NOFBX™ Aerospike
Contract Details: 2010 NASA Dryden/JPL Phase I SBIR
Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
Firestar Technologies has been awarded a NASA contract to research and develop a compact, restartable, throttable, thrust-vectoring high performance NOFBX™ ascent engine for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) application.
NOFBX™ Lunar Ascent Stage and Attitude Control Thruster Options for NASA Altair Lunar Lander:
Contract Details: 2008 subcontract from Odyssey Space Research, LLC in support of NASA Altair BAA work
Odyssey Space Research, LLC has baselined Firestar Technologies’ NOFBX™ monopropulsion systems for a lunar lander ascent main engine, lunar lander descent RCS thrusters, and ascent RCS thrusters for the Altair Lunar Lander Vehicle as part of their response to the Altair industry architecture studies.
High Performance NOFBX™ Monopropellant Thruster Development:
Contract Details: 2008-2010 NASA Johnson Space Center/Glenn Research Center/Marshall Space Flight Center Phase I/II SBIR
Principal Investigator: David Fisher
Continuing on previous NOFBX™ development, Firestar Technologies has been researching and developing an NOFBX™ 100lbf class high temperature thruster that can operate continuously or with pulsed flows of gas-phase/two-phase/liquid propellants. Go to NOFBX™ Monopropulsion page.
High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Powerplants:
Contract Details: 2008-2010 DARPA Phase I/II SBIR
Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
Firestar Technologies has been investigating and developing high energy density NOFBX™ powerplants for use in very high altitude aircraft. Go to NOFBX™ HALE Powerplant page.
Gas Jet-Lift Vacuum Excavation in Conjunction with Honeybee Robotics:
Contract Details: Subcontract from Honeybee Robotics in support of 2007-2009 NASA Kennedy Space Center Phase I/II SBIR
Principal Investigator: Kris Zacny (Honeybee Robotics)
Institutional Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation teamed with Firestar Technologies to investigate NOFBX™ rocket and gas jet lift excavation of planetary regoliths and gas/solids two-phase flows in very low pressure environments. Go to Gas Jet-Lift Vacuum Excavation page.
Europa Ice-Rocket Impingement Interactions Study:
Contract Details: 2008 subcontract from Arizona State University in support of a graduate student thesis project
Principal Investigator: David Fisher
Firestar Technologies conducted NOFBX™ monopropellant plume impingement testing on simulated Europa ice to examine feasibility of a soft land scientific probe on the water ice surface of Europa.
Mars Technology Program NOFBX™ Monopropellant Development:
Contract Details: 2005-2007 NASA Mars Advanced Technology Program Low Cost Propulsion Technologies
Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
Firestar Technologies invented, developed, and characterized NOFBX™ non-toxic, high performance, low temperature, self-pressurizing, monopropellants for use in rocket thruster, gas generator, and power applications. Go to NOFBX™ Monopropulsion page.
Mars Technology Program SILVRCLAW Development:
Contract Details: 2005-2007 NASA Mars Advanced Technology Program Advanced Mobility
Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
Firestar Technologies invented, developed, and tested inflatable rigidizable rover wheels in collaboration with Proto-Innovations (Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute spin-off). These inflatable/rigidizable materials can ultimately be deployed with NOFBX™ gas generators. Go to SILVRCLAW page.
Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy for Biogenic Trace Gas Detection with High Temporal Resolution
Contract Details: 2004-2006 NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID)Program
Principal Investigator: Chris Dreyer, Colorado School of Mines
Institutional Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
In collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines, Firestar Technologies invented, developed the theoretical tools, and demonstrated the first use of cavity ringdown laser absorption spectroscopy in a hollow waveguide. This technique will ultimately be used for providing extremely sensitive, high speed real-time detection of trace gas species (in this particular case for detecting indicators for life). Go to HWG-CRDS page.
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Raman Spectroscopy Instrument for In-Situ Analysis
Contract Details: 2004-2006 NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID) Program
Principal Investigator: Chris Dreyer, Colorado School of Mines
Institutional Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
In collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines, Firestar Technologies developed laser spectroscopy instrument hardware and a Mars simulation chamber for evaluating micro-LIBS/Raman spectroscopy under very low pressure conditions. Firestar Technologies also developed an advanced micro-LIBS data interpretation algorithm for using multiple atomic emission lines from micro-LIBS plasmas to infer plasma temperature temporal evolution and improve overall accuracy of elemental concentration estimates from a laser-illuminated spot. Go to LIBS/Raman page.
Multi-Spectral Imaging with Fiber Optic Bundle Spatial Decomposition (MSI)
Contract Details: 2003-2005 NASA Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP)
Principal Investigator: Chris Dreyer, Colorado School of Mines
Institutional Principal Investigator: Greg Mungas
In collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines, Firestar Technologies developed an optical fiber bundle imaging system (somewhat akin to an optical nerve) capable of spectrally decomposing every pixel in a scene in order to produce selectable, multi-spectral images of a scene as well as be able to conduct imaging spectroscopy (e.g. Raman spectroscopy).
