Mining for funding and research expertise through SBIR and STTR programs

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2007
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Mining for funding and research expertise through SBIR and STTR programs

More than

30 companies

received

SBIR/STTR

funding in FY07,

totaling $3.5M.

The Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR)* programs are designed to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector to meet federal research and development needs. The three-phase approach enables small businesses to develop a technology in response to a specific set of NASA mission-driven needs.

In Phase I, researchers establish the technical feasibility and merit of a proposed innovation.
Proposals awarded contracts may proceed to Phase II, in which the bulk of the R&D efforts occur.
In Phase III, the result of Phase II is infused into NASA programs, other government organizations, and/or the commercial marketplace.

At Goddard, FY07 brought with it many SBIR/STTR research contracts, several of which have successfully entered Phase III and are expected to directly benefit a NASA mission or need.

AOS goes from Phase I to Phase III to benefit the Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope

As FY07 came to a close, NASA was beginning its second Phase III SBIR contract with Advanced Optical Systems, Inc. (AOS) of Huntsville, AL. The company’s latest contract is designed to directly benefit the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) through the conceptualization and build of the “Hybrid Guidance Sensor III,” a system to aid satellite rendezvous and docking. The hybrid sensor combines AOS’s Ultor sensing technology (which was developed as part of an SBIR contract with the U.S. Navy), and Marshall Space Flight Center’s Advanced Video Guidance Sensor (AVGS). Ultor uses a camera and natural illumination (e.g., sun, stars, etc.), while AVGS illuminates with a laser and reflections off of targets. Combining the two technologies provides redundancy and therefore robustness and reliability to aid the critical docking process.

Now in Phase III, NASA and AOS are in the process of testing the new system using facilities at Goddard and Marshall Space Flight Center. Testing is expected to be completed in early 2008, and researchers expect the technology to benefit not only the HST but other NASA missions requiring rendezvous and docking, such as ORION. And beyond NASA, applications exist within the Department of Defense (DoD), Navy, Army, and Air Force. Outside government and military applications, the technology may also be useful in helping to dock ships in ports, maintaining precise distances between ships for resupply operations, and other uses.

SBIR contract with Bauer Associates yields improved nanoscale optical measurement techniques

Hubble Space Telescope

Another SBIR Phase III agreement—this time with Bauer Associates, Inc.* of Wellesley, MA—stands to benefit many NASA missions. The organization conceived of and proved the theory behind a new concept for optically measuring large mirror surfaces. During Phase II of the SBIR contract, researchers developed a working prototype instrument that utilizes a non-interferometric, optical technique for measuring absolute aspheric shape over the full surface of large mirrors to the nanometer level, without the need for known reference surfaces, simplifying R&D efforts. Moving into Phase III, Bauer worked with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to use the prototype to measure the surface of NASA’s High-Resolution X-Ray Explorer (HIREX)* Pathfinder mirror. And multiple Phase II follow-on contracts are underway to further develop the capabilities of this technology.

Meanwhile, commercialization talks are ongoing with an established manufacturer of large optics to develop and integrate the instrument into the company’s fabrication and metrology facilities. Through IPP funding, this agreement has addressed a NASA need while helping a small business develop a new product that has commercial as well as NASA potential, providing benefits to NASA, the company, and the U.S. economy.

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