Pilot Projects Overview

 

2006-P1 Nano-Composite Materials: Load Bearing and Thermal Protection Applications

The Pilot Project will address an advanced nano/bio-sensor fabrication platform using Scanning Probe Lithography, such as Fountain Pen Nanolithography. This affords a flexible and cost-effective technique by integrating microfluidics with nano-fabrication, thus combining both top-down and bottom-up paradigms. The sensor components can be soft materials (e.g., bio-polymers, functional molecules, etc.) and hard materials (e.g., metals, opto-electronic materials, etc.). We believe this concept addresses a critical need for aerospace systems, and if successfully demonstrated, would lead to rapid adoption by the aerospace industry.

2006-P2 MNT Based Harsh Environment Sensors

The Pilot Project will address the development of SOI technology based advanced sensors and actuators dedicated to Harsh Environment (HE) operation conditions. SOI technology is a generic platform for MNT implementation aimed at numerous aerospace applications: pressure transducers, accelerometers, flame detectors, magnetometers, gas composition and flow sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, etc. HE MNT will combine arrays of diverse sensors/actuators with high-performance electronics including sensor interface, analog and digital signal processing, memory and communication (possibly wireless) circuits.

2006-P3 Nano/Pico-Satellites for Civilian and Defense Applications

The Pilot Project will examine all key technical and programmatic aspects leading to a successful system-prototype demonstration. The key satellite service markets which we will target include space technology validation, remote sensing, and atmospheric research, which form a stable and growing segment of the services market, that while extremely price sensitive, are available in large volumes. A detailed implementation plan will then be developed involving both the technical and management aspects of the design, build, assembly and testing process for demonstrating the ultimate system-level prototype.

2006-P4 Reliability

In this paper we present an overview of the current state of the art in reliability testing of microsensors and microactuators. The complete paper is comprised of three major parts; (i) Literature review of reliability testing of microsystems from academic and industrial resources, (ii) Review of applicable reliability standards in terms of Military Specifications and Space Applications Standards, and (iii) General strategy for space qualification of MNT. This programmatic aspect will focus on the creation of a 3-5 year MNT reliability program that is aimed at having broad applicability for dealing with engineering reliability into these systems, and building a reliability infrastructure that will allow for rapid prototyping and portability of MNT across various technologies and vendors.

2006-P5 Micro-Energetics

The objective of this Pilot Project is to promote innovation and progress towards commercialization in micro and nanotechnology for power generation, energy conversion, and microrockets, in close collaboration with end-users in the aerospace industry, defense related sciences, and civilian applications. It will examine novel materials for energy applications and will propose 2 directions to guide the discussion / propositions: novel material for the electrical micro generation and nano based energetic material for advanced energetic systems .

The progress made on the communication technology and the availability of COTS has led to the dissemination of new miniature smart objects and vehicles such as spy micro vehicles, safe and instrumented munition, nanosatellites, and robotic devices. These systems all require safe, light, compact, robust small-scale electrical power modules to communicate and compute, and energetic micro systems to propel and actuate. Unfortunately, the technology and systems available for powering micro objects / vehicles are not equally advanced. There is an urgent need for revolutionary technologies/material compatible with MEMS to produce high power densities in packages. In this context, nano based materials can contribute to revolutionary improvements in electrical power MEMS and can lead to highly integrated micro energetic systems.

2006-P6 Aircraft / Spacecraft Structural Health Monitoring System

This Pilot Project will address the development of advanced Aircraft/Spacecraft Health Monitoring systems based on networks of interoperable, diverse MNT sensors for accurate event detection and identification, and for long term monitoring applications. Additional system attributes include "Active Signal Processing" of sensor data for improving signal-to-noise ratio and reducing the probability of false alarms. We believe that this concept addresses a critical need for aerospace systems, and if successfully demonstrated, would lead to rapid adoption by the aerospace industry.

2006-P7 MNT-based Sensors for Astronaut Health Monitoring and Environmental Control