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Early Career Faculty 2024

By |2025-04-18T12:54:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Back to ECF Home Transformational Advanced Energetic Propulsion Omid Beik Colorado School of Mines Development of a MW-Scale High-Voltage Multiphase Dual-Rotor Generator and Rectifier for a PMAD in an NEP System Ognjen Ilic University of Minnesota Concept Demonstration of Directed Energy Propulsion with Metasurface [...]

Developing Oxychalcogenide Membranes for Superconducting Power Transmission

By |2025-04-18T12:54:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Yang.pdf Shuolong Yang University of Chicago This effort will leverage the latest developments in superconductors to build a power transmission cable that can operate in the extreme cold temperatures found on the Moon with very low electrical losses. The team will [...]

Power on the Dark Side: Stimulus-Responsive Adsorbents for Low-Energy Controlled Storage and Delivery of Low Boiling Fuels to Mobile Assets in Permanently Shaded Regions

By |2025-04-18T12:53:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart McGuirk.pdf Christopher McGuirk Colorado School of Mines This project will investigate and develop improved storage methods for the fuels needed to generate electrical power in places where sunlight is not available. The effort will focus on particularly tailored materials called Metal [...]

Piezoelectric-Based Power Conversion for Lunar Surface Systems

By |2025-04-18T12:52:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Boles.pdf Jessica Boles University of California, Berkeley This project will develop piezoelectric-based power conversion for small power systems on the lunar surface. These piezoelectric systems can potentially offer high power density to significantly reduce size, weight, and cost. They can also [...]

Lightweight Deployable Solar Reflectors

By |2025-04-18T12:51:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Arya.pdf Manan Arya Stanford University This grant will design and develop lightweight, low-cost modular solar reflectors that can be stowed for transport in a compact volume. These reflectors can potentially be used to reflect and concentrate sunlight into a permanently shadowed [...]

Stabilized Z-Pinch Fusion Driven Electromagnetic Propulsion

By |2025-04-18T12:48:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Underwood.pdf Thomas Underwood University of Texas, Austin This project will demonstrate a fusion propulsion system based on z-pinch which is a method of compressing plasma by running electrical current though it. The z-pinch will compress and heat the plasma to produce [...]

Origami-inspired Diffractive Sail for Directed Energy Propulsion

By |2025-04-18T12:48:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Oguri.pdf Kenshiro Oguri Purdue University This project will investigate one of the key fundamental challenges associated with directed-energy light-sailing technology, similar to solar sails but powered by a laser beam pointed at the sail instead of by the sun. The effort [...]

Concept Demonstration of Directed Energy Propulsion with Metasurface Lightsails

By |2025-04-18T12:47:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Ilic.pdf Ognjen Ilic University of Minnesota This effort will aim to demonstrate the feasibility of directed-energy propulsion through a combination of computational simulations and prototype testing. The project will model the interactions between lightsail material and a laser beam that can [...]

Development of a MW-Scale High-Voltage Multiphase Dual-Rotor Generator and Rectifier for a PMAD in an NEP System

By |2025-04-18T12:46:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) ECF 2024 Quadchart Beik.pdf Omid Beik Colorado School of Mines This project will design a power management and distribution (PMAD) system that can be coupled with a megawatt-scale nuclear power generation system for nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) that is suitable for a Mars mission. [...]

A Fond Farewell: NASA’s C-130 Begins New Mission in California

By |2025-04-18T12:40:00-04:00April 18th, 2025|Categories: NASA News|Tags: , , , , , |

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s C-130, now under new ownership, sits ready for its final departure from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on Friday, April 18, 2025. NASA/Garon Clark NASA’s C-130 Hercules, fondly known as the Herc, went wheels up at 9:45 a.m., Friday, April 18, [...]

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