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New, innovative, high risk/high payoff approaches to miniaturized and low cost instrument systems are needed to enhance Earth science research capabilities. Sensor systems for a variety of platforms are desired, including those designed for remotely operated robotic aircraft, surface craft, submersible vehicles, balloon-based systems (tethered or free), and kites. Global deployment of numerous sensors is an important objective, therefore cost and platform adaptability are key factors.

This subtopic solicits development of advanced instrument technologies and components suitable for deployment on planetary and lunar missions. These technologies must be capable of withstanding operation in space and planetary environments, including the expected pressures, radiation levels, launch and impact stresses, and range of survival and operational temperatures. Technologies that reduce mass, power, volume, and data rates for instruments and instrument components without loss of scientific capability are of particular importance.

"Atom/BEC (Bose Einstein Condensate) Interferometry for space applications" Sensors based on Atom/BEC Interferometry are attractive because:

This Crosscutting SBIR Subtopic seeks to fill the numerous SBIR technology gaps in the planetary orbital instrument area. Although there is a discrete subtopic for in situ instrument technologies and lunar instrument technologies (S1.09), which covers those areas, there is no corresponding one for orbital instrument technologies. S1.09 is the only subtopic in S1 that is entirely focused on planetary science, and this may be limiting funded proposal yields in the planetary area. In the past, both S1.09 and S1.11 have hosted orbital sensor concepts.

The NASA Science Missions Directorate seeks technology for cost-effective high-performance advanced space telescopes for astrophysics and Earth science. Astrophysics applications require large aperture lightweight highly reflecting mirrors, deployable large structures and innovative metrology, control of unwanted radiation for high-contrast optics, precision formation flying for synthetic aperture telescopes, and cryogenic optics to enable far infrared telescopes.

This subtopic seeks hardware and software technologies necessary to establish, maintain, and operate precision spacecraft formations to a level that enables cost effective large aperture and separated spacecraft optical telescopes and interferometers (e.g., http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/, http://instrument.jpl.nasa.gov/steller/).

This subtopic addresses the unique problem of imaging and spectroscopic characterization of faint astrophysical objects that are located within the obscuring glare of much brighter stellar sources. Examples include planetary systems beyond our own, the detailed inner structure of galaxies with very bright nuclei, binary star formation, and stellar evolution. Contrast ratios of one million to ten billion over an angular spatial scale of 0.05-1.5 arcsec are typical of these objects. Achieving a very low background requires control of both scattered and diffracted light.

Planned future NASA Missions in astrophysics, such as: Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and the New Worlds Technology Development Program (coronagraph, external occulter and interferometer technologies) will push the state of the art in current optomechanical technologies. Mission concepts for New Worlds science would require 10 - 30 m class, cost-effective telescope observatories that are diffraction limited at wavelengths from the visible to the far IR, and operate at temperatures from 4 - 300 K.

The National Academy Astro2010 Decadal Report specifically identifies optical components and coatings as key technologies needed to enable several different future missions, including:

This subtopic focuses primarily on manufacturing and metrology of optical surfaces, especially for very small or very large and/or thin optics. Missions of interest include: Dark Energy Mission concepts (e.g., http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov) Large X-Ray Mission concepts (e.g., http://ixo.gsfc.nasa.gov/), Gravity Wave Science Mission concepts (e.g., http://lisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/)