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Skyvator offers enhanced positional capabilities. Skyvator can perform maneuvers such as pointing into or perpendicular to the wind, maintaining level flight, climbing, descending, and station-keeping at desired altitudes. These movements are enabled by the power system, incorporated in the wing or other location on the kite, which are attached to the controller, and in turn is connected to one or more actuators, such as motors and drivers. These motors and drivers can be located in various portions of the kite to cause one part or another to move. Additionally, the controller can be connected to one or more instrument systems for data collection and measurement purposes. These include sensors for detecting windspeed, direction, pressure, GPS, temperature, humidity, imagers, atmospheric particle detectors, and gas detectors, among others. The improved positional control and information allows a user to collect data more effectively and accurately.Skyvator is designed to be used across a wide range of altitudes, from a few feet above the ground to over 18,000 feet above the surface. Additionally, Skyvator prototypes have demonstrated the ability to maintain stready, controllable flight exceeding 60 – 70 mph winds. Please note that NASA does not manufacturer products itself for commercial sale.

NASA’s Carbon Capture Filter was designed to trap solid carbon dust through a variety of mechanisms. These include inertial separation, flow recirculation, flow tortuosity, media filtration, and quenching of hot particles or of precursor particles from pyrolysis. The filter uses a custom-designed housing to produce a strong and large recirculating pattern to remove dust through inertial forces and confine it into a large collection cup, which is enshrouded in a cold trap (using a thermoelectric cooler) to thermally induce precipitation of the solid carbon. The flow then passes through a single stage baffle and tube filters before exiting through the outlet at the top of the housing. During operations, gaseous carbon-containing streams enter the filter via an inlet tube at the top of the housing. The inlet tube extends down towards the bottom of the collection cup, where the high-speed stream meets a sudden perpendicular bottom wall, inducing a stagnation flow. Large particles inertially separate from the flow and impinge onto the bottom wall. The partial enclosure of the collection cup (aside from a small slit connecting it to the upper chamber) causes a recirculation bubble to form, increasing the residence time of the stream. The vortical motion of the recirculation bubble causes the large particles to spin outwards towards the walls of the collection cup. The collection cup is cooled to quench the carbon particles, causing them to precipitate out and collect on the walls of the cup. The extended residence time caused by the recirculating flow further quenches the stream. Only small particles that are entrained sufficiently by the flow make it through the slit between the collection cup and upper chamber. On the top wall of the upper chamber, an array of tubular filters collects the remaining particles before the gaseous stream exits the system. NASA’s Carbon Capture Filter has been prototyped and undergone initial testing with simulant dust, yielding promising results. The invention is available for licensing to industry.

An approach to mitigating the creation of additional orbital debris is to remove the sources of future medium debris by actively removing large spent objects from congested orbits. NASA has introduced the ADRV, an efficient and effective solution to remove large debris from LEO such as spent rocket bodies and non-functional satellites. The concept yields a single use, low-cost, lightweight, high mass fraction vehicle that enables the specific removal of large orbital debris (1000 - 4000 kg mass, 200 - 2000 km altitude, and 20 98-degree inclination). The ADRV performs rendezvous, approach, and capture of non-cooperative tumbling debris objects, maneuvering of the mated vehicle, and controlled, targeted reposition or deorbit of the mated vehicle. Due to its small form factor, up to eight ADRVs can be launched in a single payload, enabling high impact orbital debris removal missions within the same inclination group. Three key technologies were developed to enable the ADRV: - 1) The spacecraft control system (SCS) is a guidance, navigation, and control system that provides vehicle control during all phases of a mission; - (2) The debris object characterization system (DOCS) characterizes movement and capture of non-cooperative targets; and - (3) The capture and release system (CARS) allows the vehicle to capture and mate with orbital debris targets. These technologies can improve the current state-of-the-art capabilities of automated rendezvous and docking technology significantly for debris objects with tumbling rates up to 25 degrees per second. This approach leverages decades of spaceflight experience while automating key mission areas to reduce cost and improve the likelihood of success.