Early Stage Innovations (ESI)

Early Stage Innovations (ESI) 2024

November 21, 2024 NeRD

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Back to ESI Home Computational Materials Engineering for Lunar Metals Welding Azadeh HaghighiUniversity of Illinois, ChicagoWeld-ASSIST: Weldability Assessment for In-Space Conditions using a Digital Twin Wei LiUniversity of Texas at DallasIntegrated Computational Materials Modelling Framework for Investigating the Process-Structure-Property Linkage of the Lunar Metal Welding with Internal Defects Passive Lunar Dust Control through Advanced Materials and Surface Engineering SungWoo NamUniversity of California, IrvineDeformable Crumpled Nano-ball Coatings with Adaptable Adhesion and Mechanical Energy Absorption for Lunar Dust Mitigation Chih-Hao ChangUniversity of Texas at AustinEngineering the Adhesion…

Elastocaloric Refrigeration for Spaceflight Applications (ESRA)

March 22, 2024 NeRD

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Jun Cui Iowa State University ESI23 Cui Quadchart.pdf Elastocaloric materials heat up when exposed to a mechanical force and cool down, removing the same amount of heat from their environment, when the force is removed. Professor Cui will use the recently established DFT/machine learning guided metals development methodology to unravel the complex relationships between compositions, crystal structures, phase transformation, and fatigue behavior of the elastocaloric materials. He will develop novel, new elastocaloric materials and use them as the basis…

Transparent Superconductors for Single-photon Detectors

March 22, 2024 NeRD

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Manuel Quevedo-Lopez University Of Texas, Dallas ESI23 Quevedo-Lopez Quadchart.pdf Current SNSPD’s use a thin, superconducting film to detect photons. These films are highly reflective and must be made very thin, on the order of a few nanometers, in order to allow light to interact with their entire thickness. This leads to numerous drawbacks including lower sensitivity and higher signal noise. Professor Lopez will work to develop a new generation of transparent superconducting films for SNSPD applications to overcome these…