This is a research grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Illinois, doing business as The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, located in Urbana, Illinois. The $305,086.08 grant aims to develop a flexible, frequency-tunable, lightweight, high-efficiency, and radiation-tolerant structural piezoelectric energy harvester based on overlapping structures of crumpled molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphene. The energy harvester is...
This is a $499,970.03 research grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Illinois, a land-grant public research university located in Urbana, Illinois. The objective of the grant is to develop theory, algorithms, and demonstrations that 1) formalize safety specifications for intelligent physical systems (IPS) in space, 2) increase the efficiency of IPS learning by exploiting prior and side information, and 3) ensure IPS resilience to system...
The University of Illinois, operating as The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, has been awarded a $191,225 grant by NASA's Shared Services Center for research to be performed in Urbana, Illinois. The award supports an Early Career Investigator (ECI) research effort at NASA Johnson Space Center focused on investigating the microstructure of refractory fiber-based materials used in thermal protection systems for spacecraft destined for exploration missions. This grant-type contract,...
NASA awarded a $91,000 grant to the University of Illinois (Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois) on December 31, 2025, with a completion date of July 1, 2026. The award funds research under NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which supports early-stage feasibility studies of visionary aerospace concepts that address national government and commercial aerospace goals. NIAC seeks radically different or disruptive innovations that could significantly enhance or enable...
This $319,737.44 grant contract was awarded by NASA to the University of Illinois for research on the micromechanical response of carbon fiber preforms in high-temperature oxidizing environments. The research supports NASA's growing interest in space exploration to the Moon and beyond, particularly the development of state-of-the-art carbon-based thermal protection system (TPS) materials like phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). This contract is not set aside and is part of the University...
This is a $247,646 training grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to the Office of Sponsored Research Services Division at The Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The grant supports the development of a paper-based plasmonic biosensor device capable of quantifying levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), a key biomarker for monitoring astronaut health during spaceflight missions. The device is designed to be compatible...
This is a $1,489,957.18 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Illinois for quantum technology research. The grant is for advancing quantum sensing, communication, and security capabilities over a four-year period ending in February 2024. The University of Illinois is the prime grantee and will be conducting the research work. There is no set-aside designation for this award. The University of Illinois has a history of receiving federal...
This is a federal contract award to the University of Illinois, a public land-grant research university, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance solar technology for both space applications and global energy production. The $314,592 training grant focuses on addressing challenges in the monolithic integration of III-V materials on silicon (Si) to demonstrate a high-efficiency III-V/Si tandem solar cell. The primary objectives are to understand the formation of...
This is a training grant awarded by NASA to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) to conduct research on digital lattice materials for reconfigurable space structures. The award aims to characterize the fracture and fatigue properties of these advanced materials, which could enable lighter, stronger, and more reliable structures for future deep space exploration missions. The $122,461.48 grant supports experimental investigation into the failure mechanisms, fracture toughness, and...
This is a Cooperative Agreement awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to Boise State University for the development of a novel, flexible hybrid electronics-based sensor system for real-time strain measurements. The goal is to leverage nanomaterials and additive manufacturing to create a flexible sensor network that can measure strain in fabric-like structures, which will support NASA's needs for monitoring stress on flexible materials. The $95,278.35 contract will...
This is a training grant awarded by NASA to the University of Illinois in the amount of $272,483.52 to develop a stacked biaxially textured graphene strain sensor (SBTGRPS) for structural health monitoring of space-based systems. The goal is to create an integrated health monitoring system that can improve the reliability of future space missions by assessing system life. The research will optimize the fabrication, characterization, and sensitivity of the SBTGRPS sensors, as well as integrate them into a sensor array for multimodal deformation sensing. There is no set-aside designation for this award. The University of Illinois is serving as the prime contractor, leveraging its expertise in materials science and access to NASA testing facilities to advance this technology for space applications.