Advancing Commercial Space

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research center have developed a game changing, non-pneumatic, compliant tire. This innovation, called the Superelastic Tire, was developed for future Moon and Mars missions, but is a viable alternative to pneumatic tires here on Earth. This technology represents the latest evolution of the Spring Tire which was invented by NASA Glenn and Goodyear, and inspired by the Apollo lunar tires. The novel use of shape memory alloys capable of undergoing high strain as load bearing components, instead of typical elastic materials, results in a tire that can withstand excessive deformation without permanent damage. Using shape memory alloy as radial stiffening elements can also increase the load carrying capacity of the tire. The Superelastic Tire offers traction equal or superior to conventional pneumatic tires and eliminates both the possibility of puncture failures and running "under-inflated", thereby improving automobile fuel efficiency and safety. Also, this tire design does not require an inner frame which both simplifies and lightens the tire/wheel assembly.

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) have developed a next-generation, non-pneumatic, compliant tire structure based on shape memory alloy (SMA) elements. This new structure builds upon previous work related to airless tires that were designed for rovers used in planetary exploration. The use of SMAs capable of undergoing high strain as load bearing components results in a tubular structure that can withstand excessive deformation without permanent damage. These structures are capable of performing similarly to traditional pneumatic tires but with no risk of puncture or loss of tire pressure. The new technology is an extension of previous nonpneumatic metal-mesh tire designs developed at GRC, but with a structural pattern that improves manufacturability and offers design flexibility for customization. The innovation has been prototyped for use as a bicycle tire, but this SMA structure can be used in a wide range of applications including, off-road vehicles, aircraft landing gear, military ground vehicles, agricultural machinery, seals, and energy absorbers.

Planetary and lunar rover exploration missions can encounter environments that do not allow for navigation by typical, stereo camera-based systems. Stereo cameras meet difficulties in areas with low ambient light (even when lit by floodlights), direct sunlight, or washed-out environments. Improved sensors are required for safe and successful rover mobility in harsh conditions. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover Lidar (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration.

Innovators at the NASA Johnson Space Center in collaboration with an automotive partner have developed the Modular Robotic Vehicle (MRV). This fully electric vehicle is well-suited for busy urban environments, industrial complexes, or large resort areas. The MRV combines a number of innovative technologies that are available for licensing as a whole system or individually as components. The MRV has no mechanical connections to the propulsion, steering, or brake actuators-- instead the driver relies on control inputs being converted to electrical signals and transmitted by wire to the motors within the vehicle. The MRV has a fully redundant, fail-operational architecture that is paramount to the safe operation of a by-wire system. The MRV is driven by four independent wheel modules, called e-corners. Each e-corner can be rotated +/- 180 degrees about its steering axis. Imagine being able to parallel park by simply driving sideways into a tight spot with ease. With the new MRV technology, this dream is now a reality.

NASA Langley Research Center has developed 3-D imaging technologies (Flash LIDAR) for real-time terrain mapping and synthetic vision-based navigation. To take advantage of the information inherent in a sequence of 3-D images acquired at video rates, NASA Langley has also developed an embedded image processing algorithm that can simultaneously correct, enhance, and derive relative motion, by processing this image sequence into a high resolution 3-D synthetic image. Traditional scanning LIDAR techniques generate an image frame by raster scanning an image one laser pulse per pixel at a time, whereas Flash LIDAR acquires an image much like an ordinary camera, generating an image using a single laser pulse. The benefits of the Flash LIDAR technique and the corresponding image to image processing enable autonomous vision based guidance and control for robotic systems. The current algorithm offers up to eight times image resolution enhancement and well as a 6 degree of freedom state vector of motion in the image frame.

NASA pioneered Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) for precision navigation and executing well-controlled landings on surfaces like the moon. The lidar sensor utilizes Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technique to determine the distance to the target and the velocity between the sensor and target. Specifically, homodone sensors obtain the changes in signal frequency between the received and reference frequencies for calculating both speed and distance. However, homodyne detection cannot provide any phase information. This is a problem because the current sensor cannot determine the sign (+/-) of the signal frequencies, resulting in false measurements of range and velocity. NASA has developed an operational prototype (TRL 6) of the method and algorithm that works with the receiver to correct the problem. Using a three-section waveform and an algorithm to resolve ambiguities in sign when the signal is compromised, the algorithm analyzes historical phase information to interpret the sign of the remaining frequencies and recover the phase information that contains valuable measurement information.

Scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center have developed a novel concept for a lunar navigation system based on the reverse-ephemeris technique. Typically, range related signal measurements from the earth’s surface are used to locate and track orbital objects (satellites) and establish the ephemeris describing their orbits. For this reverse-ephemeris lunar navigation concept, the process is reversed to give lunar surface position fixes using the known ephemeris of a satellite in lunar orbit. Only a few inexpensive smallsats are required in order to implement a lunar navigation system based on this concept. Lunar navigation systems will be needed for future moon missions, including for example for rover navigation, mining operations, exploration, etc. The inventors have conducted analytical simulations to demonstrate the versatility of this innovation when used to support route determination for various autonomous or manned lunar surface operations.