OU-led Research Ream Awarded NASA EPSCoR Grant

A University of Oklahoma-led research team has been awarded a $750,000 grant from NASA’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research to develop a novel, self-sustaining energy storage system to support NASA’s flight and terrestrial exploration missions.

The research is expected to result in nanobatteries that can be charged more readily by the photovoltaic system and will have increased capacity. The overall reduced size of the energy generation and storage system will allow for increased scientific payloads in satellites and rovers.

Victoria Duca Snowden, OU program manager and principal investigator on the project, will lead the research team from OU, Oklahoma State University and The University of Tulsa, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center/NASA Glenn Research Centers.

NASA awarded $10.5 million to 14 colleges and universities to conduct research and technology development in areas important to the agency’s mission. The NASA program helps develop partnerships among NASA research missions and programs, academic institutions and industry. It also helps awardees establish long-term academic research enterprises that will be self-sustaining and competitive, and contribute to the jurisdictions’ economic viability and development.