Technology Transfer Opportunity: Reversible Androgynous Mechanical Fastener (TOP2-310) RFP
Description: Developed an androgynous fastener with high misalignment tolerance characteristics, which is suitable for robotic actuation. This fastener was developed in conjunction with a high-performance building-block structural system that can be robotically assembled by robust collective automated assembly into large, reconfigurable structures ranging from assembly of lunar habitats to terrestrial structures. The fastener mechanisms employ alignment principles similar to the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM) in order to relax the positioning requirements of the assembly robots. This novel androgynous fastener provides the desired performance required for robotic assembly of the structural systems and also minimizes or eliminates the problems and disadvantages associated with conventional or traditional fasteners.
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The state-of-the-art in hypersonic entry Guidance and Control (G&C) is traditionally based on rigid entry vehicles, like the Orion capsule, Space Shuttle, etc., that use a Reaction Control System (RCS) to control the bank angle of the vehicle. However, for future high mass missions to Mars, advancements in hypersonic aerospace vehicle design, and evolving science goals, are stretching the performance capabilities of traditional entry systems. NASA’s Pterodactyl team at Ames Research Center has developed a novel yaw-to-bank control system for a non-traditional vehicle configurations, such as a Deployable Entry Vehicle (DEV) that can be folded and stowed. The approach provides vehicle stabilization, steering, and precise targeted landing. This control architecture is agnostic to control actuators and can be used with any aerospace vehicle with a strong dihedral effect and/or different guidance control variables.
Require strong and stiff lightweight materials and structures. The invention relates to a construction system for mechanical metamaterials based on discrete assembly of a finite set of types of parts, which can be assembled in varying orders to produce spatial variation in a range of properties such as rigidity, and auxetic behavior. This system achieves desired material properties through design of the parts such that global behavior is governed by local mechanisms. The invention describes the design methodology, production process, modeling, and experimental characterization of metamaterial behaviors. This approach benefits from incremental assembly that eliminates system deployment scale limitations, best-practice manufacturing of components for reliable, low-cost production, and interchangeability through the use of a consistent assembly process across part types.
This novel innovation from Ames Research Center allows spacecraft to share rides with larger spacecraft which are headed to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). The secondary spacecraft is dropped off Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at any time during the day or year and will subsequently enter lunar orbit, with no constraint on the lunar orbit inclination. The secondary spacecraft can be relatively small, riding as a secondary payload with a larger primary spacecraft. The secondary spacecraft is intended to be controllable (i.e., maneuverable).
This open Special Notice is a NASA Technology Transfer Program licensing opportunity, not a grant program or a purchase of goods or services. NASA is offering exclusive or nonexclusive commercial license rights for a mobile bipedal robotic system that autonomously assembles, monitors, repairs, and reconfigures lightweight lattice-based structures. Interested companies must submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System by August 10, 2027, and no follow-on procurement is expected from responses.
