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Technology Transfer/Partnership Success

The collaboration will help NASA develop technologies for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is scheduled to replace the renowned Hubble Space Telescope in 2011, as well as for Mars rovers and other spacecraft.

The unique facilities at Lehigh’s Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology provide an excellent opportunity for NASA to expand its capabilities without incurring the expense of having to build or acquire the facilities.

“It takes time and money to build labs like Lehigh’s,” says researcher Dr. Brian Jamieson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “We often work with universities, and agreements like this one let NASA benefit from their investment while giving something back to the school.”

The partnership also gives Lehigh students and faculty the chance to conduct real-world research with NASA.

Prof. Richard Vinci, director of Lehigh’s Nano- and Micro-Mechanical Behavior Laboratory (NMBL), said the collaboration will help advance understanding of the behavior of aluminum thin films, measuring only nanometers in thickness, that are exposed to harsh temperature conditions in space (30K or –406 °F). A nanometer (nm) is one one-billionth of a meter.

“The benefits of this collaboration to the Lehigh NMBL are threefold,” said Vinci. “We will have the opportunity to work on devices that are technologically important, we will gain the ability to test thin films in torsion through collaborative use of NASA’s facilities, and we will have a strong justification for further developing cryogenic thin film testing capability in our own laboratory. Torsional, temperature-dependent fatigue behavior in metal thin films is currently an unstudied area, and little is known about any thin film mechanical behavior at the extremely low temperatures relevant to NASA, so there should be many opportunities to make fundamental discoveries.”

Prof. Chris Kiely, director of Lehigh’s Nanocharacterization Laboratory, said the collaboration with NASA will help Lehigh learn how to make its world-class electron microscopes more easily available to users at remote sites. Of specific interest to NASA is Lehigh’s new JEOL 2200FS aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope (TEM), which enables scientists to simultaneously image and chemically analyze individual columns of atoms in crystalline materials.

About NASA’s Research

One of the many instruments that will fly aboard JWST is the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), which is used to study galaxy and star formation, chemical abundances, active galactic nuclei, and more. NIRSpec’s aperture is made up of an array of tiny shutters that can be programmed to open and close individually as required for space observations. This capability is critical for maximizing the performance of the NIRSpec. The microshutters are made up of thin films, whose performance at cryogenic temperatures and under torsional (or twisting) stress is not fully understood.

Under the agreement, NASA now has access to Lehigh’s NMBL, which has unique tools for studying the properties and mechanics of thin films. These include a tool for sputter deposition of metal alloy films of arbitrary composition, and several instruments that can characterize the mechanical behavior of nanometer-thick metal films over a wide range of temperatures, with unparalleled resolution.

“The behavior of thin films under these conditions is a virtually untapped area of research,” according to NASA Goddard’s Michael Beamesderfer. “This research collaboration will not only provide us with a very useful understanding of the thin film materials used in the microshutters but also begin to build a foundation for materials selection for future missions.”

NASA researchers also will utilize Lehigh’s NMBL to test miniaturized low-leakage valves for use in mass spectrometers and other science instruments. “Mass spectrometers could be used on a rover to understand the chemistry of Mars, such as whether the methane that’s been observed is biogenic,” explained NASA Goddard’s Dr. Jamieson. The problem is that current spaceflight mass spectrometers are too large to be used in all the ways that space scientists would like. Miniaturizing the instrument’s valves is one way that the overall system can be made smaller, enabling it to be used more effectively to search for signs of life on the Red Planet. Yet those valves also must provide high-quality, long-term performance without leaking. “Working with Lehigh will help us to improve the valve interface to ensure the seals are effective after repeatedly opening and closing.”

Remote use of Lehigh’s electron microscopes

Lehigh has the most extensive collection of electron microscopes of any U.S. university. The aberration-corrected JEOL 2200FS TEM has an image resolution of 0.1 nm, which is equivalent to about half the width of an atom. Internet 2 and special software developed by JEOL enable scientists at remote sites to operate the microscope – and view specimens – at their computers.

“Up until recently, remote microscopy has been cumbersome and not really practical,” says Lehigh’s Prof. Kiely. “But Internet 2 and better software are making it more viable for someone at NASA to do experiments in our labs. The only thing you cannot do remotely is to load a specimen. Everything else – setting the apertures, controlling the alignment and acquiring data – can be done remotely.

“If you’re working at a remote lab, after a few minutes, you don’t realize that you’re not sitting right in front of the microscope.”

NASA Goddard’s lead nanotechnology researcher Dan Powell (Code 540) plans to establish an operation interface to enable access to Lehigh’s instrument from Goddard’s facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ability for off-site study of micro- and nano-scale structures should demonstrate the potential for space-based remote microscopy. Under the agreement, Lehigh can provide NASA Goddard researcher with up to 100 hours of JEOL TEM instrument time and equipment for these remote demonstrations.

“This kind of real-time remote access to cutting-edge equipment is great for NASA,” said Powell. “Not only does it minimize our infrastructure costs, which is a benefit to the taxpayer, but it also allows us to establish an ongoing relationship that will continue to benefit NASA well into the future.”

Contact

Innovative Partnerships Program Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Phone: (301) 286-5810
E-mail: techtransfer@gsfc.nasa.gov


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