TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER LICENSING OPPORTUNITY: Capacitive Micro-Gravity Fluid Mass Gauge (KSC-TOPS-96)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.

THE TECHNOLOGY: Measuring fluid mass in micro gravity, where fluid behavior is dominated by fluid properties, is a challenging problem. To address this problem engineers at NASA are developing a capacitance-based, mass-fraction gauge for vessels containing two-phase fluids. The vessel volume is enclosed with an array of electrodes, and a unique set of capacitance measurements of the enclosed volume are made between the electrodes.

The capacitance measurements are scaled with appropriate weighting factors derived from Laplace's Equation to compensate for the highly non-uniform electric fields inside the measurement volume and achieve a greater level of mass fraction accuracy.

To express interest in this licensing opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/KSC-TOPS-96 If you have any questions, please e-mail NASA’s Technology Transfer Program at Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this SAM.gov notice and your preferred contact information.

For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/. These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.