Nov 19 2015

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Canadian Space Society hosts its annual summit in Vancouver British Columbia. Speakers include Sylvaine Laporte, President of the Canadian Space Agency; Scott Larson CEO of Urthecast and scientists from University of Toronto and Cornell University.

Release 15-225 NASA Announces New Public-Private Partnerships to Advance ‘Tipping Point,’ Emerging Space Capabilities

NASA has secured partnerships with 22 U.S. companies through two solicitations to advance the agency’s goals for robotic and human exploration of the solar system by shepherding the development of critical space technologies.

"These awards enable us to continue to foster partnerships with the commercial space sector that not only leverage capabilities to meet NASA's strategic goals, but also focus on U.S. industry markets that are at a tipping point for commercialization and infusion,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “At NASA, technology drives exploration and partnering with the private sector in this way supports the innovation economy and creates jobs.”

Through the "Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Tipping Point Technologies” solicitation, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate selected nine companies to mature technologies beyond their “tipping point” with the goal of enabling private industry to develop and qualify them for market, stimulating the commercial space industry while delivering technologies and capabilities needed for future NASA missions and commercial applications.

A technology is considered at the tipping point if an investment in a demonstration of its capabilities would result in a significant advancement of the technology's maturation, high likelihood of infusion into a commercial space application, and significant improvement in the ability to successfully bring the technology to market.

Through the Tipping Point solicitation, NASA has selected the following nine projects and U.S. companies:

Robotic In-Space Manufacturing and Assembly of Spacecraft and Space Structures

  • Public-Private Partnership for Robotic In-Space Manufacturing and Assembly of Spacecraft and Space Structures -- Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia
  • Versatile In-Space Robotic Precision Manufacturing and Assembly System -- Made in Space, Inc. of Moffett Field, California
  • Dragonfly: On-Orbit Robotic Installation and Reconfiguration of Large Solid RF Reflectors -- Space Systems Loral of Palo Alto, California

Low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) Instruments for Remote Sensing Applications

  • EGO-XO: Nanosats for Advanced Gravity Mapping and Crosslink Occultation -- Geo Optics LLC of Pasadena, California
  • Advanced 1.65 Micron Seed Laser for LIDAR Remote Sensing of Methane -- Freedom Photonics LLC of Goleta, California

Small Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) Sensors and Actuators

  • Hyper-XACT, A Long Life, High Performance Attitude Determination and Control System -- Blue Canyon Technologies LLC of Boulder, Colorado
  • Tipping Point Proposal for Reaction Sphere -- Northrop Grumman Support Services Corporation of Millersville, Maryland

Small Spacecraft Propulsion Systems

  • HYDROS Thruster -- Tethers Unlimited of Bothell, Washington
  • Enabling High Thrust High Delta-V Green Propulsion for CubeSats -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc. of Redmond, Washington

These fixed-priced contracts include milestone payments that require a minimum 25 percent corporate or customer contribution, though all awards are contingent on the availability of appropriated funding. The contracts range in value from $1 million to $20 million, and each have an approximate two-year performance period culminating in a system-level demonstration of the technology.

NASA also secured partnerships with 13 U.S. companies through the Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity (ACO) solicitation, "Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Emerging Space Technology System Capabilities.” Through these partnerships, NASA provides technical expertise and test facilities to aid industry partners in maturing key space technologies.

These awards will result in Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreements between the selected companies and NASA for the following technology projects:

Nanosatellite and Suborbital Reusable Launch Systems Development

  • Technology Maturation and Flight Validation for Air Launched Liquid Rockets -- Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. of Atlanta
  • LauncherOne Collaborative Opportunity to Advance Emerging Space Capabilities -- Virgin Galactic LLC of Long Beach, California
  • Spyder: A Dedicated CubeSat Launcher Project -- UP Aerospace, Inc. of Littleton, Colorado
  • Advanced Design and Manufacture of Cryogenic Propellant Tanks for Air Launched Liquid Rockets -- Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. of Atlanta

Thermal Protection System Materials and Systems Development

  • Validation of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensor Arrays for Thermal Protection System Materials -- Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corp. of Santa Clara, California
  • Development and Characterization of 3D Woven Thermal Protection System via Arc Jet Testing -- T.E.A.M, Inc. of Woonsocket, Rhode Island
  • Arc Jet Exposure of Ablative and Non-Oxide CMC TPS for Planetary Probe and Sample Return Applications -- Boeing of Huntington Beach, California

Green Propellant Thruster Technology Qualification

  • Flight Qualification of Busek’s 5N Green Monopropellant Thruster, BGT-5 -- Busek Co., Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts
  • Green Propellant Thruster Technology Qualification -- Orbital ATK of Elkton, Maryland
  • GR-1 Aerojet Rocketdyne Glenn Goddard (ARGG) Collaboration -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc. of Redmond, Washington

Small, Affordable, High Performance Liquid Rocket Engine Development

  • Enhancement of Nanosat Launch Vehicle Booster Main Engine Using 3D Additive Manufacturing Techniques -- Garvey Spacecraft Corp. of Long Beach, California
  • Hydrogen Peroxide/Kerosene Engine Development -- Dynetics, Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama
  • Risk-Reduction Testing for the DESLA Upper Stage Engine -- Exquadrum, Inc. of Adelanto, California

“These new partnerships between NASA and U.S. industry can accelerate the development and infusion of these emerging space system capabilities,” Jurczyk said. “Sustained technology investments must be made to mature the capabilities required to reach the challenging destinations and meet the agency’s exploration goals, such as our journey to Mars.”


First Steps Toward Drone Traffic Management

NASA recently successfully demonstrated rural operations of its unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) traffic management (UTM) concept, integrating operator platforms, vehicle performance and ground infrastructure. The next steps involve further validation through Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test sites.

“UTM is designed to enable safe low-altitude civilian UAS operations by providing pilots information needed to maintain separation from other aircraft by reserving areas for specific routes, with consideration of restricted airspace and adverse weather conditions,” said Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous Systems Operations project and lead of NASA’s UTM efforts.

Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, are developing UTM cloud-based software tools in four segments of progressively more capable levels. They design each “technical capability level” for a different operational environment that requires development of proposed uses, software, procedures and policies to enable safe operation, with Technical Capability Level One focusing on a rural environment. With continued development, the Technical Capability Level One system would enable UAS operators to file flight plans reserving airspace for their operations and provide situational awareness about other operations planned in the area.

The majority of flight testing occurred at Crows Landing, a remote, closed, private-use airfield, 18 miles southwest of Modesto, California. Prior to flight test, the team deployed a 100-foot weather tower, small weather stations, microphone, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in a ground relay station for air traffic feeds, and a radar station for flight test monitoring and data collection.

The day of the test the team arrived at dawn for preflight vehicle checks, and to test communication, radio, weather and other equipment prior to the preflight briefing, which covered test objectives, abort procedures, and geofence and autopilot boundaries. “Geofencing” is when the global positioning system or a radio frequency is used to define a geographical boundary -- a virtual barrier. Marcus Johnson, UTM flight test director, initiated the first test at 8:30 a.m. local time. Pilots then submitted operation plans and their positions into the UTM system, which checked airspace for conflicts, approved or disapproved flight plans and started tracking the drones through the UTM system’s ground control station.

As the pilots flew their drones within the approved geofence, the team monitored each drone’s ability to maintain flight plans in windy conditions with radar, cellular signals, ADS-B and GPS provided by the UAS ground control station to the UTM system. This data provides insight into the reliability, accuracy and delay associated with UAS position reports, and helps researchers further develop the UTM system’s navigational performance. In addition to collecting data about air traffic for UTM development, collaborator Griffon Sensors made traffic calls to alert the drone operators of non-transponding aircraft approaching the test range.

The team monitored temperature, wind and weather conditions with weather balloons, and a radio frequency band for safety purposes. The team collected the meteorological data to validate low-altitude weather forecasting models developed in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Labs. Researchers took measurements from each aircraft to evaluate potential noise impact to people and wildlife.

Over eight days the UTM team flew 108 flights with 10 different aircraft. Flights averaged 11 minutes, but some flew as long as 38 minutes.

Eleven collaborators participated in the initial testing that focused on vehicle trajectory, the virtual constraints known as geofencing and tracking aspects, including:

  • UAS multi-rotor and fixed wing vehicles;
  • ADS-B transponders providing GPS altitude, airspeed and location information;
  • ADS-B ground stations and air traffic surveillance displays;
  • vehicle tracking over the cellular network;
  • vehicle tracking using low-altitude radar system; and
  • weather measurement equipment.

NASA collaborators for Technical Capability Level One flight tests included Precision Hawk, Raleigh, North Carolina; Verizon, Bedminster, New Jersey; Gryphon Sensors, Syracuse, New York; Airware, San Francisco; University of Nevada-Reno/Flirty, Reno, Nevada; SkySpecs, Ann Arbor, Michigan; ne3rd, Navarre, Florida; Harris/Exelis, San Francisco; Unmanned Experts, Denver; San Jose State University; and Lone Star UAS Center, Corpus Christi, Texas.

The cloud-based system of UTM is described in four technical capability levels.

  • Technical Capability Level One involves field-testing of rural UAS operations for agriculture, firefighting and infrastructure monitoring.
  • Technical Capability Level Two will be demonstrated in October 2016 for applications that operate beyond visual line of sight of the operator in sparsely populated areas. The system will provide flight procedures and traffic rules for longer-range applications.
  • Technical Capability Level Three will include cooperative and uncooperative UAS tracking capabilities to ensure collective safety of manned and unmanned operations over moderately populated areas and is planned for January 2018.
  • Technical Capability Level Four will involve higher-density urban areas for autonomous vehicles used for newsgathering and package delivery, and will offer large-scale contingency mitigation. Build Four will be demonstrated in 2019.

As a result of the Level One field test, NASA created implementation and integration guidelines and lessons learned for the UTM system in a rural, remote or over-water environments.

“UTM Level One tests demonstrated awareness of all airspace constraints, and shows promise for vehicle tracking to support initial low-density operations,” said Kopardekar.

The final test of Level One concluded on November 18 with a test at Moffett Field. During this test the team flew a live drone on the runway while a nearby lab simulated virtual drones with simulated trajectory conflicts. The UTM system recognized the live and virtual drones and responded by sending messages and alerts to all vehicles. Further tests with additional vehicles, trajectory configurations and multiple users will be conducted at FAA designated test sites in an initial safe UAS integration campaign in spring 2016.

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