National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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TAS::80 0119::TAS NEVA RIDGE TECHNOLOGIES PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A SUITE OF SOFTWARE TOOLS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SAR AND INSAR DATA, FOCUSED ON HAVING A ROBUST AND ADOPTED CAPABILITY WELL IN PLACE FOR SCIENTISTS BY THE ERA OF THE NASA DESDYNI SPACEBORNE SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) MISSION. THE SOFTWARE WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES ASSOCIATED WITH GRAPHICS PROCESSOR UNITS (GPUS) TO DRASTICALLY ACCELERATE DESKTOP PROCESSING PERFORMANCE. THE GROWTH IN BOTH GPU HARDWARE PERFORMANCE AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FAR EXCEEDS THOSE FOR GENERAL CPUS AND OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS. OUR EFFORT WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS EXTERNALLY DRIVEN GROWTH THROUGHOUT THE NEXT DECADE. UNDER THE PROPOSED PARADIGM, USERS WILL ACCESS RAW DATA VIA THE INTERNET USING THE DEVELOPED SOFTWARE TOOL AND PROCESS THIS DATA LOCALLY ON A DESKTOP COMPUTER AUGMENTED WITH AN INEXPENSIVE GPU SYSTEM. THE LOCAL SOFTWARE WILL BE DESIGNED FOR BOTH EASE OF USE AND FLEXIBILITY ALLOWING SCIENTISTS TO PRODUCE THEIR PARTICULAR INSAR PRODUCTS FROM ARCHIVED RAW DATA VERY QUICKLY. THE SOFTWARE PROCESS FLOW WILL BE DEVELOPED BY NEVA RIDGE IN CONJUNCTION WITH NASA INSAR SCIENTISTS, AND WILL BE OPEN TO SUPPORTED SCIENTISTS WHO WOULD LIKE TO ADD OR MODIFY INTERNAL ALGORITHMS. NEVA RIDGE WILL MAINTAIN THE SOFTWARE IN AN ONGOING SUPPORT ROLE, AND WILL INCORPORATE THE NEW AND UPDATED INSAR ALGORITHMS AS NOMINATED BY SCIENTISTS. UNDER THIS PHASE I EFFORT, WE WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS APPROACH BY PROTOTYPING THE MAIN FLOW OF INSAR PROCESSING STEPS USING A GPU-ACCELERATED SYSTEM AND WILL DESIGN PROCESS FLOWS FOR MANY INSAR APPLICATIONS.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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TAS::80 0123::TAS BETTER PERFORMING ABLATIVE THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS THAN CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ARE NEEDED TO SATISFY REQUIREMENTS OF THE MOST SEVERE CREW EXPLORATION VEHICLES, SUCH AS THE MARS SAMPLE RETURN WITH 12-15 KM/S EARTH ENTRY. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF CU AEROSPACE'S PHASE I WORK WILL BE TO FABRICATE AND TEST AROMATIC THERMOSETTING COPOLYESTERS (ATSP) COMPOSITES FOR USE AS ABLATIVES IN NEXT GENERATION SPACECRAFT MISSIONS. THE SYNTHETIC DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL AROMATIC THERMOSETTING COPOLYESTERS WAS A MAJOR INNOVATION IN THE FIELD OF POLYMER SCIENCE. PREVIOUS TESTING OF THEIR CAPABILITIES SHOWED EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE AS ADHESIVES, RIGID FOAMS, MATRICES FOR COMPOSITES, AND DIELECTRICS FOR MICROELECTRONICS. ONLY RECENTLY HAS THIS MATERIAL BEEN CONSIDERED AS A VIABLE ABLATIVE DUE TO ITS HIGH TEMPERATURE STABILITY AND EXCELLENT COMPOSITE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ESPECIALLY DUE TO THE LIQUID CRYSTALLINE NATURE OF THE POLYMER, WHICH ALLOWS A MATCHING OF CTE BETWEEN FIBER AND MATRIX. OUR TEAM PARTNER THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN WILL ASSIST CU AEROSPACE TO PERFORM BASIC RESEARCH AND PROVIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO ACCELERATE THE TRANSITION OF ATSP POLYMERS INTO ABLATIVE COMPOSITES. IF SUCCESSFUL CU AEROSPACE ENVISIONS THE ATSP TO BE UTILIZED IN A WIDE VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS IN BOTH CIVILIAN AND MILITARY SPACECRAFT, EITHER AS A RETROFIT OR AS A NEXT-GENERATION DESIGN.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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TAS::80 0119::TAS SOUTHWEST SCIENCES PROPOSES DEVELOPMENT OF GAS FILTER CORRELATION (GFC) SPECTROSCOPY USING NON-PERIODIC GRATINGS FOR SPACEBORNE AND AIRBORNE DEPLOYMENT. OUR PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY WILL RESULT IN SMALLER, LIGHTER WEIGHT, LOWER POWER, AND MORE RUGGED INSTRUMENTATION THAN IS POSSIBLE USING ESTABLISHED GFC SPECTROMETERS. THE APPROACH IS BASED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF NON-PERIODIC DIFFRACTION GRATINGS THAT REPLACE THE REFERENCE GAS CELLS USED IN GFC SPECTROMETERS.