While the initial commercialization approach will be to market this new capability to NASA, there is a large and growing private industry for launch vehicles (the SpaceX corporation for instance). BRRC intends to market to these commercial institutes as well as to market to engine manufactures such as ATK. As we develop the system during Phase II we will explore alternative applications to expand our customer base. While there are already some competing capabilities, we intend to investigate how these new sensors could provide a cost effective measurement technique for the analysis of high-power jet engine plumes as well.
Blue Ridge Research and Consulting has a history of providing quality service for a wide range of difficult measurement and modeling projects. We envision the results from this SBIR to add significantly to our ability to provide an advanced acoustic energy measurement capability. Since the real desire for our technology is most likely the acoustical data the system will generate and not the hardware system itself, we intend to package our product as a data service for our customers. For example, the current system for determining the vibroacoustic loads on launch vehicles is largely based on research that is 30 years old. Improved measurements on the modern set of launch vehicle motors could vastly improve the design for the virboacoustic loads.
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