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Advancing Elastocaloric Refrigeration through Co-design of Materials and Systems

Patrick Shamberger Texas A&M University Elastocaloric materials heat up or cool down when stress is applied to them or removed.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Continuous Bending-mode Elastocaloric Composite Refrigeration System for Compact, Lightweight, High-Efficiency Cooling

Nenad Miljkovic University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Traditional elastocaloric refrigeration systems are based on uniaxial compression of the elastocaloric material which makes them highly constrained by actuator requirements, the physics of column buckling, and limited surface area for heat transfer.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Physics-based Modeling and Tool Development for the Characterization and Uncertainty Quantification of Crater Formation and Ejecta Dynamics due to Plume-surface Interaction

David Scarborough Auburn University Professor Scarborough will develop and implement tools to extract critical data from experimental measurements of plume surface interaction (PSI) to identify and classify dominant regimes, develop physics-based, semi-empirical models to predict the PSI phenomena, and quantify the uncertainties.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Advancing Radiation-Hardened CMOS Detectors for NASA Missions

Donald Figer Rochester Institute of Technology The objective of this grant is to investigate methods to reduce and mitigate the effects of radiation damage on single-photon counting and photon number resolving optical imaging detectors.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Integrating Data-Driven and Physics-Based Models for Plume-Surface Interaction Predictions

Laura Villafane University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Rocket engine exhaust during lunar landings can blow away a large amount of lunar regolith causing damage to nearby hardware and the landing spacecraft itself. The complex physics governing this behavior is not well understood making it hard to predict and mitigate its effects.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Radiation hardness study of superconducting detectors and electronics

Karl Berggren Massachusetts Institute of Technology Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are a promising new ultra-sensitive and low-noise detectors for applications ranging from deep-space exploration to ultrafast space-based optical quantum communication networks.

Posted January 10, 2024

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Advice from NASA Mentors to Students Starting Their Careers

NASA is celebrating National Mentoring Month by recognizing the importance of mentors to students and young professionals whose careers are beginning to take off. Mentors help their mentees gain real-world experiences, make valuable connections, and find the types of roles best suited to their strengths and skills.

Posted January 10, 2024

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NASA Funds Laser Communications Tech with Small Business

NASA is working with private industry partners and small businesses under Artemis to produce scalable, affordable, and advanced laser communications systems that could enable greater exploration and discovery beyond Earth for the benefit of all.

Posted January 10, 2024

NASA History

10 Years Ago: The First Operational Cygnus Cargo Mission to the Space Station

To replace the cargo and crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the United States developed a novel approach to procure those services from American commercial entities. On Jan.

Posted January 10, 2024

General

Ames Research Center

NASA Ames Awards Task Order Modification for Wind Tunnel Upgrades

NASA has awarded a task order modification to the Aerospace Testing and Facilities Operations and Maintenance (ATOM-5) contract to Jacobs Technology Inc., of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to provide the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, with an upgrade to the center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel main drive speed control variable fr

Posted January 9, 2024