Closed

The aim of this subtopic is to develop new technologies to reduce cost and schedule, improve reliability and quality, and increase safety of Rocket Propulsion Testing. To this end, proposals for technology development will be accepted for any of the following four subject areas:

The Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) provides mission critical space exploration services to both NASA customers and to other partners within the U.S. and throughout the world: from flying out the Space Shuttle, to assembling and operating the International Space Station; ensuring safe and reliable access to space; maintaining secure and dependable communications between platforms across the solar system; and ensuring the health and safety of our Nation's astronauts.

This subtopic seeks proposals to develop technologies that advance capabilities for space telepresence and mission operations situation awareness, fault diagnosis, isolation, and recovery onboard the ISS using an onboard free-flyer as a mobile sensor platform.

NASA is investigating the near- and mid-term development of highly-desirable systems and technologies that provide innovative ways either to leverage existing ISS facilities for new scientific payloads or, to provide on orbit analysis to enhance capabilities and reduce sample return requirements.

The focus of this subtopic is on technologies and techniques that may advance the state of the art of spacecraft systems by utilizing the International Space Station as a technology test bed. Successful proposals will address using the long duration, microgravity and extreme vacuum environment available on the ISS to demonstrate component or system characteristics that extend beyond the current state of the art by:

This subtopic seeks to create new and innovative technology solutions to improve safety and lower the life cycle costs of assembly, test, integration and processing of the ground and flight assets at our nation's spaceports and propulsion test facilities. The following areas are of particular interest: Control of Material Degradation

Digital motion imaging technologies provide great improvements over analog systems, but also present significant challenges. Digital High Definition Television (HDTV) cameras flown on the Shuttle and International Space Station have shown higher susceptibility to ionizing radiation damage, manifested by visible "dead" pixels in the image. In order to practically deploy HDTV cameras, sensors and processors need to survive operations on orbit for years without debilitating radiation damage that degrades image quality and performance.

A significant challenge faced by free-flying spacecraft and shared by ISS-bound experiment packages is the requirement for a controlled (or at least known) environment while the payload is awaiting launch on the launch vehicle or is in transit to the ISS. Due to the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA has a need for flight qualified, environmentally conditioned transportation systems compatible with new space launch systems capable of sustaining and extending the life of perishable materials and specimens until experiment packages can be installed and properly interfaced on-board ISS.

NASA seeks innovative research in the areas of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) that have relevance to Space Communications and Navigation programs and goals, as described at (https://www.spacecomm.nasa.gov/spacecomm/default.cfm).

The goal of this subtopic is to have a highly reliable way of tracking vehicles from launch to orbit. Launch vehicles can exhibit high dynamics during flight and there can be external interference on the GPS frequency. Proposals can either address a single area as described below or a combination of multiple areas. The following technology areas are of interest: Position, Attitude, and Inertial Metrics