Materials AND Biological Technology

FY2025 accomplishments - Completed ground test campaign for thermal managed leading-edge technology. - Conducted flight tests of thermal managed leading-edge technology. - Designed, built, and performed ground validation testing on in-space technology demonstration payloads. - Transitioned laser metal bending models and experimental methods to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. - Developed and ground tested highly efficient airbreathing spacecraft propulsion systems intended for very low Earth orbit sustained flight. - Modeled and optimized air-collecting inlet design for use in very low Earth orbit. - Began ground testing for air-collecting inlets for use in very low Earth orbit. - Explored low-drag material…

FY2025 accomplishments - Evaluated prototype feasibility of previously developed extended optimized night vision designs. - Demonstrated novel material testing techniques to generate design-relevant properties 10x faster than current approaches. [ - Performed critical function demonstrations on material testing platforms and design optimization routines. - Evaluated novel multimaterial designs to quantify performance, cost, and sustainability benefits. - Developed hybrid additive manufacturing approaches to enable embedded structural health monitoring for load-bearing metallic components without affecting structural performance. - Demonstrated the serviceability and survivability of embedded sensors in…

FY2025 accomplishments - Demonstrated system operability through a series of Government-directed demonstrations. - Developed initial process planning tool to evaluate reaction pathways for energetic materials from a diverse set of material inputs. - Built demonstration-scale flexible, modular adaptive process intensification systems and begin demonstrating system operability for energetic material outputs. - Verified and validated the initial process planning tool coupled with the developed system and integrated process controls though a series of demonstrations to synthesize energetic materials from diverse material inputs. - Conducted a preliminary design review based on outcomes from initial demonstrations and…

FY2025 accomplishments - Conducted integration, environmental testing, and performance characterization of high-performance, environmentally-robust portable optical clock device with picosecond timing precision. - Conducted integration, environmental testing, and performance characterization of high-performance, environmentally-robust transportable optical clock with month-long nanosecond holdover. - Conducted design and system analysis for novel vacuum ultraviolet laser source for eventual demonstration of a nuclear clock.

FY2025 accomplishments - Developed conceptual design with trade studies and preliminary design activities.

FY2025 accomplishments - Installed test and logistical planning for aircraft-based drop tests to support rapid test and redesign of small-scale devices.

FY2025 accomplishments - Initiated research on alternative multi-input, multi-output, or temporarily altered culture-based approaches for biomanufacturing applications. - Designed testbeds to characterize culture-based production of molecular commodities. - Determined culture types and metabolic pathways required for culture-based commodity production. - Investigated methods to reprogram culture-based commodity production, incorporating commercialization and techno-economic analysis. - Developed novel processes for densified wood production which utilize fewer reagents, require less energy, and produce less waste than current methods.

FY2025 accomplishments - Identified and modeled key biological processes that enable autonomous remote energy production in oceanic domains. - Developed the modeled biological processes into optimized biological systems with improved performance capabilities in a lab setting. - Completed a capability design that describes all components and processes in an initial brassboard, including engineering diagrams, expected performance metrics, and other design considerations.

FY2025 accomplishments - Initiated optimization of high-performing molecules to enhance material properties and increase performance. - Continued molecule engineering activities on the best-performing molecules to improve activity. - Explored chemical modification of molecules for incorporation into different materials and form factors. - Initiated computational studies of molecules and materials. - Demonstrated increasing throughput of quantitative testbed across ice modulation activities.

FY2025 accomplishments - Evaluated impact of hybrid interventions on Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional Regulation. - Refined individualized neurobehavioral response models of Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional Regulation. - Enhanced hybrid interventions demonstrated to increase mental health resiliency with additional techniques. - Evaluated impact of enhanced hybrid interventions on Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional Regulation. - Initiated clinical expansions based on preliminary hybrid intervention results.

FY2025 accomplishments - Evaluated and identified a quantified approach to multi-variant metrics through initial evaluation of parameter space. - Evaluated research and development plan for globally-relevant scaling across species and chemicals. - Initiated evaluation of baseline metrics of exposure and response in controlled laboratory tests. - Initiated standardization of sample collections and associated metadata for long-term data utility and to inform future experiments.

FY2025 accomplishments - Acquired microbes necessary to begin testing storage and retrieval methods. - Developed generalizable methods for storing and retrieving multiple types of microbes from different sample types. - Demonstrated ability to store and retrieve multiple microbes without a cold chain for at least one week. - Collected relevant samples necessary to inform design specifications for demonstrator system.

FY2025 accomplishments - Continued to advance engineerable microorganisms that enhance REE biomining/bioprocessing. - Developed and demonstrated biomining modules for the separation and recovery of multiple individual REEs from mining partner source material. - Demonstrated biomining generalizability to separate and recover REEs from at least two distinct source materials or complex mixtures.

FY2025 accomplishments - Engineered and validated that microbial communities and/or community members can produce a target function and resist or recover from disturbances such as low-temperature to high-temperature cycling. - Demonstrated that the system can run multiple testbeds in parallel and track biofilm function(s) non-destructively. - Identified strategies to evaluate concrete repair technologies for restoration of strength. - Integrated concrete repair technologies with approaches to repeatedly heal with minimal maintenance. - Generated models for predicting efficacy of concrete repair technologies.

FY2025 accomplishments - Finalized measurements of wave attenuation for deployed oyster and coral test structures in the field. - Completed measurements of temperature tolerance, growth, and disease resistance in the field. - Finalized testing and data collection for reef growth effectiveness and inhibition of harmful algae growth in the field. - Completed assessments of biomarker indicators for coral and oyster health.

FY2025 accomplishments - Completed pressure-testing of design, build, and test cycle using prescribed parameters and time limitations for two series of microbial devices. - Completed testing methodology and microbial device performance and transferred methodology to government partner.

FY2025 accomplishments - Demonstrated biochemical approaches to remediate selected soil contaminants in a laboratory. - Demonstrated cross-kingdom signaling to indicate active remediation of the selected soil contaminants in a laboratory.

FY2025 accomplishments - Investigated the protection breadth (e.g., threat agnostic) and adaptability of platform technologies against multiple chemical and biological agents in animal models. - Investigated chemical agent neutralization characteristics in barrier protection strategies.

FY2025 accomplishments - Demonstrated the use of programmable gene modulators to combat viral threats in animal models of infection.