Indicator (AI) and the Heading Indicator (HI) due to vacuum system or gauge failure. The innovative technology that makes this concept feasible and affordable, with a projected cost similar to that of today's Turn Coordinator, is derived from a technique recently developed and flight tested by our firm under an SBIR contract that involved tracking the flightpath of a small USAF sensor vehicle. We firmly believe this concept has the potential to improve significantly the safety of emergency "partial-panel" flight operations in GA aircraft.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The principal commercial application of the r-Gamma system is to serve as an improved substitute for the Turn Coordinator currently found in virtually all GA aircraft. The r-Gamma instrument will provide substantial additional functionality and greatly improved safety for GA aircraft, at price comparable to that of the Turn Coordinator and substantially below that of available alternatives. There are roughly 200,000 GA aircraft registered in the U.S. alone. Nearly 70% of those are light single-engine aircraft, probably equipped with conventional Turn Coordinators or equivalent. Virtually all these, plus additional international customers, will be potential candidates for the r-Gamma system.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential NASA applications for the r-Gamma concept are unknown, but this technology could conceivably be applied to any application in which a low-cost solution is required for the estimation of vehicle flightpath in atmospheric environments. The r-Gamma technology developed under this effort may also be applied to cost-reduction efforts associated with the Synthetic Vision System envisioned by the Aviation Safety Program.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
TerraMetrics, Inc.
PO Box 270101
Littleton ,CO 80127 - 0002
(303) 979 - 5255

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gregory   Baxes
gbaxes@terrametrics.com
PO Box 270101
Littleton ,CO  80127 -0002
(303) 979 - 5255
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The TerraBlocks^TM 3D terrain data format and terrain-block-rendering methodology provides an enabling basis for successful commercial deployment of flight-appropriate and certifiable Synthetic Vision (SV) systems. The methodology focuses on mission-critical, real-time, embedded terrain rendering with emphasis on 1) efficient and compact terrain/texture dataset storage, 2) rendering accuracy, 3) rendering determinacy, and 4) a lightweight embedded computer and data storage platform.

The innovation exploits the use of an encoded terrain data storage format coupled with real-time, terrain-block-based 3D rendering. The compact and efficient TerraBlocks encoded terrain data format inherently provides zero-error full-mesh near-field terrain data, powers-of-2 levels of detail, and data compression of full-mesh source terrain datasets. The TerraBlocks terrain block-based rendering provides deterministic render rates bounded by worst-case processing requirements, an on-the-sphere rendering model, and spatially-filtered, smoothly continuous, level-of-detail rendering.

TerraBlocks technology closes the gap between existing visualization/simulation (VisSim) terrain-rendering approaches and the accuracy, performance, and platform demands of flight-deployable SV systems. The Phase I project conclusively showed the technical merit and feasibility of the TerraBlocks methodology.

The Phase II project objective is to provide a flight-appropriate, research SV 3D terrain-rendering toolkit for NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program (AvSSP) and the solid basis for Phase III, flight-certifiable SV avionics embodiments.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
1) NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program (AvSSP) Synthetic Vision (SV) systems research
2) Out-the-window displays for windowless spacecraft

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
1) Flight-based Synthetic Vision (SV) systems for
a) Military rotorcraft
b) Military fixed-wing aircraft -- transports, tankers, gunships
c) Business jet aircraft
d) General aviation aircraft
e) Commercial air transport
d) Special-purpose applications: Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and search and rescue rotorcraft
2) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ground control stations
3) Ground-based, high-accuracy, lightweight Visualization/Simulation (VisSim) applications

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
William D Bachalo
wbachalo@aol.com
150 Iowa Street, Suite 202
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-6184
(408)737-2364
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Icing environments are of great concern in commercial and military aviation. An aircraft-based, imaging probe is being proposed for the reliable and accurate measurement of liquid water content (LWC) and droplet size distributions in environments variously referred to as freezing rain, freezing drizzle, supercooled drizzle drops, and supercooled large drops (SLD). The innovative aspect of the proposed probe is the use of multiple laser beams (of differing wavelengths) to create high quality shadows of individual particles (droplets and ice crystals) on a 2-d CCD array. Conventional aircraft-based probes such as the OAP suffer from measurement uncertainties arising from the detection of droplets that are out-of-focus. The use of multiple intersecting laser beams will also minimize the background noise created by other particles that may be present along the laser beam path but outside of the measurement volume. Finally, the incorporation of a means for differentiating between ice-crystals and droplets, while counting and measuring both, allows computation of water content in both liquid and solid phases. These innovations, and the other features of the probe to be discussed later, directly address the need for aircraft-based icing monitoring systems that NASA has identified in topic A1.02 of the 2003 SBIR solicitation. The Phase I study has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of the probe. A prototype system will be developed in Phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We have already been approached by NCAR, the US Air Force, UC Santa Cruz, Boeing, and Environment Canada for an imaging probe to meet their current applications. Besides icing cloud characterization, there are a wide ranges of applications for a particle imaging instrument. The obsolescence of the PMS probes has left a market opportunity for new probes based on this advanced technology. There are significant applications requiring an imaging probe for process evaluation and control. For example, in spray drying, the usual light scattering methods fail because the drops are not transparent or homogeneous. In such cases, an imaging system is the best method to use since it is not affected by the peculiarities of the droplet material. Another area deals with research in fire suppression systems used in commercial buildings. A system is needed to characterize sprays from sprinklers and to help develop these systems. No system exists for these applications whereas the number of spray drying processes including food processing, drug manufacturing, and other industrial processes is enormous. One of the complaints about the PDI method is that it cannot cover the entire drop size range in many sprays and that the larger nonspherical drops can produce significant measurement error. The integration of a second method, namely the imaging method, will expand the areas of application of this important diagnostic.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The goal of producing a probe for measuring icing clouds and other cloud drop size distributions is of immediate interest to NASA and other agencies involved in cloud physics and icing research. For example, the NASA Glenn Research Center's IRT tunnel will require at least one probe, and perhaps a couple more for mounting on aircraft. NASA Langley and NASA Ames and Research Centers may also be interested in this probe.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Richard C. Klein
Dickc123@earthlink.net
1801 East 9th Street #1111
Cleveland, OH 44114-3103
(216)696-5157
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
It is proposed to develop an accurate, in-service transmission life-use estimation system for the prediction of remaining component and system life for a helicopter transmission system. Once proven in the helicopter environment, this life- use estimation system will be of use to a wide variety of transmission systems.
The transmission-life estimating system will include three separate algorithms: an in-flight service monitoring algorithm, a pre-flight and post-flight transmission analysis algorithm, and a component-life tallying algorithm. The in-flight service monitor will treat the transmission as a whole. The transmission analysis algorithm will determine the transmission's operating parameters from those of its components. It also will determine the life and reliability of the individual components. The component-life algorithm will accumulate life and reliability tables.
The Phase I effort developed the algorithms. In the Phase II effort, the life-use monitor algorithm will be placed in its appropriate hardware and flown in a commercial helicopter to provide an improvement in that aircraft's safety.
Maintenance record comparisons will be made between the predicted maintenance intervals and the present maintenance pattern for the aircraft. Any increase in flight safety will be documented.
The deliverable product of the Phase II effort will be the on-board life-use monitor.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The cost-effective, reliable use of expensive aerospace and land-based power-transmission systems can be extended with more accurate knowledge of the remaining component and system fatigue lives. By improving the in-service life estimation associated with these devices, longer reliable service lives can be obtained. The high costs associated with surprise failures and unscheduled emergency maintenance procedures can be reduced substantially with the use of an in-service life estimator such as the one proposed herein.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The work is in support of NASA's long-range goals. It impacts every aspect of mechanical drive systems operation and development. The successful completion of this project can improve aviation safety, reliability, and mitigation of failures. It will affect cost-effective design and manufacturing for new production engines and can reduce life cycle and maintenance costs.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kisholoy Goswami
kisholoy.goswami@innosense.us
2531 West 237th Street, Suite 127
Torrance, CA 90505-5245
(310)530-2011
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Significant emphasis has been placed on aircraft fuel tank safety following the TWA Flight 800 accident in July 1996. Upon investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the explosion of the center wing tank (CWT) resulted most likely from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture. The growing concern of aircraft fuel tank safety has taken an added dimension in the post 9/11 world where both commercial and military aircrafts are vulnerable to terrorist attacks utilizing MANPADS (MAN-Portable Air Defense Systems), explosives in shoe/socks, and small arms fire. Fuel tanks also need protection from explosions caused by ballistic impact, lightning, and other sources of ignition. In Phase I, InnoSense LLC has demonstrated the feasibility of an all-optical oxygen sensor capable of detecting oxygen at 40,000 feet elevation down to the ambient level. This Phase II proposal discusses how InnoSense LLC would develop a prototype and perform field testing. The project team possesses seventy person-years of optical sensor related hardware and software expertise. InnoSense has attracted $300,000 in Phase III follow-on funding for further engineering. Innosense will deliver the prototype to NASA, complete with software, manuals, and schematics.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The upgrading of fuel tanks aboard commercial, freight, military, and corporate jets to avoid potential explosion from fuel vapor will require oxygen sensor. The current world market totals roughly 40,000 aircraft in service today growing to 60,000 aircraft by 2020. Other potential applications include monitoring storage tanks containing volatile chemicals (such as hydrogen gas) that can make explosive mixture with oxygen.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The oxygen sensor can be used across all NASA enterprises where measurements in air are needed. Innovations in the project will minimize calibration needs and reduce crew time during space exploration missions. The sensor platform is amenable to constructing devices for biomedical, materials processing, and environmental applications in space as well as on the surface of the moon and mars. The sensing device will find applications in lunar outposts and in the International Space Station for monitoring the environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) or for combustion studies under microgravity.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David H Klyde
dklyde@systemstech.com
13766 S Hawthorne Blvd.
Hawthorne, CA 90250-7083
(310)679-2281
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The intent of this project is to develop and validate means to alert, constrain and thereby alleviate loss of control (LOC) associated with unfavorable pilot-vehicle systems (PVS) interactions present in high gain, closed-loop PVS operations. While the effective aircraft dynamic properties involved in these events have been extensively studied and understood, similar scrutiny has not been paid to the many aspects of the primary manual control system that converts the pilot control inputs to motions of the control surfaces. It has often been tacitly assumed that the adoption of fly-by-wire (FBW) systems has eliminated the primary manual control link as an important player in LOC situations. Consequently, the impact of static and dynamic control system effects that distort "ideal" pilot to surface relationships, the near absence of manipulator tactile cues for some FBW systems, as well as the total elimination in FBW systems of some favorable cues present in traditional hydro-mechanical systems have not received detailed attention. The purpose of the Smart-Cue developments proposed herein are to redress this neglect, to develop and, ultimately, to validate remedial manual control systems.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The same improvements to modern manual flight control systems will be available for commercial and military flight control systems. The continuing record of unfavorable pilot-vehicle coupling provides evidence of the need for improvements such as this. The patentable Smart-Cue concept based on dynamic distortion applies to any powered manual control system, including ground vehicle manual control systems. Power steering is a mature application, which works in part because direct links provide dynamic distortion cues, but new concepts in ground vehicle control are being developed that can benefit from this work as well.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Improved aviation safety is a major objective of NASA. This work will contribute towards this goal in two ways. First, improvements to modern manual flight control systems will be developed that will significantly reduce the likelihood of unfavorable pilot-vehicle interactions. These improvements will be available to NASA for their fleet of aircraft and for new NASA vehicles entering flight test. Second, this work will validate an important but largely unrecognized cause of decreased flight safety ? the lack of pilot cues that tell the pilot when the flight control system is acting in a deficient manner.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Intelligent Inference Systems Corporation
NASA Research Park, MS: 566-109
Moffett Field ,CA 94035 - 0000
(650) 965 - 9365

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Hamid   Berenji
berenji@iiscorp.com
NASA Research Park, MS: 566-106C
Moffett Field ,CA  94035 -0000
(650) 965 - 9365
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The goal of Phase I study was to investigate advanced pattern recognition techniques for use in fault diagnosis. Three individual experts have been developed based on Auto Associative Neural Networks (E-AANN), Kohonen Self Organizing Maps (KSOM), and the Radial Basis Function based Clustering (RBFC) algorithms. We have used a Matlab Simulink model of a Chiller system to test our algorithms. The set of individual experts are later managed by a Gated Expert algorithm which assigns the experts based on their best performance regions.
In Phase II, we propose to implement our results on two dynamic systems. The first is a Chiller system at the Texas A&M University. The second is an engine under study in Pratt and Whitney under a contract to Professor George Vactsevanos from Georgia Tech. The end deliverable of Phase II will be a complete dynamic Case Based Reasoning (GED-CBR) system managed by a Gated Experts algorithm all coded in Matlab. GED-CBR will be highly applicable to dynamic systems that can benefit from the power of Dynamic Case Based Reasoning managed by a powerful Gated Experts architecture. It is expected that GED-CBR will find applications in prognostics of the nuclear reactor on board the JIMO spacecraft.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We have established a collaborative R&D relationship with Professor John Bernard of the MIT Nuclear Power Plant. Professor Bernard is interested to work with us on the NASA's new initiatives on using nuclear power energy on its new space exploration spacecrafts such as the JIMO spacecraft. Also, after the terrible Challenger accident, the need for careful prognostics is more and more required. Our work will be of interest to the fault diagnostics and prognostics of the Space Station Freedom and the Space Shuttle systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We expect that our chief non-NASA customer will come from DOD and in particular the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Other industries such as companies like Sigma Quest can use our technology to assist them in handling the huge amounts of data that they need to manage for the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Tomsic
tomsic@voyager.net
110 E. Canal St.
Troy, OH 45373-3581
(937)332-0348
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The recent development of magnesium diboride superconducting wires makes possible the potential to have much lighter weight superconducting coils for heavy aircraft motors than with any other potential metal or ceramic superconductor. The magnesium diboride superconductor can be cooled to 20 K by the liquid hydrogen fuel. The lighter weight coils, especially in the rotor, will enable a lighter weight support structure so the motor weight will be reduced even more for the same horsepower motor. For this NASA SBIR Phase II our objective is to design, construct, test, and assembly MgB2 rotor coil packs to replace the copper rotor coil packs for the cryogenic motor test bed being built for NASA

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Manufacturers of large electrical systems desire to increase the efficiency, and decrease the size of their systems in order to reduce costs. Presently manufacturers' of transformers, motors, generators, fault current limiters, transmission cables, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems are pursuing superconductor wires to achieve these objectives. To make major cost improvements with superconducting systems, the barriers have been the higher cost of cooling at liquid helium temperature (4K) for traditional metallic superconductors and the high wire cost for ceramic high temperature superconductors at 20-30 K temperatures. Low cost MgB2 superconductor wires operating at 20-25K can lower the upfront and ongoing operational costs of superconducting systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Besides motors for large aircraft, magnesium diboride superconductors can benefit NASA applications for many applications were light weight power components are required such as transformers, inductors, power conditioning. Other magnet applications that magnesium diboride wires can be considered for are ADR coils, magnetic bearings, actuators, MHD magnets, and magnetic launch devices.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David T. Wickham
wickham@tda.com
12345 W. 52nd Ave.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033-1916
(303)940-2350
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In February 2004 NASA released "The Vision for Space Exploration", which describes a strategy for exploring our solar system that builds upon the policy announced by President Bush earlier in the year. The goals of this strategy include extending human presence in the solar system culminating in the exploration of Mars. To accomplish this goal, affordable, new propulsion technologies must be developed. A key component to this goal will be the development of reusable launch vehicles that use single stage to orbit (SSTO) or two stage to orbit (TSTO) propulsion systems. These vehicles generate high heat loads and require additional cooling capacity from the fuel, which can get very hot in the process.

Unfortunately when hydrocarbon fuels are heated, carbonaceous deposits (coke) can form in the heat exchanger, reducing heat transfer and potentially inhibiting fuel flow. If vehicles are reused, then coke accumulation eventually will become a serious problem. However, if the coke could be removed periodically between missions, then the dangers associated with coke accumulation could be avoided. In this Phase I project, TDA developed a process to remove these deposits. The process is safe, inexpensive, and is conducted at low temperature and at ambient pressure.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In addition to NASA applications, our process could have several important commercial uses. The process can be applied to any situation where oxidation at low temperatures is necessary. For example ozone can be used to clean hydrocarbons from semiconductors, magnetic disks, medical devices, flight hardware, etc. High temperature processes would damage these components, however at the moderate temperatures required with ozone, these components would not be harmed. Although ozone has been used, the goal of our project will be to optimize treatment conditions and If our project is successful, significant improvements in cleaning methods could be achieved.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The ability to clean carbon deposits effectively will be critical to the development of reusable, high speed aircraft that must utilize the heat sink capacity of fuel to meet high heat loads generated at high speed. We have shown that under these conditions coke deposition can be expected and under high heat flux conditions, very thin layers of carbon cause significant increases in the metal wall temperature, possibly reaching temperatures where the material may fail. Therefore, identifying an effective procedure to remove coke between missions represents enabling technology for the continued development of reusable high speed aircraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Todd R. Quackenbush
todd@continuum-dynamics.com
34 Lexington Avenue
Ewing, NJ 08618-2302
(609)538-0444
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Enabling a new generation of high-speed civil aircraft will require breakthrough developments in propulsion systems, including novel techniques to optimize inlet performance in multiple operating conditions. Maximizing propulsive performance while minimizing weight and mechanical complexity is a key goal, and rapidly maturing smart
materials technology can enable adaptive control of inlet geometry to allow in-flight optimization of engine flows. Phase I of this effort built on established device technology using high strength Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators and initiated development of adaptive inlet concepts for application to Supersonic Business Jets (SSBJs). Leveraging this work as well as prior efforts in SMA device design and testing has permitted the first steps in the development a family of actuation and flow control devices for use in flight applications. Phase II will build on this work with mutually supporting design, analysis, and test activities including: detailed definition of the effectiveness of geometry adaptation in improving installed engine performance at low and high speeds; construction and test of a benchtop adaptive inlet component demonstrator using high temperature SMA alloy actuators; high-speed wind tunnel testing of sectional components with realistic thermal and aerodynamic loads; and construction of a model 3D adaptive inlet.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A successful Phase I/Phase II effort will open the door to prototype testing and eventual implementation of flight-qualified SMA adaptive inlet hardware. The most direct beneficiary would be candidate SSBJs that could incorporate high-force, all-electric inlet control systems in dramatically more efficient power plants. Successful implementation in this application would also lead to spinoff developments in a number of actuation tasks, including aerodynamic controls and thrust vectoring as well as steering and outflow redirection for a wide range of aerospace and marine propulsion missions, with direct benefits for both civil and military systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
By providing highly innovative concepts for propulsion system components for advanced high-speed aerospace vehicles, the proposed effort will directly support a wide range of broad NASA goals including supporting high Mach point to point travel and global cruise capability for civil aircraft. The chief technical output of the effort will be enabling technology for a variable geometry, supersonic, mixed compression inlet to help meet functional airflow needs of high Mach number propulsion. In addition, the integrated aero/thermo/elastic models of actuator performance to be developed will assist the development of concurrent engineering tools for analysis and design of propulsion systems.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Essam F. Sheta
efs@cfdrc.com
215 Wynn Dr., 5th Floor
Huntsville, AL 35805-1926
(256)726-4869
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose to develop a novel, high-accuracy, high-fidelity, multiresolution (MRES), wavelet-based framework for efficient prediction of airframe noise sources and acoustic propagation. In Phase I, 2D and 3D models of MRES methodology were developed. An acoustic analogy module based on Ffowcs Williams and Hawking technique was developed to accurately propagate the near-field acoustic signals to far field with minimal dissipation and dispersion. An innovative Runge-Kutta temporal update was developed to advance all grid levels independently. The feasibility and accuracy of the MRES technology was demonstrated by predicting noise sources and acoustic waves generated by vortex shedding. The Phase I results indicate that the proposed technology will provide up to two orders-of-magnitude reductions in CPU time over existing techniques.

In Phase II, we propose to improve the 3D MRES software to handle multi-block, curvilinear, viscous and massively parallel applications. An efficient data structure will be developed and implemented to store and update the multiresolution data to improve the cost-saving factor. Unsteady turbulence models based on DES and PANS will be implemented to better resolve the sources of noise. The acoustic module will be improved to account for surface motions and quadrupole source terms. The developed modules will then be coupled to a large-scale CFD code to expand the application base of the technology. The technology will be demonstrated and validated using typical aeroacoustic applications such as Energy Efficient Transport (EET) airfoils and landing gear models.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology provides a viable tool for several commercial applications such as wing-trailing vortex dynamics, noise generated by landing gear, blade vortex interaction (BVI), and BVI induced noise. The multiresolution technology is needed in a wide range of applications that involve unsteady and embedded flow features requiring high resolutions. Such applications include combustion instabilities, chemical and biological plume dispersion, missile plume signatures, turbo-machinery, micro-fluidic systems, cavitations, biomedical, electronic cooling, and many others. The MRES technology has recently received the attention of several aerospace companies. In particular, Lockheed Martin has expressed its interest in utilizing the MRES capabilities in their computational aeroelasticity framework.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology provides substantial reductions in computational time for complex, unsteady computations. This is extremely beneficial to several NASA multidisciplinary noise and vibrations applications such as noise source identification on Energy Efficient Transport (EET) high lift vehicles, landing gears, advanced rotor tip shapes, jet noise, rotorcraft and propellers. The framework could also be used for other NASA applications, such as flow control via jet blowing, suction, or synthetic jets, flutter and buffet analysis of helicopters and fighter aircraft, nonlinear lift systems, active twist rotors, missile plume signatures, and micro air-vehicles analysis.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Comet Technology Corporation
1796 Stonebridge Drive North
Ann Arbor ,MI 48108 - 8593
(734) 998 - 0126

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Satha   Raveendra
raveendra@sbcglobal.net
1796 Stonebridge Drive North
Ann Arbor ,MI  48108 -8593
(734) 998 - 0126
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
It is proposed to develop and implement a computational technique based on Energy Finite Element Analysis (EFEA) for interior noise prediction of advanced aerospace vehicles that will expand NASA's noise prediction capability at the early stage of design process. In many situations, aerospace structures are subjected to high frequency mechanical and/or acoustic excitations. Presently, noise performances of these products are determined experimentally, which is not feasible at the early design stage or by using computational simulation technique based on Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA). SEA requires high level of analyst expertise and in some instances, testing of the product's components. An alternative computational simulation technique for high frequency vibration and noise prediction based on EFEA conceptually offers several unique features. EFEA can predict the spatial variation of the energy in structures and the acoustic cavities. Local power input and damping treatments can also be modeled in EFEA. More importantly, EFEA is based on extensively used and comprehensively developed finite element method. The use of finite element method for both low and high frequency noise and vibration problems will provide the users a unified framework for the resolution of problems where the frequency spans a wide range.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The software product developed under this proposed work will enable NASA to predict interior noise using a more versatile tool than currently exists for noise prediction. As an improved alternative to currently used modeling software, an EFEA modeling software will increase capability and reduce the cost of modeling for aerospace structures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Reduction of noise is of major concern in many industries. For example, in automotive industry, the increased use of telematic devices require reduced interior noise environment. By integrating the EFEA software developed here with appropriate optimization algorithm, one can optimize the interior noise environment. Since EFEA is a general numerical tool for noise reduction, it can be easily adapted for noise control in other industries since the same features that are of interest to NASA will be of interest to aerospace, automotive, naval, trucking and consumer product industries.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Joel M Hensley
hensley@psicorp.com
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810-1077
(978)689-0003
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to design, build, test, and deliver to NASA a THz wavelength absorption sensor for continuous monitoring of atomic oxygen concentration in hypersonic flowfields. In a successful Phase I effort, PSI developed a THz wavelength Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) at 63.2 microns, corresponding to a strong fine-structure transition of atomic oxygen. Using an external cavity design, we showed that the laser wavelength could be coarsely tuned to the atomic oxygen transition. Rapid and repeatable injection current tuning at this wavelength was also demonstrated. In the proposed Phase II program, the external cavity QCL design will be refined to include a wider continuous tuning range, higher laser operating temperature, and improved output power. The laser operation will be automated and integrated into a computer-controlled atomic oxygen sensor, providing continuous, real-time measurements of atomic oxygen concentration with a sensitivity of 10^13 atoms per cubic centimeter in a 10 Hz bandwidth. PSI will deliver, install, and test the sensor at the NASA Ames Aerodynamic Heating Facility, an arc-jet heated high-enthalpy flow facility.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Compact, tunable terahertz lasers will be useful for container-penetrating detection of dangerous substances for homeland defense applications, detecting contraband substances for law enforcement applications, and detecting trace amounts of moisture for industrial process control.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The laser-based diagnostic developed during this project will increase the accuracy of test results at hypersonic wind tunnel facilities used to simulate atmospheric re-entry. Using these test results, NASA will be able to optimize the amount of thermal protection material used in the Space Shuttle and other vehicles, so that safety can be ensured without unnecessarily reducing the payload. The diagnostic will also provide more accurate results in facilities which simulate combustion at hypersonic speeds, thus facilitating the design of engines for future hypersonic aircraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
P. K. Menon
menon@optisyn.com
4966 El Camino Real, Suite 108
Los Altos, CA 94303-4622
(650)213-8585
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Research on next-generation air traffic management systems is being conducted at several laboratories using custom software. In order to provide a more uniform research platform for en route air traffic management research, NASA has recently developed the FACET software package. While FACET incorporates most of the features required for conducting research, it is sometimes necessary to extend its capabilities. However, this can demand a significant programming investment.
The Phase I SBIR project developed the prototype version of scriptable software that allows simpler access to FACET functionality. This software is termed CARAT# (Configurable Airspace Research and Analysis Tool ? Scriptable). The first version of CARAT# is built upon a commercial software platform, while a second version employs a freely available, scriptable environment as its foundation. The use of CARAT# was illustrated by formulating four research problems during the Phase I research. By making the capabilities of FACET accessible to a larger population of researchers, CARAT# can help accelerate the pace of air traffic management research.
The complete version of the CARAT# software will be developed during the Phase II work. Additional research problems will also be formulated. The software will be commercialized to the ATM research community towards the end of Phase II research.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Software developed under the present SBIR project can be used for rapid prototyping of next-generation en route air traffic management algorithms. This capability can help accelerate the research in the air traffic management area. Modified versions of the software can be used for investigating command and control architectures for multiple UAVs, spacecraft formations and groups of under water vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA researchers working on advanced ATM concepts such as the operation of UAVs in the NAS and wind optimal trajectory computations can accelerate their research using the proposed software environment.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Donald Linton
lintond@infowaresystems.com
476 Highway A1A, Suite 7
Satellite Beach, FL 32937-2331
(321)773-5881
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Our innovation is a high-speed method for the prediction of aerodynamic debris fields that employs an extensive database of generalized empirical equations coupled with interpolation and localization techniques. An essential element of our innovation is the vehicle independence of the equations database which allows it to be generated once and applied to any vehicle. The large-scale operation of unpiloted aircraft within the National Airspace (NAS) will require a very high tempo of flight risk assessments, both for pre-mission planning and in the event of unplanned anomalies or deviations from the approved flight path. These risk assessments will require a large number of debris field predictions each of which will involve predicting the expected impact point and impact dispersion of many distinct representative debris pieces. Our innovation is aimed at making this volume of predictions feasible and cost-effective.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
? Improved National Airspace integration by integrating ground hazards into flight planning;
? Autonomous, on-board, ground hazard controls when integrated with UAV navigation and health monitoring systems; and
? Private experimental and commercial aerospace craft for both ascent and re-entry hazard assessments.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
? Preliminary mission planning and flight plan approvals using increased throughput to effect cost savings by eliminating the need for a multiple CPU cluster to perform mission analysis;
? Operational mission risk management by incorporation of the HDM into the JARSS Real-time element to effect cost savings by eliminating the need for a multiple CPU cluster to perform real-time probability contour generation;
? Autonomous, on-board, ground hazard controls when integrated with UAV navigation and health monitoring systems; and
? Space Shuttle re-entry risk assessment for both nominal and emergency re-entry ground tracks.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David R Schleicher
drs@seagull.com
1700 Dell Avenue
Campbell, CA 95008-6902
(408)364-8200
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Aviation and Air Traffic Management researchers are increasingly utilizing complex regional or NAS-wide simulations to evaluate future concepts. These analyses require many thousands of flights (a flight schedule) that are each accurately defined for every stage of the flight (a flight plan). Current methods of generating these huge input datasets are costly and time-intensive. The largely manual nature of the current process and lack of existing automation tools leaves great potential for significant errors in the data sets. We propose to develop a powerful automated system for future demand generation. This tool will be able to input a variety of existing FAA and NASA flight data sets, provide the user with extensive options on defining the future demand data set, and output new flight data sets in formats compatible with major research simulation and analysis tools. This capability will provide NASA and FAA research programs with significantly better analysis conclusions through the new ability to perform extensive sensitivity studies on new concepts to ensure they are robust to alternate potential future demand scenarios. This is crucial to ensuring the decision to proceed with a multi-million dollar Decision Support Tool development is robust to alternate future demand possibilities.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The FAA or other international air traffic service providers and transportation consultants can use our product to create future demand for their airport and airspace demand, capacity, noise and emission analysis to support future airport and airspace planning and design efforts. Commercial airlines can combine their internal flight schedules with the future flight demand generated from our product to support flight schedule, terminal, airport gate, and fleet planning and optimization. Future extensions to the tool can support improved simulation and stress-testing to support operations planning and analysis of other transportation networks such as the nation's highways.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Within NASA aviation research, our demand generation application can be used to advance research efforts including advanced airspace system concept fast-time and/or human-in-the-loop evaluation and demonstrations, ATM decision support tool performance and benefit evaluation, human operator (e.g., pilot, controller, or dispatcher) stress testing, aerospace vehicle-NAS integration studies, and ATM concept environment impact studies. In general, NASA simulation capabilities exist for these areas but the capability for efficient generation of future flight demands is lacking. With such a demand generation capability, NASA will better understand the potential benefits of its future aviation technologies and their sensitivity to changes in future demand.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dr. Stephen Atkins
atkins@metronaviation.com
131 Elden Street, Suite 200
Herndon, VA 20170-4758
(978)692-9484
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Airport configuration is a primary factor in various airport characteristics such as arrival and departure capacities and terminal area traffic patterns. These characteristics, in turn, are central to a variety of Air Traffic Management (ATM) decisions that in turn affect delays and efficiency in the National Airspace System (NAS). There is presently poor knowledge about the airport characteristics at each airport and even less information available about how those characteristics are expected to change in the future. This lack of knowledge about airports results in inefficient local and national traffic management decisions. Metron Aviation will develop and test a set of models that generate information about airport configuration and related airport characteristics. This information, which is not currently available or is of poor quality, will improve traffic management decisions, and automation to support those decisions, both at the airports and on a national scale. This work addresses existing gaps in air traffic management automation technologies. The proposed technology development promise immediate improvements to the NAS. Rather than requiring a new tool or system to be deployed, the information generated by this work could be absorbed into existing systems and information networks to transparently improve traffic management on a local and national scale.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Non-NASA applications can be grouped into Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) applications and non-Government applications. Automation that is capable of recognizing current airport characteristics and predicting what those characteristics will be in the future would likely be deployed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at a large number (e.g., 30-50) of airports. A variety of TFM decision support systems make assumptions about the airport characteristics studied in this SBIR. Availability of accurate current information and predictions could transparently improve those systems. NAS users, especially air carriers, are interested in much of the information the proposed work would generate. However, we believe that NAS users will be indirect customers ? lobbying the FAA to provide such a capability but not purchasing or maintaining the system themselves.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Metron Aviation will develop a set of models that generate information about airport configuration and related airport characteristics that will improve traffic management decisions. NASA is responsible for continuing to advance air traffic management automation and, therefore, this work is directly relevant to NASA's technology need. The proposed technology promises immediate improvements to the NAS. Rather than requiring a new tool to be deployed, the results of this work can be used by existing systems to transparently improve traffic management on a local and national scale. Existing SMS prediction algorithms that use airport configuration information will be refined or replaced as part of Phase 2 while NASA can use the technology as part of advanced surface automation research. The configuration recognition capability developed in Phase 2 can be used to provide necessary truth data for post-analysis of SMS performance. Finally, NASA can apply the knowledge gained in modeling airport characteristics to future research efforts.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Russell Kurtz
gdrew@poc.com
20600 Gramercy Place, Bldg 100
Torrance, CA 90501-1821
(310)320-3088
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
To meet the challenges of rapid prototyping, direct hardware fabrication, and on-the-spot repairs on the ground and on NASA space platforms, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposed a new Holographic Optical Element-Based Laser Diode Source (HOELDS) system for direct metal deposition (DMD). HOELDS uniquely combines multiple high-power laser diode bars with holographic optical elements, efficient thermal management and innovative focusing optics to achieve a 600 W, 100-micron focused spot for DMD materials processing. The 7-kilogram, 0.1 cubic meter HOELDS system will be ten times as energy efficient as current 1000 kilogram, 20 cubic meter DMD systems, making in-space DMD processing possible for the first time. HOELDS can process aluminum, which is extremely difficult for state-of-the art DMD systems. In Phase I, POC developed a preliminary HOELDS system, theoretical analysis, computer simulation, and component specifications leading to a proof-of-concept prototype. Melting of lead-tin solder with this prototype was demonstrated at NASA Marshall Space Center. The Phase II effort will optimize the system design, optimize fabrication of the holographic optical elements, and scale up the system into a compact high-power HOELDS system prototype capable of DMD. The prototype system will be performance tested for in-space DMD, and will be space qualified.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential non-NASA applications for HOELDS technology include U.S. Army rapid miniature part production and part repair on the battlefield, on-the-spot metal repair and rebuilding on U.S. Navy ships at sea. All research labs, government or private, have a use for rapid prototyping capability, and a portable, efficient, inexpensive system like HOELDS will be an attractive technology. Likewise, any manufacturer that needs rapid prototyping for models, testing, or replacement parts would want this type of system. Any aircraft company or shipping company could use the crack- and leak-repair capabilities of HOELDS.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
HOELDS NASA applications include rapid fabrication of parts on the ground as well as in space. The HOELDS system can be incorporated by NASA into existing rapid prototyping systems to reduce the size, weight, and power consumption of existing systems. Its portability makes HOELDS far more useful to NASA sites with several laboratories than a currently available DMD system. DMD technology could shorten time-to-market considerably and accomplish repairs by adding the same part material where needed without causing thermal stress or microcracking. By reducing the size and power consumption, HOELDS will make compact space-based DMD machines possible.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Stuart Schwab
stschwab@thortech.biz
2415 Princeton NE, Suite B
Albuquerque, NM 87107-1731
(505)830-6986
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Phase I Project demonstrated the capability of the Pyrowave? manufacturing process to produce fiber-reinforced ceramics (FRCs) with integral metal features, such as attachment lugs or tubes. In addition, the Phase I Project demonstrated the utility of thermography as a simple, rapid, and inexpensive inspection tool.
With the increased emphasis on the exploration of space, technologies supporting fission-powered spacecraft, such as those under development through Project Prometheus, will become increasingly important. For the Phase II Project, Thor Technologies, Inc. will team with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a computational design firm, a small NDE firm, and a major spacecraft OEM to design, manufacture, and deliver a prototype lightweight, high performance thermal radiator component for fission powered spacecraft, such as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter.
The project team has the experience and capability to execute the proposed development plan within the Phase II budget and schedule. The proposed technology will simplify the design and facilitate the utilization of fission-powered, which are essential to the exploration celestial bodies more distant from the Sun than Mars.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A wide range of civilian applications exist for ceramic composites; however, difficulties inherent to attaching ceramic composites to supporting metal structures and the lack of a simple rapid inspection technique have hampered their adoption. Both issues are addressed in the proposed Phase II. Potential civilian applications for hybrid metal/ceramic composites include hot-section components in gas turbine engines and diesel engines, friction materials for aircraft, corrosion resistant chemical process equipment, and low-activation components for nuclear reactors.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In addition to thermal radiators for fission-powered spacecraft, a variety of potential NASA applications exist, including in-space propulsion, satellite station keeping propulsion, and space launch propulsion. Other applications are certain to emerge as the technology needed for the Crew Transport Vehicle and other systems, as well as missions to the moon and Mars, become more clearly defined.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark Gruber
mgruber@accudyne.com
134 B Sandy Drive
Newark, DE 19713-1147
(302)369-5390
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Reduced-mass polymer composite materials are crucial to the success of aerospace systems for reducing vehicle weight. But, composite material adoption is inhibited because the autoclave consolidation required is prohibitively expensive for the large tanks and skins contemplated in the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) Program. To remedy this, NASA-LaRC has been developing cost-effective, lightweight, high-performance thermoplastic composite materials for years. These materials have the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of large aerospace structures, because they allow processing without resorting to hugely expensive autoclaves. Unfortunately, NASA lacks a robust, cost-effective fabrication process to tape-place these emerging materials into laminates and to build contoured structure, and thus can't evaluate usefulness of NASA materials.

This SBIR II program fabricates for NASA-LaRC the automated deposition head successfully designed in the recent SBIR I to complete the tape placement process and in situ consolidation without an autoclave. The composite deposition head, creel, and associated machine and process control system Accudyne will build in Phase II is designed to operate on NASA-LaRC's tape layer.

Automated deposition heads can later be sold to industrial companies for existing tape layers and placement machines so that industry can benefit from NASA composite materials by using out-of-the-autoclave thermoplastic tape placement.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There is nothing that could be done that would lower the cost of composites more than to eliminate the autoclave. The major applications are (1) the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) Program, (2) large aerospace composites such as launch vehicles, launch vehicle tanks, and satellites, (3) wing and fuselage skins for commercial and military transport aircraft, (4) fighter aircraft structure, (5) helicopters, and (6) submarine structure. Other commercial applications include high-speed trains and electric-powered automobiles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Accudyne Systems Inc. will construct a deposition head for NASA-LaRC so that NASA's emerging materials can be evaluated and promoted to all the major aerospace prime contractors for fabricating large composite structures without the need for an autoclave.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Daniel J. Gramer
gramerd@orbitec.com
1212 Fourier Drive
Madison, WI 53717-1961
(608)827-5000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The product of the Phase II effort will be a Multi-Use Non-Intrusive Flow Characterization System (FCS) for densified, normal boiling point, and two-phase cryogenic flows, capable of accurately measuring several fluid parameters in real-time. Cryogenic fluids are ubiquitous in the aerospace industry; however, adequate flow instrumentation to support terrestrial, in-space, and planetary operations is currently unavailable. FCS was originated to address this issue and greatly enhance the quantification, reliability, and safety of propulsion test operations, as well as reduce operational expenses. FCS will also play a significant role in initiatives for the exploration of the Moon and Mars through supporting the design, development, and operation of gravity-dependant processes. FCS handles both transient and steady state flows, and can operate in the following five modes: (1) on-line analysis of fluid mixtures; (2) mass flow rate measurement; (3) temperature measurement; (4) fluid conditioning and health monitoring; and (5) model validation for a cryogenic or non-cryogenic fluid flow. The Phase II effort will develop an FCS system that has broad application throughout NASA and the rest of the aerospace community. A fully functional FCS system will be delivered to NASA/SSC upon completion of the program for use in the E1 or other facility.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There is a large market for an accurate, non-intrusive cryogenic flow sensor capable of handling a wide variety of flows and installations. Commercial aerospace companies and DoD have similar FCS applications requirements to NASA, including: ground-based flow metering and control, fluid conditioning and health monitoring, analytical model validation, applied fluid physics and microgravity research, in-space cryogenic fluid management and in-space mass quantity gauging. Examples of FCS applications include: detecting and measuring flow contaminants, determining when a system has been sufficiently chilled down; measuring and diagnosing heat leaks into fluid flow networks; and accurate metering and controlled cryogen delivery.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Accurate, non-intrusive cryogenic flow sensors have been highly sought after for decades. There is a fundamental need for the characterization and health monitoring of densified, normal boiling point, and two-phase cyrogenic flows for ground based, space, and planetary operations. FCS is being developed to serve ground test operations at SSC. As NASA's primary center for testing and proving flight worthy rocket propulsion systems, SSC would significanlty benefit from the products generated by the proposed Phase II FCS program. There are also NASA facilities and applications at KSC, GRC, MSFC, JSC, and JPL that would benefit from successful development of FCS.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ernest C Perry
eperry@optimalsolutions.us
926 W. 900 N.
Provo, UT 83402-0000
(801)400-0105
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used as an analysis tool to help the designer gain greater understanding of the fluid flow phenomena involved in the components being designed. The next step in the design process is to modify the design to improve the components performance, typically performed manually by the designer in a trial and error fashion. The innovations proposed herein will provide important advances in the state-of-the-art of automatic CFD shape deformation and optimization software. Optimal Solutions Software (OSS) has been developing a software program called Sculptor, which provides capabilities to perform shape deformation and optimization in CFD design. When the innovations proposed herein are included in Sculptor, and coupled with NASAs Stennis Space Centers (SSC) CFD codes, a truly innovative and significant design tool will be available to perform automatic shape optimization. Sculptor can find new geometric shapes, in a timely manner that likely would not have been discovered without its use. Therefore Sculptor can innovate when used by knowledgeable engineers.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The non-NASA commerical application are numerous indeed. Practically any sytem or component that involves fluid dynamics, heat transfer, mass transfer, chemically reacting flow, including combustion, can benefit by applying the innovations that will be developed in this Phase II effort. Applications can be found in aerospace, automotive, marine, biomedical, chemical, electronics, power generation, etc.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The innovative tools included into Sculptor will allow NASA engineers to perform shape optimization for computational fluid dynamic design efficiently in many areas including: - Rocket motors: nozzles, combustors, injectors, diffusers, etc., - Heat exchangers, - Aerodynamic shapes of aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, trucks, etc. - Valves, general pipefittings, elbows, T-fittings, etc. Practically any component's performance that involves fluid and/or heat flow or chemically reacting flow (including combustion) can be optimized with these tools. In the search for ever improved components for space travel, these tools could help with many projects in support of the newly planned Moon and Mars missions.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Siddharth Thakur
st@snumerics.com
3221 NW 13th Street, Suite A
Gainesville, FL 32609-2189
(352)271-8841
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Loci-STREAM is a CFD-based, multidisciplinary, high-fidelity design and analysis tool resulting from Phase I work whose objectives were: (a) to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a reacting-flow pressure-based algorithm in the Loci framework, and (b) to test the robustness of a real-fluid methodology in the pressure-based framework. Loci is a rule-based programming framework which automatically handles parallel computing and provides for easy integration of multidisciplinary physics. Key current capabilities of Loci-STREAM are: (i) all-speed formulation, (ii) generalized grids, (iii) distributed memory parallel computing capability, (iv) finite rate chemistry, and (v) steady and unsteady turbulent flow capability. Phase II work will enhance Loci-STREAM and make it a reliable and practical simulation tool by incorporating the following into it: (1) high-resolution discretization schemes, (2) conjugate heat transfer, (3) real-fluid modeling, (4) efficient operator-splitting for stiff chemistry, (5) robust time-stepping, (6) improved turbulence models for unsteady flows, and (7) coupling with solid stress analysis. It is anticipated that the above capabilities coupled with smaller memory requirements of the pressure-based methodology embedded in Loci-STREAM will make computations of complex problems encountered in thrust chamber assemblies of rocket engines such as multi-element injector flows requiring large grids (100 million nodes or more) a reality.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential commercial applications of Loci-STREAM are wide-ranging. The reacting flow capability can be used for simulating combusting flows in various industries, such as the gas turbine industry. The unsteady flow capability can be used in the oil & gas industry (e.g., vortex shedding past platform risers) and the turbomachinery industry (e.g., hydraulic turbines, fans, compressors). The real-fluids methodology can be used in a large number of industrial flow situations involving both chemically inert and reacting flows (e.g., cryogenic flows). With future additions of other combustion, cavitation and multi-phase models, the applicability of Loci-STREAM can be further broadened.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Near-term NASA applications include:
(a) multi-element injector flows along with fuel and oxidizer feedlines and manifolds, coupled with conjugate heat transfer and modeling of pressure and thermally induced stresses in the solid region of the regenerative circuits.
(b) lift-off debris transport for space shuttle launch problem, which involves range of flow speeds from quiescent to Mach 6 and grids with more than 75 million points.
(c) reacting rocket engine exhaust plumes and discharge and/or combustion of hot O2 or H2 from rocket engine components during ground testing.
(d) flow of supercritical fluids through valves and run tanks.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Zachary Gray
zg@WyomingSilicon.com
248 W Works Street
Sheridan, WY 82801-4213
(307)672-5443
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Two low-mass, linear throttling, high-efficiency, leak-proof cryogenic valves of diameters 1/2" and 4" will be built and tested. Based upon cryogenically-proven Venturi Off-Set Technology (VOST) the valve has no stem-actuator, few moving parts, and an overall cylindrical shape. The valve geometry will help reduce launch vehicle complexity and facilitate assembly and testing. Reliability and safety will be enhanced due to the inherent simplicity and leak-proof design of the VOST valve. Potential NASA uses include launch, descent, and extraterrestrial use. Ground-based embodiments will benefit from enhanced thermal performance which will reduce recurring costs. Non-NASA uses include military and civilian aircraft, chemically corrosive industrial environments, superconductivity and medical applications.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The potential Non-NASA commercial applications of the proposed technology are:

-in-flight refueling of military aircraft
-chemically corrosive environments
-process industries (foods, chemicals, semiconductors)
-low-temperature and/or high temperature superconductor research
-high-volume gas delivery systems such as LN2
-biological research applications (cryopreservation, cryobiology)
-medical applications (cryosurgery, MRI, tissue freezing)

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The potential NASA applications of the proposed technology are:

-launch, descent, and extraterrestrial use as combined on/off and throttling valve
-thermally efficient cryogenic fluid handling at fuel depots
-quick-disconnect applications (gantry and in-space)
-chemically corrosive environments

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ashvin Hosangadi
hosangad@craft-tech.com
6210 Keller's Church Road
Pipersville, PA 18947-1020
(215)766-1520
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
There currently are no analytical or CFD tools that can reliably predict unsteady cavitation dynamics in liquid rocket turbopumps. Cavitation effects, particularly at low-flow, off-design conditions, generate large amplitude pressure fluctuations that result in performance loss, and may interact with other components to generate damaging system-wide instabilities. The innovation proposed here is the development of a numerical tool that can predict amplitudes and frequencies of dynamic pressure loads in cryogenic turbopumps. This innovation will address the inclusion of advanced unsteady cavitation models for cryogenic fluids, development of boundary conditions that include interactions with other system components, and unsteady turbulence models for off-design conditions. The resulting product, a specialized version of the multi-element unstructured CRUNCH CFD^REG code, will be a well-validated and reliable analysis tool that can be used to predict off-design performance of liquid rocket turbopumps. Furthermore, this tool can provide unsteady loading information necessary for stress and fatigue life modeling of inducer blades. It would also be able to quantify an inducer's mean head breakdown characteristics as a function of design variables. Thus this simulation software will be used for providing design support, as well as being an analysis tool for diagnosing cavitation related anomalies in operational systems.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The commercial applications for our product are broad and include critical high-energy pumps for power generation and the petrochemical market, as well as the marine propeller arena. Many of these commercial systems are designed for long-life operation (on the order of 5 years for boiler feed pumps, for example) and reduced system life due to cavitation damage can lead to severe financial loss and loss of market share. The ability to model the dynamics associated with transient start-ups as well as off-design operation would provide significant advantage to commercial companies by improving designs and reducing testing and repair costs.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Our product addresses a core need of NASA in its strive to design safer and more versatile liquid rocket engines for upcoming programs such as Project Constellation for a new Crew Exploration Vehicle, as well as the Mission to the Moon. These systems will use liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and the ability to accurately model the turbopump performance over a wide range of off-design conditions will help reduce product development and testing costs. This tool will also enable simulations of instabilities in high-pressure, cryogenic test stands and support the design of more robust flow devices such as valves and venturis.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Changkun Dong
cdong@applied-nanotech.com
308 W. Rosemary Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2548
(919)619-3358
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) thrusters have gained considerable attention for spacecrafts disturbance compensation because of excellent characteristics. The application of current FEEP has been slow in developing mainly caused by high specific power, which limit the milli-Newton thruster development due to insufficient onboard power. Dramatic field improvement from nanometer carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a big advantage to increase the FEEP thrust more than 10 times under constant specific impulse (power). Phase I study showed a lower power consumption of 0.027 W/?YN from the CNT based ion source, comparing with the power consumption of 0.063 W/?YN from the traditional thruster. The CNT based FEEP ion source will be developed innovative in several aspects: integration of CNTs into the ion emission anode, buildup of the edge anode structure by the combination of the metal tip emitter and the slit emitter, and construction of a edge anode array capable of selective operation of different thrust unit. The power consumption of for ion thrust is expected to be reduced by a factor of 5 and more. The application of the room temperature carbon nanotube field emission electron neutralizer will further reduce the total power input to the ion engine.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Liquid metal ion source (LMIS) based focused ion beam (FIB) technique is used in different fields such as micro-fabrication and material analysis: secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), high resolution self-assembled Monolayers (SAM) by the high energy FIB. As our knowledge, there is very limited companies are able to produce milliNewton thrusters. The success of this project will benefit not only the NASA space applications, also a large ion source markets.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Typical space missions of FEEP include: stationkeeping in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), orbit repositioning, and orbital adjusting. For stationkeeping, FEEP can be used through the year with two firings per day. FEEP is presently baselined for several scientific missions, and has been proposed for attitude control and constellations. Applications of these thrusters as high-performance drag-free controllers for scientific spacecraft would result in considerable advantages from both weight and performance standpoints. Besides the space propulsion, elimination of electrostatic charge accumulation on spacecraft is another important task for electric ion source system.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Christopher H. Cooper
ccooper@seldontech.com
PO Box 710
Windsor, VT 05089-1429
(802)674-2444
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Seldon Laboratories, LLC, proposes a lightweight, low-pressure water purification device that harnesses the unique properties of carbon nanotubes and will operate for an extended period of time to remove microorganisms from large quantities of water. Seldon's proprietary production process results in a membrane composed largely of carbon nanotubes fused to one another. This project will build on the successful results of the Phase I testing to treat higher volumes of water by creating larger membranes and housings suitable for use in spacecraft. The very low pressure requirements will significantly reduce energy and other input requirements. The device will be sufficiently versatile so as to be incorporated into existing systems or used as a standalone system for water treatment.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Immediate applications for the device include industrial water purification systems such as where purified water is integral to the product (e.g., bottlers) or process (e.g., semiconductor manufacturers). Other applications include the household where it can be used in both point-of-entry and point-of-use systems. Finally, it will also be beneficial to municipal water treatment systems that are increasingly looking for alternatives to the health and safety risks of chemical disinfection.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The innovation should significantly reduce the power requirements of closed loop water treatment systems for spacecraft and eliminate the need for hazardous chemical treatments. It may also be used to treat fluids other than water on spacecraft. For ground-based applications, it can be used to replace or enhance exisiting drinking water purification systems and purification systems used for industrial processes or decontamination.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gaurav Bajpai
bajpai@technosci.com
10001 Derekwood Ln
Lanham, MD 20706-4864
(301)577-6000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The objective of the project is to develop an open architecture, computer aided analysis and control design toolbox for distributed parameter systems, in particular, this effort aims at creating computational tools for emerging applications in aerodynamic analysis and control of high performance aerial vehicles. For small-unmanned aerial vehicles a well-designed network of micro actuators can enable aggressive performance not possible using traditional control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators, rudder and flaps. Even for larger aircraft the emerging paradigm of control involves an array of actuators and distributed sensing and actuation. In addition to enhanced performance these control architectures can provide greater redundancy to confront actuator failures. In Phase I, various aspects of the model definition, control parameterization, model reduction, control design and simulation for verification were illustrated for a benchmark problem. In addition, a computational architecture leveraging commonly available tools to the scientists/engineers was defined. The proposed toolbox in conjunction with commonly used general purpose software will provide designers the ability to seamlessly test control design for aerodynamic applications by integrating and automating several key steps in design cycle. These tools will find commercial applications not only in the emerging unmanned aerial vehicle industry but other land, sea and air vehicles as well.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Design of air, land and sea vehicles involving aerodynamic and fluid flow has always been of interest to NASA. The proposed computational tools will help integrate the aerodynamic, structural and control features leading to vehicles capable of greater performance by enabling evaluation of these varied aspects at an early stage. With these tools specification, modeling, control design and simulation can help optimize the design process of aerial vehicle systems. This will enhance the designer's ability to bring recent advances in sensor/actuator technology and control design to engineering practice. The open architecture of the control toolbox and integration will well known tools helps easy extension of the toolbox to other important applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
With the continuing development of small scale, inexpensive, locally "intelligent" embedded actuators and "distributed" sensing, it is increasingly becoming possible to achieve truly distributed control of engineering systems. This ability to "distribute" control authority throughout the system enables the possibility of sophisticated control of distributed systems, such as those involving aerodynamic flow. Engineers/Scientists require computational tools to help analyze and design such systems. Although, the primary application is tailored towards small and micro air vehicles, these tools can be adapted and will find continuing use in industry including design of sea, air and land vehicles.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jon A Greene
jgreene@lambdainc.com
807 B North Main Street
Blacksburg, VA 24060-3411
(540)953-1796
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The development and performance evaluation of new carbon/carbon (C/C) and carbon/silicon-carbide (SiC) composite structural components has been hampered by the lack of reliable strain sensors that can survive up to the exceedingly high temperatures (3000 F) up to which these materials must be tested. Existing off-the-shelf high-temperature strain sensors, including free filament electrical strain gages and optical fiber based strain sensors, currently do not have the necessary performance characteristics to tackle the next generation of C/C and SiC composite material testing programs. Free filament electrical strain gages cannot be used reliably over 1800 F (1000 C) and conventional optical fiber strain sensors with the appropriate protective metal coatings can operate reliably only up to close to the melting point of the silica (2000 F/1100 C). To meet the growing needs for strain sensors that can withstand future high temperature testing regimes, Lambda Instruments, Inc. proposes to develop sapphire optical fiber sensors. The 3600 F (1987 C) melting temperature of optical quality sapphire fibers, their low profile geometry, and the inherent immunity of optical fiber sensors to electromagnetic interference make sapphire fiber-based sensors particularly well suited for the proposed application.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Revenues for fiber optic sensors in 2008 is expected to reach $350 million. A large part of this market demand will come from the combustion engine and turbomachinery industry which is already the leading consumer of sensors on the worldwide market. Even though fiber optic sensors are uniquely capable making measurements under harsh environmental conditions, they still need to achieve large volumes, low unit prices, and long operational lifetimes before industries are willing to put them into widespread use. The proposed Phase II program will be a large step in validating the commercial viability of fiber sensors for harsh environments.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary NASA application for the proposed high temperature sapphire optical fiber strain gages is for structural performance monitoring of emerging C/SiC and C/C composite components that must be characterized up to 3000 F. Other potential NASA applications based on the proposed sapphire optical fiber sensor technology include strain, temperature, and pressure sensors for performance monitoring of ramjet/scramjets during research and operation as well as for continuous structural health monitoring of the next generation space vehicles to maintain performance and safety standards throughout all phases of the mission.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Techno-Sciences, Inc.
10001 Derekwood Ln
Lanham ,MD 20706 - 4864
(301) 577 - 6000

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gaurav   Bajpai
bajpai@technosci.com
10001 Derekwood Ln
Lanham ,MD  20706 -4864
(301) 577 - 6000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The purpose of the project is the development of a computational package for bifurcation analysis and advanced flight control of aircraft. The development of relevant analytical and simulation-based technologies for the prediction and control for fail-safe adaptivity under adverse and upset conditions is an important step in advancing flight safety goals. Impaired aircraft operate much closer to bifurcation points than a fully functional vehicle. Thus, it is necessary to be able to evaluate aircraft and flight control system performance near stability boundaries. Understanding behavior near operational limits and developing control and recovery strategies for these circumstances is fundamental to achieving that goal. To that end TSi proposes an integrated set of computing tools involving symbolic, numerical and visualization environments. In phase I, the architecture was validated using a benchmark problem. Phase II proposes the extension of the results from Phase I into a commercial package to be made available to the analyst/designer of fault tolerant control algorithms.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary application area of the proposed work is to improve the safety and performance of commercial and military aircraft. However the developed tools based on modern nonlinear dynamical systems theory can be adapted to a broad range of engineering systems where nonlinear phenomena is of interest including other aerospace vehicles, ground and sea vehicles, hazardous chemical plants, nuclear power plant, robotic manipulators and others. Additionally, the design techniques will also provide a framework to conduct bifurcation analysis for various systems in an integrated package. Although, the primary market for the first commercial release of the software is in the aviation, the automobile industry represents a lucrative market for the tools with little modification as well.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA created the Aviation Safety Program to develop technologies focused on the national goal of reducing the fatal aircraft accident rate by 80% by 2007. The objective of the work is the development of a rigorous and practical framework of bifurcation analysis and control design techniques to address fail safe adaptation in adverse and upset conditions. The successful completion of the project will deliver flight dynamic analysis, control design and visualization tools in a single package significantly enhancing the ability of the engineer to design fail safe and failure recovery systems for commercial aircraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Alec J.D. Bateman
bateman@bainet.com
1410 Sachem Place, Suite 202
Charlottesville, VA 22901-0807
(434)973-1215
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Next-generation aerospace systems will require increased autonomy to modify system behavior based on changing mission requirements, environmental factors, and system performance. For example, intelligent systems have been employed to improve safety by adaptively compensating for unexpected failures or damage. Despite many successful demonstrations of autonomous and intelligent control laws in simulations and flight tests, the difficulty associated with the verification, validation, and testing of adaptive and nondeterministic systems poses a significant barrier to their use in safety-critical systems. The proposed Phase II research addresses this challenge through the development of innovative V\&V algorithms and easy-to-use software tools that will provide intelligent, automated, and interactive test plan generation and execution. The tool will integrate state-of-the-art analysis and numerical methods to automatically generate test vector sets, execute high-fidelity simulations or monitor pilot-in-the-loop simulations, analyze simulation results, and adapt/modify future test vectors based on observations to date. The result will be a significant reduction in cost associated with system testing while simultaneously offering a significant increase in the probability that system problems are uncovered early in the development process. The tool will have broad applicability for aerospace as well as non-aerospace applications.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Non-NASA aerospace applications include V\&V of advanced systems for JSF, J-UCAS, retrofit reconfigurable controllers for F-18 and other aircraft, the Helicopter Advanced Control Technologies (HACT) system, and next-generation rotorcraft fuel and engine control systems. Barron Associates is currently providing advanced control and V\&V technology to all of these programs. Non-aerospace applications include V\&V of electrical power distribution systems, nuclear power plant control systems, autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, marine steering systems, and medical devices. Again, these are all areas in which Barron Associates is currently providing advanced control and V\&V technology.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed software tool will be a key enabling technology for verification and validation of any advanced and autonomous system. Two key areas of application will be aviation safety and security and space exploration. For aviation safety and security, the Phase II product will enable the testing and verification of advanced fault-tolerant and damage-adaptive controllers (e.g., Lockheed's AIMSAFE as part of AvSP and Dryden's PCA and IFC systems). For space exploration, the Phase II product will enable safe incorporation of more sophisticated autonomy to allow remote operation in highly uncertain environments without a real-time remote operator.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
KALSCOTT Enginering, Inc.
3266 S.W. Timberlake Ln.
Topeka ,KS 66614 - 0000
(785) 856 - 3222

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Tom   Sherwood
tom.sherwood@kalscott.com
3266 S.W. Timberlake Ln.
Topeka ,KS  66614 -0000
(785) 979 - 1113
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A system for autonomous detection and exploitation of weather phenomena for endurance or range enhancement for loitering unmanned air vehicles is presented. The proposed system consists of hardware and software for coarse identification of geographical areas where advantageous weather phenomena (such as soaring conditions) are present. A custom autopilot and sensors enable the fine detection of the phenomena, and cause the UAV to adopt an optimal flight path that exploits the phenomena. The proposed system consists of custom hardware, software, and sensors. We have demonstrated a simulation of the system in Phase I, and we will render this in hardware in Phase II. We will also complete full flight test of the system on our 40 lb class UAV in Phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The Phase II SBIR will result in high endurance schemes for loitering UAVs, innovative flight control systems for UAVs, optimal flight path determination and execution. These developments dovetail with current NASA efforts to develop more intelligent and autonomous air vehicles for use in science mission, military and homeland security missions. The concepts and systems can be ported to small manned aircraft as well.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed system can be used to increase the endurance or range, and/or reduce the fuel consumption of loitering air vehicles operating at low-to-medium altitudes. The methods described here can be adopted for extending the endurance of small aircraft in emergency situations as well. The proposed autopilot can be used by sport glider and motorglider pilots. Unmanned air vehicles are increasingly being used for military, homeland security and science missions. In particular, we will investigate the use of this technology for small (<40 lb) and medium-sized (~ 600 lb) UAVs which we are developing for homeland security and science mission applications.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dana G Andrews
dandrews@andrews-space.com
505 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98104-3894
(206)438-0630
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Ballutes, or inflatable decelerators, offer significant advantages over rigid shells for aerocapture of planetary spacecraft and for earth reentry of cargo by providing mass savings and simplified packaging features. Traditional ballutes, however, have provided little or no trajectory control. For new platform functionality, high drag must be accompanied by some degree of control; also, incorporating thermal protection into the design provides additional weight savings. Ballutes are typically designed to create a low ballistic coefficient, reducing heating rates. However, a low ballistic coefficient also makes them inherently susceptible to insertion trajectory errors, atmospheric density variations, and winds. The use of a variable drag design allows for in-flight adjustment of ballistic coefficient. This significantly lowers downrange dispersions, resulting in a higher reliability recovery system. The specific innovation proposed is the design of a forward-attached, variable drag ballute for atmospheric entry. To demonstrate dispersion control in a forward-mounted ballute, Andrews proposes two flight tests of a subscale, pressure-supported, symmetric ballute that modulates drag by internal pressure control. The experiments are designed to demonstrate the ability to actively vary drag and prove transonic stability while avoiding an aeroheating environment requiring specialized thermal materials.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Ballutes can provide additional capability for near-earth orbit commercial space utilization. They allow development of recoverable capsules to support zero-g pharmaceutical, chemical, and materials research independent of Shuttle or other NASA capabilities.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The successful completion of the variable drag ballute transonic flight test in Phase II will significantly reduce the perceived technical risks associated with ballute development for both NASA and commercial markets. For example, a variable drag ballute will provide a lightweight, reliable deceleration system for cargo return from the International Space Station. It will increase ISS science utilization by increasing payload recovery capability. Variable drag ballutes will also be used to recover other spacecraft and as a method for planetary aerocapture and probe entry.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Joshua Paul
jbpaul@novawavetech.com
230A Twin Dolphin Drive
Redwood City, CA 94065-1411
(650)610-0956
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Small Business Innovative Research Phase I proposal seeks to develop a compact, robust in situ spectrometer capable of detecting multiple gas-phase species in planetary atmospheres with ultra-high sensitivity and selectivity. This instrument will employ a novel room-temperature, widely tunable mid-infrared laser source in conjunction with cavity ringdown spectroscopy. During Phase I, both the novel laser and the cavity ringdown technology were demonstrated in the 3.3 micron spectral region. During Phase II, a flight-ready instrument will be constructed, enabling access to a variety of species, including methane, ethane, ammonia, and formaldehyde. The ultra-high sensitivity of the proposed system will enable these species to be detected at concentrations below 7*10^7/cm^3 per minute, which corresponds to a detection limit of <30 pptv in Earth's atmosphere. The unique laser source to be constructed in Phase II will also be capable of being integrated into other spectroscopic platforms, in many cases providing a direct replacement for cumbersome cryogenic diode lasers while at the same time significantly improving the spatial mode quality and increasing spectral coverage.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The worldwide market for sensors with the capabilities of the proposed system is significant. Numerous applications exist in trace gas monitoring, pollution monitoring, industrial process control, and medical diagnostics. The novel laser system alone possesses significant commercial potential as a replacement for literally hundreds of cryogenic sources that are presently in use.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications for the laser and sensor technology described in this proposal include the interrogation of terrestrial as well as potentially extraterrestrial atmospheres for trace species.. The ability to measure formaldehyde and ammonia, specifically, would be of great benefit to current atmospheric research efforts as well as air quality monitoring aboard the International Space Station. The sensor will have numerous applications in ongoing research missions, including chemical kinetics and transport phenomena studies.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scott O'Dell
scottodell@plasmapros.com
4914 Moores Mill Road
Huntsville, AL 35811-1558
(256)851-7653
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
For materials processing experiments in microgravity, crucibles comprised of an internal ceramic liner in direct contact with a metal reinforcement are desired to maximize heat transfer. Previous work has demonstrated the advantages of reinforced crucibles for producing samples with enhanced microstructural features compared to samples processed in conventional ampoule/cartridge assemblies. However, incorporation of thermocouples is limited to either inside the crucible cavity or on the external surface of the metal reinforcement. The science requirements of several NASA investigators prevent the placement of thermocouples in these locations. In addition, a failure detection technique based on the use of krypton gas is required on some microgravity furnaces. During this investigation, "smart" crucibles are being developed that incorporate thermocouple grooves and a reservoir for krypton gas storage within the crucible wall, i.e., intimate contact between all layers is maintained. These same techniques can be used to fabricate refractory metal heat pipes where the wick/capillary structure is an integral part of the structure. Currently, a heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor concept (SAFE-400) is being considered for advanced space power and propulsion systems. Such an advanced reactor configuration would enable near-tern ambitious space exploration. During Phase II, smart crucibles and heat pipes will be fabricated.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Electronics and microchip manufacturing, high temperature furnace and retort components, rocket motor throat inserts, radiation shields, heat pipes, power generation equipment, nuclear components, beam and sputter targets, automotive and aerospace engine monitoring components.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Safer, thermally enhanced containment cartridges for processing materials science experiments on earth and in microgravity will be developed. In addition, the fabrication techniques developed will enable the production of smart components containing internal features and sensors for other NASA applications such as refractory metal heat pipes for advanced space power and propulsion systems, rocket nozzles, high temperature furnace components, thermal and radiation shielding, nuclear and power generation components, and thermal stir weld tools.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Anthony A Ferrante
ferrante@psicorp.com
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810-1077
(978)689-0003
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed innovative technology addresses the need to understand and develop countermeasures for the skeletal and cardiovascular changes to astronauts during prolonged exposure to microgravity environments. During the proposed program we will apply our innovative functional imagery approach, developed in Phase I research, to the problem of microgravity-induced cellular changes in osteoblasts, cells that are responsible for bone growth and repair. As part of the program we will develop a 593-nm diode-pumped, solid-state (DPSS) laser that will be combined with a commercially available 473 nm DPSS laser to enable simultaneous visualization of three cellular proteins that are genetically fused to fluorescent reef coral proteins (RCFPs). The genetic constructs we will generate, integrin aV-ZsGreen, p130CAS-DsRed2 and HcRed-a-actin, will enable space biologists to monitor changes in cytoskeletal structure as well as changes at the focal adhesions in vivo and in real time with no manipulation or reagent addition. Those same genetic constructs could be expressed in different cell lines to examine the effects of microgravity environments on cardiovascular tissue. We expect that the improved understanding of cellular changes that our innovative model system will deliver will enable rapid development of countermeasures to microgravity-induced changes in humans.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We anticipate that the successful completion of the Phase II program will have several non-NASA commercial implications. First, we expect that this work will increase the adoption of the RCFPs by terrestrial researchers in many fields. The RCFPs will provide enhanced ability for simultaneously monitoring expression of multiple genes. We also anticipate that the 593-nm laser that will be developed during the program will be adopted by manufacturers and sellers of confocal imaging systems. There is currently no commercially available, solid-state laser with an emission wavelength between 532-nm and 635-nm.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We anticipate that space biology researchers at NASA will use the osteoblast cell culture model and associated confocal imaging system that will be developed during our Phase II program for flight experiments aimed at understanding changes at the cellular level that lead to the skeletal changes found in astronauts during long-term space travel. We further anticipate that the knowledge gained will enable rapid development of effective countermeasures for microgravity-induced bone loss. In addition, the genetic constructs and the confocal imaging system may also provide enhanced capabilities for understanding the cellular mechanisms of cardiovascular changes found in astronauts.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mikhail A Gutin
gutin@appscience.com
1223 Peoples Avenue
Troy , NY 12180-3511
(518)276-3637
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Applied Science Innovations, Inc. proposes a new tool of 3D optical coherence tomography (OCT) for cellular level imaging at video frame rates and dramatically reduced probe cross-section. Existing commercial OCT tools are focused in ophthalmology, where examination is external to the eye, the size of the probe is not important, and cellular level resolution is not required. The patent-pending 3D OCT will provide three-dimensional imaging in scattering media with improved resolution, depth of field, and minimal mechanical adjustment. The proposed approach is based on novel probe designs, original coherence scanning, and advanced signal processing. The flexible imaging probe will have dramatically reduced cross-section, compared to the existing systems, enabling the first "3D camera through a needle" for functional imagery, including in-vivo histological examination. Phase I has demonstrated the proof of concept by theoretical studies and implementation of a limited experimental prototype. First generation packaged prototype will be developed in Phase II of the project and delivered to NASA Glenn Research Center for evaluation and field tests. Commercial applications are envisioned in NASA's future space missions, biomedical imaging, and industrial inspection.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Non-NASA commercial applications include biomedical imaging (market size approaching $20B at a growth rate $1B per year), including cancer detection radiation health monitoring, and cardiovascular diagnostic imaging. Other potential biomedical applications are in ophthalmology; developmental biology; dermatology; dentistry; gynecology; urology; gastroenterology; laryngology; surgical guidance and intervention. In minimally invasive surgery, the 3D OCT can work in combination with conventional endoscopes to provide "close-up" three-dimensional views of cells in the areas of interest for "real-time biopsy". Non-biomedical applications of 3D OCT are envisioned in industrial inspection, high-density data storage, and polymer matrix composites.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications will include monitoring astronauts' radiation and cardiovascular health; measurement and micro-control technologies for health monitoring and health management of experiments, astronauts, and astronauts' environments, and enhanced capability to image functioning biological systems at the cellular length scale, providing three-dimensional imagery of the sample. Additional applications of interest to NASA include real-time 3D imaging of plant cells, cellular studies of microgravity effect on immune system, and examining of structures in biochips. 3D OCT will be applicable for diagnostics of the performance of labs-on-a-chip, including detecting the presence of bubbles and particles and removing or characterizing them, as well as measurement of fluidic movement.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Orbital Technologies Corporation
Space Center, 1212 Fourier Drive
Madison ,WI 53717 - 1961
(608) 827 - 5000

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Robert C Morrow
morrowr@orbitec.com
1212 Fourier Drive
Madison ,WI  53717 -1961
(608) 827 - 5000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Aseptic plant culture plays a significant role in biotechnology and plant physiology research, and in vegetative propagation of many plant species. The development of an Aseptic Plant Culture System would provide a mechanism for experimentation as well as for transporting and storing vegetatively propagated plant material in space. Most culture systems are passive, with no environmental monitoring or control. This project proposes to develop an environmental control and monitoring system for sterile culture that can accommodate, without modification, a variety of standard culture vessels. The system would consist of a modular base unit into which culture vessels can be plugged as desired. Multiple vessel sizes and shapes could be accommodated with a generic connector system. Environmental parameters controlled and monitored would include light level and spectral quality, photoperiod, air and media temperature, humidity, and atmospheric composition. Using innovative, high precision miniature environmental control components allows each vessel to maintain independent control setpoints if desired. Subsystem modularity means the system can be reconfigured for use in specific carriers or to meet an investigator's specific need. Particular challenges include development of a miniaturized humidity control system, precise control of the gaseous environment in small volumes, and maintaining sterility for extended periods.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The APCS can accommodate experiments requiring sterile plant culture in reduced gravity. It would be well suited for physiology and biotechnology experiments using Arabidopsis explants or seedlings and could be used to maintain propagules in a well defined environment as a source of transplants for on-going experiments. APCS could also support experiments with fungi, ferns, mosses and even bacteria. The APCS could be flown as an insert in existing payloads including incubators, plant growth units or animal habitats. Components of the APCS could be part of the plant propagation system used to maintain stock plants for bioregenerative life support systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
An APCS would provide a tool for research on optimizing the tissue culture environment, provide the ability to conduct a range of experiments at the culture vessel level, and support the ability to manipulate the culture environment to increase quantity and quality of plant materials grown from vegetatively propagated stock. These capabilities would be of use in university and college laboratories, and in commercial agricultural operations developing genetically modified plants or vegetatively propagating plants (e.g., orchids, seed potatoes). Another potential use would be in pre-college and college level science classes and in advanced biology outreach programs.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Joe Parrish
parrish@payload.com
247 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142-0000
(617)868-8086
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This SBIR Phase II effort involves the development of a novel rodent spaceflight habitat, focusing on care and monitoring of mice for gravitational physiology studies. The effort is tightly linked with the Mars Gravity Biosatellite (MGB) program, a university-led initiative developing a partial gravity free-flyer research platform. It leverages both the Murine Automated Urine Sampler (MAUS) accomplished by Payload Systems, Inc. and MIT during Phase I, including demonstrating biochemical preservation of key analytes for up to five weeks, and further hardware design and prototyping conducted under separately-funded MGB activities. MAUS extends earlier NASA and other laboratory waste management and preservation techniques in a novel manner, enabling solid-state storage and quantitative analysis of small animal urine. In Phase II, we will further refine both the hardware and biochemical techniques developed for the MAUS under Phase I, and integrate these elements into a fully-functional Animal Support Module (ASM). Along with the MAUS, the ASM will include air circulation, cage lighting, video collection, food provision, water supply and additive injection, instrumented floor, and contingency euthanasia systems. This Phase II project will result in critical hardware for the MGB program and important innovations for other rodent-based flight and ground research.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A successful Phase II would result in a system design that could be manufactured and ready to operate in ground laboratory facilities. This product would have immediate relevance to terrestrial small rodent research applications. As Phase II progresses, the product will be refined for both ground and flight operations; depending on the feedback we receive from our market assessment and contract monitor, and on engineering constraints, the original design may evolve into a single ground- and spaceflight-compatible design, or into two separate products.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed system is directly applicable to partial-gravity, hyper-gravity, and ground-base studies, with strong potential for extension to microgravity applications. The system will be compatible with the Mars Gravity Biosatellite, but its key subsystems will also have applications with the Advanced Animal Habitat-Centrifuge (AAH-C) in development for the ISS, and with static and ventilated isolator caging systems in widespread use by ground-base laboratories. This latter market represents a huge arena in which this technology can be applied.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Amnis Corporation
2505 Third Avenue, Suite 210
Seattle ,WA 98121 - 1480
(206) 576 - 6857

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David  A Basiji
basiji@amnis.com
2505 Third Avenue, Suite 210
Seattle ,WA  98121 -1480
(206) 374 - 7165
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Proposed is the development the extended depth of field (EDF) or confocal like imaging capabilities of a breakthrough multispectral high resolution imaging flow cytometer. This platform shall have unparalleled cellular analysis capabilities intended to further biological space research (fundamental, micro-gravity and radiation biology) and the potential capability of monitoring astronaut health. The proposed platform shall simultaneously combine the high throughput analysis rates of flow cytometry, the high resolution imaging capabilities of multiple forms of high resolution microscopy (brightfield, darkfield and four fluorescent imaging channels) and the ability to image all cellular components in focus utilizing extended depth of field imaging. This cell observation platform shall find additional utility in NASAs biology space research given Amnis complimentary technologies, specifically: i) Amnis in-suspension labeling techniques for staining cellular structures and probing specific molecules in the nucleus, cytoplasm and membrane including fluorescent in situ hybridization. These in-suspension techniques eliminate the time consuming manual glass microscope slide preparation of cells which is problematic for micro gravity environment, ii) Amnis sample containment/injection pump operates similarly to NASAs rotating wall culture vessel allowing cells to be continually suspended via a rotational axis perpendicular to gravity.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The EDF multispectral high resolution imaging flow cytometer shall allow for semi-autonomous operation including (sample handling, object detection, image segmentation and cell classification). The instrument shall provide hundreds of times more cellular information than most sophisticated flow cytometers and microscopes. This instrument shall find immediate application to NASAs fundamental biology space program, specifically the analysis of cellular responses to microgravity and cosmic radiation. The instrument has application to apoptosis, phagocytosis, hematology, cytogenetic, and cell cycle analysis. Additionally, the instrument potentially could be used for in-flight research and clinical uses, specifically, for hematology and chromosomal aberration measurements for monitoring astronaut health.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Beyond NASA fundamental space biology research and potential in-flight diagnostics, the proposed EDF Cell Analysis Platform has numerous potential non-NASA applications including: i) general purpose cell analysis research tool for cell counting, cell viability, studies involving apoptosis, chromosome enumeration and rearrangement, translocation, telomere length, morphometric and photometric analysis, ii) hematology instrumentation, iii) clinical diagnostics, iv) high content drug screening, v) early stage cancer screening, oncology for the detection of rare tumor cells of epithelial origin and vi) non-invasive prenatal diagnostics.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Shankar Sundram
sxs@cfdrc.com
215 Wynn Dr., 5th Floor
Huntsville, AL 35805-1926
(256)726-4892
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Obtaining high quality, intact RNA from cells is an ubiquitous need in the pursuit of space biology. Our overall objective is to develop and commercialize a microfluidics based miniaturized platform (MED-RNA) that can fully automate the complex process of RNA isolation. Starting from harvested whole mammalian cells in a culture medium, MED-RNA will lyse, capture, and isolate RNA content for later analysis, in a fully integrated fashion with minimal user intervention. In addition to higher yields and faster process times, losses and contamination will be minimized as a result of the miniaturization and automation. A novel and unique plastic card based fabrication technology from Micronics Corp. will be leveraged for low-cost microfabrication.

The Phase I study successfully demonstrated concept development and design of three critical aspects of the MED-RNA, (1) on-card reagent based cell lysis, (2) non-toxic electric field driven cell lysis, and (3) RNA capture and elution in a microfluidic extraction chamber. Physical prototypes of the components were fabricated and experimentally demonstrated. During Phase II, we will further optimize the individual component designs. Optimal components, along with necessary valving will be integrated on a plastic, microfluidic lab card. The fully integrated prototype lab card will be demonstrated on chosen cell lines. Further ensuring success, CFDRC has assembled an experienced, multidisciplinary team.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In the commercial sector, we will target users and applications of the developed device in basic pre-clinical/clinical research and the pharmaceutical/drug discovery process. In addition, a valuable by-product of this effort will be a well-validated simulation tool for the development of other microfluidic devices for cellular analysis.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Differential gene expression by RNA profiling is a universal and critical step in space biology experiments, which seek to link specific molecular events with disease phenotypes. Benefits to NASA include advancement in space biology experiments in the ISS and MARS exploration capabilities.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Paul W Todd
ptodd@SHOT.com
7200 Highway 150
Greenville, IN 47124-9515
(812)923-9591
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed innovation is a microfluidic device designed to effect a 2-dimensional resolution of a mixture of proteins based on isoelectric point (pI) and molecular weight (MW). The innovation performs tasks similar to those performed by 2-dimensional ("2-D") gel electrophoresis. To achieve 2-D-gel equivalence with minimal complications and maximum exploitation of the advantages provided by microfluidics a novel approach is proposed. In this approach the user dissolves or mixes a sample to be tested for proteins into a sample buffer and injects this into a plastic card consisting of microfluidic channels and electrodes. The card is inserted into a compact "reader" (small enough for space flight) that, within four hours, electronically reports the abundance of each protein detected. In Phase II research SHOT will (1) establish fabrication parameters for the card and manufacture prototypes, (2) build a breadboard reader and (3) test the Microfluidic Analytical Separator using mixed protein solutions. The innovation is useful in detecting specific protein ratio changes in blood or plasma, in extracts of experimental organisms subjected to varying environmental conditions, and in the medium-resolution high-throughput screening of pharmaceutical agents.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The immediate "terrestrial" marketplace is sectored into users in remote sites away from analytical laboratories, educational uses, and high-throughput screening applications in which high resolution is not critical. Eventually some customers may find the proteomics "card" useful in the examination of human plasma for the presence or absence of particular proteins in potentially pathological states, which may open the clinical diagnostics market, which is very large. SHOT's production and sales plans target all of these markets, and SHOT received $70,000 from the State of Indiana to aid in developing the innovation for these markets.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA will be an important customer of the innovation. First, the proteomics "card" is useful in the examination of human plasma for normal or pathological levels of some 200 serum proteins to monitor crew health during deep space flights expected in NASA's exploration vision. Second, flight opportunities for molecular biology experiments are scarce, as is the opportunity to return biological samples from space in suitable conditions for chemical analysis. The proposed Analytical Separator will provide electronic data that can be telemetered (real time). The proposed format is disposable, and the reader requires minimal space, power and crew time.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Daniel J Kane
djkane@swsciences.com
1570 Pacheco St., Suite E-11
Santa Fe, NM 87505-3993
(505)984-1322
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Trace contamination of the International Space Station (ISS) by formaldehyde -- a known carcinogen -- is a significant threat to crew health. The spacecraft maximum allowable concentration (SMAC) in air is only 40 parts per billion and ambient concentrations appear to be increasing as formaldehyde outgasses from a variety of plastic components. Monitoring formaldehyde levels is difficult because few analytical methods can achieve sufficient sensitivity from instrumentation that can be adapted for space-based operation. The current detection method -- using absorbent "badges" -- relies on post-flight analysis of the adsorbent material. Some of those measurements show formaldehyde concentrations close to the SMAC upper bound. As a result, a need exists for a reliable, fully automated analyzer that can provide continuous monitoring of formaldehyde concentrations on board the ISS. The target detection sensitivity is 10 ppb and the response time should be < 10 minutes. Southwest Sciences proposes the development of an optical analyzer for formaldehyde that is expected to meet the requirements of space-based operation. The instrument will be compact, light weight, require little electrical power and no consumables, and will be able to operate for extended periods (months to years) without maintenance or re-calibration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The development of the new optical analyzer for formaldehyde will allow the detection of gases that have previously been unobtainable with current technology. Detection of compounds such as arsine, phosphine, ammonia, and ethylene for will be possible using our new spectroscopic source. This will open new commericial opportunities in medical breath testing for disease identification and screening, in-line industrial monitoring, and hazardous gas sensing. The small size, low-power, and low cost requirements will permit partable devices as well as stationary units.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The spacecraft maximum allowable concentration (SMAC) of formaldehyde in air is only 40 parts per billion and ambient concentrations appear to be increasing as formaldehyde outgasses from a variety of plastic components. Monitoring formaldehyde levels is difficult because few analytical methods can achieve sufficient sensitivity from instrumentation that can be adapted for space-based operation. The current detection method -- using absorbent "badges" -- relies on slow, post-flight analysis of the adsorbent material. Some of those measurements show formaldehyde concentrations close to the SMAC upper bound. Our technology will provide real-time monitoring of formaldehyde in spacecraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Richard R. Wheeler, Jr., PE
rwheeler@urcmail.net
PO Box 609
Myrtle Creek, OR 97457-0102
(541)863-7770
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The development of advanced methods for Microwave Enhanced Freeze Drying of Solid Waste (MEFDSW) is proposed. Methods for the recovery of relatively pure water as a byproduct of freeze drying will also be fully developed. The Phase II project will result in the design, assembly, thorough testing, and delivery of a technology demonstrator prototype which may be employed over a broad range of mission scenarios. The prototype system will recover water initially contained within the wastes and stabilize the residue with respect to microbial growth. The dry waste may then be safely stored or passed on to the next solid waste treatment process. Using microwave power in a closed microwave cavity, water-ice present in the frozen solid waste can be selectively and rapidly heated. This results in a more energy efficient lyophilization process, and therefore hardware based upon this technology will have a lower Equivalent System Mass (ESM) than currently available systems.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Worldwide, freeze drying is a billion dollar support industry, used to preserve a host of products, including: foods such as coffee, fruits and vegetables, as well as multiple health care and pharmaceutical products. If the innovative technology can shorten the average processing time and also provide a net reduction in energy usage, then millions of dollars can be saved annually. In these highly competitive markets, savings in time and energy directly translate into lower production costs and higher profits. Target industries include Food Processing and Biopharmaceuticals. Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc., has indicated interest in this innovation.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary NASA application for the proposed innovation will be as Flight Hardware purchased by NASA, or by an aerospace contracting firm on behalf of NASA, to provide microbial stabilization and water recovery from solid waste, thereby minimizing the health risks associated with solid waste management, and minimizing the water resupply requirements for future advanced life support (ALS) systems needed for long duration manned missions in space, such as a Lunar base, or a manned mission to Mars.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Anuncia Gonzalez-Martin
anuncia.gonzalez-martin@lynntech.com
7607 Eastmark Drive, Ste. 102
College Station, TX 77840-4027
(979)693-0017
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Maintaining a healthy atmosphere in closed life support systems is essential for crew well being and success of space missions. Current trace contaminant control (TCC) systems for removal of trace contaminant gases from cabin air are based on activated carbon filters and high temperature catalytic oxidation (HTCO). However, HTCO suffers from poisoning, and activated carbon suffers from absorbent saturation, which leads to off gassing. It also generates a secondary waste stream and becomes a microorganism breeding ground. During the Phase I effort, a bench scale TCC system utilizing a nanoparticulate photocatalytic filter was fabricated. Testing performed successfully demonstrated the technology feasibility for eliminating airborne chemicals and microorganisms. Preliminary equivalent system mass analysis shows the system efficacy and applicability to space missions. During the Phase II, a scaled-up, fully operational, flight qualifiable, microgravity compatible breadboard will be developed, tested with chemicals known to be present in International Space Station (ISS) cabin air, and delivered to NASA. Benefits of this reagentless approach are its low cost, low maintenance, reliability, longevity, size, performance, and elimination of a secondary waste stream. Photocatalytic unit implementation would serve to expand the capabilities of TCC technologies for missions beyond the ISS including Lunar and Martian exploration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The novel air cleaning process will find commercial applications in many areas where the destruction of microorganisms, ozone, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and other toxic organic contaminants are needed, e.g., in air pollution control in industries and enclosed environments. Potential markets include utility power plants, semiconductor industries, paper plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, mining, sewage, treatment plants, painting operations, electroplating industries, chemical and pesticide manufacturers, point booth emission, passenger vehicles (e.g., cars, buses, trains), commercial airplanes, tight buildings, homes, hospitals, etc.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Maintaining a healthy atmosphere in closed life support systems is necessary for the well being of the crew and success of a space mission. The proposed technology will allow maintaining a healthy atmosphere by effectively removing and destroying trace contaminant gases and airborne microorganisms from cabin air (e.g., International Space Station, Lunar and Mar Space Stations, and manned space vehicles and habitats).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Frank E. Inscore
inscore@RTA.biz
87 Church Street
East Hartford, CT 06108-3728
(860)528-9806
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The overall goal of this program (through Phase III) is to develop an analyzer that can be integrated into International Space Station (ISS) toilets to measure key chemicals in urine. The analyzer will employ a novel metal-doped sol-gel material to both separate these key chemicals from urine and provide surface-enhanced Raman spectra to identify and quantify these chemicals. The Phase I program successfully demonstrated feasibility by chemically extracting 3-methyl histidine, a muscle-loss indicator, and raloxifene a bone-loss inhibitor from simulated urine. In flowing experiments, both chemicals were measured at 10 nanogram/mL, below the required detection limit of 1000 ng/mL for 3-methyl histidine, and near the required detection limit of 1 ng/mL for raloxifene. The Phase II program will develop the method of analysis using some 50 bio-indicators, drugs and metabolites, and potential interfering urine components. The program will also design and build an automated extraction, measurement and analysis system suitable for integration into Hamilton Sundstrand's proposed ISS toilets. Hamilton Sundstrand has agreed to an on-site demonstration that includes initial measurements using the proposed analyzer and their equipment to initiate a Phase III collaboration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed analyzer will have immediate use in the detection and treatment of Osteoporosis. According to the World Health Organization osteoporosis is the second largest medical problem, after cardiovascular diseases, and it currently affects 10 million men and women in the USA. Recent research has shown that biomarkers in urine can not only quantify bone-loss rates, but also measure effectiveness of new drugs being used to arrest this process. The proposed analyzer will be used to measure these indicators, as well as the drugs and ultimately help prevent fractures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed urine analyzer will immediately aid astronauts working in the International Space Station by monitoring bone and muscle loss. Its use will also undoubtedly increase our understanding of the adverse effects of near-zero gravity, allow determining the effectiveness of drugs used for treatment, and improve regulating dosage. The analyzer will have continued value through the life of the ISS and into the future development of a moon base.
Finally, the knowledge gained will be critical to developing a strategy to travel to Mars safely. The proposed analyzer will leverage existing NASA technology (HS' equipment), representing reduced cost and risk.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dadi Setiadi
setiadi@jerseymicro.com
211 Warren Street
Newark, NJ 07103-3568
(973)297-1450
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose to develop the NJM Sense-It system based on small sensor tags, which include a cardiopulmonary MEMS sensor for measuring heartbeat and breath rates continuously. In addition, the proposed sensor system can be operated in extended bandwidth mode to measure detail cardiopulmonary pattern upon control from the reader. The system operates using a central reader at 915 MHz with as many as 32 sensor tags. A single sensor worn as a Band Aid-like adhesive or strapped tag on the astronaut monitors cardiopulmonary activities. Additional sensors are worn depending on the detail of heart and lung sounds diagnosis data desired. This system has the advantage that tag sensors measuring many additional physiological functions can be added at later date. The extended bandwidth cardiopulmonary data can be displayed locally or telemetered to earth stations and reviewed by clinicians in any situation as desired.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Our proposed NJM wireless and batteryless monitoring system of cardiopulmonary function is part of the remote patient monitoring (RPM) system. The MEMS tag sensor monitors the heart and lung sounds and communicates with the reader in real time. Data is telemetered to a remote medical diagnostic center where experienced specialists analyze the data respond to events, and report results for review by the cardiopulmonary physician. The physician can be programmed in to receive a summary report daily by Internet. Or in case of severe eschemic and arrhythmic conditions, an emergency medical clinician is immediately informed.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed NJM wireless and batteryless system for continuous cardiopulmonary monitoring is a noninvasive, unobtrusive medical device that will monitor astronaut health, safety and performance risks during flight shuttle missions. The reader has the capability to read multiple tags worn by astronauts. Since each tag has its own identification, the cardiopulmonary function of each astronaut can be separately identified, monitored and presented simultaneously. The reader is interfaced to a larger shuttle computer for data packetizing. The cardiopulmonary data can be telemetered to ground crews who analyze the health condition of the astronauts and respond to events in real-time.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scott O'Dell
scottodell@plasmapros.com
4914 Moores Mill Road
Huntsville, AL 35811-1558
(256)851-7653
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Radiation shielding simulations showed that epoxy loaded with 10-70% polyethylene would be an excellent shielding material against GCRs and SEPs. Milling produced an elemental boron coating on the polyethylene particles suitable for protecting against low energy neutrons. For up to 30 volume percent particle loading of the composite there was the near random distribution of particles needed to produce an excellent radiation shielding material. The mechanical properties of the composite system were found to decrease ~1000psi with each 10% increase in particle loading. The specific strength of the 10% B coated polyethylene particle epoxy composite was 206,529 in, within 85% of the specific strength of Al 2219. Using a stronger epoxy matrix, the specific strength of the composite developed during Phase II could easily equal or surpass that of Al 2219. During Phase II, radiation testing will be performed. Prototype shielding panels will be constructed. High tensile strength epoxy matrices will be investigated to provide sufficient tensile strength while optimizing the radiation shielding capabilities given by loading the matrix with B coated polyethylene particles. An integrated thermal protection system (TPS) for the optimized composite will be developed that also provides increased strength and impact resistance against micro-meteorites.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Commercial potential for the technology being developed is very high. Potential applications include, but are not limited to, particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, radioactive biological and nuclear waste containment vessels, satellite hardware shielding, radiation shielding on high-altitude fighter planes, radiation protection for passengers and crew on high-altitude commercial airliners and military vehicles, and patient shielding for medical services.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Lightweight structural radiation shielding materials are needed to shield humans in aerospace transportation vehicles, space transportation vehicles, large space structures, such as space stations, orbiters, landing vehicles, rovers, and crew exploration vehicle habitats.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
James C Withers
jcwithers@mercorp.com
7960 S. Kolb Road
Tucson, AZ 85706-3237
(520)574-1980
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Radiation shielding is a requirement to protect humans from the hazards of space radiation during NASA missions. Multifunctional materials have the potential to provide both non-parasitic radiation protection and structural requirements. Because of the radiation only low atomic number materials can be used. Boron and carbon meet the radiation requirement and in fibrous form meet the structural requirement. In Phase I it was demonstrated feasible to produce boron fibers on graphite fiber tow substrates. Composites produced with the boron fibers showed modulus increase and high strength compared to graphite fiber composites. Phase II will optimize the processing to maximize the boron fiber properties and the composite properties fabricated from the boron fibers. Continuous production of boron fiber processing and prepregging of the fibers will be demonstrated. The boron fibers produced will be utilized to demonstrate the fabrication of large size composites and delivery of both fibers and composites to NASA.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Ultra-lightweight boron fibers have applications in all nuclear applications, general aerospace, defense and some sporting goods.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The NASA applications include all human space missions and potentially any launched component that requires lightweight or radiation resistance.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mourad Manoukian
mmanoukian@ginerinc.com
89 Rumford Avenue
Newton, MA 02466-1311
(781)529-0527
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The aim of this proposal is to develop a low power consuming solid polymer electrolyte based, miniaturized electrochemical CO2 sensor that can continuously, accurately and rapidly monitor CO2 for monitoring and control approaches of plant-production environments, to aid in NASA's biomass (edible food) production research. The proposed sensor will introduce a much simpler, lower cost and more accurate alternative to the existing infrared CO2 measurement technology to measure CO2 and study its effects on plant growth. During Phase I, in addition to concept feasibility demonstration, the ability of the proposed sensor to detect (0 - 10) % CO2 in a wide temperature (15 ? 45)degrees C, and humidity (10 ? 99) % RH was demonstrated. In Phase II the sensor will be integrated into a complete instrument and will undergo extensive testing for accuracy, specificity, longevity and statistical comparison to existing technology. The instrument will be small, lightweight and will allow for independent operation of the sensor complete with calibration routine, adjustable applied potential settings and digital display of numeric results. The unit will be battery operated with an AC converter and battery re-charger.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are substantial commercial applications and markets, beyond the NASA application, for a high performance, low cost CO2 sensor. Indoor air quality control systems is a major market discussed in the Phase II commercialization plan. Other applications include measurement and control of CO2 in: agricultural applications such as greenhouses and controlled atmosphere storage of produce and flowers, medical applications such as expired and transdermal CO2, food and beverage industry for long shelf life packing of foods and improved quality and taste of brewed alcoholic and carbonated beverages.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed solid electrolyte electrochemical CO2 sensor would have applications in NASA's ground and space based fundamental biology research programs to study effects of CO2 concentration on biomass (edible food) production and plant growth. The sensor could be configured for closed or nearly closed plant growth chambers or plant culture bioreactors to accurately and continuously measure and control CO2 concentrations in the range of (0 ? 10)%.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Nahum Gat
nahum@oksi.com
4030 Spencer St, Suite 108
Torrance, CA 90503-2442
(310)371-4445
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposal addresses technologies relevant to NASA's new Vision for Space Explorations in the areas of robotics, teleoperations, and macro and micro imaging systems, while developing a generic biology research facility.

In order to carry out NASA's new vision of exploration and prepare for eventual human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit and on the surface of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, we must collec-tively understand how life and specific biological systems adapt, respond, and thrive in these unique environments. Planning for extended human presence in the reduced gravity environ-ments of the Moon and Mars will require a solid biological understanding from the sub-cellular to the whole organism level.

The proposed facility supports space-based technologies that enable cross-species comparative biological research and will include in-situ autonomous capability to extract genetic, genomic, proteomic, and metabolic information while providing tools to utilize and interpret such data. Of critical importance is the incorporation and utilization of these monitoring and control systems that will successfully accommodate and adapt to the changing needs of biological systems or specimens over long periods of time.

The facility will be the first scientific payload equipped with automated in-situ technology that allows detection and analysis of fluorescence, which is crucial to the fundamental understanding of biological properties of cellular, sub-cellular, and whole organisms during exploration of space and planets.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Several commercial enterprises in the genetic research field have expressed interest in the robotic capabilities to increase throughput of the research and inspection that today requires tedious manual effort.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The US Government is anticipated to be the primary customer for the technology that is designed to support future NASA missions and space explorations. The biology research facility will augment NASA's space exploration with unique analytical research tool based on fluorescence imaging.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David Hamrick
dhamrick@dsitech.com
1601 12th Ave. South
Birmingham, AL 35205-4709
(205)930-0001
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose a dual objective innovation that has valuable NASA applicability and tremendous commercial potential. The first innovation is the structure determination of osteoporosis, immune system diseases, and radiation damage repair proteins utilizing proprietary neural network based algorithms. The long-term results from this innovation could provide effective medical countermeasures for bone loss, immune system compromise and harmful radiation effects seen in astronauts upon long-duration space missions. The second innovation is a commercial grade multipurpose neural network based informatics system configurable for automated, real-time sensory data input and automatic correlation identification applicable to autonomous astronaut health monitoring and environmental correlation. This innovation also has significant commercial applications in the health care industries as a hospital wide health monitoring and environmental correlation system.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The drug targets have earth based commercial potential that will lead to drug royalties. We also anticipate that drug discovery entities including pharmaceutical, biotech companies, and academic institutions will subscribe to the proposed fee-based service. The neural network based informatics system has significant commercial applications in the health care industries as a hospital wide health monitoring and environmental correlation system.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The first innovation will facilitate drug development to enhance crew health in long term space flight missions. The long-term results from this innovation could provide effective medical countermeasures for bone loss, immune system compromise and harmful radiation effects seen in astronauts upon long-duration space missions.
The neural network based informatics system will allow configuration as an automated, real-time sensory data input and automatic correlation identification system applicable to autonomous astronaut health monitoring and environmental correlation. An application of this innovation is the neural network identification of space flight bone-loss to environmental factors.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Hong Jiao
h.jiao@lgrinc.com
67 East Evelyn Avenue, Suite 3
Mountain View, CA 94041-1518
(650)965-7772
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Phase II research comprises designing, constructing, and testing a chip-based capillary electrochromatography (CEC) prototype for separation and analysis of organic and inorganic molecules including amino acids and ions. The innovation of the proposed technology stems from its ability to achieve high sample retention and selectivity and yet maintain high separation efficiency, thus filling an important gap between the current technologies of capillary electrophoresis (CE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Such microfluidics devices will enable analyte samples to be prepared, processed, and analyzed in "lab-on-a-chip" (LOC) type instrumentation in Micro Laboratories applications. In addition, they will be engineered for integration with established LOC analysis systems. The Phase II Research will address issues related to the performance and production methods for the technology. Commercial devices based on the Phase II prototype will be constructed and subsequently refined and commercialized during Phase III.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology will enhance the performance of the commercial "lab-on-a-chip" technologies, enabling new approaches to chemical and biomolecular detection and analysis to implemented. The applications in broad commercial arenas range from drug and chemical compound analyses in the pharmaceutical industry to genomics and proteomics in the growing biotechnology industry. Additional commercial applications include performing blood analyses, detecting chemical and biological agents for homeland defense initiatives, drug delivery systems, and providing forensic analyses at crime scenes.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed chip-base capillary electrochromatography (CEC) devices can be used to develop miniature analytical or "lab-on-a-chip" technologies used to perform rapid, in-situ chemical and biological analyses for applications ranging from maintaining crew health in manned missions to performing in-situ analyses during Mars microrover missions. Additional potential aerospace applications include identifying contaminants and pathogens present in air and water in space stations, and providing in-situ analyses on terrestrial environments such as Mars and Nereus.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scott K Lindemann
slindemann@michiganaerospace.com
1777 Highland Drive, Suite B
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2285
(734)975-8777
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Michigan Aerospace Corporation has developed spaceflight qualified compact tunable Fabry-Perot interferometers for a number of applications, from ranging direct detection Doppler wind LIDAR applications to IR spectroscopy. Under a previous phase I SBIR, Michigan Aerospace developed a design for a spaceflight qualified lightweight tunable Fabry-Perot etalon for cryogenic applications utilizing reaction bonded silicon carbide for the etalon mount and support rings and successfully delivered a mount and rings cast from silicon carbide for use in a phase II, or another application, to house an etalon. Under the proposed phase II effort, Michigan Aerospace will develop and fabricated a lightweight, rugged tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer that will be spaceflight qualified. Also, under this proposed phase II effort, Michigan Aerospace will design and produce a digital etalon controller. Further, Michigan Aerospace will produce a detailed plan by which the digital etalon controller design can be transitioned from demonstration unit to flight qualified hardware.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In 2003/2004, Michigan Aerospace Corporation has responded to over 50 requests for quotation from domestic and foreign customers. This represents approximately $2.5 million in new business.

The lightweight Fabry-Perot interferometer to be developed under the proposed SBIR program will have extensive commercial applications ranging from laboratory use to airborne and space-borne natural gas pipeline leak monitoring and trace gas detection, to optical fiber communication. Some possible applications include:

? Ground and space based gas pipeline leak detection.

? Optical fiber communication multiplexing.

? Trace gas detection and analysis.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed Phase II effort has several potential applications for future NASA space missions as well as other airborne and ground based instruments. The silicon carbide etalon and digital controller can be utilized in all applications that require a Fabry-Perot etalon. This includes all high resolution future, passive and active, remote sensing instruments, such as direct detection Doppler wind lidars that are slated for space, manned and unmanned aircraft, such as UAVs. Additional applications include infrared remote sensing of trace gases such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and methane as well as other applications involving astronomical spectroscopic observations.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kenneth Arnett
kenn@perdix.com
435 S. 44th St.
Boulder, CO 80305-6017
(303)543-8077
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Why are rugged, low temperature actuator materials important? By themselves, they are useless; however, when fabricated into thin films and integrated into optical devices that require movement of optical surfaces for functionality, they extend the device operational envelope into temperature and environmental extremes not previously accessible. The actuator media also serves as a compliant adhesive that holds optical surfaces to rigid mechanical supports and allows optical devices to survive extremely low temperatures and harsh vibration environments such as vehicle launch without producing deleterious high voltage. Our actuator technology enables tunable optical devices without a media like liquid crystals in the optical path. Consequently, our optical devices will have superior optical performance limited only by the quality of the optical coatings and substrate surfaces. Several areas will be advanced by this new low-temperature actuator technology. High-resolution tunable optical filters such as Fabry-Perot optical filters are needed in direct-detection LIDAR applications to spectrally resolve the back scattered radiation broadened by temperature and Doppler-shifted by atmospheric winds. When used in imaging spectrometers, the ability to cool the narrowband optical filter and retain etalon plate motion will allow greater instrumental sensitivity to resolving trace ChemBio species. Our rugged low temperature actuator technology could enhance device operation on airborne and satellite platforms.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Low-temperature scanning Fabry-Perot filters for LIDAR or imaging spectroscopy
Detection of trace gasses or ChemBio species
Tunable diode lasers for telecom
Fiber optic switches for telecom
Deformable mirrors for aberration correction or spatial light modulators

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Low-temperature scanning Fabry-Perot filters for LIDAR or imaging spectroscopy

Low temperature actuators

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Tyler Erickson
terickson@bfe.com
1879 Austin Bluffs Pkwy
Colorado Springs, CO 80918-7877
(719)593-9501
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Black Forest Engineering has identified innovative modifications in uncooled focal plane array (UFPA) architecture and processing that allows development of large format long wavelength infrared (8-14 ?m) imaging sensors to meet future NASA system requirements for a light weight, low power, and radiation tolerant imager. These modifications allow development of bolometer-based large format UFPA, with a pixel pitch of 20-?m and 1024x768 pixel elements with sensitivity comparable to commercially available UFPAs with 30-?m pixel pitch. The identified modifications are applicable to amorphous silicon bolometer-based UFPAs, such as those manufactured by Raytheon Commercial Infrared in Dallas, Texas.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Black Forest Engineering's proposed large format focal plane array has non-NASA commercial applications such as radiometers, security and surveillance systems, medical imaging, gas/chemical analyzers and vision enhancement for navigation at night and in fog.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Black Forest Engineering's proposed large format (1024x768) focal plane array has NASA commercial applications for remote sensing applications such as aircraft, balloon-borne, space flight platforms, Planet Landing Aid in Dust Storms, Thermal Emission LWIR Imaging. Radiation tolerance and no need for temperature stabilization make it practical for a wide range of systems, especially applications requiring low power consumption and long life.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
John M. Green
john.green@sensytech.com
300 Parkland Plaza
Ann Arbor, MI 48103-1869
(734)769-5649
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed work builds a prototype flyable instrument sensor system, based on the preliminary design from Phase 1, capable of operating from a UAV platform to detect and precisely locate wild land fires and quickly transmit the important fire parameters to ground firefighting units. The overall design leverages the results of recent developments at SenSyTech for the real-time geocorrection. It incorporates camera sensors with new Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP) which offer high signal-to-noise ratio, high spatial resolution, small size, and require low power. The optical design uses a whisk broom scan configuration providing both high spatial resolution and wide field of view for large area coverage in a short time. The geo-corrected, classified fire information is compressed for efficient transmission to the Incident Command Team by a direct communication link. Our goal is to make this information available within 10 minutes of acquisition.

The Fire Mapper will demonstrate the feasibility of a small, cost effective system that can meet the commercial market requirements and be used in UAV's or a wide variety of commercial and military piloted aircraft.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In addition to fire mapping, SenSyTech believes there are significant market opportunities for many other applications including disaster response, surveillance, and thermal mapping. Any situation where high sensitivity, high resolution, georeferenced, real time thermal imagery brings value represents a potential application. Possibilities include detecting unauthorized persons or vehicles in restricted areas, thermal mapping of ground water flow, or thermal mapping of disaster sites, such the World Trade Center, to assist and safeguard recovery crews.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Fire Mapper will demonstrate an important operational utility for UAV's. Data from Fire Mapper will permit comparison with MODIS and other satellites to evaluate the use of new high performance thermal IR detectors that may be used on future satellite systems for detection and mapping of forest fires.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gregg Switzer
switzer@advr-inc.com
910 Technology Blvd Suite K
Bozeman, MT 59718-4012
(406)522-0388
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This NASA Small Business Innovative Research Phase II project will develop a compact, low-cost, wavelength locked seed laser for injection locking high powered Nd:YAG lasers used in a range of lidar remote sensing applications including molecular profiling of the atmosphere. Precise wavelength control of the seed laser will be achieved by actively locking the laser wavelength to an absorption line in molecular iodine. The key innovation in this SBIR effort is the use of nonlinear optical waveguides both to frequency modulate and to frequency double a portion of the seed laser beam to generate the appropriate optical signal for locking to the iodine absorption line. Using an all-waveguide based approach will result in a compact, robust package that will withstand temperature, shock, and vibration levels associated with NASA's airborne and space based remote sensing platforms.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The seed laser system developed during this effort will also benefit non-NASA lidar based remote sensing platforms that require wavelength locked seed lasers. In addition to its use as a Nd:YAG seeder, the laser will have applications in sensing and environmental monitoring, and basic research. Sensing applications include fiber optic sensors in use by the military (as well as the private sector) which require very stable low noise laser sources. Low-power wavelength locked lasers are also finding use in precision metrology systems at both 1064 nm and 1319 nm.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The seed laser platform being developed in the SBIR Phase II project, because of its compact and rugged package, will enable stable operation on airborne and space based remote sensing platforms and will therefore directly benefit several of NASA's lidar based remote sensing projects, including the Molecular Lidar program being developed at NASA/LARC, and the Wind Lidar program being developed at NASA/GSFC

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Fibertek Inc.
510 Herndon Pkwy
Herndon ,VA 20170 - 5225
(703) 471 - 7671

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Floyd   Hovis
fhovis@fibertek.com
510 Herndon Pkwy
Herndon ,VA  20170 -5225
(703) 471 - 7671
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Several instruments that are potential candidates for future space-based NASA missions require a highly stable, single frequency laser oscillator that is wavelength tunable. It should be a cw source with an output in the 10-100 mW range. Most of the applications either require that the wavelength be near 1064 nm or can use that wavelength. To meet many of the applications, the laser should have a short-term frequency drift of <1 MHz/min and a long-term frequency stability of +/-50 MHz. The more demanding applications require long term stability of +/-1 MHz. Some commercial lasers meet the less stringent performance requirements, but to our knowledge, Lightwave Electronics is the only domestic laser vendor that has built any space-qualified units. None of the commercial lasers meet the +/-1 MHz long term stability requirement. At this time no domestic laser manufacturers, including Lightwave Electronics, appear to be interested in supplying a laser that meets the +/-50 MHz long term stability requirement in a space-qualified version. We are proposing to build a space-qualified version of the required laser based on a design that is an innovative synthesis of microchip laser technology, space-qualifiable thermal control systems, frequency locking techniques that use a simple I2 absorption cell, and compact packaging technology. In addition to the basic cw laser development that was begun in Phase I, we are proposing to develop a next generation of compact control electronics. We are also proposing to demonstrate the utility of the system by using it to injection seed a Q-switched, 10 kHz repetition rate Nd:YAG laser oscillator. The required laser development strongly overlaps the technology development areas defined in the SBIR topic E1.02, Lidar Remote Sensing. The areas of overlap include the more specific categories of High Spectral Resolution Lidar systems, lidar for direct wind detection, and innovative laser component technologies.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The potential NASA Commercial Applications we have identified are listed below.

1) Direct detection wind lidar development at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Fibertek delivered a first generation laser transmitter for this system in the spring of 2002.
2) High Brightness Spectral Resolution Lidar research at Langley Research Center (LaRC). Fibertek delivered a first generation laser transmitter for this program in the spring of 2003.
3) Ozone DIAL system development at LaRC. Fibertek completed an Advanced Technology Initiative Program in March 2004 that demonstrated a conductively cooled single-frequency laser transmitter that had a single-frequency output of 300 mJ/pulse at 50 Hz with an M2 < 1.5 in support of this program.
4) Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) interferometer.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The potential Non-NASA Commercial Applications we have identified are listed below.

1) Fourier Transform Spectroscopy for remote sensing applications being developed at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp (BATC)
2) Direct detection wind lidar systems being developed at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems for airborne and space-based applications. Raytheon is currently funding Fibertek to develop a 50 Hz, 1 J, single-frequency 1064 nm laser that is frequency tripled to an M2< 2 for use in their wind lidar program.
3) NOAA development of a Gulfstream IV aircraft based direct detection wind lidar for hurricane wind monitoring. Fibertek has recently responded to an RFI for the required laser transmitter.
4) NOAA sponsored development at the University of New Hampshire of a balloon based direct detection wind lidar. Fibertek is in the process of negotiating a contract for the required laser transmitter.
5) Air Force Research Laboratory sponsored development of a 1 J, 100 Hz laser operating at 1 ?m that would be used in a variety of future space-based lidar systems. Fibertek recently won a Phase II SBIR to develop the required laser transmitter.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Shibin Jiang
jiang@npphotonics.com
9030 S. Rita Road
Tucson, AZ 85747-9102
(520)799-7407
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This proposal is for the development of new Tm3+ doped germanate glass fibers for efficient high power 2-micron fiber lasers capable of generating an output power of up to hundreds watts. We propose to use Tm3+ doped germanate glass fibers because silica glass fiber is not the ideal host for lasers at wavelength of 2-micron and longer. Germanate glass exhibits lower phonon energy compared to silica glass, increasing the quantum efficiency of 3F4 level of Tm3+ ions. Importantly, Tm3+ can be highly doped into germanate glasses, which results in so called cross-relaxation, dramatically improving the quantum efficiency. We will develop double-clad single mode germanate glass fibers with greater than 6wt% Tm3+ concentration to take full advantages of this Tm3+ cross-relaxation process, developing highly efficient fiber lasers at 2-micron. This type of fiber laser is useful for LIDAR applications, can also be used to pump Ho3+ doped crystals to generate extremely high power 2-micron lasers.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This efficient 2-micron fiber laser can be used for medical applications to replace currently widely used CTH:YAG laser. Generally, fiber lasers outperform solid-state lasers in reliability, compactness, and efficiency.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This fiber laser can be used to pump Ho doped crystals to generate extremely high power 2-micron lasers, which are generally used for LIDAR applications in NASA. The wavelength of Tm3+ fiber laser can be tuned to Ho3+ absorption peak of 5I8 ?5I7 transition, minimizing any detrimental up-conversion. The developed Tm3+ doped single mode fiber can also be used to build single frequency fiber laser with extremely narrow linewidth and long coherence length, which can be used as the seed laser for NASA's 2-micron solid-state laser.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Brimrose Corporation of America
5024 Campbell Blvd., Suite E
Baltimore ,MD 21236 - 4968
(410) 931 - 7200

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Sudhir B. Trivedi
strivedi@brimrose.com
5024 Campbell Blvd., Suite E
Baltimore ,MD  21236 -4968
(410) 668 - 5800
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In Phase II we will develop transparent Nd:Yttria ceramic laser materials that can operate at 914 nm and 946 nm suitable for applications in ozone LIDAR systems. We will strive to further optimize Nd:Yttria ceramics with a focus on improving the overall transmission of the material as well as optimizing the Nd dopant concentration. The goal is to develop Nd: Yttria laser materials with high figure-of-merit (FOM) that do not suffer from Nd concentration quenching. We will investigate Nd:Yttria ceramics as solid-state laser materials. Initial testing will be done at the primary emission wavelength of 1.07 ?m. Laser performance studies will be based on pulsed, quasi-cw, and cw end-pumping schemes. We will also develop the Nd: Y2O3 ceramics for laser applications at 914 nm and 946 nm. The optimized ceramic materials developed will be used for laser experiments at 914nm and 946nm. Initial experiments will be carried out at reduced temperature (77K). After successful demonstration of low-temperature lasing at 914nm/946nm, the possibility of efficient lasing at higher temperatures (up to 300K) will be explored. Different laser designs will be employed including end-pumping schemes and the thin-disk laser configuration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The ceramic laser material that will be developed during this research will have potential applications in LIDAR remote sensing applications. Nd:Y2O3 has emission lines at 914 nm and 946 nm, which, when frequency tripled, correspond to ~305 nm and ~315 nm. These wavelengths are of particular interest for differential absorption lidar (DIAL). DIAL techniques are used to determine molecular constituent concentrations present in the atmosphere such as ozone and green house gases, which are of particular interest because of their impact on the environment.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential commercial applications. Commercial applications include remote sensing, chemical detection and scientific research. Furthermore, the cost to produce ceramic laser materials is potentially much lower than that for single crystal materials because of the shorter time it takes to fabricate the material and also because of the possibility of mass production.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Keith Forsyth
kforsyth@sensorsinc.com
3490 Route 1, Building 12
Princeton, NJ 08540-5914
(609)524-0234
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Based on the prototype photon counter developed during Phase I, we will deliver a next-generation photon counting detector optimized for LIDAR applications within the near-infrared spectral band.

For maximum flexibility, the system will employ user-interchangeable plug-in detectors optimized for performance in specific spectral bands commonly used in LIDAR applications. One such detector will be optimized for the 0.9 to 1.7 micron band for use with 1.55 micron eye-safe lasers, and another will be optimized for the 0.9 to 1.1 micron band for use with neodymium lasers. By optimizing the bandgap of the InGaAsP APD for operation near 1 micron, we expect to obtain much higher QE than commercial silicon APDs simultaneously with dark count rates comparable to those of commercial silicon photon counters.

The entire system will be packaged in a compact and rugged modular unit requiring only 110 VAC power and passive ambient air cooling. An entirely solid-state miniature refrigeration system based upon the system developed in Phase I will enable operation of the APD detectors at temperatures below 200 K without the need for cryogenic liquids or external liquid chillers. This miniaturization will be a significant step towards construction of near-infrared photon-counting systems suitable for spaceborne platforms.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential commercial LIDAR applications include wind profiling and pollution monitoring. Other commercial applications include silicon microprocessor failure analysis based on the time-resolved emission technique, quantum information security, singlet oxygen detection in biomedical research, stand-off molecular spectroscopy of suspected toxic clouds, semiconductor photoluminescence mapping, and Raman spectroscopy.

Sensors Unlimited is currently delivering photon-counting detectors to commercial customers in the semiconductor failure analysis and quantum information security markets.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Applications encompass all types of direct-detection LIDAR operating in the near infrared, including wind, aerosol, trace gas, and high-resolution altimetry measurements.

Operating in the optional linear mode, the detector module can also be used for analog-mode photon counting and for high-sensitivity free-space communication experiments over great distances.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Thomas Owano
t.owano@lgrinc.com
67 East Evelyn Avenue, Suite 3
Mountain View, CA 94041-1518
(650)965-7713
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Los Gatos Research, Inc. (LGR) proposes to develop a flight ready instrument, capable of deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to simultaneously measure in situ aerosol extinction and scattering coefficients. The instrument will be lightweight, compact, robust, integrate into UAV platforms, and be capable of simultaneously measuring aerosol extinction and scattering coefficients to 0.1 Mm-1 with a 1 second sampling rate. This highly innovative instrument, based on cavity-enhanced laser spectroscopy, will operate autonomously, and continuously stream data for storage or downlink. By significantly increasing the speed, sensitivity, and accuracy of in situ aerosol optical property measurements this instrument will enhance NASA flight studies of atmospheric aerosols and their effects on the radiative balance of Earths atmosphere. These studies seek to identify how aerosol optical properties vary through the lower troposphere, and further determine under what conditions surface-based measurements of these properties be used to calculate the direct aerosol radiative forcing from a measured aerosol optical depth. These studies are also of great use in determining how in situ measurements compare to remote sensing measurements. The ability to gather in situ aerosol optical property data from UAV-based instrumentation will both complement and greatly enhance existing ground based and flight instrumentation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Non-NASA commercial applications include a low-cost instrument targeted at ground based research / automated monitoring stations, and OEM particle monitors. Ground-based instruments will be marketed to regulatory monitoring customers including power plants, factories, chemical plants, airports, public buildings, and various oversight agencies. We expect an early research and testing market, gradually evolving to voluntary and then mandatory compliance driven monitoring. For particle monitoring, high performance semiconductor manufacturing is evolving toward containment of the microenvironment within the tools and docking modules that transfer wafers between tools, and there is a strong need for ultrasensitive, in situ particle monitoring (ISPM) systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA commercial applications for this in situ aerosol instrumentation include a compact, lightweight instrument targeted at manned or UAV research flights in the troposphere, and an autonomous, ruggedized instrument package targeted at research flights in the stratosphere. We anticipate interest in a tropospheric flight instrument from various US Government laboratories performing atmospheric research, including NASA-Ames Research Center, NASA Langley, NRL/Monterey, DOE, and NOAA/CMDL. The rugged, autonomous, and high-sensitivity requirements of stratospheric flight instrumentation would also be well served by this platform, but this is a highly specialized, boutique market segment that we would expect to fulfill on a contract basis.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Paul Lawson
plawson@specinc.com
3022 Sterling Circle, Suite 200
Boulder, CO 80301-2377
(303)449-1105
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
One of the key areas of study of NASA's Earth Science enterprise is the role played by clouds in climate change. The duration of conventional research aircraft is limited so that long-term measurements required to validate satellite observations are not practical. Small uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) and tethered balloons, however, are now capable of making sustained, long-term (30 hr) measurements, so that data sets can be collected that provide much better statistical comparisons with results from satellite retrieval algorithms. In Phase I we produced system designs and performed laboratory tests to investigate the feasibility of manufacturing a small, lightweight (< 1.5 Kg) cloud particle imager, called a Micro-CPI, for application on the Aerosonde Piccolo, the most-widely used small UAV for weather research. In Phase II, Micro-CPIs will be fabricated and flight-tested on the Aerosonde UAV at the Aerosonde facility located at the NASA Wallops Island Research Facility. The Aerosonde Corporation has agreed to commit technical consulting and materials to support the Phase II effort. The Micro-CPI will measure the size distributions of both water and ice particles. The extremely high resolution images (3-micron) of ice crystals can be used to determine their shape and light-scattering properties, information that is crucial for reliable validation of satellite retrievals used to monitor global climate change.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Non-NASA commercial applications are varied and myriad. The Micro-CPI will be used by Aerosonde in a variety of projects, such as the upcoming Antarctic Regional Interactions Meteorology Experiment (RIME), to make low-level measurements of sea spray over the ocean surface where it is unsafe to operate piloted research aircraft, and in support of military operations to determine cloud properties that affect the targeting of electromagnetic radiation used to guide armament. Low-cost Micro-CPIs can be used in industry to measure the drop-size distributions of paint and agricultural sprays.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary NASA application of the Micro-CPI will be to conduct long-duration measurements of cloud properties using the Aerosonde UAV. These measurements will be used to validate remote retrievals of cloud properties from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS is a constellation of satellites intended to monitor clouds, aerosols, oceans, land-masses and their effects on climate change over the next 10 to 20 years. Additional NASA applications will include measurements of cloud properties in isolated regions, such as Polar Regions and the Tropics where it is impractical to use conventional research aircraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kazem F Sabet
ksabet@emagtech.com
1340 Eisenhower Place
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-3282
(734)973-6600
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A new type of calibration standard is proposed which produces a pair of microwave noise signals to aid in the characterization and calibration of correlating radiometers. The proposed Correlated Noise Calibration Standard (CNCS) is able to generate pairs of broad bandwidth stochastic noise signals with a wide variety of statistical properties. The CNCS can be used with synthetic aperture interferometers to generate specific visibility functions. It can be used with fully polarimetric radiometers to generate specific 3rd and 4th Stokes parameters of brightness temperature. It can also be used with spectrometers to generate specific power spectra and autocorrelations. It is possible to combine these features and, for example, generate the pair of signals that would be measured by a fully polarimetric, spectrally resolving, synthetic aperture radiometer at a particular pair of polarizations and antenna baselines for a specified scene over a specified frequency band. The proposed CNCS will cover all the frequencies used for radiometric observations in the 1 to 40 GHz range. In specific, the Phase II project will develop the system prototypes for L and X bands. While intended for ground based characterization of radiometer systems, the technological approach is amenable to on-orbit calibration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Aerospace corporations, Universities, government agencies other than NASA, and international groups also construct correlating radiometers that will benefit from this technology. Indeed, correlating radiometer technology developed by NASA will increasingly be exploited by other institutions; especially as enabling technologies like the CNCS are developed. Those institutions known to the authors to manufacture radiometers include, but are not limited to, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Ball Aerospace, Aerojet, Quadrant Engineering, U. S. Navy, NOAA ETL, The University of Michigan and The University of Massachusetts.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA is seeking correlated noise calibration devices for use in numerous microwave correlating radiometer systems (such as synthetic aperture interferometers, polarimetric radiometers, correlating spectrometers, and instruments utilizing any combination of these techniques) now under development or being proposed. Systems that could benefit from this technology include, but are not limited to, Conical Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder (CMIS), Lightweight Rainfall Radiometer (LRR), Geosynchronous Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR), ACMR, etc.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David W. Porterfield
Porterfield@VADiodes.com
321 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22903-5537
(434)297-3257
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The objective of this Phase II project is to develop and demonstrate a compact and reliable oscillator technology for the frequency band from 100 ? 250 GHz for use in terahertz local oscillators and transmitters. The new oscillators rely on MMIC technology that is reliable and robust, offers the best overall performance and will be suitable for volume production and commercialization. These oscillators meet immediate needs for NASA's Earth Science program, specifically for terahertz radiometers for studies of the atmosphere and climate change. The oscillators are also useful for a wide range of other scientific, military and emerging commercial applications. The Phase I study demonstrated the feasibility of the new oscillators through the development and demonstration of an oscillator at 146 GHz suitable as a driver for an 874 GHz cloud ice radiometer being developed at NASA/GSFC. This new component greatly exceeds the performance of any other commercially available oscillator technology while maintaining a compact size, power efficiency and all solid-state construction. The Phase II research is focused on achieving greater power for higher frequency terahertz sources, improving power efficiency, achieving more compact integration of the subcomponents and extending the basic design concept throughout the 100 ? 250 GHz band.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The new oscillators will become primary components in commercial terahertz receivers and sources. Applications of this technology include chemical spectroscopy, radio astronomy, weather monitoring, plasma diagnostics, biomaterial analysis, electron spin resonance, and diagnostic instruments for particle accelerators. Possible military applications include compact range radars, covert communications systems, imaging systems, and chemical, explosive and bioagent scanners. Biomedical researchers envision the use of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy for the real time analysis of diseases such as skin cancer. Potential large-scale commercial applications include portal security imagers and scanners, medical diagnostics for clinical use, last-mile data links, and industrial process control.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This technology will enable the development of powerful and frequency agile terahertz sources to be used as local oscillators for terahertz heterodyne receivers. Such receivers allow NASA researchers to study the chemistry and dynamics of the Earth's atmosphere, molecular clouds and the atmospheres of other planets. The Phase I effort demonstrated a prototype oscillator for an airborne receiver to investigate the effect of clouds on the radiation balance in the atmosphere. The Phase II research will result in the demonstration of an optimized oscillator and the extension of this critical technology for receivers throughout the terahertz band.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark Tabb
tabb@vexcel.com
1690 38th St.
Boulder, CO 80301-3242
(303)583-0258
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) is a recently developed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging mode that combines the capabilities of radar polarimetry and interferometry, as well as adding new capability from a synthesis of the two techniques. PolInSAR holds the promise of being able to provide unique data that can be of great value to the earth science community. By observing scattering volumes such as vegetation canopies, ice sheets, and dry soils using this new SAR technique, one can obtain and decompose scattering from within that volume. In traditional SAR imaging, all scattering that arises from within a three-dimensional resolution cell of the volume is collapsed into a single pixel value due to the layover effect. PolInSAR provides a method of separating the various scattering center locations based on their polarimetric properties. PolInSAR techniques, therefore, can address many issues of interest to the vegetation and environmental community, providing measurements of foliage structure and density, and potentially contribute directly to our understanding of the carbon cycle budget.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Vexcel intends to develop, implement and test algorithms for using and exploiting PolInSAR data. Many of these algorithms will deal with the "non-ideal" nature of PolInSAR data and involve calibration and compensation for non-ideal aspects of the data sources. (For instance finite SNR and temporal decorrelation effects) The algorithms will take the form of a software product and include tools for the easy manipulation and display of the data and associated derived products, as well as embodying more sophisticated polarimetric and PolInSAR techniques. Delivery of the software to NASA will increase the value of the various earth-sensing projects already underway.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In the next few years several fully polarimetric spaceborne SAR systems will be placed into operation that will be ideal for PolInSAR application through repeat pass observations. Furthermore, JPL has a phase 2 proposal to develop an ideal system for PolInSAR applications. The "UAV SAR" initiative, if funded, will develop a polarimetric L-band system designed to acquire repeat-pass interferometry. While the main thrust of this new SAR will be crustal deformation, the same characteristics that allow it to carry out that mission, (i.e. very good navigation and track repeatability) will make it an ideal PolInSAR system as well.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael D. Gilbert
gilbert@eiclabs.com
EIC Laboratories, Inc., 111 Downey St.
Norwood, MA 02062-2612
(781)769-9450
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Development of multifunctional, structural materials for applications in terrestrial and space-based platforms is proposed. The principle innovation is the development of an epoxy-based thermoset that undergoes a phase separation reaction during cure to form interpenetrating networks (IPN) of a structural thermoset (epoxy) phase and a second phase that is tailored to provide ancillary function. Both phases are co-continuous and nano-structured, having typical dimensions of 40-200nm. The second phase has controllable viscoelastic properties to provide mechanical damping and other strain-rate dependent behavior. Additional functionality is obtained by sequestering appropriate materials into the second phase. Examples include ionizable salts to provide ionic conductivity, reducible and oxidizable materials for power source applications and reactive species for composite self-repair. In the phase I, the IPN epoxy was used as a matrix for graphite fiber reinforced composites. Within this matrix material, a novel mechanism for vibration damping was revealed and reactive oligomers for self-repair were successfully incorporated without loss of reactivity. Internal electrochemical reactions, which can be used for electrical power generation and myriad other applications, were demonstrated. In the phase II, high performance IPN epoxies, capable of extended service at 150??C and above will be developed and optimized for vibration damping and self-repair functionality.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The usefulness of the multifunctional composites in defense-related applications for space and ground-based observation and weapons systems is obvious. Vibration damping, power storage and self-repair are properties sought in many structural materials used in these systems. Vibration damping and self-repair are also attractive properties for composites used in commercial aircraft, automobiles and other vehicles. Successful development of a structural composite with either of these features should have a significant value. Other industries, such as shipbuilding and manufactured heavy machinery are also expected to benefit from the availability of the proposed multifunctional composites.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA deploys or anticipates deploying a variety of space and terrestrial vehicles and systems for earth exploration, unmanned planetary exploration and manned exploration of space. These include launch vehicles, nanosats, high altitude balloons, Martian rovers, International Space Station, Shuttle, space observing satellites (eg. HST) and others. All these systems employ or will employ composite materials in one form or another. All will benefit from weight savings, design flexibility and new functions available in structural composites with multifunctional thermoset matrices that are intrinsically vibration damping, self-repairing or provide power storage capabilities.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Steven Sell
sell@payload.com
247 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142-0000
(617)868-8086
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose an innovative, cost-effective flight experiment that will not only reduce the technology risk for future NASA missions but also take full advantage of the unique capabilities available on the International Space Station (ISS). For our Phase II effort, we plan to modify the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) system to serve as an on-orbit testbed for Tethered Spacecraft Interferometer (TSI) autonomous software technologies. The SPHERES system, developed by Payload Systems Inc. and the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, is currently scheduled for its first mission aboard the ISS in 2005 to demonstrate metrology, formation flight, and autonomy algorithms. The modifications proposed here would include the addition of a tether reel, momentum wheels, and software modules to the existing SPHERES satellite system. These modifications would enable several new functions, including coarse spacecraft formation initialization, deployment and retraction, and multi-stage precision pointing control, as would be needed for tethered satellite constellations such as the NASA's Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS) mission. Our proposed effort would result in a flight-identical qualification hardware and software at a small fraction of the typical development cost.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Forming reconfigurable sparse aperture arrays in low Earth orbit using tethers is of interest to the DoD for observations which require the fine ground resolution achieved by separating the sub-apertures further apart (5 km). The DoD could also benefit from the momentum exchange technique for the transfer of satellites from LEO to higher orbits. It may also be possible to provide a plane change capability using tethers. Additionally, university research programs studying tether dynamics could participate and gain valuable data. These applications may be tested on SPHERES-Tether, either on the ground or on ISS.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA is considering several missions that will involve the use of tethered spacecraft. Missions such as the Sub-millimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS) will use tethers to precisely control the relative positions of multiple satellites for interferometry. NASA has been considering the use of electro-dynamic tethers (Momentum-exchange / electro-dynamic re-boost (MXER)) as a means for boosting payloads in low Earth orbit (LEO) to higher orbits as well as Earth-escape without the use of propellant. SPHERES-Tether would directly benefit such missions by providing a low cost 6-DOF 0g testbed for proving out these high-risk technologies.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Vladimir Katzman
traffic405@cox.net
28119 Ridgefern Court
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2049
(310)377-6029
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Switching fabric (SF) is the key component of the next generation of back plane interconnects. Low power, TID and SEU resistant and high bandwidth upgradeable communication between computer nodes are of utmost importance for future NASA missions. The current state off-the-art binary SF interconnect architectures have high power consumption and latency due to the necessity to perform internal data conversion and synchronization in order to recognize redundant bits and extract useful information from the data stream. The high power consumption of the SFs limit their application in the next generation of nano-satellites. In order to minimize latency and reduce power consumption, we propose a novel, robust, radiation tolerant and easy-to-align SF based on a multi-level power efficient Low Voltage Differential Signal interface. Our approach uses differential multilevel signals to mark a reference high-level bit position in one of the differential channels. Because the marked pilots will follow the high logic level in one of the differential outputs, they will regularly occur at the same bit position and ensure stable and easy recovery of the low-speed clock signal, which will be used as a reference for multi-channel data alignment and will synchronize high speed clocking circuitry using a standard clock multiplier technique.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Introduction of new system applications demanding the reconfigurable high throughput provided by the novel multi-level SF interconnects will guarantee significant advantages with increasing interconnection network speed demands by large scale computer systems, and supercomputers. This will help the system designers to increase processing power of future large computer systems performing for example 3 D simulations, MRI image analysis and HDTV video multi-cluster video processing, for homeland security, DOD and other industrial applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The success of this program will result in the development and fabrication of a power efficient, robust, low latency SF for the next generation of NASA space missions. The potential range of other applications will include a new generation of computer systems for spectral image data processing, shared bus computer architectures, and a variety of on-board data acquisition systems. Our protocol transparent and expandable interconnect will be adaptable to various types of communication networks.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Chujen Lin
chujen@i-a-i.com
15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400
Rockville, MD 20855-2785
(301)294-5236
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Many space missions require relative navigation between several spacecraft systems or between spacecraft and rovers or remote controlled probes, such as spacecraft inspection, docking, rover control, formation flight, automatic landing of UAVs, and automatic material handling. Ranging and communication are key functions for these types of applications. The ranging update rate and data rate directly affect the performance of relative navigation. UWB radios are very suitable to the above needs because it can be made to be very low power, low-cost, compact, and lightweight. Furthermore, UWB transceivers for relative navigation will have wide field-of-view compared to optical or image based sensors. Another benefit of UWB is that can co-exist with other radio equipment used by the spacecraft without causing co-site interferences or being interfered by other radio transmission. UWB radios have been demonstrated to be able to perform high-speed communication and good ranging rate separately, but the data rate or the ranging update rate will be greatly compromised if one wants to perform UWB communication and tracking simultaneously. The goals of this Phase II project are to develop a superior UWB transceiver that can provide higher update rate and can provide the maximum ranging update and data rate simultaneously.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We have identified many non-NASA markets for the technology developed in this SBIR effort, including Autonomous navigation of Unmanned Air Vehicles, Warfighter/Firefighter Situation Awareness System, and Autonomous Materials Handling. For each of these areas, there are significant government and civilian customers. The same hardware can also be used for asset tracking in warehouses, hospitals, manufacturing plants, and offices.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The technology developed in this SBIR effort can benefit many NASA applications, including autonomous Satellite Docking, Formation Flight of Spacecraft, Formation flight of UAVs, interspacecraft communication, communication between rovers and spacecraft, and astronaut EVA communication networks.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark Sheldon
msheldon@eergc.com
EERGC Corp., 18A Mason
Irvine, CA 92618-2706
(949)768-3756
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The focus of this program is the development and validation of formulations, and development methodologies, for optimizing high-performance particulate-loaded bipropellant gels to maximize specific thrust, taking into account not only composition but the effect of particle size and properties on maximum achievable combustion performance. The approach quantifies the maximum attainable loading for given particle size, and the subsequent tradeoff with impacts on combustion efficiency due to incomplete solid phase burnout of larger particles, and conversely the degree of pre-oxidation of smaller particles. The method also allows the physical properties of the gel to be optimized. This improves the competitiveness of gelled bipropellants with equivalent liquids, while incorporating the safety and handling advantages of gels. ERGC Corporation has worked to address this solicitation objective in cooperation with subcontractor Northrop Grumman Space and Technology (NGST) Propulsion Systems, the leader in gel propellant technology.

The Phase II program will continue experimental refinement and property testing of gel formulations (including freeze/thaw cycling to ensure properties are maintained under projected mission conditions), employ combustion modeling to determine those formulations expected to provide the best actual performance, and conduct engine tests to validate the performance of the most promising candidates.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
DoD applications which would benefit directly from this project (i.e., applications which could use aluminum-loaded gels because emissions signature is not an issue) include ATACMS or MLRS. DoD applications that would benefit indirectly from this project (i.e., applications which could not use aluminum loaded gels because of their high emissions signature, but would benefit from the advancement of the state-of-the-art in gelled propellant development) include the Joint Common Missile program and the Army Miniature Multirole Precision Guided Missile program.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
If successful, this project will provide NASA with:
1) Specific bipropellants with maximized combustion efficiency, the safety and controllability advantages of gels, and the ability to retain their properties after being subjected to freeze/thaw conditions. Such bipropellants will be useful for most NASA propulsion applications including earth-orbit spacecraft, deep-space applications, Mars ascent vehicle applications, and lunar landing applications.
2) A methodology for determination of maximum performance enhancement expected with nanoparticulate loading; and
3) Tools and methodology that could be applied for different ingredients.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Brian E. Williams
brian.williams@ultramet.com
12173 Montague St
Pacoima, CA 91331-2210
(818)899-0236
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Silicided niobium alloy (C103) combustion chambers have been used extensively in both NASA and DoD liquid rocket propulsion systems. Niobium alloys offer a good combination of temperature capability, density, and cost, while the silicide coating has been successful in providing moderate oxidation resistance and use temperature. However, for many current applications the silicide coating is now proving to be the limiting factor in achieving the required chamber performance and/or lifetime, and the chamber manufacturing cost is excessive. NASA is seeking advanced bipropellant propulsion systems for Earth science spacecraft and space exploration vehicles, while DoD is seeking economical and high-performance bipropellant thrusters for liquid divert and attitude control systems in kinetic energy kill vehicles for ballistic missile defense (a high-volume application). These goals cannot be achieved using standard silicided C103 chambers. In this project, Ultramet proposes to develop and demonstrate a combustion chamber with substantially improved manufacturability, cost, and performance. In Phase I, Ultramet successfully demonstrated both improved chamber manufacturing and a more robust and higher performance oxidation-resistant coating as a replacement for the silicide. This was accomplished through a unique manufacturing process involving low temperature spray deposition of C103 on removable plastic mandrels produced by rapid prototyping. Thin vapor-deposited platinum coatings were shown to substantially improve oxidation resistance relative to the standard silicide coating. In Phase II, Ultramet will expand upon the Phase I results by performing a comprehensive optimization of the combustion chamber processing including mandrel development, cold-spray material/process optimization, and oxidation-resistant coating optimization. Performance will then be demonstrated through hot-fire testing.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed processing, including the rapid prototyping approach for removable mandrel fabrication, low-temperature spray formation of niobium alloys, and the coupling of a thin, oxidation-resistant platinum coating with a niobium alloy combustion chamber, may well offer the best combination of manufacturability, cost, and performance for commercial and government satellite propulsion systems, and ballistic missile defense kinetic energy weapons.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A need clearly exists to bridge the gap between low-performance/low temperature silicided niobium liquid rocket combustion chambers and high-performance/ultrahigh temperature (and high cost) iridium/rhenium chambers. NASA Earth science satellites, the space shuttle orbiter reaction control system vernier engines, and vehicles under development for the news solar system exploration initiative all stand to benefit from the proposed development.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Essential Research, Inc.
6410 Eastland Rd. Suite D
Cleveland ,OH 44142 - 1306
(440) 816 - 9850

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Samar   Sinharoy
sinharoy@essential-research.com
6410 Eastland Road, Suite D
Cleveland ,OH  44142 -1306
(440) 816 - 9850
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We are proposing to utilize quantum dots to develop a super high-efficiency multijunction III-V solar cell for space. In metamorphic triple junction space solar cells, pioneered by Essential Research, Inc., the InGaAs junction or bottom cell of the three-cell stack is the current limiting entity. In Phase I of this program, we demonstrated that InAs quantum dots can be formed by MOVPE, and then incorporated in an InGaAs cell to provide sub-gap absorption and thus improve its short-circuit current. For the Phase II work, we propose to optimize this quantum dot InGaAs cell, and develop a three-cell stack to achieve a space solar cell whose efficiency would dramatically exceed current SOA standards. A theoretical estimate predicts that a InGaAlP(1.95 eV)/InGaAsP(1.35 eV)/InGaAs(1.2 eV) triple junction cell incorporating quantum dots to improve the bottom cell current would have an efficiency exceeding 40%.

Quantum dots will allow NASA not only to improve device efficiency by expanding the spectral response of individual cells, but to improve the temperature coefficients and radiation tolerance as well. This is extremely important as NASA attempts to increase array specific power with new concentrator designs and continues to expand the range of environments to be encountered in future missions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Quantum dots will allow NASA not only to improve device efficiency by expanding the spectral response of individual cells, but to improve the temperature coefficients and radiation tolerance as well. The inherently radiation tolerant quantum dots can be used to take advantage of a thermal assist in carrier generation which will actually benefit from higher temperature operation. This is extremely important as NASA attempts to increase array specific power with new concentrator designs and continues to expand the range of environments to be encountered in future missions.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Successful completion of the Phase II work will lead to the development of a very high efficiency solar cell that will deliver power beyond the realm of any solar cell that is commercially available, or under development by a commercial supplier. Upon achieving this goal, Essential Research Incorporated plans to enter into licensing arrangement with Emcore Photovoltaic, to manufacture and market this product, while working with them for a successful technology transfer and continuing R&D work. Such an arrangement will make this cell available not only to NASA, but also to commercial satellite manufacturers. A letter of support and endorsement from Emcore is attached.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Utopiacompression, Corporation
11150 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 1020
Los Angeles ,CA 90064 - 1822
(310) 473 - 1500

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jacob   Yadegar
jacob@utopiacompression.com
11150 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 1020
Los Angeles ,CA  90064 -1822
(310) 473 - 1500
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA missions are being designed for multi-sensor data collection and synthesis using diverse temporal, spatial and spectral resolutions for use by multiple teams of mission specialists and scientists. This project offers two closely related technologies of 3D surface and volume (a) meshing, modeling and compression, and (b) registration and matching that will benefit the distribution, sharing and use of fused datasets. Various machine intelligence and data-driven methods are used to generate a novel 3D meshing, modeling and compression methods based on hierarchical tetrahedral and binary triangular decomposition schemes applicable to surfaces and volumes, providing high compression performance. Meshing is progressive and adaptive to any resolution and for any selected region in the scene/data, thus making it possible to model certain regions with high resolution while leaving the remaining parts coarse. (2) Registration is performed iteratively to search for optimal alignment of overlapping 3D models by minimizing an error objective function subject to an error tolerance. Following alignment, an integration algorithm fuses overlapping models. The anticipated results are effective 3D surface and volume meshing, modeling, compression and registration technologies that significantly benefit NASA's missions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The 3D tools being developed for this project will be used as a post-processing tool for 3D datasets generated by any current or completed NASA mission (e.g. Mars Rover). Moreover, the tools could also be designed and integrated into planned NASA missions in earth science, deep space and the local solar system as a functional component in mission operations related to 3D data acquisition, processing and transmission.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
UC intelligent 3D technologies will provide a highly efficient top-down progressive 3D meshing, modeling, registration/fusion and recognition capabilities for 3D GIS (e.g. terrain mapping & modeling), medical imaging (e.g. computer-aided detection), security & surveillance, training, simulation and virtual reality markets (e.g. terrain modeling).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Neil Colstad
ncolstad@archivas.com
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451-1121
(781)890-8353
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NRC's Committee on Government Data Centers made a set of technology recommendations for data centers meet user needs and develop the long-term record of environmental change. ArC is a low cost scalable Archive Storage Management System that will help NASA respond to the NRC recommendations. The ArC architecture is innovative in the replacement of current tape-based archival systems with a highly distributed disk-based system that provides unprecedented ease of use implemented over commodity Linux clusters using scalable indexing and load balancing algorithms.

The Phase II Technical Objectives are to develop a full-scope prototype system, evaluate its performance using the EOS Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) on OMIDAPS, and incorporate performance improvements. The prototype will provide a 36TB archival system that will enable archive administrators automate the day-to-day operations of the archive, ensure the preservation of authenticity, provide audit constructs, and achieve the lowest possible cost of operation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NOAA's NESDIS & CLASS, NIMA, NARA's Electronic Records Archives (ERA), National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) from the National Library of Congress, health care PAC, enterprise email, voicemail and financial record archives.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
ArC will increase the real-time performance of active archives and enable NASA to bring more of the permanent archives into active archives. Applications include Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's), Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Core System (ECS) Synergy Program, SEEDS (Strategic Evolution of ESE Data Systems), NSSDC.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Cody Benkelman
cbenkelman@possys.com
713 East 13th Street
Whitefish, MT 59937-2982
(406)862-7745
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Automated detection of land cover changes between multitemporal images (i.e., images captured at different times) has long been a goal of the remote sensing discipline. Most technology in this area has focused on methods for detecting and identifying land cover or surface object changes in two or more images, but precise co-registration of images remains a key challenge. In fact, image-to-image registration and image-based change detection are intricately related, as the success of conducting both relies on the precision of the other; software that supports these functions should do so in an integrative manner. Image registration is the key factor influencing the success of detecting land cover changes at or near pixel scale. We will develop tools in the form of a "software development kit" (SDK) specifically optimized for precise co-registration of two or more images with minimal user interaction, with the primary motivation to enable change detection algorithms to focus on salient changes rather than highlight image registration errors. The SDK will be available to NASA at no cost, after which we will build user applications based on the SDK for commercial offering.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Three commercial partners are currently included: Stewart Geo Technologies, which utilizes imagery in its real estate and title businesses (a vertical market application); Digital Globe, a leading source for satellite imagery that has a need to generate "second generation orthophotos" by co-registering new images to prior images; and Research Systems Inc., developer of the ENVI software, with an interest in adding automated image co-registration tools into ENVI, utilized worldwide to support many of NASA's "National Applications". Positive Systems also has an internal need for better tools to support its service business offerings.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Dr. Jim Anderson has expressed a need for an image co-registration plug-in for ENVI to support research at SSC. In addition, we will work with the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC) to support NASA affiliated researchers on programs such as REASoN, Carbon Cycling, Water and Energy Cycling, and Land Cover/Land Use Change. Many of these NASA projects require co-registration of multitemporal land satellite data sets from ASTER, MODIS, MISR, and Landsat ETM+ obtained through the LPDAAC. Finally, we will work with NASA JSC to provide tools for georeferencing their vast archive of astronaut photography.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
stacey lyle
slyle_grid@sbcglobal.net
7525 Milan Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78414-6142
(361)992-0662
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
GRID has had a successfully completed Phase I 'Mobile Online Intelligent Decision Support System' (MOIDSS). The system developed into a total solution that supports the ability to send and receive digital and analog data from sensors such as photography cameras, spectrometers, infrared and thermal scanners and other system sensors using the 'cube' computers and mobile Personal Data Adapters (PDA's). The data from the sensors can be accessed rapidly in real-time within a GIS using GRID 'geospatial-realty intelligent linking database' (GRILD) autonomously using GPS geospatial authentication. The system has successfully received data using wireless networking systems such as spread spectrum, UHF, and satellite communication systems. Using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions allows a solution that is not proprietary and proven security biometric identification. This system uses GRID's customized software with partners ESRI and Leica Geosystems. The solution was designed with input from local first responders and facility managers. GRID is prepared to move to the next phase to enter the market with a valuable product.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Similar facilities can utilize the system to support activities With MOIDSS^TM the user can add existing data from the map server or collect new data using multiple sensors such as a Hydrolab^TM, ground Lidar system, hand held spectrometers and other advanced sensors. Users can move around maps and spatial information that is local on the handheld or via a true client/server interface. This is possible by using high speed wireless communication. Users will be able to edit data, navigate on the ground, and collect measurement metric information. This allows potential Non-NASA Commercial Applications to be created in multiple areas.

Scientific Investigation with a method to spatial store and interface with data with GRILD. Having the ability to query and request Earth Science Data On-Demand will assist field investigators to compare and fuse real-time data.

Resource managers will have the ability to collect GIS information in the field about the facilities they manage. MOIDSS^TM to use access server information from a distant location. For example, a city manger or farmer can obtain satellite information within the field to assist in making quicker solutions.

Others that could utilize the system include College Campus, Military Installations, Ports, Chemical Refineries, and Manufacturing Facilities.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are a number of applications for MOIDSS^TM:

Earth Science:
The Earth Science directorate can utilize MOIDSS^TM to georeference and calibrate satellite image products. For example, Landsat images can utilize the system to ground truth products in real-time. The solution allows users to access imagery in real-time within the field to assist NASA in determining the quality of products delivered to customers.

Facility Management:
MOIDSS^TM can be used to set control point on site to a homogenous coordinate system. This fixes the coordinate system and spatial reference frame that all data is collected and coordinated. A central base station GPS can be used to update the existing control points horizontal and vertical values. The total solution can be used to assist the facility management to have access to all data sources and develop a GIS Standard.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ray Wang
rwang@mobitrum.com
401 North Washington Street, Suite 680
Rockville, MD 20850-1707
(301)793-4728
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Mobitrum Corporation has demonstrated the feasibility in the Phase I of " A Wireless Sensor Portal Technology" and proposes a Phase II effort to develop a wireless portal device with Ultra-wideband transceiver targeted for NASA's Earth Science applications, Rocket Propulsion testing, and Center Management and Control for field personnel to send/receive digital and analog data from various sensors for data input, analysis and distribution purposes. This effort addresses an important NASA technology gap for integrating a system together to link distributed sensors, data acquisition devices, and center control and management. This effort will include: 1) Wireless sensor portal hardware fabrication; 2) Ultra-wideband sensor module and mini-PCI circuitry design; 3) Ultra-wideband sensor module and mini-PCI hardware fabrication; 4) Hardware integration and testing; 5) Software development and testing; and 6) System integration and testing. The proposed enabling technology will provide NASA a wide range of capability including distributed sensing, monitoring, tracking, and data acquisition. The wireless portal technology will provide an effective tool for Earth Science, Rocket Propulsion Testing, and Data relay for environmental and other sensors for situational awareness.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Commercial applications of the proposed technology will address needs for Wireless USB based on Ultra-wideband technology and application for Radio frequency identification (RFID). The Ultra-wideband wireless systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where bar code labels could not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including smart badge, livestock identification and automated vehicle identification systems because of its ability to track moving objects. There is a significant commercial potential in homeland security, disaster management, and coastal ecology management. Potential billions market in next 2 years.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications of the proposed technology will address needs for data sensing, monitoring, and acquisitions in the following areas: First response emergency; Data relay for environmental and other sensors for situational awareness; Synchronizing of data sources such as air-borne and space- borne systems to ground teams at remote locations; Homeland security applications; Air quality; Aviation; Carbon management; Coastal management; Disaster management; Ecological forecasting; Energy management; Invasive species; Water management; Intelligent Rocket Test Facilities (IRTF) with smart sensor elements, measurement, and field verification applications; Sensing and monitoring for aircraft and emissions.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Geoff Drummond
Geoff@copwr.com
200 Commerce, Unit F
Fort Collins, CO 80524-2746
(970)482-0191
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Our phase 1 study has revealed many significant benefits of a new class of DC-to-DC power converters with performance that cannot be matched by current flight power systems.
The goal of low stored energy has been demonstrated while producing a record-breaking efficiency of 95.5%. This new converter claims this remarkable accomplishment not at just one full power point but at two distinct points. The converter was able to delivery its full rated power of 1kW at 2850V and 5000V load voltages without any physical adjusts.
This new converter demonstrated low arc energy and rapid recovery response while powering NEXIS like sub-scale ion optics at Colorado State University. The 1kW prototype's stored energy was less than 1.9mj at 5000Voutput and less than 700?j at 2850V output.
In phase 2 we will integrate this new technology into a computerized ion thruster test system capable of delivering 24kW screen power. The planned test system will serve to gain confidence with the new topology and to initiate power system designers to an exciting new technology.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
As a result of our phase 1 study we have implemented this new converter idea into our new line of low power traveling wave tube test systems. We sell the test systems to both NASA and non-NASA customers.
We expect to capture the manufacturing market for ion engine ground based test systems as well. As future flight power systems switch to this new topology there will be a need to supply equivalent commercial test equipment to both universities and flight system suppliers. There are many advantages of the new topology that are unknown to most engineers and physicists. As the capabilities of the new converter are better understood new applications will certainly be created. This design may come to be recognized for its power range capability or its extraordinary efficiency and not the low stored energy, as it is best known for now.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
We are the world's leader in computerized traveling wave tube test stations. These test systems vary between average operating powers of 400 watts to 10,000 watts. We currently have a contract to provide two low power test systems to NASA's Glenn Research division. These are new systems, which contain the three-phase resonant circuit described in this proposal. The results of our phase 1 study prompted us to utilize this new design as soon as possible.
In addition to being the leader in TWT test stations we also would like to claim complete patronage from all users of ion thruster test equipment. It is anticipated that the new converter will quickly find use in many flight power systems. It is most desirable to perform ground testing with equipment similar to flight power systems. To that end we hope to capture the bulk of all ground test system equipment manufacture.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
TeamVision Inc.
33305 1st Way South B207
Federal Way ,WA 98003 - 4554
(253) 661 - 9765

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Stephen L Metschan
SMetschan@teamvisioninc.com
33305 1st Way South B207
Federal Way ,WA  98003 -4554
(253) 661 - 9765
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed innovation is to combine traditional and cutting edge optimization techniques into an existing powerful object based organic enterprise decision network called FrameworkCT. This combination would represent not only a leap in the field of optimization itself but also in the methods by which these models are produced for optimization process in the first place. This will be the first time ever that (i) multidisciplinary model integration, (ii) distributed parallel processing, (iii) statistical simulation, and (iv) optimization algorithms will be put together to solve complex systems engineering optimization problems.

In our Phase I research we have not only demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed innovation but in our preliminary tests we uncovered important synergies between the existing neural network database foundation of FrameworkCT and neural network optimization as well as between the current massive parallel processing capability and genetic optimization algorithms. Or overall effort is closely aligned with NASA's new initiative of going back to the moon, mars and beyond. This alignment with a current enterprise decision system will help insure the ultimate usefulness of the proposed innovation to NASA as well as industry and result in a tangible benefit during and immediately following the conclusion of the project.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The need for focused investments in the area of the enterprise decision process is imperative for the success of all other investments being made by NASA. At present, large organizations like NASA's, expend a great deal of time and money making enterprise decisions. In addition, the long term impact associated with poor decisions can adversely effect an organization for many years in to the future. Millions of dollars could be saved by placing enterprise decision technologies like FrameworkCT at the forefront of NASA's investment priorities.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The problems faced by NASA in the enterprise decision process are not unique, but shared by all medium to large system integrators throughout the government, industry and even the world. The significant improvement of combining optimization within an existing enterprise class decision network is substantial. Successful implementation of this combined system would save NASA and industry billions of dollars annually by reducing significantly the false starts, redundant effort, long lead times and globally non-optimal solutions characteristic of the early enterprise decision process of complex systems.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark Berggren
mberggren@pioneerastro.com
11111 W. 8th Avenue, Unit A
Lakewood, CO 80215-5516
(303)980-0890
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Mars Aqueous Processing System (MAPS) is a novel technology for recovering oxygen, iron, and other constituents from lunar and Mars soils. The closed-loop process selectively extracts and then recovers constituents from soils using acids and bases. The emphasis on Mars is production of useful materials such as iron, silica, alumina, magnesia, and concrete with recovery of oxygen as a byproduct. On the Moon, similar chemistry is applied with emphasis on oxygen production.

Most lunar LOx processes only reduce FeO, which is generally present at just 10 to 15 percent in soils. All of the soil must be heated to reduce the contained FeO, resulting in substantial heat transfer issues. Thermal power requirements per unit of oxygen recovered are reduced by an order of magnitude and hydrogen losses are minimized if only a small mass of high-grade iron oxide concentrate, such as that produced by MAPS, is subjected to hydrogen reduction.

MAPS is significant because it can be co-developed for Mars and Moon applications. The process would be commissioned first for oxygen production on the Moon. Modular enhancements for manufacture of additional products would be implemented on the Moon and then on Mars, thereby reducing risks and costs.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
MAPS extraction technology has potential terrestrial applications for treatment of soils contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides. The MAPS acid manufacturing technology can potentially be used to recover SO2 emissions as saleable sulfuric acid instead of neutralized sludge for landfill disposal. MAPS materials fabrication techniques can potentially be used in remote regions to manufacture structures from non-conventional feeds.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
MAPS can be commissioned first for lunar applications to generate oxygen with order of magnitude reductions in thermal power compared to bulk soil treatments. Later modular improvements can add recovery of iron, other metals, and metal oxides (including silicon dioxide, a key precursor for photovoltaic panel production). On Mars, all of these products plus concrete can be produced. The process can be developed in parallel for lunar and Martian purposes, resulting in mission cost savings and risk reduction.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
John V. Draper
draperjv@bellsouth.net
1950 Mountain View Road
Lenoir City, TN 37771-7820
(865)986-1166
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The objective of the proposed project is the development of technology for more efficient and effective human-computer supervision of complex systems. Systems that combine humans and automation in a synergistic or cooperative manner may be termed hybrid systems. Hybrid systems offer advantages over both purely automated systems and purely manual systems in many circumstances. However, future hybrid systems will be even more complex than contemporary ones. This gives rise to a serious need to develop methods for integrating humans more closely?and more efficiently?than is possible now within hybrid systems. We propose to apply a recent Raven Research innovation, Achievability Control Theory (ACT) to the problem of integrating multi-agent autonomous and semi-autonomous systems into human-machine teams. ACT is a superset of Supervisory Control Theory (SCT) which more synergistically combines human and machine capabilities and enhances the flexibility and effectiveness of hybrid robotic and automated systems. This approach allows for integration of multiple agents in a system and at same time promotes human-centric understanding and design of such a system.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The innovation is widely applicable to systems combining humans and automated or robotic devices, including manufacturing, assembly, deployment, servicing, repair, and refueling.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The innovation is widely applicable to systems combining humans and automated or robotic devices, which could include planetary exploration and orbital manufacturing.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Subrata K. Das
sdas@cra.com
625 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138-4555
(617)491-3474
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Safe and effective interactions between humans and complex systems represent a requirement for practically all of NASA's missions. The first-of-a-kind nature of such systems and the range of unpredictable events they are likely to be confronted with raises considerable design issues. To address this challenge we propose the development of an environment for Evolvable Work-practice Interfaces between Humans and Agents, which adapts activity theory to the situated nature of action. During Phase I we have developed a scenario for modeling interactions with Advanced Life Support Systems, we have modeled the associated human activities, and criteria through which activities and actions are employed. The experiments conducted using the BRAHMS work-practice simulation environment have demonstrated the feasibility of the approach and its potential to generate and capture critical interaction cases.
During Phase II we will expand our scenario to include additional potential challenges, we will expand our model for describing work activities and work practices, and the way they operate during human system interaction. We also propose to expand the simulation capabilities of the BRAHMS environment to increase the insight of experimenters into their simulations, and we will provide criteria for evaluating the soundness and performance of the proposed model and implementations.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The approach described could of benefit in high-risk high value mission control environments, such nuclear power stations and air traffic control centers. Additional important applications include the conduct of work activities in Air Operation Centers and in other C2 environments. Lastly, but not least important are the benefits for complex monitoring systems in healthcare and in logistic operations.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed approach presents relevant application opportunities in a range of NASA application domains. They include the development of human-system interfaces for extra-vehicular activities, for the remote control of robots and vehicles, and for conducting scientific experiments through remote interfaces. The approach is particularly relevant for human interactions with systems during long-duration manned flights. Finally, the approach is likely to find multiple applications in the area of gournd operations control.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Leonard Haynes
lhaynes@i-a-i.com
15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400
Rockville, MD 20855-2785
(301)294-5250
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose combination of software intelligent agents to achieve decentralized reasoning, with fault detection and diagnosis using PCA, neural nets, and maximum entropy methods. The goal of the work is to achieve integrated system health management and self-reliant systems, including integration with the maintenance and logistics scheduling systems to achieve fully automated end-to-end solutions. At low levels the agents will evaluate raw sensor signals to detect and diagnose the cause of anomalies. At the next higher level, the agents will combine the diagnostic results from multiple lower level agents to detect and diagnose anomalies in the interaction between components or subsystems. If there is a maintenance action or a spare part indicated by the prognosis, a Task Agent and/or a Spare Parts agent will be spawned to interact with the appropriate agent-based Scheduling System to insure that the requirements are met. Agents at each level are also responsible for performing graceful degradation in the event of a failure at their level. At the low level, we have demonstrated that the PCA algorithm can greatly reduce the amount of diagnostic data that must be shared between hierarchical levels. We have also demonstrated other algorithms for anomaly detection, diagnosis, and diagnostic data-fusion.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary commercial application of the work herein proposed is in protecting power grids from exactly the type of failure that resulted in the August 2003 multi-day loss of power in nearly the entire northeast of the US. We envision intense interest in technology to protect the power grid from massive shutdown. The problem is fundamentally one of decentralized control of many power generation plants and complex power distribution hardware. Software agents have proven themselves to be very more effective, robust, and more easily implemented than conventional centralized solutions.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The NASA target for this work is the new Space Exploration Initiative and the first BAA named the Advanced Space Technology Program. For the new Space Exploration Initiative, prognostics and diagnostics integrated with automatic resource allocation and scheduling will be essential for many reasons. 1) Maintenance and repair operations will often occur in space where resupply of parts may take months or be infeasible. It is essential to make sure all logistical requirements are met. Logistics system failures are mission and possibly life critical. Latent faults must be detected; prognosis must be automatic and accurate. 2) The total system needed to support missions to Mars will be so complex that the current largely manual scheduling is not feasible or would be so error prone that missions could fail for lack of the required components, spares, or tools because of these errors. Schedules must be generated that allow for maximum contingency planning to prevent continual replanning. 3) Space based, moon based, or Mars based space ports will be very complex. Current systems for diagnosis that generate a single good/bad indication from each sensor individually are inadequate because they do not detect subtle changes that are indicative of latent faults, and because of the time and manual effort required to analyze and determine the root cause of a problem.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Bruce Damer
damer@digitalspace.com
343 Soquel Avenue, Suite 70
Santa Cruz, CA 95062-2305
(831)338-9400
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
All research and development in the nation's space program is being aligned around the new Exploration Systems Enterprise vision. The proposed work product for this SBIR II, a Universal Model Repository (UMR) to reduce time and costs for a wide range of mission simulation and training applications, is designed to serve that vision. The UMR will allow NASA and its contractor community to use a license-free online database to store 3D geometry, procedures, animation, functional specifications and simulation assembly templates. The UMR will be delivered with the following three critical template simulation applications: 1) simulation template and applications for crew medical training in health and safety on long duration missions for ISS and Constellation/CEV; 2) simulation template and applications for the design of human-robotic systems and work practices to support long duration surface facilities on the Moon or Mars; and 3) simulation template and applications for rapidly developed, low cost just-in-time virtual training for in-flight ISS and future Constellation/CEV crews.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This platform has been engaged in a project for the teaching of safety practices to children with Autism in a controlled study funded by the National Institutes of Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Other commercial applications include use in the construction industry to simulate work packages, the design of factory floors where people work in concert with robots, surgical theaters where physicians and staff need to optimize the utilization of space, time and equipment, as a multiplayer game platform, and as an engine for battlefield training involving humans and robotic and virtual agents.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA commercial applications of a Universal Model Repository include design simulation for operability and full virtual vehicle lifecycle management (ISS completion, Constellation/CEV and Prometheus), crew health and safety work practices and training, EVA crew refresher training, mobile agents and human/robotic systems design and field testing, telepresence interface development, lunar and Mars base design concepts, virtual astronaut modeling including haptic interfaces, and NASA outreach and K-12 programs (such as Space Camp).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Wendell Rhine
wrhine@aerogel.com
30 Forbes Road, Building B
Northborough, MA 01532-2501
(508)481-5052
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA seeks new and innovative technologies for materials, processes, and manufacturing that will provide safe, reliable, lightweight, and less expensive launch vehicle and spacecraft components. The proposed project SBIR Phase II project will develop aerogel insulation materials for composite cryotanks and TPS. Introduction of aerogel materials to reusable launch vehicles will result in significant reductions in the weight and volume of cryogenic insulation and high temperature Thermal Protection Systems. Aspen Aerogels' materials typically demonstrate 2-4x improvement in thermal conductivity over traditional insulation materials. When specifically engineered to work with current integrated insulation systems, a marked reduction in thickness and overall weight will be realized. Therefore, with team partner Northrop Grumman Corporation, Aspen Aerogels proposes to develop durable and lightweight aerogel insulation for current spacecraft such as the shuttle and future reusable launch vehicles. During the proposed effort we will develop and characterize fiber reinforced aerogel composites for use as cryogenic and high temperature insulation for reusable launce vehicles. We will also optimize the organic modified silica aerogels developed during the Phase I effort as an approach for improving their strength at cryogenic temperatures. A low-cost, environmentally benign manufacturing process will be used.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The resulting insulation system from this program will also have far reaching effects in both military and commercial applications. Similar to the insulating tiles for the space shuttle, the product could offer a replacement to the expensive insulating tile array used in the exhaust washed regions of advanced military aircraft. The potential also exist for insulating weapons, fuel tanks, electronics, and landing gear bays of military aircraft. Finally, the product will have a commercial impact in areas such as: airliner fuselages, thermal insulation for ovens, insulation for hot exhaust ducts, automotive firewall insulation, appliance insulation, and boilers and incinerators.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The material developed in this phase II efforts could have a variety of applications in the aerospace industry, and within NASA specifically. Aerogels are the most efficient thermal insulation known, and NASA has several applications that would benefit from the low density and low thermal conductivity of aerogels. Among these are replacements for the present blankets and high temperature re-usable tiles on the space shuttle. Aerogels could also be applied to NASA's integrated cryogenic fuel tanks, spacesuit applications, and internal insulation applications on re-usable spacecraft

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David J. Bergeron
dbergeron@paragonsdc.com
2700 E. Executive Dr., Suite 100
Tucson, AZ 85706-7151
(520)903-1000
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
It has been proposed by NASA JSC studies, that the most mass efficient (non-nuclear) method of Lunar habitat cooling is via photovoltaic (PV) direct vapor compression refrigeration. This system uses a thermal radiator, a solar PV array, and a vapor compression refrigeration device. Such a system significantly reduces total system mass as compared to an all radiator cooling architecture. Since the start of initial prototype testing in the mid 1990s, several refrigeration systems have been proposed, studied, built, and tested. The basic goal of each system has been to achieve the highest possible efficiency at the optimal system lift. Most notably, a two-stage refrigeration system and an expander turbine for a single-stage system were developed. Both sought to eliminate or recover the energy loss associated with irreversible expansion at the throttling valve, but both fell short of efficiency targets. Then, Paragon proposed a novel refrigeration architecture that was successfully demonstrated during the Phase I period. This system can achieve, in theory, near Carnot efficiency limits and does so in a practical and achievable way. Not only can this technology provide significantly improved performance (reduced weight) for NASA's Lunar habitat cooling application, but it has excellent potential as a commercial product.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The target commercial users are those companies that currently use two-stage refrigeration technology for high-lift, high-power industrial and commercial low temperature applications, especially those applications located in a warm ambient. A few specific examples include: grocery stores operating freezers, transport refrigeration trailers, and potentially Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and other gas liquefaction plants. Seeking out these customers will be done with the assistance of the two-stage compressor manufacturers, who are also likely to be the long-term licensee of this technology.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The target NASA application is the Lunar base primary cooling system. Lunar base scientific and food freezer refrigeration is also a potential target market. With further development, this technology can be used in similar microgravity applications. Modeling and analysis show that the Batch Cycle technology will reduce the mass of the Lunar base cooling system by 14%, or 500 kg.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Roxana Trifu
rtrifu@aerogel.com
30 Forbes Road, Building B
Northborough, MA 01532-2501
(508)481-5058
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Organically modified silica (Ormosil) aerogel beads developed at Aspen Aerogels, Inc. offer several advantages for retrofitting perlite insulation in NASA's ground tanks storing liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Through both Phase I and internal R&D efforts, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and glutaraldehyde-crosslinked chitosan (GAC) hybrid silica aerogels were developed and evaluated. The hydrophobic aerogel beads have excellent compression strength, resisting thermal cycling and mechanical loads without breaking or settling. Investigations of the thermal performance of hybrid aerogel beads by nitrogen boil-off tests and the mechanical strength by compression tests have shown that carbon-opacified PMMA beads of diameter below 1 mm outperform perlite to the greatest extent. The Phase II work will continue with PMMA systems to optimize the formula and to determine the processing conditions required for controlling bead size distribution and achieving the desired thermal and mechanical performance characteristics. A scale-up of the process is planned to achieve pilot volumes (30-50 liters/hour). We will also demonstrate reproducibility in final bead performance through study of raw material variability (lot-to-lot) and process settings (batch-to-batch).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
For non-NASA applications, the largest volume market segment identified to date is for LNG tanker hull insulation. The proposed solution will allow an increase in usable vessel space. These cargo transport ships will be able to use less than one third the volume for the same thermal performance of the current material, perlite. The novel insulation can also be used for protecting superconductive magnets or oil well underwater pipelines. Aspen's hybrid aerogels can offer thermal management solutions for handling or transportation of cryogens, supporting cryogenic equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
: Cost-effective solutions to insulation problems are fundamental to the energy-intensive field of cryogenics as well as space travel. Liquid hydrogen storage capacity at major Government user locations totals 5,575,000 gallons. Approximately 100,000 gallons are lost to vaporization each time the LH2 flows from the pad storage tank to the Shuttle external tank. Ormosil beads have been proposed for insulating cryogenic umbilical connections for new commercial launch platforms, retrofitting perlite-insulated storage dewars, and insulating miles-long cryogen transfer lines. NASA can also use the resilient bead insulation for space launch vehicle propellant tanks, Space Shuttle upgrades, interplanetary propulsion and life support equipment.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael G Izenson
mgi@creare.com
16 Great Hollow Road, P.O. Box 71
Hanover, NH 03755-0071
(603)643-3800
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Supercritical air at cryogenic temperature is an attractive source of breathing air because of its very high density and low pressure. However, heat leak into the cryogenic tank causes the stored air to expand and vent, thus limiting the storage life of a charged system. We propose to develop a storage system for supercritical air packs that provides cryogenic cooling that will enable long-term storage of charged, supercritical air packs with zero venting. In Phase I we proved feasibility through design trade-off and optimization analyses that led to a conceptual design and operational description of a supercritical air storage system. The innovative, mechanical cryocooling system provides flexible coupling and quick disconnection, as well as high reliability and efficient, low-power operation. The system can be used to charge the tanks with supercritical air without the use of expendable cryogens. In Phase II we will build and demonstrate a prototype storage system for supercritical air self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs). Critical components will be designed and tested individually, then integrated to produce a complete cooling system. We will couple the Phase II prototype with a supercritical air pack and demonstrate long-term storage with zero venting.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
By enabling long-term storage of fully charged SCBAs, our cryogenic cooling system will enable the use of supercritical air SCBA for a variety of terrestrial applications. Homeland security will particularly benefit. Supercritical air makes an ideal breathing air supply for SCBAs: large quantities can be stored at low pressure in a lightweight system, it operates independently of orientation, the quantity is easily gauged, and the system can provide body cooling. The commercial market for these systems includes firefighters, first responders, search-and-rescue personnel, and Level A HAZMAT teams. Supercritical air will be ideal for high-rise and subway firefighting and rescue operations.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA personnel use cryogenic air supplies for rocket propellant handling and emergency rescue from the shuttle launch pad. Supercritical air systems are lightweight, compact, and provide cooling, but the cryogenic tanks need to be frequently recharged. The cryogenic cooling system developed in Phase II will enable storage with zero venting and allow personnel to rapidly disconnect the tanks. All quick disconnects are warm for high seal reliability. The light weight, compact size, high reliability, and high efficiency of our mechanical cooling system will make it ideal for space exploration, enabling non-venting cryogen storage for future spacecraft and extraterrestrial bases.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
John Kvarnstrand
jkvarnstrand@paratek.com
6935G Oakland Mills Road
Columbia, MD 21045-4719
(443)259-0140
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The development and implementation of passive phased array antennas (PAAs) offers significant performance benefits over the current active arrays. The keys to successful development are the low-loss phase shifters and the integration of these phase shifters into modular and scaleable antenna architecture for broad utilization for high data rate communications. The Phase I effort designed a dual-beam, dual-band 4GHz and 6 GHz along with an optimized High Dynamics Modem to support SATCOM telemetry utilizing commercial satellite services, specifically the Intelsat system. The proposed effort will build on this Phase I Phased Array ? High Dynamics Modem design development and include the fabrication, testing and integration of the PAA antenna and high dynamics modem with appropriate RF transceiver (COTS) such that an Intelsat ready communications system test unit is built, tested, validated and delivered to NASA for evaluation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The dual-beam, high-dynamics satellite communications system as designed and prototyped in this Phase 2 effort, will provide sufficient performance to support broadband SATCOM services to commercial aviation, marine, rail and other mass transit and private vehicle requirements. This global reach-back with a high data rate service can either be to a single user or can be the backhaul for an 802.11 or other 'final link' to passengers traveling at high rates of speed or highly irregular motion. Most of these applications will benefit from a reduced performance comms system compared to the NASA ELV requirement.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed application supports Telemetry and Range Safety utilizing commercial satellite systems for expendable launch vehicles, which should experience a substantial acceleration in launch schedules to support the new Manned Missions to Mars/Moon. When the Antenna-to-Baseband Communications System is integrated with the ELV, it will enable Telemetry Data to work on commercial satellite systems to relieve the already overburdened ground- and satellite-based systems currently employed by NASA for a "pay as you go" capability. This prototype system can also be utilized for aeronautical applications where specific critical 'Black-Box' recorded data is transmitted for real-time analysis of potential flight deviations/critical failures.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Yongming Zhang
yongming@quasarusa.com
5764 Pacific Center Blvd., Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92121-4207
(858)373-0231
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The original goal of Phase I was to study the feasibility of developing an electric sensor that can be used for as many NASA sensing applications as possible. During Phase I, in discussion with the COTR, the development of a ground-based miniature sensor for detecting and measuring the electrostatic potential and charge distribution generated on payloads, spacecrafts and landers was identified as a need of immediate importance to NASA operations at the KSC spacecraft assembly facility and throughout NASA.

The innovation proposed in Phase II is the world's first wearable static electric voltage detection system. This system will be able to detect a static potential at sufficient range to prevent the system's wearer triggering a discharge. Versions of the system will be demonstrated for mounting on a hardhat or helmet of a protective suit, and on the forearm over a sleeve. In addition, the same core technology will be tested in the stationary mode, attached to a doorway to screen personnel entering a restricted area, and on a surface of sensitivity equipment to detect the increase of ambient electric field that might trigger an electrostatic discharge.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
As an electrostatic hazard detector, the sensor has potential applications in many industries including , electronics manufacturing (e.g. semiconductors), oil refining, gasoline vending, printing and paper coating, the aircraft manufacturing industry and many other industries in which machinery that can build up a static charge is in proximity to flammable materials. A related application of the sensor is for use as a commercial lightning hazard and/or strike detector.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Although the sensor is being developed with Kennedy Space Center, it has potential applications throughout NASA. As an electrostatic hazard detector mounted on a worker's suit and/or in a facility, its use would benefit any NASA facility where sensitive electronics are assembled or stored. For space missions, it could monitor charge that builds up on an astronaut walking on the surface of the moon or another planet, on a Rover or Lander, or on the spacecraft itself.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark O'Neill
mjoneill@entechsolar.com
1077 Chisolm Trail
Keller, TX 76248-7000
(817)379-0100
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed innovation is a wireless laser power transmission system employing a dual-use photovoltaic concentrator at the receiving end. Specifically, the laser receiver/converter employs thin stretched-membrane Fresnel lenses to focus continuous or pulsed laser light onto small photovoltaic cells, thereby reducing cell cost and improving cell conversion efficiency. The dual-use approach can be implemented in several ways, to allow the same photovoltaic concentrator array to be used as a solar array and/or a laser receiver/converter array. Specifically, the photovoltaic concentrator employs multi-junction cells for high-efficiency solar radiation conversion, and single-junction cells for the high-efficiency laser radiation conversion. A prototype lens/cell unit was successfully tested in Phase I, and a more optimal array will be built and tested in Phase II. The new modular laser/solar photovoltaic concentrator will have many NASA, military, and commercial space applications. Applications include spacecraft arrays receiving laser input from other spacecraft or from Earth; lunar or planetary arrays receiving laser input from nearby spacecraft or from Earth; and Earth-based arrays receiving laser input from space solar power (SSP) spacecraft. The dual-use capability enables state-of-the-art solar operation when sunlight is available (e.g., illuminated orbit portion), and laser operation when sunlight is not available (e.g., eclipse orbit portion).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
DOD and commercial applications will include space-based, earth-based, and unmanned aerial vehicle arrays for laser-only, solar-only, or dual-use radiation collection and conversion. Space applications will include all types and classes of missions, including LEO, MEO, GEO, deep space, and planetary, including on the moon, asteroids, Mars, etc. Earth applications will include the solar-only array as an improved replacement for the ubiquitous planar silicon cell arrays; the laser-only array to receive power from a space-based or ground-based laser; and the dual-use array to collect sunlight by day and to collect laser light from a space solar power (SSP) spacecraft by night.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed dual-use laser/solar photovoltaic concentrator innovation addresses a universal need for all space missions: electrical power. Therefore, the innovation will have innumerable NASA applications. Uniquely, the proposed innovation can be used in a laser-only, solar-only, or dual-use mode, all at state-of-the-art performance levels, enabling the same basic lens/cell module to serve many different applications. NASA applications will include space-based arrays, aircraft- or airship-based arrays, and planetary arrays, for laser-only, solar-only, or dual-use radiation collection and conversion. Applications will include all types and classes of NASA missions, including aircraft, airship, LEO, MEO, GEO, planetary, Moon/Mars exploration, and deep space missions.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
MicroCell Technologies
410 Great Road, Suite C-2
Littleton ,MA 01460 - 1273
(978) 952 - 6947

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael C Kimble
mkimble@microcell-tech.com
410 Great Road, Suite C-2
Littleton ,MA  01460 -1273
(978) 952 - 6947
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA uses a number of water electrolysis units for generating oxygen and hydrogen gas for space applications. These missions range from generating propellants to supplying oxygen to crew and habitat. Consequently, the electrolyzer systems employ a variety of designs and system approaches that can generate high pressures or product gases with varying degrees of moisture, however, most of these approaches result in heavy and bulky systems.

A new water electrolyzer was developed by MicroCell Technologies that allows pressurized gas to be generated in a lightweight and compact design. In a Phase I SBIR program, we demonstrated the feasibility of the electrolyzer to generate pressurized oxygen and hydrogen gas in a compact and lightweight electrolyzer design that can operate in a passive mode without requiring water pumps. Based on these results, we propose to scale the process in a Phase II program to a rate of 0.5 kg O2/hr in a device with a mass of 1000 g and a volume of 300 cc. This translates into high power densities of 6 kW/kg and 18 kW/liter, competitive metrics for an electrolyzer that can also generate high pressure to 2000 psi in a passive balance of plant approach.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This 0.5 kg O2/hr generator will exceed the minimum and maximum requirements for NASA's Advanced Life Support requirements and exceed the minimum requirements for the ISRU. Our electrolyzer is readily scaleable and can be used to produce even higher quantities of oxygen. Our design approach results in a more energy efficient process that minimizes electrical requirements, reduces the system mass, eliminates parasitic energy costs associated with the balance of plant, and improves system reliability while functioning in a low-gravity environment. NASA may use this technology for generating propellants on-board spacecraft as well as on lunar or planetary stations or rovers.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The commercial applications of this electrolyzer may be used toward generating hydrogen economically as a part of the growing hydrogen economy. The electrolyzer could be used for generating hydrogen ranging from smaller laboratory gas generators to larger industrial generators. Additionally, the generated oxygen may be used for portable oxygen supply for medical applications.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Rodney D Davis
davisrd@cctcorp.com
1425 Chaffee Drive, Suite 1
Titusville, FL 32780-7900
(321)264-1193
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
CCT has designed and prototyped, as part of the Phase-1 SBIR, a generic platform independent software capability for exchange of semantic control and monitoring information. In addition, CCT has laid the foundation for auto-generation of semantic construction and interpretation libraries from semantic databases that can be used for message-based communications between loosely coupled systems. This new capability will reduce development, operations, and support costs for legacy and future systems that are part of ground and space based distributed command and control systems. It will also establish a space systems information exchange model that can support future highly interoperable and mobile software systems. CCT has also leveraged Phase-1 results to develop a common data description language approach for NASA-ELV launch operations, creating a pathfinder that will eventually allow all launch service providers, range systems, and ground operators to use common data descriptions, processes, and tools for ground systems configuration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
New telemetry and command exchange standards will serve to enhance the capabilities of CCT's existing command and control product line, allowing CCT to offer data exchange and semantic processing capabilities not previously available in a commercial control and monitoring product. CCT also plans to modularly construct this new semantic processing middleware as an independent product that can be used in any message based communication system, and applied to any XML semantic schema, including military communications gateways, and the telecom industry name a few.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The availability of a platform independent, low cost, advanced data description exchange services for NASA's many space/ground systems would provide a tremendous cost savings via reduction of software development cost to migrate legacy and new systems towards more capable data exchange standards. There would be an even greater cost savings realized from the streamlining of mission preparation processes.
Advanced exchange standards for control and monitoring would also contribute to the eventual design of next generation spaceport command, control, and monitoring systems that are evolvable and capable of supporting heterogeneous vehicles and spaceport systems.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Luying Sun
Lysun@policell.com
240 Martin Luther King Blvd
Newark, NJ 07102-1705
(973)621-8877
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II proposal to NASA requests $596,750.96 support for Policell Technologies, Inc. to develop a series of separator membranes having a selectable thermal shut-down temperature for a period of 24 months. The separator will be used in the making of high performance batteries. This proposal responds to Topic Number F3.09, "Power Technologies for Human Missions".

The innovation is the development of a novel separator membrane that has a selectable thermal shut-down temperature. The Phase II plan is to develop the following 5 grades: 120, 110, 100, 90, and 80oC.

The significance of the innovations is that with the use of the novel separator, the resulting rechargeable lithium-ion battery will: 1) have a selectable and significantly lower thermal shut-down temperature than that of the commercial separators. Thus, the cells will be much safer, 2) offer higher energy density, 3) have longer cycle life, lower as well as stable impedance during charge-discharge, 4) offer ultimately overall low cost.

The commercial applications include for making battery as mobile power sources for devices such as cellular phones, notebook computers, military used devices, and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). The NASA applications include mobile power sources for space.

The Principal Investigator, Dr. Luying Sun, is qualified to perform this work as he has been an expert in this field. Since 1993, the Principal Investigator has been involved in the research and development of separator membrane, electrolyte, and lithium-ion battery.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The commercial applications include: used for rechargeable battery as mobile power sources for such devices as cellular phones, notebook computers, military used devices, and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are a number of potential NASA applications for the novel battery separator membrane. Such separator could be used to make rechargeable batteries that offer higher energy density, and in particular, improved safety and reliability. The battery could be used for such as mobile power sources for space or space-related devices where the battery safety and reliability are highly required.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Christopher J Crowley
cjc@creare.com
16 Great Hollow Road, P.O. Box 71
Hanover, NH 03755-0071
(603)643-3800
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Lightweight, high-temperature radiators are needed for future, high-efficiency power conversion systems for Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP). Creare has developed flexible radiators that are extremely lightweight, stowable in small volumes, and deployable with small forces, but are limited by materials to temperatures below 350 K. These novel radiators incorporate integral micrometeorite protection. Our innovation is a material combination and fabrication method that produces radiator panels with low weight, high fin efficiency, and excellent strength at temperatures. Our goal is to provide a radiator technology based on prior technologies and provides a major advancement toward NASA's goals for light weight and high temperature operation in advanced radiators. The innovative approach does not require development of new materials, simply refinement of processes to join standard metal tubes and foils in the configuration desired. In Phase I we proved the feasibility of the concept and demonstrated the ability of the panel to operate at high temperature. Our lightweight radiator panel offers a factor of four reduction in weight compared with present honeycomb structures and will approach 1.5 kg/m? at a fin efficiency approaching 80%. During Phase II we propose to build, test, and deliver an subscale radiator that demonstrates the advantages of the technology.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Many commercial communications satellites are being built that would benefit from lightweight radiator panels. At high ratios of rejected power to physical size, small commercial satellites need deployable radiators.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This radiator technology is needed for NASA's Prometheus program. Future planetary exploration missions using NEP systems will require high-temperature radiators for heat rejection. The proposed radiator panel technology supports ongoing NASA research efforts (RF03-272702), specifically to develop heat rejection systems for this application.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ralph A Toscano
toscanor@airlockinc.com
Wampus Lane
Milford, CT 06460-4859
(203)878-4691
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
A prototype Next Generation MK III Lightweight HUT/Hatch Assembly will be fabricated and delivered during Phase II. Maximum weight reduction for the Hard Upper Torso - Hatch assembly will be acheived via the innovative material selection and cross sectional redesign investigation Air-Lock conducted during Phase I. The intent is to fabricate a lightweight HUT/Hatch Assembly best suited for space & planetary (or lunar) exploration. This Next Generation MK III Lightweight HUT/Hatch Assembly will be a rear entry assembly and have full "plug and play" capability with previous MK III suits.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Future applications benefiting from the enabling technology will center around low production quantity structures where lighter weight is a goal. Prefabricated military structures and aircraft structures (such as wing spars) are ideal fits.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Besides a lightweight prototype HUT, the manufacturing process of lightweight robust materials will be dlviered to NASA as an enabling technology. Possbile applications include prefabricated, life critical, lightweight pressurized compartments such as airlocks.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jing Xu
t.tang@siwaveinc.com
400 E. Live Oak Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91006-5619
(626)821-0570
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA requires a small, lower power "ranging" sensor that produces a depth map of the scene (the exterior of the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station or a future Space Solar Power Satellite) to inspect for damage. By combining innovative designs with MEMS-based scanners and off the shelf electronic and optical components, this program will develop a low power, miniature LADAR system with 1 mm resolution at 10 meters weighing <300 g, costing orders of magnitude less compared to the state-of-the art systems. This LADAR will be capable of providing high resolution 3-D images of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System for damage assessment.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Because of its 10X reduction in cost and 20X reduction in size without performance sacrifice, the proposed system will have numerous commercial applications in surveying, navigation and guidance, collision avoidance, damage assessment, inspection, surveillance, medical, and manufacturing. Markets for this technology includes medical diagnostic imaging and assisted driving. Both of these markets represent multi-billion dollar business opportunities.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications include damage assessment, inspection, navigation and guidance for the space shuttle, space station and satellites. In addition, the small size, low power and high sensitive features of the micro-LADAR allow it to be carried by astronauts or spacecrafts for analyzing and quantifying the physical characteristics of geological objects (rocks, soil, etc.), virtually independent of the surface roughness, color, or reflectivity.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
James Scire, Jr.
jscire@AFRinc.com
87 Church Street
East Hartford, CT 06108-3728
(860)528-9806
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In this project, the development of a novel panoramic, stereoscopic video system was proposed. The proposed system, which contains no moving parts, uses three-fixed position cameras equipped with NASA's Panoramic Refracting Optic (PRO) to generate stereoscopic images over a hemispherical work area. This system will provide an immersive remote environment for robot operation during space missions, enhancing operator effectiveness. In Phase I, a prototype imager was designed, constructed, and tested. This prototype was used to record stereoscopic images throughout its hemispherical viewing area. These tests demonstrated that the system can generate good stereoscopic views for any chosen viewing direction, thereby proving feasibility. In Phase II we propose to develop an advanced prototype system with an improved optical design that will enhance the system's imaging resolution. We also propose to couple the system with a head-mounted display, equipped with a head-tracking unit, to allow the user to effortlessly view the hemispherical workspace in three dimensions by simply moving his or her head. The Phase II project will therefore substantially increase the level of maturity of the Phase I innovation. The project will culminate in the delivery of the advanced prototype imaging system to NASA.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The non-NASA applications are also numerous. Remote-controlled robots are often used in inhospitable work environments, such as in the disposal of bombs, the handling of radioactive materials, and the handling of objects in inert/vacuum environments. The lack of moving parts in the imaging system and the ability to seal it against contamination are features that make it ideal for many of these applications. Surveying applications also abound in the commercial/private sector, where the system could be mounted to robots and used in operations such as search and rescue (e.g. in collapsed structures), crime scene searches, and terrain or cavern mapping. Police and military personnel would also find a robot-mounted version of the system extremely useful when scouting areas where dangerous individuals may be hiding. In these applications, the simultaneous collection of all of the video data ensures that the system would see anyone who attempts to disable it before the system can actually be disabled.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The NASA applications of the proposed imaging system are numerous. This system can be utilized in any situation where human operators are remotely operating equipment. This includes the operation of remote controlled robots and the maneuvering of spacecraft during docking operations. Other applications for the imaging system will be in planetary exploration, where the proposed system will be compact and rugged enough to be carried by rovers during surveying missions. The system will enable operators or image processing algorithms to quickly locate objects or locations of interest without utilizing a rotating camera mount.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Carolyn Galceran
carolyn@landform.com
1318 Ridgecrest Place S.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87108-5136
(505)265-7020
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The SmartTopo SBIR phase I program resulted in the creation of the first technology designed to provide robotic vehicles with the ability to "learn and remember" the terrain over which they travel. The SmartTopo software system is designed to be portable and robust so that it can be used by NASA in a variety of general and embedded applications. It will be used in robotic inspection of spacecraft on-orbit, making re-entry safer for manned spacecraft. It will also improve the safety of air travel by producing a new type of aircraft altimeter which will tell the pilot the true position of the aircraft above the ground. A vehicle (aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, planetary rover or submersible) is sent forth with an internal digital map of the topography of an area to explore. As exploration proceeds sensors (video cameras for example) on the explorer will collect data as always, but now the SmartTopo software will process the data and update the original digital map data in real time, resulting in a higher resolution topographic model of the surface that it has surveyed. RIS has developed and demonstrated the key elements of this technology during Phase I.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The largest commercial marker for this technology will be UAV manufacturers, because of its potential to both improve safety of flight as well as its ability to rapidly created detailed terrain models for surveyed areas. RIS has been working with numerous UAV manufacturers including General Atomics, AAI, BAI, Titan Systems, and Geneva Aero), many of whom license other RIS software products. Adopting SmartTopo will be a natural extension of the excellent business relationships that we have in place. RIS has already received strong interest from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, ADUSD CDR Thomas Moore, who is keenly interested in seeing this technology applied to submersible vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Robotic exploration vehicles will use this technology to navigate planets and asteroids for which high resolution topographic data may be unavailable. SmartTopo will allow these vehicles to navigate these place where GPS may be unavailable. Future generations of Space Planes, the successors to the Space Shuttle will use SmartTopo to inspect heat shield surfaces prior to re-entry to ensure surface integrity. These craft will also use SmartTopo as a back up to RADAR altimeter technology during landing phase. These applications will fuel commercial space adoption of the SmartCam3D technology.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Prakash B. Joshi
joshi@psicorp.com
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810-1077
(978)689-0003
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Physical Sciences Inc. and Advanced Solutions, Inc. propose a novel approach for on-orbit assembly of a modular spacecraft using a unique universal, intelligent, electromechanical interface (AUTOCONNECT) on surfaces of individual modules. AUTOCONNECT not only provides mechanical fastening between modules (irrespective of precise alignments and orientations), but also automatically configures electrical connections among modules. Mechanical attachment occurs due to docking and physical contact between modules with sufficient initial momenta. The mass properties of the assembly are determined on orbit and the entire assembly functions as a spacecraft unit. In Phase I we simulated spacecraft assembly in two dimensions using instrumented hexagonal modules supported on air bearings with yaw control provided by a reaction wheel on each module. We demonstrated the feasibility of attachment via AUTOCONNECT, power and data transfer across the interface, and angular orientation control of the assembly. In Phase II, we propose to simulate orbital assembly of a spacecraft configuration as an AUTOCONNECTed assembly of multiple instrumented modules, where each module functions as a spacecraft subsystem or payload, and demonstrate command and control of the entire assembly. Additionally, we will address the system level design issues for AUTOCONNECT-equipped spacecraft modules and the concept of operations for their on-orbit assembly.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Military applications of AUTOCONNECT include on-orbit assembly of spacecraft from subsystems needed for a particular mission, creation of new spacecraft configurations, or reconfiguration of existing spacecraft. Other embodiments of AUTOCONNECT will enable rapid ground assembly of spacecraft for quick launch, responsive space missions envisioned by the Air Force. Non-space military applications of AUTOCONNECT include soldiers' clothing and ground vehicles, where sensors, communications equipment, instruments, etc, can be quickly attached as needed for the battlefield environment. AUTOCONNECT allows assembly of systems without connectors and cables, e.g., computer and home electronic systems, "smart" walls in buildings, where sensors/monitors can be attached anywhere.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology will enable NASA to build large systems in space using smaller, modular subsystems, refurbish spacecraft in orbit with new technology subsystems/payloads, and service/repair existing subsystems. This modular, on-orbit assembly approach is especially suited for low-cost Lunar and Mars missions and for NASA's vision of fleets of formation flying spacecraft on distributed science missions. Reduction in cost is achieved by manufacturing large quantities of identical modules with standardized AUTOCONNECT interfaces. Our approach also allows the selection of desired modules to assemble a customized spacecraft using AUTOCONNECT, and on-orbit operations using the advanced control algorithms we propose to develop.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michel Izygon
mizygon@tietronix.com
1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300
Houston, TX 77058-2794
(281)461-9300
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The goal of this proposed research is to investigate and develop a workflow based tool, the Software Developers Assistant, to facilitate the collaboration between different participants of multiple activities within a Software Development Process. Distributed development teams are becoming the norm for today?s software projects. These distributed teams are faced with the challenge of keeping software projects on track and keeping all involved developers using a consistent and efficient process. Workflow tools have been used for several years to support activities of distributed organizations such as the International Space Station Program. Workflow tools are efficient at automating very constrained and tightly controlled processes such as Change Requests processes. A Software Development Process, though, requires a more informal type of process automation allowing the project manager more control rather than enforcing tight rules through the workflow engine. Issues to be addressed during this project include researching the effects of multiple factors involved in the successful insertion of this technology within NASA organizations. Engine characteristics required to give flexibility to the software development team will be researched. Multiple processes will be captured within the workflow tool to evaluate different needs of process participants, such as Project Management, Requirements, Design, Implementation, and Testing.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A software development assistant workflow tool has commercial applications to all parties interested in software development. This tool can be applied to a broad range of areas, as any project management effort is (or should be) using a process centric approach. Over the past few years, there has been a strong trend to outsource part of the software development effort to foreign countries development teams. Difficulties arising from the widely distributed nature of the development effort have been noticed and projects failures have been reported. Using the SDA will mitigate a number of risks associated with this type of effort. The numerous companies currently outsourcing as well as companies which will outsource in the future are potential customers of our product.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed project can directly be used by software development organizations within NASA as well as outside NASA. It will directly benefit the entire range of NASA Strategic Enterprises, as they all require a wide use of safe and efficient software. This will be achieved by advancing NASA's Software Engineering practices, through process improvement, support in software metrics capture and usage, infusion of software engineering research and technology, and enhancing engineering knowledge and skills. The proposed project can support this endeavor by helping NASA implements its software engineering best practices across software development efforts.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Walter Zimbeck
zimbo@techassess.com
133 Defense Hwy Suite 212
Annapolis, MD 21401-8907
(410)224-3710
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
TA&T, Inc. proposes an enabling fabrication process for high voltage isolators required in high power solar electric and nuclear electric propulsion (SEP and NEP, respectively). Future high thrust, high specific impulse engines will have to support beam voltages up to 10kV to meet performance requirements. If existing isolator designs are simply scaled-up for higher voltages, then a significant mass penalty is incurred. The proposed fabrication approach, known as ceramic stereolithography (CSL), is an automated, layered manufacturing process that enables net shape, monolithic ceramics with complex geometry. The Phase I effort successfully demonstrated fabrication and high voltage testing of three prototype isolator designs that would be very difficult to fabricate using conventional ceramic processing. The Phase II objectives include refinement of the CSL process to the point where it is a reliable fabrication approach for high voltage isolators, development and demonstration of an isolator design with maximum voltage standoff in a minimum volume, assessment life-limiting issues and accelerated life testing. The Phase II project will result in a new fabrication tool for high voltage isolation and insulation components, and a new optimized isolator design suitable for HiPEP and NEXIS ion engines.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Commercial applications include high voltage isolators for ion deposition and milling systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The primary target platforms are high power electric propulsion engines including gridded ion, Hall Effect, PIT, MPD and VASIMR. The primary component target is high voltage propellant isolators for these engines. Other electric propulsion engine components with potential application are high voltage insulators.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
William Baschnagel
wrb@creare.com
Etna Rd., P.O. Box 71
Hanover, NH 03755-0071
(603)643-3800
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine currently being developed at NASA Johnson is an attractive technology for minimizing transit time and crew harm during future space exploration missions. One of the critical challenges in developing a flight engine is thermal management of the high-temperature, superconducting electromagnets used to constrain and accelerate the plasma. The innovation of the proposed project is a high-capacity turbo-Brayton cryocooler for this application. The cryocooler has heritage in the space-qualified cryocooler that was developed by Creare and installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Turbo-Brayton cryocoolers are lightweight, compact, efficient, and highly reliable. The technology scales well to high cooling capacities and is simple to integrate with multiple cooling objects; attributes that are particularly beneficial for VASIMR systems. In Phase I, we developed a preliminary design of the thermal management system, addressing key issues regarding the application of turbo-Brayton cooling technology to VASIMR engines. In Phase II, we plan to build and demonstrate a brassboard thermal management system. Phase II is justified by the feasibility demonstrated in Phase I, by the relevance of the project to a development effort at NASA, and by the importance of this technology to NASA's goal of space exploration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential non-NASA commercial applications include cooling systems for high-temperature superconducting magnets in: magnetic resonance machines, AC/DC motors, generators, transformers, fault-current limiters, magnetic separators, transmission lines, and flywheel energy storage systems. Commercial applications for high-capacity cooling technology include commercial orbital transfer vehicles and satellites, as well as cryogenic gas separation, liquefaction, storage, and transportation systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This program will result in a thermal management system for high-temperature superconducting magnets that is lightweight, efficient, and simple to integrate. Space applications for the system beyond electric propulsion include other systems requiring a high-capacity cooler, such as cooling systems for: cryogen storage for extraterrestrial exploration missions, extended life orbital transfer vehicles, long-term geosynchronous missions, in-space propellant depots, and for extraterrestrial bases. Terrestrial applications include cooling systems for spaceport cryogen storage and for cryogen transportation systems.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Christopher M Rey
cmrey@tai-yang.com
9112 Farrell Park Lane
Knoxville, TN 37922-8525
(865)560-5542
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In this Phase II SBIR contract Tai-Yang Research Company of Tennessee proposes to design, fabricate, and test an ultra-lightweight High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnet utilizing Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond technology. The proposed CVD/HTS magnet will combine ultra-lightweight and ultra-high reliability and thermal stability. When built, the CVD/HTS magnet will be the most technologically advanced conduction-cooled HTS magnet ever constructed.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Commercial sales of superconducting magnets represent over a $ 3 Billion per year industry. The two largest commercial existing markets are MRI and NMR, both of which are used by the medical and bio-technology industries. Most other potential commercial applications stem from the electric utility industry and inlcude: transformers, ac/dc motors, ac/dc tranmission cables, generators, flywheels, fault-current-limiters, and magnetic separators. To date, successful HTS based prototypes have been fabricated for most electric utility functions. If technically and economically viable, HTS enabled products are forcasted to be over a $ 10 Billlion dollar industry by 2010.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
HTS magnets have commercial applications potential within NASA anywhere superconducting magnets are implemented. Exsamples of applications include plasma propulsions, adiabatic demagnetization experiments, etc. CVD diamond technology has applications anywhere high strength, high thermal conductivity, and low density are required.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Appleby
appleby@mikrosystems.com
770 Harris Street Suite 104
Charlottesville, VA 22903-4583
(434)244-6480
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Building on the success of our Phase I efforts, Mikro Systems, Inc. (MSI) proposes to advance the state-of-the-art in high resolution, high-aspect-ratio X-ray/gamma-ray collimator fabrication by reducing slit pitch by a factor of ~2, from 35 microns to 20 microns, using an innovative hybrid micro-machining technology.

Fine grids having high-aspect-ratio (>50:1) and made from dense materials are the enabling components for solar and astrophysical imaging missions requiring high angular and/or spectral resolution at X-ray/gamma-ray energies. Instruments for these missions are severely constrained by size and mass considerations, and any technology that allows a reduction of size and/or mass without reducing image quality would contribute significantly to NASA's ongoing instrumentation development.

Angular resolution is a function of the grid-pitch and distance between grids in a bi-grid collimator. Consequently, this advance in technology will have a significant effect on the angular resolution and/or instrument length and mass of grid-based optics required for x-ray and gamma-ray imaging in space. In Phase I, MSI demonstrated the technical feasibility of producing collimator grids with pitch as fine as 16 microns.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
MSI is applying this advanced collimator technology to a number of commercial and research products, including collimators, detector arrays, and scatter reduction grids for medical imaging applications including mammography, computed tomography, and nuclear medicine. In addition, our technology is being applied to non-medical radiography applications for homeland security.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
MSI collimator technology is directly relevant to the following NASA X-ray and gamma-ray space imaging programs:

1.The Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-ray (STIX) instrument under consideration for the ESA Solar Orbiter mission (Robert Lin, PI);
2.Collimators for the Particle Accelerator Solar Orbiter (PASO) mission, included in NASA's Office of Space Sciences Sun Earth Connections Roadmap;
3.Constellation X-ray mission (Nicholas White, Project Scientist) planned to start in 2007;
4.Future high-resolution / high-sensitivity instruments for solar x-ray, and for both medium- and high-energy gamma-ray imaging;
5.Future MIDEX proposal for solar flare x-ray and gamma-ray imaging spectroscopy.

In addition to collimators, MSI's micro-fabrication technology is applicable to at least two other areas of direct interest to NASA:
Micro-well Detectors for Neutron Imaging, and
Millimeter Wave (MMW) sensors.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Arthur Gavrin
agavrin@tritonsystems.com
200 Turnpike Rd
Chelmsford, MA 01824-4053
(978)250-4200
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

There exist a need to develop, identify, and classify various materials that can be used in the fabrication of electrodynamic tethers for various applications. These applications consist of but not limited to power generation, orbital maneuvering, and planetary exploration. A momentum exchange (MXER) tethers utilizes the electrodynamic tether interaction with the planetary magnetic field to provide thrust to a payload in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). While technological challenges, both materials and non-materials related, currently limit the utilization of the MXER concept, significant advances in materials science will allow the maturation of the system into a viable technology for propulsion in and beyond LEO. Tether materials-related advances are primary for improving the operation and lifetime of the propulsion system. Critical materials properties in need of improvement include increases in tensile strength, electrical conductivity, shock resistance, continued flexibility during exposure to an environment rich in radiation and energetic atomic oxygen. Furthermore, the tether design must incorporate materials with the required characteristics in a manner to allow tolerance to repeated micrometeorite impacts without significant loss of the aforementioned properties.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The materials developed and examined under the proposed program can be utilized in numerous applications. These applications will have broad market potentials for terrestrial and non-terrestrial uses. Such examples include electrical shielding, environmental shielding (space and terrestrial environments), communications, power transmission, and flexible electronics. The applications that will benefit the most are those where weight, flexibility, and durability are of a premium.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
These materials will allow the development of Momentum Exchange tethers such as MXER within a reasonable expectation to progress to hardware prototypes. The electrodynamic tether propulsion method exchanges momentum with a planet's rotational angular momentum through electrodynamic interaction with the planetary magnetic field. Momentum exchange tethers or MXER concepts use orbital energy to provide a high thrust to a payload in LEO. The research and development efforts of this program will yield flexible, lightweight, space-durable conductors. These conductors would have application in many space mission applications where weight savings is of value.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Glen Brown
gbrown@vertigo-inc.com
1025 Smith Grade
Santa Cruz, CA 92530-9600
(831)425-5147
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed research is focused on developing an aerocapture decelerator
that is substantially lighter than other approaches by using lightweight,
fiber-reinforced films in its construction and by being a smaller size
(higher ballistic coefficient) than previously studied ballutes that operate without thermal protection. A second objective is to develop an innovative method of control for deployable aerocapture decelerators employing shape-morphing lift modulation. Aerocapture is strongly enhancing for planetary exploration because the decelerator mass is less than the fuel mass needed for the same delta-V, and therefore results in a higher payload fraction in orbit. Inflatable drag devices are a promising type of aerocapture decelerator because (1) they are lighter than conventional fixed-geometry aeroshells, and (2) they can be much larger than the interior of a launch fairing and thus enable heavier spacecraft. This aerocapture technology also applies to supersonic decelerators for Entry, Descent and Landing Systems (EDLS) and to other systems requiring supersonic deceleration and stabilization. Trajectory control by shape-morphing lift modulation also enhances EDLS as part of precision guided landing capability. The anticipated Phase II results include the design,
manufacture and testing of a full-scale, flight-weight inflatable torus,
advancing the key inflatable technology for aerocapture decelerators to TRL
4.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are three classes of non-NASA commercialization opportunities: 1)
commercial space organizations, 2) European Space Agency, and 3) US
Department of Defense. Commercial launch service providers are presently
examining the feasibility of using an inflatable supersonic decelerator
(Hypercone) as part of a recovery system for reusable components of launch
vehicles (details are competition sensitive). ESA's potential applications
of Hypercone technology mirror those of NASA: planetary aerocapture, and
supersonic decelerators for EDLS. US DoD programs include the need for both supersonic decelerators/stabilizers and structurally robust exo-atmospheric inflatable devices.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Inflatable aerocapture technology and the related supersonic deployable
decelerator (Hypercone) will have broad applicability for future NASA needs. Specifically, Hypercone holds the promise of a highly efficient, low mass fraction, high drag, highly stabilizing device for the following
applications:

- Aerocapture for outer planet exploration;
- Decelerator/stabilizer for CEV boost phase crew escape;
- Aerocapture and aerobraking in the atmosphere of Mars, extending
payload masses well beyond the capability of parachutes;
- Earth-return orbital aerocapture from L1 or the moon; and
- Earth aerocapture for sample return from Mars.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
jar-wha Lee
JWLEESTI@att.net
1294 Darcann Drive
Columbus, OH 43220-3922
(614)850-7314
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II Program, Syscom Technology, Inc. will implement an integrated processing scheme to fabricate a conductive multifunctional high-strength, high-modulus Metal/Polymer Composite Fiber (MPCF) for power and signal transfer and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications in space and aerospace vehicles. The Phase I study has successfully demonstrated that High phosphorous Electroless Nickel (HPEN) can be readily deposited onto properly etched PBO fiber. The HPEN coated PBO fiber showed the superior mass retaining (31.5 to 38.5) characteristic comparing to that of the uncoated PBO fiber in atomic oxygen erosion test. Additionally, the tensile mechanical strength and the DC conductivity of the MPCF essentially unchanged after a fluence of 5.04x1020 (atoms/cm2) atomic oxygen. In Phase II program, the revised processing scheme enables a full control of the processing conditions, such as fiber tension, bath chemistry during each step of the fiber preparation leading to the optimization of the mechanical and electrical properties of the PBO fiber. It is anticipated that the metal coating will not only protect the underlining polymer from harsh space environment, but also affords the resulting MPCF with advantages over metal wires in weight savings, mechanical flexibility, durability and strength.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Although the Electrotextile or smart textile is still in its infancy, it has been clearly demonstrated that the future cloth or fabrics will not only protect the wearer from environment, but also will have intelligent built-in features, such as multifunctional sensors or computing devices. In contrast to rigid electronic component, the E-textile will be truly flexible, soft and comfortable to wear and touch. Future E-textiles applications are boundless and limited only by human's imagination. In order to bring these potential applications into marketable products, a strong, durable and conductive yarn, compatible with the textile fabrication process, is in serious demand.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Syscom Technology, Inc. (STI) will execute an integrated processing scheme to produce high-strength multifunctional Metal/Polymer Composite Fibers (MPCF) for power and signal transfer, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding application. It is expected that the conductive MPCF will have tremendous advantages over current high strength copper conductor in weight savings, flexibility, durability and mechanical strength. The STI will try to implement several products for NASA space applications, namely EMI shielding in wiring and cable, space tether, flexible and wearable heating fabric, and wearable electronics or sensor.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Shyam Raghunandan
shyamr@anvik.com
Anvik Corp., 6 Skyline Dr.
Hawthorne, NY 10532-2165
(914)345-2442
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
One of the ultimate goals of sensor research is to build an integrated unit that harnesses its energy from its surroundings and reacts to, and transmits, any changes in its environment in a predictable and reliable manner. There are several components to this universal goal of a self-contained sensor unit: the power module, the sensor module, the control module, and the transmission module. The goal of this proposal is to develop a whole class of truly stand-alone, large-area, distributed sensor systems on a flexible substrate ? a MEMS skin.
The Phase II program will deliver a suite of novel processes to fabricate large-format, self-sufficient sensors on flexible, multilayer substrates. The first layer, a copper-on-flex substrate, acts as the interconnect layer for power distribution. The second, a Si-on-flex substrate, utilizes a thin-film a-Si solar cell, integrated with Anvik's technology to integrate MEMS and IC devices. The two substrate layers are connected using photoablated micro-via patterns in the Si-on-flex layer. These sensors could include strain gauges for surface stress measurements, IR imagers, environment pollution/quality monitoring, etc. Our results in Phase I have given us an excellent footing to launch our Phase II workplan and to layout a preliminary Phase III commercialization strategy.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The focus in this proposal has been on space-related applications and therefore on large-area distributed sensors. Immediate extensions can be found in the commercial aircraft industry for these sensors. Similar applications can be found in the automotive industry for safety testing and continuous monitoring of the auto-body or a ship hull. With further development, these skins could be applied to clothing applications for military and commercial applications in the emerging e-textile market. All these applications will benefit greatly by the large-area stand-alone capability of these sensors.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are innumerable applications in free-moving sensor systems, space-based MEMS, and distributed sensor networks for health monitoring of space-based systems. The technology described is independent of the exact nature of the sensor that is integrated into the system. Using an accelerometer, for example, will enable large-area distributed monitoring of vibrations over complex surfaces. The use of a chemical sensor will allow applications in hazardous gas monitoring over large areas. The integration of MEMS and the associated circuitry in a single unit is a giant step forward in improving the sensitivity and performance of these sensors. The proposed integration of a-Si based solar cells and a communication interface takes this approach to the next level where the sensor becomes truly stand-alone. The use of a flexible substrate enables applications to conformable and very-large area surfaces that were until now not possible.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Arthur J. Fortini
art.fortini@ultramet.com
Ultramet
Pacoima, CA 91331-2210
(818)899-0236
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The current push to develop small satellites, the need for formation flying constellations, and the desire to replace reaction control wheels have resulted in the need for thrusters that can deliver very small impulse bits. The required thrusters are much smaller than those available today, so new technologies will have to be developed. In Phase I, Ultramet focused on the development of catalysts that could be scaled down to the dimensions required for such small thrusters. To facilitate testing of these catalysts, Tridyne was used as the propellant, and several dozen catalyst beds were tested in a 5-lbf test engine. Several of the catalyst beds tested showed faster temperature rises and higher steady-state temperatures than a similar sized bed of Shell-405. For all of the Ultramet catalysts, the supports were monolithic materials that could easily be scaled down for use in microthrusters. Phase II will build on this technology, and enable the resulting catalysts to be used with other propellants, such as hydrazine or HAN-based monopropellants.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology can be used by any spacecraft where small impulse bits are required. This includes microsatellites, formation-flying satellites for the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, or simply replacing reaction wheels in conventional spacecraft.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed technology can be used by any spacecraft where small impulse bits are required. This includes microsatellites, formation-flying satellites for the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, or simply replacing reaction wheels in conventional spacecraft.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Carl H Cornwell
carl.cornwell@aquilent.com
1100 West Street
Laurel, MD 20707-3500
(301)939-1197
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Aquilent, Inc. proposes to support ad-hoc, content-based query and data retrieval from virtual observatories (VxO) by developing 1) Higher Order Query Services that will work together with the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO) effort. These services will enable scientists to generate derived quantities and event-lists interactively based on existing science data and existing temporal and phenomenal event lists, as well as perform discontinuity and correlation analysis of time series derived from local low/medium resolution datasets. The framework architecture will be designed so that it can be adapted and extended for application to other VxO's. 2) Develop a metadata/data access toolkit that enables visualization and data analysis clients to browse VxO resources directly and retrieve discovered data from the source (PI) archive and demonstrate the capability through extensions to the VSPO Gateway API using VisBARD. 3) Support the creation, validation, and maintenance of product description metadata for VxO's through simplified metadata management tools whose configuration is driven by the same XML Schema that defines the VxO's data model. The tools include a configurable metadata editor backed by a central repository and XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) utility scripts. The XSLT scripts enable generation of the tool configuration schema from a master XML Schema, output of product metadata that complies with the VxO data model, and partially automate the update process for product description metadata as the VxO and SPASE data models evolve.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Possible commercial applications for the visualization component of this proposal outside of NASA include the study of fluid and plasma dynamics, aerodynamics, bioinformatics and other applications that analyze time series of scalar or vector quantities. The VSPO client access component has potential applications for users of RSI IDL, MATLAB, and other visualization and analysis packages that desire integrated data discovery and retrieval from distributed data archives. Specific applications in the bioinformatics domain are under investigation with the Communications Engineering Branch of the National Library of Medicine with respect to enhancing their Multimedia Database Tool, which provides web-based access to large medical image databases, to provide researchers with a seamless transition between browse/query access to reduced resolution images and detailed visualization and analytical access to selected full resolution images and their associated metadata.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential NASA applications of the visualization component of this proposal include research efforts that require the display and analysis of multiple disparate vector data sets, development of an advanced viewer for the Mission Independent Data Layer (MIDL) project being one possibility. Potential application of the search and metadata editor components include other VxO's and in the Earth Sciences domain where content-based query of massive data archives is required

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Yungryel Ryu
ryuy@moxtronicsinc.com
504 North Village Circle
Columbia, MO 65203-5668
(573)882-3174
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
High-efficiency UV detectors will be developed in the Phase II program with ZnO and its alloy (ZnBeO). ZnO and ZnBeO are a very suitable material for fabrication of high-speed, high-detectivity, and radiation-hard UV detectors due to their unique structural, electrical and optical properties. The proposing company (MOXtronics) has shown the feasibility of fabricating new ZnO p-i-n UV detectors in the Phase I. Such UV photodiodes will be improved for high-efficiency UV detection by using heterojunction p-i-n structures and/or Schottky contacts. In the Phase II efforts, commercial-typed heteojunction ZnO/ZnBeO-based PIN and MSM photodiodes will be fabricated and demonstrated. These photodiodes will be used for broad near-to-far UV detection.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
High-performance ZnO/ZnBeO-based UV detectors could be used in non-NASA commercial applications. These applications include flame and heat sensors, medical applications (sterilization), detecting hazard biochemical agents, UV calibration devices (tanning monitors), plasma diagnostics, and engine (missile) monitoring. These ZnO/ZnBeO-based UV detectors will be introduced quickly into the commercial market based on their potentials for many applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
ZnO/ZnBeO-based p-i-n and MSM UV detectors will satisfy the NASA requirements for device compactness, light weight, low power consumption, and radiation hardness. These detectors could be used for a variety of NASA applications, including, for example, exploration of UV to EUV radiations from the outer space or the sun, and for opto-electronic communications (ship-to-ship, or ship-to-ground).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Neal E Hartsough
nealh@photonimaginginc.com
19355 Business Center Drive, Suite 11
Northridge, CA 91324-3576
(818)280-0745
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We utilize a new detector material, polycrystalline mercuric iodide, for background suppression by active anticoincidence shielding in gamma-ray spectrometers. Two proposed NASA missions will require anticoincidence shielding for gamma-ray spectrometers: the Mars Lander and a Space Science Vision Mission expected to visit Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Shielding improves the performance of gamma-ray spectrometers by reducing the effect of charged particle interactions which can not be distinguished from true gamma-ray interactions by the spectrometer. Active shields produce a blanking signal when a charged particle is detected, so that the signal from the spectrometer can be ignored during the spectrometer's charged-particle interaction. While it is well know that this technique produces significant improvement in gamma-ray spectrometer performance, the technology to implement it is lacking. The attributes of mercuric iodide make it an excellent candidate for anticoincidence shielding detectors. Because of its detection characteristics, light weight, small size, low cost, robustness, and ease of application to non-planar geometries, this material can replace the costly, heavy, and bulky scintillator/photomultiplier tube (PMT) systems currently in use. The application of this new material for space-based astrophysical observations provides excellent background suppression with improved mass and volume characteristics.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
High-energy physics and medical imaging may also benefit from this detector development. Because of the small volume and flexible shape of the proposed mercuric iodide detectors, they have a potential application as coincidence or anticoincidence detectors for charged particles in complex high-energy physics detectors, where detector volume near the emission point is often extremely limited. By placing the material onto a curved surface, detectors may be placed in spaces previously unused because planar detectors do not fit. The same polycrystalline mercuric iodide detector technology combined with thin-film-transistor (TFT) or CMOS readouts can be used for x-ray imaging. Medical imaging x-ray systems have a natural geometry of detectors located on a hemispherical plane; curved detector surfaces may eliminate some artifacts and lead to improved efficiency due to improved detector packing fraction.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Space-based gamma-ray spectrometers will benefit from the proposed polycrystalline mercuric iodide active anticoincidence shield. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is a widely used tool in planetary science and astrophysics, providing valuable information on such diverse topics as planetary composition and the nature of gamma-ray bursts. Both the proposed Mars Lander and a proposed Space Science Vision Mission for visiting Titan will require anticoincidence shielding for their gamma-ray spectrometers. The developed detector technology will have applications in many other future NASA missions as an anticoincidence shield as well as an x-ray imager when combined with thin-film-transistor (TFT) or CMOS readouts.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
JEM Engineering LLC
8683 Cherry Lane
Laurel ,MD 20707 - 6202
(301) 317 - 1070

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
James   Lilly
jlilly@jemengineering.com
8683 Cherry Lane
Laurel ,MD  20707 -6202
(301) 317 - 1070
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
JEM Engineering proved the technical feasibility of the FlexScan array?a very low-cost, highly-efficient, wideband phased array antenna?in Phase I, and stands ready to develop it into a fully-functional, flight-qualifiable prototype in Phase II. JEM developed an S-Band (2.0-2.3 GHz) antenna array design appropriate for the stratospheric balloon application through requirements definition, modeling, and performance predictions. The critical technology for this array is an electrically-controlled Variable Delay Line (VDL), used to provide true time-delay for beamsteering. VDLs were designed, built and tested, and shown to have excellent performance. The VDLs were tested over 2.4 million cycles without degradation, indicating good life, especially for the balloon application. A 4-port linear beamformer was built, and used to validate the beamformer concept. The objective of the proposed 24-month Phase II effort is to develop, prototype, and demonstrate a flight-qualifiable FlexScan phased array that achieves the bandwidth, antenna gain, and scan range required for a balloon-borne TDRSS data link in S-band, while meeting environmental requirements. Upon completion of Phase II, the FlexScan array will be ready to commercialize for the balloon-borne application, with other NASA and non-NASA commercial applications soon to follow.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA robotic and manned vehicles all require communications, and data rates are rising, increasing the need for high-gain links. Many also benefit from radar?often not an option due to the limitations of current gimbaled dishes and phased arrays. To achieve its goal of solar system exploration, NASA needs an alternative to these antennas. The FlexScan array will provide this alternative in a low-cost, low-power, low-complexity, lightweight, high-gain, steerable-beam antenna. The Phase II effort is focused on stratospheric balloon TDRSS communications, but this technology can readily be extended to meet the need of many of NASA's vehicle and explorer programs.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
FlexScan antennas are useful for virtually any application where a single high-gain beam is needed and the required scanning rate is not too rapid. The low cost of these antennas, their simplicity, and their excellent electromagnetic performance makes these antennas very attractive. The U.S. Army has a great interest in Satellite Communications On-the-Move (SOTM), which requires a light, agile, low-cost and robust steerable-beam antenna. Unattended sensors, radar for missiles, and particularly radar for automobiles are all areas where a cheaper alternative to current antennas with high performance is needed. The FlexScan array is a nearly-ideal alternative for these applications.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Evan Chu
evanc@lamartcorp.com
6 Horizon Drive
Succasunna, NJ 07015-1648
(973)252-7672
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Aerobot vehicles for missions on Titan require envelope materials that are strong, light and durable. In particular they must be able to withstand flexing at liquid nitrogen temperatures (77K) without developing pinhole gas leaks. To meet this requirement, it was proposed that a multiple layer laminate of thin PET films would be better than an equivalent thickness single layer of the same film.

In the Phase I work, some of the laminating variables were studied. Through this effort, significant improvements in the material for Titan aerobot use were realized. The cold temperature flex durability against pinhole failure was increase by 70% due to changes in the weave counts of the fabric. Tests also demonstrated that a 50% reduction could be made in the adhesive weight used to laminate the films without sacrificing bond or flex durability.

This Phase II proposal is for continued development of the Titan aerobot envelope material based on the results of Phase I. Since materials must function as part of a product the proposal also is to begin testing of seaming methods for the material and to prove the results by fabrication of an actual aerobot envelope for pressure testing and possible flight demonstration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential use for these types of materials is in other blimp applications such as the DOD project underway to develop an unmanned stratospheric blimp for homeland defense and surveillance. Commercial uses for this technology have been identified as being in cryogenic storage bags for such things as tissue and blood samples.

Lamart is a major laminator of fabrics and films for the sail making industry. Lessons learned in this SBIR may be applicable to sail cloth to improve durability and performance.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The prime application for the material to be developed under this contract will be for the NASA Titan aerobot program. Other NASA applications would be on other balloons for both terrestrial and extra terrestrial use. Information learned in the design of materials that remain flexible at very low temperatures would be useful for other NASA and commercial industrial applications including cryogenic pressure vessel bladders.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ali Kashani
akashani@atlasscientific.com
1367 Camino Robles Way
San Jose, CA 95120-4925
(408)507-0906
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Future NASA planetary and astrophysics missions will require various enhancements in multi-stage cryocoolers. These include increased efficiency, reduced vibration and reductions in overall system mass and power consumption. For the small coolers required, pulse tube and Stirling coolers offer the best opportunities. At present, the efficiency of these coolers is limited by the effectiveness of low-temperature-stage regenerators. Below about 60 K, two factors play key roles in reducing the effectiveness of regenerators. One is that the heat capacity of most materials falls rapidly with decreasing temperature, thereby, severely limiting the number of useful materials to a few in common use. A second factor is that these commonly used materials are only available in powder form, a form known to raise reliability issues. In this effort, we will address both factors. We will use newly developed materials with high heat capacities at temperatures below 60 K, higher than that of commonly used materials. Further, we will develop a novel low-temperature regenerator matrix that will address both the aspect of high-efficiency and regenerator durability. Both the void fraction and the ratio of surface area to solid fraction of the regenerator matrix will be varied to achieve high efficiency.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
There are a number of commercial applications which require cryocoolers that will benefit from high efficiency low-temperature regenerators. A partial list includes:
- Superconducting electronics
- Superconducting magnets for MRI systems
- Superconducting magnets for power generation and energy storage
- SQUID magnetometers for heart and brain studies
- HTS filters for the communication industry
- Liquefaction of industrial gases
- Cryopumps for semiconductor manufacturing

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA is considering missions to the outer planets carrying significant amounts of propellant for braking maneuvers and orbital insertion upon arrival at their destinations. Cryogenicly stored propellants offer the highest specific impulse of any chemical system. Zero boil-off (ZBO) propellant storage can directly impact these long-term exploration missions. It minimizes the launch mass such missions require. For ZBO missions high efficiency cryocoolers capable of providing cooling at 20K are required. These and other coolers being developed by NASA for use in astrophysics studies and radio-astronomy, will greatly benefit from the long-term cryocooler performance enhancement facilitated by durable high efficiency low-temperature regenerators.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Paul Glenn
paul@bauerinc.com
888 Worcester Steet, Suite 30
Wellesley, MA 02482-3717
(781)235-8775
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
We propose to design, build, and test a major new instrument capable of both measuring and polishing the surface of aspheric mirrors up to 1.2 meters in diameter, and up to f-0.5 in speed, either concave or convex. In the successful Phase I proposal, we laid out the instrument to the component level, and laid out and analyzed every critical subsystem. We also investigated and experimented with the fluid jet polishing to be used by this instrument, setting the stage for further experiments and ultimate usage in Phase II. The metrology accuracy goals, supported by previous measurements, are 1 nanometer rms for full aperture figure, and 0.1 nm rms for mid-frequency and micro-roughness. The full-aperture and mid-frequency metrology approaches are based on previous successful SBIR projects, while the micro-roughness metrology is an improvement on standard Total Integrated Scatter measurements developed under Phase I. All of the metrology instrumentation is integrated into a single measurement head. At the end of the project, we will polish and measure an f-1.1, 560 mm parabola, and possibly an 890 mm, f-2.5 sphere.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
A major application would be the continued pursuit by the semiconductor industry of better and better aspheric mirrors as the operating wavelengths shrink. Required surface qualities are headed below the 0.1 nm rms range as Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography comes to life. The metrology and fabrication approaches for such mirrors are extremely limited, and technology such as ours could be an important adjunct to other specialized techniques. In addition, naturally, to the extent that most of the NASA applications are in the end fabricated by commercial firms, we would enjoy a broad range of large-mirror applications within industry.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA programs include the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Jupiter Magnetospheric Explorer (JMEX), the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) system within the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and the Reconnection and Microscale (RAM) probe. All have 0.5 meter ? 1 meter-class mirrors, some large and convex. Another example is the Spherical Primary Optical Telescope (SPOT) project, an IRAD effort underway at NASA GSFC. (We plan to use a SPOT mirror as a secondary test piece.) Other examples would include myriad silicon carbide systems. Although silicon carbide presents its own difficulties, our technology should not be fundamentally affected.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Andrew E.W. Jones
Jones@qedmrf.com
1040 University Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607-1239
(585)256-6540
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Primary mirrors for large aperture telescopes (> 10 m) are collections of smaller (1-2 m), typically hexagonal, often aspheric, optical segments. NASA's next generation specifications demand high precision optical surfaces with practically zero edge exclusion in order to maximize image contrast and resolution. Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a sub-aperture process demonstrated to be effective for fine figure control and polishing of a variety of optical glasses and crystals. The relatively small size and high removal rate of the MRF tool could allow efficient correction of "print-through" patterns (or other mid-spatial frequency errors) often observed after conventional polishing. MRF, however, can suffer from edge effects, because the MRF polishing spot changes as it moves over the edge of the part. Current control algorithms assume the spot remains constant, resulting in edge errors on the order of half of the spot size in width. In Phase I, we identified a promising method of counteracting edge effects. In Phase II, we will develop, test, and refine three software- and process-based solutions, and apply them to polishing an optic of relevance to NASA's needs.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In addition to many ground-based, large, segmented telescopes (including the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) umbrella project which also includes the CELT, GMST, and VLOT programs), successful completion of this work could benefit other industries that require large, high precision, optical surfaces. This includes, for example, (a) next generation EUV lithography systems, (b) commercial satellite and surveillance systems, and (c) many DoD applications that require high precision, optical surfaces. The precision optics market will benefit through higher precision "small" optics (e.g. prism surfaces). A final benefit could be reduced edge exclusion on semiconductor wafer and photomask substrates.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This work could benefit many NASA programs that depend on large optics. For example, the James Web Space Telescope (JWST), which the National Academy of Science ranked as one of NASA's top science goals for this decade, will require 18 large mirror segments. Other NASA programs include, (a) Structure and Evolution of the Universe (SEU) programs for space-based, large aperture telescopes that look far into space, (b) Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) programs for airborne or space-based instruments that image the Earth and (c) Sun-Earth Connection (SEC) programs for UV & EUV imaging of the Sun and its interaction with the Solar System.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Sheedy
msheedy@xinetics.com
115 Jackson Road
Devens, MA 01434-4027
(978)772-0352
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Xinetics has demonstrated the technology required to fabricate a self-compensating highly adaptive silicon carbide primary mirror system having embedded actuators, sensors, and neural control with an areal density less that 10Kg/m2. The system architecture complete with feedback sensors, and neural algorithm was conceived, modeled and tested, and appears scaleable to 10-30meter class deployable systems. Highly adaptive telescopes require self-compensating telescope components to enable autonomously optimized optical trains to achieve very low total system wavefront error. High sensitivity semiconductor strain gages were shown to have adequate resolution for shape control. Resistance RTD sensors were shown to provide more than adequate temperature sensitivity. Analysis of strain gage placement conducted during this Phase I showed that the strain sensors required for neural control will require very high precision strain measurement (less than 1 microstrain), potential sensors were tested and characterized. Phase I data acquisition system limitations prevented full closed loop hardware demonstration. As a result Xinetics demonstrated the closed loop function using FEA analysis to provide simulated data to train the MATLAB based neural control algorithm. Phase I results show very encouraging performance and provide design information for a solid technical plan for full hardware demonstration in a phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Xinetics has engaged in discussions with a wide variety of companies and research organizations interested in adaptive-optics applications. Based on these discussions certain areas hold the greatest promise of near-term applications. These are: 1) space based imaging systems 2)confocal microscopes 3)VLSI lithography resolution enhancement 4)large actuator count adaptive-optics systems for military imaging applications 5)opthalmic fundus cameras for diagnosis and vision enhancement and 6) custom contact lenses uniquely shaped to the individual's corneal topography.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
In addition to supporting NASA Cosmic Journey missions to study the Structure and Evolution of the Universe (SEU), the technology could be easily adapted to NASA's solar energy harvesting applications. Some solar energy harvesting approaches require inexpensive reflectors that are capable of directing sunlight to a specific location during the sun's daily transit. These heliotropic reflectors do not need precision optics. Our embedded control approach could easily and inexpensively be adapted to large metallized polymer reflectors that continually re-direct the sunlight based embedded sensors.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Fukang Jiang
fjiang@umachines.com
2400 N. Lincoln Ave
Altadena, CA 91001-5436
(626)296-6282
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The objective of this proposal is to deliver state-of-the-art, bench-top deployable, large-throw and tip/tilt, low cross-talk, high resolution, highly scalable and fast response wavefront control devices (deformable mirror, or DM) based on micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) fabrication processes. The device consists of Segmented Membrane Arrays (SMA). The design uses highly uniform (both mechanically and optically) arrays of mirror pixels to eliminate the cross talk with adjacent elements, which is usually observed in continuous membrane devices. It opens new opportunities to make ideal deformable mirrors with large-throw and independent addressing capabilities.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Wave-front correction can also be used for retinal imaging applications. Currently, there does not exist a small, high performance deformable mirror that can adequately be used for these applications. The successful development proposed here can potentially advance the state-of-the-art towards fulfilling those applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The successful creation of the MEMS SMA opens up new applications in wave-front control optical systems such as those used in telescope applications, for example in systems such as the Adaptive Nulling System in the Terrestrial Planet Finder program.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Olaleye A. Aina
epiwafers@erols.com
Epitaxial Technologies, LLC. 1450 South Rolling Road
Baltimore, MD 21227-3863
(410)455-5594
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The overall goal of this proposed Phase II SBIR program by Epitaxial Technologies is to develop a compact, low-cost, low power, low noise and ultra-sensitive avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays with built-in optical pre-amplification (in addition to internal electrical gain) and having a fill factor and bandwidth of 90% and 5.0 GHz respectively. In Phase I, we established the feasibility of the concept by demonstrating APDs and APDs with built-in optical amplification with 3 GHz bandwidth and estimated NEP of 1 nW. In Phase II, we will build on these results and optimize the novel APD structures and the APD/optical amplifier integration process. To do this, we will design, model and simulate the performance of the APD arrays with built-in optical pre-amplification and optimize the fabrication process for array production. . In particular, a hybridization technique will be developed to integrate the arrays with readout integrated circuits (ROIC) using an innovative bonding technique at the wafer level. Further, we will design, fabricate and test 1 x 16 datacomm photoreceiver arrays with -52 dBm sensitivity at 1E-9 BER and 2.5 Gbps, along with 32 x 32 imaging ladar arrays with 1 pW NEP that are capable of true photon counting.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Potential DOD applications include: airborne 3-D imaging LADAR transmitter/sensor (and sophisticated image processing) to penetrate dense trees and camouflage in order to detect, identify, and characterize targets on the battlefield such as tanks and armored personnel carriers, missile seekers, passive imaging camera with the capability of generating real-time displays of imaging scene. Commercial applications include: commercial receivers operating in the 1.1-1.5 micron wavelength range for fiber optic communications and free space communication and production monitoring and control in the automotive, and steel industries.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This innovative technology will have numerous important NASA applications, such as free space laser communication systems for intersatellite communications, and near-IR spectroscopy, 3-dimensional imaging LADAR for geographical mapping of terrestrial or extra-terrestrial features, navigational guidance, surveillance through foliage, forestry inspection and agricultural monitoring. As a position sensitive sensor its is suitable for tracking satellites, vehicle docking, navigation, and guidance, photon correlation spectroscopy, low power consumption but very sensitive ground based beacons. Other applications include earth remote sensing to survey crops, forest foliage, and natural resources and measurement of the spatial and temporal variation of water and clouds for atmospheric research.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Leonid Fursin
unitedsic@unitedsic.com
100 Jersey Ave. Building A
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-3200
(732)565-9500
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This project seeks to design, fabricate, characterize and commercialize large area, uncooled and radiative hard 4H-SiC EUV ? soft X-ray detectors capable of ultra low noise photon counting. The detector design and advanced processing technologies combined with the unique material property of 4H-SiC are expected to lead to orders of magnitude improvements to the performance of large area solid state detectors including much lower noise due to the wide bandgap and substantially improved lifetime due to the greatly increased radiation tolerance in comparison to state-of-the-art solid state EUV-soft X-ray detector technologies. In Phase II, detectors and 2D arrays will be designed and fabricated. Eight batches will be fabricated with different detector sizes and different active abs thicknesses. Concentration will be focused on achieving very low dark current and high quantum efficiency based on a novel design. The fabricated detectors and 2D arrays with different optical window sizes will be characterized, including dark current, forward current ideality factor, quantum efficiency. The dominant source and mechanism of the dark current will be investigated to help identify approaches to further reduce the dark current in the privately funded Phase III which will be concentrating on pushing up the yield over 3" wafer for commercialization within one year after the completion of Phase II.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The detectors and 2D arrays will find many non-NASA applications including X-ray medical instruments and scientific instruments as well as nondestructive testing, security systems, X-ray astronomy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray lithography, OEM, environmental monitoring, toxic dump site monitoring, process control, material analysis. Other applications in the wider UV spectra range include biological warfare agent detection based on bioluminescent analysis and detection of single molecule emitting in the UV range, biosensing, single molecule detection, utility power line inspection, missile detection, and radar as well as basic quantum mechanics investigation.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Success of this project will result in uncooled, radiation hard, large area EUV-soft X-ray detectors and 2D arrays capable of photon counting capability, low noise, visible blind, high quantum efficiency and long lifetime. They will find NASA applications in many areas including X-ray fluorescence for planetary orbital missions, Galilean satellites of Jupiter, Einstein satellite and various space missions, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and detecting and imaging very weak UV florescence light

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Raman K Mehra
rkm@ssci.com
500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000
Woburn, MA 01801-6580
(781)933-5355
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The overall goal of this project is to develop an onboard, autonomous Multi-spacecraft Supervisory Engine (MSE) for formation-flying guidance, navigation and control (FF-GNC), suitable for a wide range of formation flying topologies and distributed, multi-spacecraft missions. MSE will be developed in the context of specific NASA formation flying missions, using Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) as the target FF-GNC system architecture. Other missions, such as the Stellar Imager and/or MAXIM will also be studied.
It will be developed using the concepts of Intelligent Systems, Formal Methods for Finite-State Automata modeling and Hybrid Model Predictive Optimization.
Specific problems to be addressed include: formation initialization and calibration maneuver planning/control, formation reconfiguration (including conflict/constraint resolution), FF-GNC resource allocation and optimal resource management, and FF-GNC health maintenance and reconfiguration.
In collaboration with the relevant technology teams at NASA-JPL, we propose co-development of MSE technology in parallel with (and interfaced to) NASA-JPL's FF mission and GNC analysis testbeds (ie. Formation Algorithms and Simulation Testbed, FAST and Formation Control Testbed, FCT).
The Phase II project will deliver MSE system designs, prototype software, analysis tools and techniques.
A Technology Infusion Roadmap for MSE technology will also be provided for NASA Program Office planning purposes.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Outside of NASA, the emerging Unmanned Aerial Vehicle area is a direct application for MSE technology. Other potential applications include Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
MSE technology will provide a general framework for implementation of onboard a utonomy for future multiple spacecraft missions. The proposed MSE technology will be directly applicable to the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) since it will be used as the targeted application. However, MSE will also be directly applicable to several other FF missions, such as the Stellar Imager, Planet Imager, SPECs, MAXIM and Con-X.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Sheedy
msheedy@xinetics.com
115 Jackson Road
Devens, MA 01434-4027
(978)772-0352
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Future NASA programs like Tertiary Planet Finder (TPF) require high-density deformable mirrors with up to 16,000 actuators to enable direct imaging of planets around distant stars. Xinetics has been developing high-density module actuator arrays that will enable deformable mirrors to be fabricated with array sizes up to 128 by 128. These monolithic actuator arrays have eliminated the need for discrete wires by using internal electrical conductors that terminate at the back of the module. Concepts for electrical attachment have been developed to allow laboratory testing and evaluation, but reliable interconnect technology must be developed that will allow the module mirror technology to meet space qualification requirements. Environmental requirements for the interconnect include radiation, mechanical, thermal and life cycle loads. The interconnect must also survive subsequent assembly processes including thermal and coating vacuum cycles. We are proposing under Phase I to investigate electrical interface options, materials and processes for the module arrays compatible with future space qualification requirements. During a follow on Phase II a high density interconnect for a full scale 32 by 32 mirror would be built and assembly processes qualified with rigorous testing.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Applications would pertain to government imaging systems. This would included DoD systems and also intelligence gathering situations.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This technology has direct application in a wide range of potential NASA imaging programs. The immediate need would be on Eclipse and TPF systems (see Figure 19). Here either direct imaging or a coronographic application would use a deformable mirror to further remove stray light from the imaging plane. This electronic development would be able to achieve the three important characteristics of any spaced-based system. This would be a substantial reduction in size, weight, and power. Programs such as AMT could also be able to leverage the results as this program is currently in process between JPL and Xinetics.
Xinetics is currently involved in a series of programs with NASA that would use adaptive optics within the spacecraft. All of them need slow speed systems but must have excellent resolution and low-noise. This technology would apply directly to these programs.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scott Chapman
scott@opticalres.com
3280 East Foothill Boulevard, Suite 300
Pasadena, CA 91107-3103
(626)795-9101
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) project is considering several approaches to discovering planets orbiting stars far from earth and assessing their suitability to support life. One approach is based on a coronagraph design operating in the visible wavelength regime, which requires both very high surface quality, large aperture, telescope optics and advanced optical systems to reject direct, scattered, and diffracted starlight that is on the order of 1x109 brighter than the light reflected from the planet. The project has the need for advanced optical modeling and design tools that include physical optical calculations to support propagation results at a contrast level of 1x10-11 at the image plane of the coronagraph. The CODE V software is the most advanced software available for a wide variety of optical system modeling tasks and would be ideally suited for the TPF project once the proposed capabilities are integrated. Optical Research Associates proposes to extend capabilities of a proprietary method for beam propagation to support the optical modeling needs of the TPF coronagraph project. The result will be an optical design and analysis tool, available to only current CODE V product licensees, that provides another means for predicting the performance of this astronomical asset.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The need for extremely high precision optical propagation through a non-ideal lens system (i.e. containing aberrations) has been identified for the TPF project, but similar needs have not been identified for any other market. The optical design and analysis needs for fidelity in the area of physical propagation are unique to the TPF project and, therefore, funding through NASA SBIR Phase II represents the only viable financial mechanism for developing such a capability. Commercial opportunities do not exist to the proposer's knowledge.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The TPF project has a need to validate key concepts by demonstrating their feasibility both in hardware test beds and in software models of the system. Optical modeling tools that implement physical beam propagation capabilities in the presence of optical aberrations do not currently exist that are both accurate enough and flexible enough to support the design and tolerancing of the TPF coronagraph. Some tools can approach the required accuracy for conceptual designs, but are not sufficiently flexible to allow the type of tradeoff studies with real designs that are necessary.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
david a sheikh
dsheikh@surfaceoptics.com
11555 Rancho Bernardo Road
San Diego, CA 92127-1441
(858)675-7404
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
In the Phase I research, Surface Optics Corporation (SOC) demonstrated a durable silver mirror coating based an ion assisted, thermal evaporation process. The recipe for this durable silver mirror system was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) but was based on a reactive sputtering process. In the Phase II research, process scale-up issues will be addressed so that the process may be implemented in SOC's large aperture coating facility. SOC recently developed a novel vacuum coating system that utilizes a translating electron beam evaporation source. This system is capable of producing highly uniform optical films on curved substrates up to 3-meters in diameter. The combination of SOC's novel manufacturing methods and LLNL's coating designs, will establish a unique and very valuable coating resource for the astronomical community.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Commercial applications for the technology include large, ground-based telescopes such as the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, as well as, home astronomy telescope mirrors and optical gratings.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This research will benefit NASA programs such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission (TPF) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). SOC is currently developing a solar sail film in conjunction with SRS Technology. A protected silver coating would significantly enhance the performance of solar sail propulsion concepts, compared to traditional aluminum coatings.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
William A Goodman
wgoodman@schaferlb.com
2309 Renard Place SE, Suite 300
Albuquerque, NM 01824-4191
(505)338-2865
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The NASA Space Science Enterprise has 2 themes requiring large, lightweight cryogenic mirrors: Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems (ASO) and the Beyond Einstein Initiative of the Structure and Evolution of the Universe (SEU). The long wavelength Far Infrared/Submillimeter (FIR/SMM) instruments of Space Technology 9, the SAFIR Observatory, the Space InfraRed Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT), and the Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS) missions require the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio to resolve the emissions of protogalactic objects and galaxies. The development of 10-25 meter diameter cryogenic optics for the 20-800 microns bandwidth, with an areal density <5 kg/m2, and a surface figure specification of lambda/14 at 20 microns is required. There is a premium for wavelengths >100 microns to achieve mirror temperatures <10K. In fact, at 200 microns wavelength, the point source sensitivity is more dependent on temperature than on aperture size! During the Phase II project Schafer proposes to design, build and test a 0.5-m diameter actively cooled SLMS^TM Far Infrared Submillimeter Prototype (FISP) mirror suitable for NASA FIR/SMM missions, thus maturing SLMS^TM cryogenic mirror technology to TRL 5-6. Active cooling of SLMS^TM mirrors to 4K is an enabling technology for future FIR/SMM instruments.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The Potential Applications for SLMS^TM technology falls into two thrust areas of interest by NASA and Commercial Businesses: cryogenic optics and EUV/Visible Ambient Optics. The respective missions of interest are (for cryogenic) SAFIR, SPIRIT, SPECS, TPF interferometer and (for ambient) DMP, SCOPE, MTRAP, SUVO, NHST and TPF coronagraph. It is noteworthy that all missions could be potentially satisfied by a single mirror technology using 2-meter scale segments. With appropriate funding, SLMS^TM could be this technology. DoD has similar mirror requirements for infrared/visible imaging, surveillance and reconnaissance missions thus NASA and DoD collaboration to mature SLMS^TM technology would be desirable.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The 0.5-meter cryogenic SLMS^TM Far Infrared Submillimeter Prototype (FISP) mirror is traceable to the 1.2-2 meter diameter segments required for a 10-meter deployable telescope. The larger segments would be demonstrated on a non-SBIR funded Option program and would mature the technology to TRL 6. Such an approach is analogous to the maturation for the 50 cm Small Beryllium Mirror Demonstrator and 1.2-meter Advanced Mirror System Demonstrator for the James Webb Space Telescope. The long wavelength Far Infrared/Submillimeter (FIR/SMM) instruments of Space Technology 9, SAFIR, SPIRIT, SPECS and Terrestrial Planet Finder missions could take direct advantage of this proposed maturation program.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scott R Davis
davis@vescentphotonics.com
2927 Welton St.
Denver, CO 80205-3021
(303)296-6766
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Vescent Photonics determined the feasibility of a miniaturized, robust, Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) for either in-situ or remote chemical and spectral analysis. During this phase I effort we investigated innovative, optical waveguide technology, capable of providing an unprecedented, entirely electro-optic replacement for millimeter or even centimeter scale mechanical mirror translation. This technology, developed by Vescent Photonics, enables a fully integrated FTS chemical sensor unit. The attributes of this sensor: i) small size, comparable to a book of matches, ii) low mass, only tens of grams, iii) small energy consumption, < 10-3 Watt-hours per measurement, iv) high sensitivity, detectable chemical densities < 1013 per cm3, and v) robust monolithic construction, are aptly suited for future NASA missions. Such a sensor can be integrated and deployed with a variety of exploration platforms. A single device will provide identification and quantification of multiple compounds (e.g., biogenically important CH4, NOx, NH3, H2O, and many more).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The tremendous size and cost reductions realized by our device will open markets for FTS systems. Current commercial systems are table-top sized, require on-board computers, and cost in excess of $40k. We propose a sensor that could fit it ones palm and enjoy the economy of scale for large volume production. In one embodiment, such a device could serve as a dedicated, in-situ, detector for a multitude of target species. Possible implementations could be automotive exhaust, industrial waste monitoring, agricultural quality control, fuel analysis, plastics sorting for recycling, and general manufacturing control. Furthermore, the robust nature permits placement in hostile and otherwise inaccessible environments.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Deployable on a variety of platforms, a single FTS sensor could identify multiple chemical species. This sensor can be configured to either have an onboard light source, such as the superluminescent diode (SLD) array, or utilize the sun as a light source and solar concentrators to collect the light into the waveguide interferometer. This second embodiment has the dual advantage of i) the path length through the atmosphere is many kilometers and ii) a power consumptive SLD array is not required.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Larry Sadwick /Benjarmin Cox
sadwick@innosystech.com bcox@innosystech.com
3622 West 1820 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84104-4901
(801)975-7399
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a new class of electronic devices called solid state vacuum devices (SSVD^TMs), a highly enabling technology for extreme high temperature radiation hard electronics. SSVD^TMs merge solid state semiconductor technology, including process fabrication techniques, with vacuum electronics, and, in this case, specifically thermionic vacuum electronics. SSVD^TMs have already been demonstrated for highly demanding high frequency applications. Thermionic SSVD^TMs, in which vacuum transport is by thermionically emitted electrons, are especially promising due to their intrinsic internal high temperature operation and radiation hardness. SSVD^TMs are extremely well suited for extreme environments that, for example, exist on or near Venus. InnoSys proposed and successfully demonstrated in Phase I of this SBIR project SSVD^TM triodes/field effect transistors and the associated assembly and sealing to meet the requirements needed for extreme high temperature electronics. In particular, SSVD^TM electronics were successfully experimentally demonstrated fully operational at 500C. In addition, radiation insensitive SSVD^TM electronics were also successfully experimentally demonstrated during Phase I of this SBIR project. Small scale extreme temperature, radiation insensitive SSVD^TM integrated circuits (ICs) will be developed during Phase II of this SBIR project. Currently no other existing electronics can address this extreme environment.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
SSVD^TMs are currently being developed commercially to address commercial markets in communications(i.e.,base stations,broadband and millimeter wave communications),and power control and conversion.Potential non-NASA commercial applications for extreme temperature and radiation environment (EXTREME)SSVD products include down hole and geothermal markets and applications and radiation insensitive electronics. The potential applications for SSVD technology and products are vast and include:
low frequency to millimeter wave sources for communications and other applications;radiation hard/insensitive electronics;control and sensing electronics for nuclear reactors;power supplies and converters;control, monitoring and sensing applications for harsh environments in terrestrial, automotive, avionics, and aeronautics; aerospace engine monitoring and surface controls; automotive in-cylinder and exhaust;process industry and chemical process control and monitoring;power generation;jet engine and power turbine generators;sensors and detectors;high and extreme temperature robotics;and hydraulic replacement on aircraft with uncooled EXTREME smart MEMS SSVDs.Other applications pertinent to this SBIR,for example,include three dimensional microfabrication and micromachining coupled with the possibility of extreme temperature,radiation hard/insensitive harsh environment electronics.In addition,the possibility of coupling extreme high temperature electronics and communications is very attractive.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Missions to Venus have to operate at 460C and need operational amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers, switches, analog muxs, motor controllers, H bridges, dc to dc power converters, inverters, and digital to analog and analog to digital converters. SSVDs can be fabricated to directly operate at 460C enhancing mission life and eliminating bulky thermal management systems. Additional applications include Giant Planets, Deep Probes, Project Prometheus related missions, Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), Jovian radiation belts, nuclear power systems, nuclear reactors, nuclear propulsion and other fission-based space propulsion/power systems. SSVDTM extreme radiation and temperature electronics located next to reactors can last 15+ years.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kouros Sariri
ksariri@yahoo.com
15302 Bolsa Chica Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92649-1245
(714)373-8100
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Efficient and stable clock signal generation requirements at extreme temperatures (-180C to +450C)and radiation (>250 Krad TID) are not met with the current solutions.Chronos technology proposes to design and fabricate RTXO as a new, comprehensive and scalable solution that simultaneously addresses the attributes of a reliable clock source in extreme environments. RTXO offers very small form-factor 5X7mm surface mount device utilizing high-Q Quartz material and CMOS/SOI for the extreme cold temperatures of Mars surface up to +110C. For extreme high temperature (to +450C) it uses Silicon Carbide (SiC-4H) semiconductor technology, high quality Gallium Orthophisphate (GaPO4) piezo-electric resonator material in a non-adhesive configured innovative assembly. All the different elements and processes used in the RTXO technology have been investigated in phase I to comply with the intended performance. This includes the individual elements, packaging, interconnecting method and manufacturing processes. RTXO offers standard signal interface, wide operating voltage range, conventional microelectronic packaging, and industry standard and reliable metal to metal as well as glass to metal sealing processes. RTXO delivers its exceptional performance over a wide (application specific) frequency range to 100 MHz from a single supply voltage and requires very low power.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The need for extreme temperature clock as offered by RTXO will be acute in geothermal monitoring sensors and advanced jet engin controllers and sensors where present solutions literally fail and fall way short of the required performance and reliability. Higher RTXO performance comes with aded reliability, lower cost and smaller package as we have estimated thru our present customer and market activity for such opportunities. Nuclear process monitoring is another area that will benefit from RTXO technology and reduce the performance glitches of such systems. High end down-hole applications are on the operating temprature rise and will immediately benefit too.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
RTXO will benefit system applications that are required to operate in extreme environments such as the up and coming missions to Mars like Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and other missions to Moon and, Venus where all current and available solutions will fail due to continued exposure to extreme temperature, wide thermal cycling and radiation. Furthermore, RTXO is intended to be a high performance but standard solution for space qualified clocks that NASA always treats as custom made and controls them thru NASA Doc# 311-INST-001, MIL-PRF-38534 & Mil-PRF-55310. RTXO will be used in all sensors, control & communication modules in orbiters or landers.

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc.
1046 New Holland Avenue
Lancaster ,PA 17601 - 5688
(717) 295 - 6061

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jon   Zuo
jon.zuo@1-ACT.com
1046 New Holland Avenue
Lancaster ,PA  17601 -5688
(717) 295 - 6058
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. proposes to develop a hybrid cooling loop technology for space thermal control. The proposed technology combines the high heat flux performance of active cooling loops with the effective fluid management of passive cooling devices. The result is a simple, robust and high performance cooling technology that allows maximum degree of packaging flexibility. Phase I has demonstrated the technology in cooling high heat fluxes in excess of 350W/cm2 from large areas in excess of 4cm2 with low thermal resistances (0.008 to 0.065^oC/W/cm2). The prototype hybrid loop was tested at various orientations to verify its robust operation. The Phase I results indicated that the hybrid loop is capable of substantially outperforming the state of the art heat pipes, loop heat pipes and spray cooling systems. The principal Phase II objectives are to develop advanced performance features and qualify the hybrid loop technology for space thermal control through testing of multiple generations of prototypes and ground qualification testing of engineering units. The Phase II results will elevate the technology to a TRL 6: Prototype demonstration in a relevant environment. The follow-on Phase III will conduct flight qualification testing of the technology to address micro gravity operation issues.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
NASA applications of the hybrid cooling loop technology include:

? High power satellite thermal control, where compact and high performance heat acquisition, transport and dissipation are required to cool high power devices such as laser sensors.
? Human and robotic exploration systems thermal control, where the heat loads are far greater and temperatures outside of the temperature ranges of existing technologies.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The hybrid loop technology has broad applicability in military and commercial markets. Non NASA applications of the hybrid cooling loop technology include:

? Military and civilian land vehicles (power electronics, optoelectronics, electrical converters, drives and motors, fuel cell reformers and stacks).
? Military aerial vehicles (electronics onboard high altitude UAV, power electronics onboard All Electric Fighter Jets, directed energy weapons).
? Commercial server farms or data centers.
? Commercial telecommunication equipment enclosures (indoor and outdoor).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Junqing Ma
jma@tjtechnologies.com
3850 Research Park Drive Suite A
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2240
(734)213-1637
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Capacitor size and reliability are often limiting factors in pulse power, high speed switching, and power management and distribution (PMAD) systems. T/J Technologies is addressing these limitations through the development of nanocomposite polypropylene films with enhanced dielectric strength, dielectric coefficient and thermal stability. These improvements translate to better performance, including higher energy density, higher volumetric efficiency, and increased working temperature. During phase I of this program, T/J Technologies demonstrated novel nanocomposite dielectric films with a >100% increase in dielectric strength as compared with conventional polypropylene materials, while also realizing modest improvements in dielectric constant. Future work in phase II will focus on transitioning this new film into a higher volumetric efficiency power filter capacitor technology that will reduce the size and enhance the reliability of NASA PMAD subsystems. The major target for Phase II is to develop and demonstrate an ultra-thin capacitor film with high volumetric efficiency (>50% improvement over State-of-the-art polypropylene capacitors), high temperature (>125?aC), low dissipation factor, and excellent mechanical properties (windability). This research will enable the development of lighter, more reliable PMAD subsystems for NASA space missions. Other commercial and defense applications include pulse power conditioning for high power electronics and high voltage AC systems.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Other commercial and defense applications include pulse power conditioning for high power electronics and high voltage AC systems involving high power electronics pulse-duty circuits, high frequency filtering, high frequency inverters, solid state switch snubbers, and SCR commutation circuits.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
This research will enable the development of lighter, more reliable PMAD subsystems for NASA space missions.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mike Wang
jinliang.wang@allcomp.net
209 Puente Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91746-2304
(626)369-1273
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Closed Brayton Cycle (CBC) space power system is one of the most efficient energy conversion technologies for nuclear and solar electric propulsion. The recuperator is critical to enhance CBC efficiency. An advanced light weight recuperator was proposed to significantly reduce the mass (up to 70%) of the State-of-Art (SOA) metallic recuperator and to improve its performance by using advanced high conductivity carbon-based materials. In phase I, prototype cores were fabricated and tested successfully. In Phase II, performance of recuperator cores will be investigated in detail, integration technologies will be improved, structural and assembly issues will be addressed, a 30 ~ 50 kWt subscale recuperator will be designed, prototyped and tested.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed light weight high performance heat exchanger technology offers high commercial potentials in many non-NASA applications. It is particularly attractive for primary heat exchangers of aircraft including both civil and military aerospace vehicles. In addition, the proposed concept may also be used in thermal management of military ground vehicles, navy warships, sport cars, nuclear energy utilizations where weight is a main consideration as well as performance.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The prime application of the proposed light weight high performance recuperator is for a Brayton cycle related power conversion system currently being proposed for deep space explorations including JIMO program. In addition, the proposed concepts and related technologies may also be used for space and aerospace environmental control, thermal management, power electronics cooling and many others

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mukund (Mike) S. Deshpande
m.deshpande@amseng.net
2309 Pennsbury Ct.
Schaumburg, IL 60194-3884
(630)372-9722
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This innovative SBIR Phase II proposal will develop next generation products for Thermal Control Material Systems (TCMS) an adhesives based on the next generation nano-cluster chemistry based new binder systems, through the systematic investigations to tailor required unique performance properties with reliability and durability. The efforts address a critical need of NASA which plans to undertake challenging exploration missions in high radiation orbits for high power thermal management. This Phase II product development and validation is mainly proposed to fulfill the issues related to the material obsolescence and the technology gap, and to present next generation product concepts from the new class of binder material chemistries that are dielectrically engineered with required secondary emission properties. Thus, this timely proposal can fulfill the need of the multifunctional binder based products that have a required thermal shock, thermal cycling performance and potential to improve the affordability. The proposed efforts will generate needed validation data to generate the confidence in the developed products and will carry out needed optimization of the proposed products. It will also provide needed input to Phase III opportunities to the mission officials from JIMO, ISS and to the various officials of DoD and NRO on the issues, where the next generation materials can make a significant difference.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The DoD, NRO and commercial industry are planning several satellites for the broad band communication activities. The FAA and NASA are also envisioning commercial space based radars for air traffic control. Such platform structures are expected to be, if not as large as ISS, but at least sizable - where the charge accumulation can be an over riding concerns. These planned candidate fleet designs of such integrated space systems may require putting assets in the mid-earth orbits for over all optimization and minimization of mission costs. Such mission and fleet designs can be possible only if the material technologies are made available that have the needed space environment stability built into them for the required reliability and durability along with the charge dissipation abilities. Currently no material technology exists that can mitigate high energy electron and proton induced degradation effects. Many other NASA exploration, planetary, commercial and DoD platform hardware will also benefit form these TCMS and Zero CVCM adhesives products proposed for development in Phase II. The concepts for products like: adhesives and DSR can benefit the NRO's hardening and robustness initiative significantly. The cost effective dividend provided by the charge mitigation applications of the binder chemistry by either dip coating or the rub priming of the binder systems can also have major appeal to Non-NASA applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The suggested next generation binder system based TCMS products and Zero CVCM adhesives can benefit their applications to enhance the multifunctionality and assist in high-power thermal management challenges with improved affordability. The use of envisioned products based on the binder system developed in Phase I can enhance NASA's ability to carry out the high power space science and the exploration missions in the planetary orbits and the several sun earth connection study mission orbits and for the missions planned for the vision moon, mars and beyond, where the severe electrons and protons are present as one of the main degrading species.
The stable dielectrically engineered binder system is a central requirement to any NASA space program. For ISS the structure is grounded to the negative of the solar array and hence is about 140 volts below plasma potential. The discharge across the discontinuities caused by the micro-meteoroids can generate electromagnetic interference and even sputtering of the underlying metallic layer. The rub-primed binder that fills the micro-porosity resulted from the anodized aluminum at the surface can help with prevention of electromagnetic interference. This has potential to simplify the grounding schemes and minimize the costs associated with the same. The envisioned binder system based products proposed in Phase II have multiple core abilities to significantly impact the various NASA missions like: JIMO and ISS risk reduction initiative.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Stuart Farquharson
stu@RTA.biz
87 Church Street
East Hartford, CT 06108-3728
(860)528-9806
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The overall goal of this program (through Phase III) is to develop an analyzer to measure chemical signatures of life in extraterrestrial settings. The analyzer will employ a lab-on-a-chip to extract biochemical signatures from soil or water samples and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to detect and identify the signatures. The Phase I program successfully employed a metal-doped sol-gel to both chemically separate and generate SERS of amino acids in flowing water. This novel approach measured 19 of the 20 protein amino acids typically at 1 microg/mL (1 part-per-million) in 1 minute with estimated limits of detection of 10-100 nanog/mL (10-100 part-per-billion). The Phase II program will design, build and test a prototype lab-on-a-chip using 96 chemicals. The program includes a clear path to improving sensitivity by 4-orders of magnitude to part-per-trillion sensitivity. The prototype will be demonstrated at Hamilton Sundstrand's Pomona facilities to initiate a Phase III collaboration.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed analyzer would find immediate use in the rapidly growing field of proteomics. There is a need to better define the structure of proteins used as biomarkers of disease and as potential binding sites for new drugs. The proposed analyzer can provide the necessary amino acid sequence data to meet this need.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed lab-on-a-chip astrobiology analyzer will provide the ability to measure important biosignatures of extraterrestrial life. This will aid NASA in answering several fundamental questions regarding life, such as origin, evolution, and distribution. Measurements of biosignatures in Martian soil may also aid NASA in selecting a future sight for human exploration and habitation. In this case, the proposed lab-on-a-chip represents a low cost, reduced risk investment (especially at a mass of ~500g), in that it can be incorporated into planned mission hardware (e.g. Astrobiology Field Laboratory that will include an automated sample collection system and a Raman analyzer).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Peter Katzin
katzin@hittite.com
12 Elizabeth Road
Chelmsford, MA 01824-4147
(978)250-3343
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Space vehicles for deep space exploration rely on microwave and millimeter wave links for communication with earth stations. As the mission of space probes expands, the data rate to be transmitted increases, and effective, compact, methods of modulating the RF carrier with high-speed data become a critical necessity. Passive MMIC modulation approaches introduce loss into the RF path and analog phase shifters in particular can exhibit significant shortcomings such as insertion loss variations and phase-shift range limitations. For more complex digital or hybrid modulation schemes, passive modulator components may also need elaborate calibration look-up tables to achieve desired phase and amplitude modulation accuracy with respect to process and temperature variations. Hittite has recently developed high-performance, active I/Q vector modulator MMICs for communication systems operating up to C-band, based on SiGe and GaAs HBT process technologies. Our Phase I study has shown the feasability of implementing a high-performance X-band modulator on the same 40-50 GHz Ft process. We propose to fabricate and evaluate this modulator as part of this Phase II program. We also propose to use this modulator in conjunction with frequency multipliers recently developed by Hittite to implement a high-speed,linear phase modulator at Ka band.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The X-band modulators developed as part of this program could be applied to emerging broadband Point-to-Point, Point-to-Multi-Point, and Mesh data transmission systems(802.16, WiMax)in the 2-11 GHz range.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The proposed high-performance MMIC modulator devices will provide the versatility needed to implement a variety of high-speed data modulation formats for small spacecraft radios and lead to the development of low-cost, compact transmitters directly applicable to broadband commercial communication satellite links.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
James L Gates
georgew@voxtel-inc.com
12725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 300
Beaverton, OR 97005-1687
(503)906-7906
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
To meet the demands of future high-capacity free space optical communications links, a high bandwidth, near infrared (NIR), single photon sensitive optoelectronic receiver will be designed, manufactured, and demonstrated. The unique vertical charge transport electron avalanche photodiode (EAPD) exploits the bandgap properties of HgCdTe to achieve high quantum efficiency and avalanche multiplication that preferentially ionizes electrons to achieve nearly noiseless gain exceeding 1000 with an excess noise factor approaching 1.0 and bandwidths greater than 500 MHz. In Phase II, a segmented 1 mm x 1 mm back-illuminated detector will be integrated with a low noise CMOS integrated circuit to realize a photoreceiver capable of both single photon detection and photon number discrimination. Unlike Geiger Mode detectors, the receiver can operate at 77K, without the limitations of afterpulsing, so that dark current can de reduced and bit errors rates reduced. A cold laser line filter is used to select the spectral response anywhere within the 1064-2400 nm spectral band.

Optical communications has been identified as a critical technology for future NASA missions, and the innovation satisfied the currently unmet need for a single photon sensitive, large area, high bandwidth NIR photoreceivers that is not served by contemporary approaches.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
Within the telecommunications industry, there exists a demand for NIR photodetectors with higher sensitivity. Additionally, single photon sensitive NIR photodetectors are currently used for testing the optical emissions from high speed CMOS circuits, quantum cryptography, and navigation including automotive LADAR applications, free space communications, transient spectroscopy, among others.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 100 WORDS)
The requirement for optoelectronic receivers with single photon sensitivity and multiple photon discrimination is driven by the demands of NASA's optical communication requirements. There currently does not exist a large area, NIR photodetector that satisfies future NASA missions. Additional NASA applications for a highly sensitive NIR detector include NIR spectroscopy, astronomy, adaptive optics, atmospheric profiling, laser radar and autonomous navigation.