Posted on September 7, 2016, at 1:56 am .
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2016 (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 21 research and technology proposals from American small businesses and research institutions that will enable NASA’s future missions into the solar system and beyond while benefiting America’s technology-driven economy here on Earth.
The Phase II selectees of NASA’s Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program are permitted to enter negotiations for possible contract awards worth a combined total of approximately $15.8 million. The program selected 21 innovative technology and projects from 41 U.S. firms and research institutions in 20 different states.
Continue reading ‘NASA Funds 21 STTR Phase II Projects’
Posted on August 9, 2016, at 6:48 pm .
Two three-unit (3U) CubeSats. At about a foot in length and four inches wide, these are similar in design to IceCube and the five selected heliophysics CubeSats. (Credit: NASA)
NASA officials have been providing updates this week on agency programs and missions during the 2016 Small Satellite Conference and the CubeSat Workshop that preceded it. I have pulled together summaries of their presentations drawn from Twitter. Information has come from the following Tweeters:
- Jeff Foust @jeff_foust
- David Hurst @OrbitalDave
- Hanna Steplewska @spacesurfingirl
- Augie Allen @AugieAllen
- RITSpaceExploration @RITSPEX
Enjoy!
Continue reading ‘Smallsat 2016: NASA Program & Mission Updates’
Posted on July 27, 2016, at 11:19 am .
Made in Space employees on a Zero G research flight.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has selected 13 space technology payloads to flight test on parabolic aircraft, high-altitude balloons or suborbital launch vehicles to demonstrate new technologies. The selections were made through the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington.
Continue reading ‘NASA Selects New Technologies for Flight Tests’
Posted on May 23, 2016, at 3:54 am .
Members of the NASA Ames Nodes Integration & Test team ready to integrate the Nodes 1 and 2 spacecraft (forefront) into the Nanoracks dispenser.(Credit: NASA)
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — After a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s two Nodes satellites were deployed on May 16 from the NanoRacks platform and into low-Earth orbit to begin their much anticipated technology demonstration. These tiny satellites have dimensions of only four by four by six inches. The ground controllers for the Nodes mission received confirmation that both satellites are transmitting and are in good health when they passed over the tracking station for the first time, soon after deployment. The first transmission of science data is expected by May 18.
Continue reading ‘NASA’s Nodes CubeSats Deployed From Space Station’
Posted on May 21, 2016, at 7:40 pm .
The three on-orbit SPHERES satellites fly in formation through the International Space Station, appearing like a squadron star fighters from the Star Wars universe. (Credit: NASA/ISS)
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — Imagine you’re sitting in class watching a scene from “Star Wars” and your professor assigns a project meant to fly in space.
In 1999, that is exactly what happened for engineering students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Continue reading ‘SPHERES: From Class Project to Droids in Space’
Posted on May 17, 2016, at 1:36 am .
A student from St. Thomas More Cathedral School holds the STMSat-1 CubeSat. (Credit: St. Thomas More Cathedral School)
ARLINGTON, Va. (NASA PR) — In 2012, the students from St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington, Virginia lined up in the shape of a space shuttle in the school parking lot and witnessed the flyover of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it was being retired to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This awe-inspiring vision was an inspiration to the entire school and a catalyst for them to literally reach for the stars. Thus beginning their quest to build a small satellite, called a CubeSat, that would engage students around the world in Earth observations.
Over the next three years, all 400 pre-kindergarten through eight grade students participated in the design, construction and testing of their small satellite. Through this hands-on, inquiry based learning activity the students conducted real world engineering and will operate the St. Thomas More (STM)Sat-1, the first CubeSat built by elementary school students to be deployed in space.
Continue reading ‘First CubeSat Built by an Elementary School Deployed into Space’
Posted on April 26, 2016, at 1:34 am .
NASA astronaut and Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams works with the WetLab-2 system aboard the International Space Station. WetLab-2 is a research platform for conducting real-time quantitative PCR for gene expression analysis aboard the ISS. The system enables spaceflight genomic studies involving a wide variety of biospecimen types in the unique microgravity environment of space. (Credit: NASA)
by Sandy Dueck and Gianine Figliozzi
Space Biosciences Division
NASA’s Ames Research Center
Biologists around the world routinely perform gene expression analysis to better understand living systems. Gene expression analysis examines the types and amounts of molecules produced by genes in living cells, telling us which genes are active and which are inactive at a given point in time. This reveals valuable information about the highly dynamic internal states of cells in living systems. NASA’s WetLab-2 hardware system is bringing to the International Space Station the technology to measure gene expression of biological specimens in space, and to transmit the results to researchers on Earth at the speed of light.
Continue reading ‘Gene Analysis System Could Accelerate Pace of Research on Space Station’
Posted on April 21, 2016, at 12:45 am .
Graphic depiction of printable electronics. (Credit: NASA Ames)
NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected 13 proposals for Phase I awards. Below is the description of a Venus probe submitted by Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames Research Center.
Urban Biomining Meets Printable Electronics:
End-to-end Destination Biological Recycling and Reprinting
Lynn Rothschild
NASA Ames Research Center
Space missions rely utterly on metallic components, from the spacecraft to electronics. Yet, metals add mass, and electronics have the additional problem of a limited lifespan. Thus, current mission architectures must compensate for replacement. In space, spent electronics are discarded; on earth, there is some recycling but current processes are toxic and environmentally hazardous. Imagine instead an end-to-end recycling of spent electronics at low mass, low cost, room temperature, and in a non-toxic manner.
Continue reading ‘NIAC Focus: Urban Biomining Meets Printable Electronics’
Posted on April 11, 2016, at 12:34 pm .
NASA’s STMD is spearheading work on small spacecraft such as these two Nodes satellites. The Nodes spacecraft were taken to the International Space Station (ISS) in late 2015 via the fourth Orbital ATK cargo mission. Nodes will be deployed into low-Earth orbit from the ISS in early 2016 and test new network capabilities for operating swarms of spacecraft in the future. (Credit: NASA)
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA is once again extending an opportunity to teams at colleges and universities with campuses in the U.S. to propose small spacecraft technology projects to be conducted in collaboration with NASA researchers. The Smallsat Technology Partnerships solicitation is being issued by the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, as an appendix to the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for 2016.
Continue reading ‘NASA Invites University Students to Propose Smallsat Projects’
Posted on April 9, 2016, at 9:15 am .
Artists depiction of an asteroid being reconstituted into a mechanical automata. (Credit: Made in Space)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 13 proposals through NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), a program that invests in transformative architectures through the development of pioneering technologies.
Among the selected are: a concept for reprogramming microorganisms that could use the Martian environment to recycle and print electronics; a two-dimensional spacecraft with ultra-thin subsystems that may wrap around space debris to enable de-orbiting; and a method of computational imaging that leverages extrasolar intensity fluctuations to detect “echoes” from planets and other structures orbiting a distant star.
Continue reading ‘NASA Selects 13 NIAC Phase I Projects’
Posted on March 29, 2016, at 12:14 pm .
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA has awarded $30,000 each to the five top-scoring teams that competed in the latest segment of the agency’s small satellite Cube Quest competition. Cube Quest is a $5 million challenge that requires teams to design, build and deliver flight-qualified CubeSats capable of advanced operations near and beyond the moon. It is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which engages the public to compete to solve challenges that will benefit the agency and the nation.
Continue reading ‘NASA Awards Second-Round Prizes in Cube Quest Challenge’
Posted on March 16, 2016, at 11:41 am .
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 137 research and technology proposals from 117 American small businesses and research institutions that will enable NASA’s future missions into deep space, while also benefiting the U.S. economy right here on Earth.
The agency received 323 proposals in response to its 2015 solicitation for its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. From those, NASA selected 134 SBIR Phase II General proposals, with a total value of approximately $100.5 million, and three Phase II Select proposals, valued at approximately $3.8 million, for contract negotiations under Phase II of the SBIR program.
Continue reading ‘NASA Selects 137 SBIR R&D Proposals’
Posted on March 7, 2016, at 1:15 am .
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — Assembling large structures in space is an enormous undertaking, and the International Space Station, or ISS, which is longer in length than a football field, is the prime case in point. Its construction was challenging. First, the modules, or compartments, had to be built on Earth, where engineers have access to tools for piecing together an agglomeration of parts. Then, apart from being of suitable size to fit within the rocket fairing, each module had to be structurally reinforced to withstand the violent turbulence of launch. Once in space, a tricky rendezvous-and-docking sequence was employed to join them all together.
Continue reading ‘Digital Materials & Robotic Assembly in Space’
Posted on February 17, 2016, at 9:43 am .
In February 2014, Planet Labs Inc. launched its first flock of Dove nanosatellites into space. Shown are two shoebox-sized Doves being ejected into low-Earth orbit from the International Space Station. The company’s goal is for the flock to take a high-resolution snapshot of nearly the entire globe every 24 hours. (Credit: NASA)
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — Satellites aren’t small or cheap. The Solar Dynamics Observatory launched by NASA in 2010 weighs about 6,800 pounds and cost $850 million to build and put into orbit.
Continue reading ‘How a NASA Team Turned a Smartphone into Planet Labs’
Posted on February 15, 2016, at 11:05 am .
NASA’s STMD is spearheading work on small spacecraft such as these two Nodes satellites. The Nodes spacecraft were taken to the International Space Station (ISS) in late 2015 via the fourth Orbital ATK cargo mission. Nodes will be deployed into low-Earth orbit from the ISS in early 2016 and test new network capabilities for operating swarms of spacecraft in the future. (Credit: NASA)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — In a unique invitation to develop a new satellite platform, NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) is requesting proposals from industry to provide small spacecraft for its Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD) missions that will include government-furnished technology payloads for a series of flight demonstrations.
Continue reading ‘NASA Seeks Satellite Maker for Series of CubeSat Technology Missions’
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