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The Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) at NASA Headquarters has announced that two Goddard proposals (out of only six funded across all NASA Centers) will receive the newly released supplemental Seed Funding for 2008, totaling nearly $700K. When added to the five proposals already granted IPP Seed funding, this supplemental funding brings Goddard’s 2008 IPP Seed Fund awards to $1.4 million.

“We are very pleased that two additional Goddard projects have received Seed Funding for 2008,” said Nona Cheeks, Chief of Goddard’s IPP Office. “It’s clear evidence of the wealth of innovative work happening here at Goddard.” Cheeks’ office prepared and submitted the applications for the two new funding recipients—the Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) and the Advanced Microwave System Architecture (AMSA) Demo.

The AFSS project is a collaborative arrangement among NASA, the Air Force, and DARPA. Researchers are working toward certification for AFSS, which is a nontraditional Flight Termination System. AFSS provides trajectory information for flight-termination decisions by incorporating rule-based algorithms coded onto redundant flight processors. The system augments or replaces the functions of traditional ground-based tracking and safety systems and provides for range safety beyond the radar horizon, in the presence of Radio Frequency Interference and in situations requiring minimal response time. The system represents leaps forward in traditional flight safety and may result in significant cost savings for NASA if adapted. The AFSS proof-of-concept will be flown on a sounding rocket test flight from Wallops in 2008, led by principle investigator Barton Bull. $500K of Seed funding will help researchers hasten certification and further development of the system.  NASA Kennedy is also participating in research funded by this award.

Led by principal investigator Cathy Long through a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with Northrop Grumman, the AMSA demo project has received $190K of IPP Seed funding. The goal of the funded research is to collect scientific data that will validate the technology employed in newly developed radar systems. A minimum of two demonstrations of the radar system are planned for late summer and early fall 2008. Longer term, the research team plans to develop an efficient and effective microwave development program to meet NASA’s science and exploration goals. The research will benefit missions requiring multiple microwave systems or frequencies such as communications and science payload, active and passive microwave sensors, or multi-mode microwave radars. In particular, NASA plans to use the new remote sensing technologies for 3D lunar and planetary mapping as well as on missions called out in the Earth science decadal study (DESDynI, SWOT, ACE, and SCLP).

About the IPP Seed Fund

The IPP at NASA’s HQ established the Partnership Seed Fund to address barriers and initiate cost-shared, joint-development partnerships, providing “bridge funding” to enable larger partnerships and development efforts to occur. Goddard’s IPP Office coordinates and advises the proposal efforts for many projects that include partnerships with other government agencies, small and large businesses, universities, and other NASA Centers. These efforts helped Goddard secure Seed funding for a total of seven proposals (the two discussed above and five others in the first round of funding) this year.

The Seed Fund is just one of many ways the IPP Office supports innovators and Goddard’s strategic objectives.

Goddard’s IPP Office identifies and secures agreements with partners that can contribute to NASA’s technology developments, while supporting economic growth, humankind, and the success of our partners. The Office strategically promotes Goddard as a Technology Partner of Choice.

The IPP Office encourages Goddard innovators to get in touch with the us to learn how we can help:

• Find funding sources such as the IPP Seed Fund, other government sources, and Goddard’s new IPP Innovation Fund
• Set up processes to protect your intellectual property while finding applications for it within NASA missions and with external partners
• Put agreements in place that will enable you to collaborate with contacts in business, industry, and academia to further research or extend the reach of your technology

The IPP Office and You: The Most Innovative
Partnership of All

Contact us today:
partnership@gsfc.nasa.gov
(301) 286-5810

(June 20, 2008)