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Materials Research and Development works to improve existing materials, devices, and manufacturing processes while developing the materials, devices, and processes of tomorrow. Commercial space research has resulted in a number of significant successes, including:

Brush Wellman Incorporated successfully produced the worldís largest aluminum-beryllium casting with the assistance of ground-based casting data and computational models developed by the Solidification Design Center, a Commercial Space Center. This alloy is very lightweight, making it useful in a number of aerospace applications. This work is helping advance manufacturing technology relating to the material.

Applied Optoelectronics Incorporated will help commercialize a mid infrared semiconductor laser that operates at room temperature. The Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, a Commercial Space Center, optimized the design and fabrication of the laser, which can be used for several applications including environmental monitoring on Earth and in space exploration. Because of its small size and weight, it is also ideal for use on aircraft as a part of defenses against heat-seeking missiles.

A special optical detector developed by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, a Commercial Space Center, may offer the hope of sight to people with a variety of eye problems. The detector is designed to be implanted on the back wall of the eye to replace natural sensors damaged by disease or accident. It converts light into electrical signals in much the same way as rods and cones do in a healthy eye, and the impulses are then picked up by the optical nerve. Preliminary testing has been successful and efforts at commercial development are underway.

ZBLAN Fiber Optic cables, made of the elements Zirconium, Barium, Lanthanum, Aluminum, and Sodium, offer the potential to be more than 100 times more effective than traditional silica fibers. NASA investigations with commercial partners Lucent Technologies and Infrared Fibers, Inc., may lead to improved optical data transmission, medical surgery, fiberoptic lasers, optical power transmission, and fiberoptic gyroscopes.

The Ford Motor Company has used materials data supplied by the Solidification Design Center, a Commercial Space Center, to design new, high quality sand molding processes for creating precision automotive parts. This type of work is also being done by the Solidification Design Center for ALCOA and Howmet Corporation to help them cast parts that are more reliable with lower costs.

Metal Oxide Technologies is commercializing a new technology for the fabrication of High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) wires using oxide thin films, developed by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, a Commercial Space Center. This technology has been licensed and a pilot plant for producing HTS wires for use in power line transformers is expected to be operational by 2001.

New solar cells developed by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, a Commercial Space Center, are being developed by International Stellar Technologies, Inc., and the U.S. Air Force. These unique cells have an efficiency comparable to conventional Indium Phosphide solar cells, but are thinner, have significantly enhanced radiation resistance, and end-of-life efficiences that are 85 percent of the beginning-of-life. These improved cells could result in a more than 30 percent decrease in the size of existing solar arrays.

Optical components are considered an essential part of future advanced computers. Such systems will make possible the storage of massive amounts of data, transmission of data within the computer, and even the processing of the data. Non-Linear Optical (NLO) materials, being investigated through the Consortium for Materials Development in Space, a Commercial Space Center, may allow data switching speeds of one-trillionth of a second, up to a three-fold increase in optical storage capacity, and optical data processing at near the speed of light.