Volume 8, Number 6     November/December 2000

SBIR Programs Win R&D Award

High-technology inventions developed through Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, were recently named to Research and Development Magazine's R&D 100 for 2000.

Ring Buffered Network Bus DataTurbine®ß provides multi-site streaming data access, both real-time and historical, with collaborative processing; Photos provided by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

Langley's innovation, developed with Triton Systems, Inc., of Chelmsford, Massachusetts is a class of aerospace materials that is highly resistant to the harsh extremes of low-Earth orbit, where an increasing number of satellites are being placed. These polymers, called TOR polymers, will provide an effective coating when applied to spacecraft surfaces, protecting against erosion by atomic oxygen and damage from space radiation. Some organic polymers in low-Earth orbit, such as Kapton™ and Teflon™, typically experience degradation over time due to attack by atomic oxygen (AO) and ultraviolet radiation. TOR polymers are designed with phosphorous in the polymer backbone to provide resistance to those effects. The AO and phosphorous react to produce a protective phosphate layer. The layer then works to reduce AO erosion by 15 to 100 times relative to Teflon™ or Kapton™, without sacrificing the polymer's chemical properties. This resistance translates to spacecraft components with longer lifetimes and reduced costs.

Triton has developed processing and fabrication techniques for the materials and manufactures them in the form of powder, adhesive tape, solution, fiber, thread, fabric and film. The fibers are twisted into thread that can be used to sew multi-layer thermal insulation blankets, woven into fabric and braided to make tethers. Large films can be metallized and used for solar arrays or inflatable space structures.

The materials have been selected for use on two NASA space missions scheduled for launch in the winter of 2000. They are presently under evaluation for several electronic applications because of inherent resistance to high voltage and arcing. Applications for the TOR plastic material include upcoming satellites which will use TOR insulation blankets.

Dryden's innovation, developed with Creare, Inc., of Hanover, New Hampshire, is software that is helping to tame the vast amount of information flowing through the Internet. The patent-pending Ring Buffered Network Bus (RBNB) DataTurbine® provides multi-site streaming data access, both real-time and historical, with collaborative processing. The software adds memory to network communications and facilitates time correlation of distributed data sources. It also enables and facilitates remote monitoring, data distribution, application integration and collaborative processing between multiple data sources and sinks.

A polymer developed by (left to right) Joseph Smith, John Connell and Paul Hergenrother of NASA Langley Research Center, was recently named to Research and Development Magazine's R&D 100 for 2000.

Intended for creating networks of measurements and distributed measurement processing, DataTurbine is a software server that provides a buffered network path between suppliers and consumers of information. Diverse distributed applications pool and share data using DataTurbine as a common intermediate point of contact. The server enables remote monitoring using Web browsers and other utilities, synchronized data distribution from multiple sources to multiple sinks, application integration of diverse software using standard networks, and collaborative processing between distributed on-line users.

The applications of an Internet-based management tool such as DataTurbine are numerous. It can be used for manufacturing process control, medical and physiological management, business and commercial multimedia data streaming, scientific data processing and enterprise management. Dryden is using the DataTurbine to support existing flight research activities and to support NASA's efforts in developing advanced broadband wireless communication strategies for the future air transportation system. The tool is also being leveraged by Department of Energy and U.S. Air Force researchers for integrating distributed data sources into new data acquisition solutions and decision-support systems.

The 2000 R&D 100 Awards mark the 38th consecutive year that the editors of R&D magazine and a select group of technology specialists have chosen the top 100 products introduced into the marketplace over the previous year. The winners are chosen for their "technological significance" over competing products and technologies.

For more information about TOR polymers, contact Bob Mojazza at Triton Systems. Call: 978/250-4200 ext. 148.
For more information about DataTurbine, contact Larry Freudinger at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Call: 661/276-3542,
E-mail: larry.freudinger@mail.dfrc.nasa.gov Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

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