Extravehicular Mobility Units (EVU) are the necessary to perform elaborate, dynamic tasks in the biologically harsh conditions of space from International Space Station (ISS) external repairs to human exploration of planetary bodies. The EVUs have stringent requirements on physical and chemical nature of the equipment/components/processes, to ensure safety and health of the individual require proper functioning of its life-support systems. Monitoring the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) of the EVU in real time is to ensure the safety of the astronaut and success of the mission.N5 Sensors will demonstrate an ultra-small form factor, highly reliable, rugged, low-power sensor architecture that is ideally suited for monitoring trace chemicals in spacecraft environment. This will be accomplished by our patent-pending innovation in photo-enabled sensing utilizing a hybrid chemiresistor architecture, which combines the selective adsorption properties of multicomponent (metal-oxide and metal) photocatalytic nanoclusters together with the sensitive transduction capability of sub-micron semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) photoconductors. For the phase I project we will demonstrate oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ammonia sensor elements on a single chip. Innovative GaN photoconductor design will enable high-sensitivity, low power consumption, and self-calibration for the sensor current drift. The multicomponent nanocluster layer design enables room-temperature sensing with high selectivity, resulting in significant power saving and enhanced reliability. The fabrication of the sensors will be done using traditional photolithography and plasma etching. The nanocluster functionalization layer will be deposited using sputtering methods. The sensor testing will be carried out to determine sensing range, sensitivity, selective, and response/recovery times.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) In addition to EVUs monitoring the proposed single-chip multianalyte sensors are ideally suited for in-flight monitoring of the trace chemical constituents, which is essential for crew health, safety, and systems operation. These sensors are low-power, rugged, and radiation-hard, making them ideally suited for integrated spacecraft monitoring networks. Due to their robustness these sensors can be also used for measuring trace gases such as CO, CO2, O2, NH3, CH4, and H2O for planetary environmental monitoring.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Measuring individual exposure in real-time can revolutionize air quality monitoring in communities everywhere. Such information would allow citizens to take preventive measures to reduce their exposures to air toxics, which would tremendously impact their health and quality of life. Mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablets represent a powerful infrastructure which could be leveraged to develop personal air monitors. However, traditional sensor technologies (such as electrochemical and photo-ionization detectors), commonly used for industrial safety monitoring, are big, power-hungry, and has limited sensitivity and life-time. Monitoring of NOx, SOx, H2S, O3, for individual pollutant monitoring. Monitoring the BTEX family around fracking sites and other affects industrial progess would provide hard data about the environmental effect industry has on the environment. Portable gas detection instruments have been used since the early days of mining (canaries, Davy's lamp). Today, almost all major industrial operations use gas detectors for safety of the personnel and infrastructure. The North American market for multi-gas portable industrial detectors are over $ 230 M (2016 - CAGR 7.2%, over 264,291 units sold, with average price~ $1K), with Oil and Gas, and Petrochemical and Chemicals industries being the most dominant users. World-wide hand-held detector market is over ~ $2 B.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Chemical/Environmental (see also Biological Health/Life Support) Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
