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Fruit Fly Lab (FFL) Stories

Celebrating Earth as Only NASA Can
3 min read

Lee esta historia en español aquí. From the iconic image of Earthrise taken by Apollo 8 crew, to the famous Pale Blue Dot image of Earth snapped by Voyager I spacecraft, to state-of-the-art observations of our planet by new satellites such…

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Sols 4515-4517: Silver Linings
3 min read

Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Earth planning date: Friday, April 18, 2025 As the APXS operations person today, I was hopeful that we could plan a compositional measurement after brushing one of the bedrock blocks in…

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Early Career Faculty 2024
1 min read

Back to ECF Home Transformational Advanced Energetic Propulsion Power Systems to Enable Small System Operations in Permanently Shadowed Lunar Regions

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Developing Oxychalcogenide Membranes for Superconducting Power Transmission
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Yang.pdf Shuolong Yang University of Chicago This effort will leverage the latest developments in superconductors to build a power transmission cable that can operate in the extreme cold temperatures found on the Moon with very low electrical…

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Power on the Dark Side: Stimulus-Responsive Adsorbents for Low-Energy Controlled Storage and Delivery of Low Boiling Fuels to Mobile Assets in Permanently Shaded Regions
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart McGuirk.pdf Christopher McGuirk Colorado School of Mines This project will investigate and develop improved storage methods for the fuels needed to generate electrical power in places where sunlight is not available. The effort will focus on particularly…

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Piezoelectric-Based Power Conversion for Lunar Surface Systems
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Boles.pdf Jessica Boles University of California, Berkeley This project will develop piezoelectric-based power conversion for small power systems on the lunar surface. These piezoelectric systems can potentially offer high power density to significantly reduce size, weight, and…

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Lightweight Deployable Solar Reflectors
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Arya.pdf Manan Arya Stanford University This grant will design and develop lightweight, low-cost modular solar reflectors that can be stowed for transport in a compact volume. These reflectors can potentially be used to reflect and concentrate sunlight…

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Stabilized Z-Pinch Fusion Driven Electromagnetic Propulsion
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Underwood.pdf Thomas Underwood University of Texas, Austin This project will demonstrate a fusion propulsion system based on z-pinch which is a method of compressing plasma by running electrical current though it. The z-pinch will compress and heat…

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Origami-inspired Diffractive Sail for Directed Energy Propulsion
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Oguri.pdf Kenshiro Oguri Purdue University This project will investigate one of the key fundamental challenges associated with directed-energy light-sailing technology, similar to solar sails but powered by a laser beam pointed at the sail instead of by…

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Concept Demonstration of Directed Energy Propulsion with Metasurface Lightsails
1 min read

ECF 2024 Quadchart Ilic.pdf Ognjen Ilic University of Minnesota This effort will aim to demonstrate the feasibility of directed-energy propulsion through a combination of computational simulations and prototype testing. The project will model the interactions between lightsail material and a…

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