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Participating Center(s): GRC
NASA plans to perform sample return missions from a variety of scientifically important targets including Mars, small bodies such as asteroids and comets, and outer planet moons. These types of targets present a variety of spacecraft technology challenges. 
Some targets, such as Mars and some moons, have relatively large gravity wells and will require ascent propulsion. Includes propellants that are transported along with the mission or propellants that can be generated using local resources.
Other targets are small bodies with very complex geography and very little gravity, which present difficult navigational and maneuvering challenges. 
In addition, the spacecraft will be subject to extreme environmental conditions including low temperatures (-270°C), dust, and ice particles. 
Technology innovations should either enhance vehicle capabilities (e.g., increase performance, decrease risk, and improve environmental operational margins) or ease sample return mission implementation (e.g., reduce size, mass, power, cost, increase reliability, or increase autonomy). 
S4.04 Extreme Environments Technology

Lead Center: JPL

Participating Center(s): ARC, GRC, GSFC, LaRC, MSFC
NASA is interested in expanding its ability to explore the deep atmosphere and surface of giant planets, asteroids, and comets through the use of long-lived (days or weeks) balloons and landers. Survivability in extreme high-temperatures and high-pressures is also required for deep atmospheric probes to planets. Proposals are sought for technologies that are suitable for remote sensing applications at cryogenic temperatures, and in-situ atmospheric and surface explorations in the high-temperature high-pressure environment at the Venusians surface (485°C, 93 atmospheres), or in low-temperature environments such as Titan (-180°C), Europa (-220°C), Ganymede (-200°C), Mars, the Moon, asteroids, comets and other small bodies. Also Europa-Jupiter missions may have a mission life of 10 years and the radiation environment is estimated at 2.9 Mega-rad total ionizing dose (TID) behind 0.1 inch thick aluminum. Proposals are sought for technologies that enable NASA's long duration missions to extreme wide-temperature and cosmic radiation environments. High reliability, ease of maintenance, low volume, low mass, and low out-gassing characteristics are highly desirable. Special interest lies in development of following technologies that are suitable for the environments discussed above:      

                            



  • Wide temperature range precision mechanisms i.e., beam steering, scanner, linear and tilting multi-axis mechanisms.

  • Radiation-tolerant/radiation hardened low-power low-noise mixed-signal mechanism control electronics for precision actuators and sensors.

  • Wide temperature range feedback sensors with sub-arc-second/nanometer precision.

  • Long life, long stroke, low power, and high torque/force actuators with sub-arc-second/nanometer precision.

  • Long life Bearings/tribological surfaces/lubricants.

  • High temperature energy storage systems.

  • High-temperature actuators and gear boxes for robotic arms and other mechanisms.

  • Low-power and wide-operating-temperature radiation-tolerant /radiation hardened RF electronics.

  • Radiation-tolerant/radiation-hardened low-power/ultra-low-powerwide-operating-temperature low-noise mixed-signal electronics for space-borne system such as guidance and navigation avionics and instruments.

  • Radiation-tolerant/radiation-hardened power electronics.

  • Radiation-tolerant/ radiation-hardened electronic packaging (including, shielding, passives, connectors, wiring harness and materials used in advanced electronics assembly). 

Research should be conducted to demonstrate technical feasibility during Phase I and show a path toward a Phase II hardware demonstration, and when possible, deliver a demonstration unit for functional and environmental testing at the completion of the Phase II contract. 


S4.05 Contamination Control and Planetary Protection

Lead Center: JPL
A need to develop technologies to implement Contamination Control and Planetary Protection requirements has emerged in recent years with increased interest in investigating bodies with the potential for life detection such as Europa, Enceladus, Mars, etc. and the potential for sample return from such bodies. Planetary Protection is concerned with both forward and backward contamination. Forward contamination is the transfer of viable organisms from Earth to another body. Backward contamination is the transfer of material posing a biological threat back to Earth's biosphere. NASA is seeking innovative technologies or applications of technologies to facilitate meeting portions of forward and backward contamination Planetary Protection requirements as well as analytical technologies that can ensure hardware and instrumentation can meet organic contamination requirements in an effort to preserve sample science integrity. 
For contamination control efforts, analytical technologies and techniques for quantifying submicron particle and organic contamination for validating surface cleaning methods are needed. In particular, capabilities for measuring Total Organic Carbon (TOC) at <<40 ppb or <<20 ng/cm2 on a surface and detection of particles <0.2 microns in size are being sought. In addition, techniques for detection of one or more of the following molecules and detection level are being needed: 


  • DNA (1 fmole).

  • Dipicolinic acid (1 pg).

  • N-acetylglucosamine (1 pg).

  • Glycine and alanine (1 pg).

  • Palmitic acid (1 pg).

  • Sqalene (1 pg).

  • Pristane (1pg).

  • Chlorobenzene (<1 pg).

  • Dichloromethane (<1 pg).

  • Naphthalene (1 pg). 

For many missions, Planetary Protection requirements are often implemented in part by processing hardware or potentially entire spacecraft with one or more sterilization processes. These processes are often incompatible with particular materials or components on the spacecraft and extensive effort is made to try to mitigate these issues. Innovative new or improved sterilization/re-sterilization processes are being sought for application to spacecraft hardware to increase effectiveness of reducing bio-load on spacecraft or increase process compatibility with hardware (e.g., toxicity to hardware, temperature, duration, etc.). Accepted processes currently include heat processing, gamma/electron beam irradiation, cold plasma, and vapor hydrogen peroxide. Options to improve materials and parts (e.g., sensors, seals, in particular, batteries, valves, and optical coatings) to be compatible with currently accepted processes, in particular heat tolerance, are needed. NASA is seeking novel technologies for preventing recontamination of sterilized components or spacecraft as a whole (e.g., biobarriers). In addition, active in-situ recontamination/decontamination approaches (e.g., in-situ heating of sample containers to drive off volatiles prior to sample collection) and in-situ sterilization approaches (e.g., UV or plasma) for surfaces are desired. 


Missions planning sample return from bodies such as Mars, Europa, and Enceladus are faced with developing technologies for sample return functions to assure containment of material from these bodies. Thus far, concepts have been developed specifically for Mars sample return but no end-to-end concepts have been developed that do not have technical challenges remaining in one or more areas. Options for sample canisters with seal(s) (e.g., brazing, explosive welding, soft) with sealing performed either on surface or in orbit and capability to verify seal(s), potentially by leak detection are needed. In addition, capability is needed for opening seals while maintaining sample integrity upon Earth return. These technologies need to be compatible with processes the materials may encounter over the lifecycle of the mission (e.g., high temperature heating). Containment assurance also requires technologies to break-the-chain of contact with the sampled body. Any native contamination on the returned sample container and/or Earth return vehicle must be either be fully contained, sterilized, or removed prior to return to Earth, therefore, technologies or concepts to mitigate this contamination are desired. Lightweight shielding technologies are also needed for meteoroid protection for the Earth entry vehicle and sample canister with capability to detect damage or breach to meet a 10-6 probability of loss of containment. 
Z6.01 High Performance Space Computing Technology

Lead Center: JPL

Participating Center(s): GSFC, JSC
The NASA state-of-the-art in space computing is currently lagging commercial capabilities in both the hardware and software capabilities. Presently, NASA is investing in the development of a radiation-hardened multi-core General Purpose Processor (GPP) that is scalable for a variety of space computing application.
The GPP will require additional support components and software to enable it to function as a multi-application device. Also, the GPP may not be the best approach to specific specialized applications that require niche-processing approaches. This subtopic is seeking flight-computing enhancements in the following areas:


  • GPP parallel processing support libraries such as: real-time and fault-tolerant Message Passing Interface (MPI), the Vector, Signal, and Image Processing Library (VSIPL), the Fastest Fourier Transform in the West (FFTW), and other parallel I/O and math libraries.

  • Computing accelerators/co-processors that will connect to the HPSC processor via the Serial Rapid I/O (SRIO) ports for supporting specific applications such as cyber-physical/robotics and autonomous systems.

  • Generic I/O expander chips for a GPP that provide typical serial data communications support suitable for use in subsystems and instruments such as TIA/EIA-422, SpaceWire, SpaceFiber, MIL-STD-1553, wireless RFID-based device interfaces, and Time Triggered Ethernet (TTE)/Time-Triggered Gigabit Ethernet (TTGbE).

  • Interconnect switches and end points for SRIO with integral micro-controllers, suitable for use in subsystems and instruments including components, IP for FPGA and SOC implementation and associated software.

  • Low-power Graphics Processor Units and related display technologies. 

  • General purpose SIMD engines.

  • Neuromorphic processors, especially those using >2D topologies.

  • Board-support technologies, such as fault tolerant, multiple voltage, high efficiency, Point-of-Load converters, that reduce the SWaP burden of the overall computing board to permit higher system power efficiency and smaller computing system form factors.

  • High Performance, low power/power manageable, fault tolerant, memory components, both volatile and non-volatile, especially those using >2D topologies and high speed, low power interfaces such as SRIO.

  • Middleware that provides machine configuration management and resource allocation for GPP and extended GPP (incorporating co-processors, accelerators and expanded I/O).

Focus Area 12: Entry, Descent and Landing Systems



Participating MD(s): HEOMD, SMD, STMD
The SBIR focus area of Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) includes the suite of technologies for atmospheric entry as well as descent and landing on both atmospheric and non-atmospheric bodies. EDL mission segments are used in both robotic planetary science missions and human exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, and some technologies have application to commercial space capabilities.
Robust, efficient, and predictable EDL systems fulfill the critical function of delivering payloads to planetary surfaces through challenging environments, within mass and cost constraints. Future NASA missions will require new technologies to break through historical constraints on delivered mass, or to go to entirely new planets and moons. Even where heritage systems exist, no two planetary missions are exactly “build-to-print,” so there are frequently issues of environmental uncertainty, risk posture, and resource constraints that can be dramatically improved with investments in EDL technologies. New capabilities and improved knowledge are both important facets of this focus area.
Because this topic covers a wide area of interests, subtopics are chosen to enhance and or fill gaps in the existing technology development programs. Future subtopics will support one or more of four broad capability areas, which represent NASA’s goals with respect to planetary Entry, Descent and Landing:


  • High Mass to Mars Surface.

  • Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance.

  • Planetary Probes and Earth Return Vehicles.

  • EDL Data Return and Model Improvement.

A cross-cutting set of disciplines and technologies will help mature these four capability areas, to enable more efficient, reliable exploration missions. These more specific topics and subtopics may include, but are not limited to:




  • Thermal Protection System materials, modeling, and instrumentation.

  • Deployable and inflatable decelerators (hypersonic and supersonic).

  • Guidance, Navigation, and Control sensors and algorithms.

  • Aerodynamics and Aerothermodynamics advances, including modeling and testing.

  • Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance sensors.

  • Multifunctional materials and structures.

This year the Entry, Descent and Landing focus area is seeking innovative technology for:




  • Deployable decelerator technologies.

  • Supersonic parachute materials, testing and instrumentation.

  • 3-dimensional woven thermal protection materials.

  • Hot structures control surface technologies.

  • EDL and small body proximity operations sensors. The specific needs and metrics of each of these specific technology developments are described in the subtopic descriptions.


H5.02 Hot Structure Entry Control Surface Technology

Lead Center: LaRC

Participating Center(s): AFRC, JSC, MSFC
The focus of this subtopic is the development of hot structure technology for entry vehicle control surfaces. A hot structure is a type of multifunctional structure that can reduce or eliminate the need for a separate thermal protection system (TPS) to protect the structure. The potential advantages of using a hot structure in place of a cool structure with a separate TPS are: reduced mass, increased mission capability such as reusability, improved aerodynamics, improved structural efficiency, and increased ability to inspect the structure. Hot structures is an enabling technology for reusability between missions or mission phases, such as aerocapture followed by entry, and have been used in many prior NASA programs: Space Shuttle (nosecap and leading edges), HyperX (nose and all-moving control surfaces), X-37 (flaperon and ruddervator control surfaces), and many Department of Defense programs.
This subtopic seeks to develop innovative low-cost, damage tolerant, reusable and lightweight 1450°C to 2200°C hot structure technology applicable to control surfaces for atmospheric entry vehicles such as body flaps, ailerons, and trim tabs. Proposals should address one or more of the following technical challenges:


  • Fabrication technologies for stiffened structures that can be scaled to components as large as 3 meters in span and/or chord.

  • Material/structural architectures providing significant improvements of in-plane and interlaminar mechanical properties, compared to current high-temperature laminated composites.

  • Concepts for reliable integration of control surface deflection functionality (such as hinges and point attachment for actuators) which can integrate with a cool primary structure.

  • Remote monitoring capability for high temperature structures and associated enviro-mechanical models to quantitatively diagnose the state of the structure between missions or mission phases.

For all above technologies, research, testing, and analysis should be conducted to demonstrate technical feasibility during Phase I and show a path towards Phase II hardware demonstration. Emphasis should be on the delivery of a manufacturing demonstration unit for NASA testing at the completion of the Phase II contract. Opportunities and plans should also be identified and summarized for potential commercialization.


Reference:

Glass, D. E. “Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC) Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) and Hot Structures for Hypersonic Vehicles,” 15th AIAA International Space Planes and


Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, Dayton, Ohio, AIAA-2008-2682, April 2008. (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20080017096.pdf).

S4.01 Planetary Entry, Descent and Landing and Small Body Proximity Operation Technology



Lead Center: JPL

Participating Center(s): ARC, JSC, LaRC
NASA seeks innovative sensor technologies to enhance success for entry, descent and landing (EDL) operations on missions to other planetary bodies, including Earth's Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan, Europa, and proximity operations (including sampling and landing) on small bodies such as asteroids and comets. 
Sensing technologies are desired that determine any number of the following: 


  • Terrain relative translational state (altimetry/3-axis velocimetry).

  • Spacecraft absolute state in planetary/small-body frame (either attitude, translation, or both).

  • Terrain point cloud (for hazard detection, absolute state estimation, landing/sampling site selection, and/or body shape characterization).

  • Atmosphere-relative measurements (velocimetry, pressure, temperature, flow-relative orientation). 

NASA also seeks to use measurements made during EDL to better characterize the atmosphere of planetary bodies, providing data for improving atmospheric modeling for future landers or ascent vehicles. 


Successful candidate sensor technologies can address this call by:


  • Extending the dynamic range over which such measurements are collected (e.g., providing a single surface topology sensor that works over a large altitude range such as 1m to >10km, and high attitude rates such as greater than 45° /sec).

  • Improving the state-of-the-art in measurement accuracy/precision/resolution for the above sensor needs.

  • Substantially reducing the amount of external processing needed by the host vehicle to calculate the measurements.

  • Significantly reducing the impact of incorporating such sensors on the spacecraft in terms of Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP), spacecraft accomodation complexity, and/or cost.

  • Providing sensors that are robust to environmental dust/sand/illumination effects.

  • Mitigation technologies for dust/particle contamination of optical surfaces such as sensor optics, with possible extensibility to solar panels and thermal surfaces for Lunar, asteroid, and comet missions. 

For all the aforementioned technologies, candidate solutions are sought that can be made compatible with the environmental conditions of deep spaceflight, the rigors of landing on planetary bodies both with and without atmospheres, and planetary protection requirements. 


NASA is also looking for high-fidelity real-time simulation and stimulation of passive and active optical sensors for computer vision at update rates greater than 2 Hz to be used for signal injection in terrestrial spacecraft system test beds. These solutions are to be focused on improving system-level performance Verification and Validation during spacecraft assembly and test. 
Submitted proposals should show an understanding of the current state of the art of the proposed technology and present a feasible plan to improve and infuse it into a NASA flight mission. 

Z7.01 Supersonic Parachute Inflation Materials Testing, And Instrumentation



Lead Center: JPL

Participating Center(s): LaRC
Mars landed missions have traditionally relied on large (nominal diameter between 11.5 and 21.5 m) disk-gap-band (DGB) parachutes that must be inflated between Mach 1.2 and 2.2 at dynamic pressures between 300 and 850 Pa to ensure that the terminal landing phase occurs before hitting the ground. For robotic payloads larger than the Curiosity rover, larger parachutes will be required. These parachutes need to be tested under the low-density supersonic conditions that match Mars conditions. However understanding the shape history, dynamics, and induced stresses in the parachute structure and broadcloth during the inflation event is needed to ensure that minimum strength margin requirements are met. Further understanding the strength capability of materials under bi-axial and shear stress is essential. The measured material capabilities and stress conditions during inflation will be matched with computer models that will eventually be used as predictive tools in the parachute design process. This SBIR asks for help inventing and utilizing techniques for measuring parachute materials strength capabilities under flight-like loading conditions, and measuring, or inferring, parachute material stress and shape histories found during the inflation process during supersonic parachute inflation testing planned for the 2018 timeframe. 
Parachute Materials Testing
Low mass, high strength parachute fabrics typically are constructed using various woven low mass Dacron or nylon broadcloth (e.g., 1.2 oz./yd2) that are sewn as gores onto Kevlar (or other high strength) webbing that forms a circumferential and radial skeleton primary structure. These materials as well as associated seams and joints are typically strength tested uni-axially. In some cases bi-axial testing has occurred however test fixtures and test facilities that attempt to reproduce the bi-axial and shear-induced stresses and strain associated with the dynamic inflation event do not appear to exist.
Proposers to this subtopic should suggest ideas and provide the capability for determining the strength of these classes of materials including joints and seams under various bi-axial stress and shear conditions (materials, sample joints and seams will be provided) that are representative of the manner in which the materials are loading during and after inflation.
Phase I will be expected to deliver: Measurement detailed design (and design review), Details of material test requirements (to be worked with the lead center in this phase), Implementation and cost plan, and Test facility and calibration plan
Phase II will be expected to deliver: Tested and calibrated material test instrumentation and/or facility, Material testing (using samples provided by parachute manufacturers), Test data analysis and results.
In-situ Instrumentation
Ultimately, to prove that sufficient strength margin exists in the parachute design we need to determine the stresses or strains of the materials, seams and joints during the supersonic inflation event(s). Computer models that attempt to predict these stresses have not been validated due to an absence of data to ground the simulation results. NASA may execute supersonic, high-altitude inflation testing using various sized DGB parachutes in the 2018 timeframe. Plans include the use of high-speed stereo machine vision cameras that will allow shape history reconstruction of the very fast (< 1 sec) inflation event. Load cells on the riser(s) will provide estimates of the integrated tension during the event. After the test, the parachute and its instrumentation will be recovered and data extracted to gain understanding of the event. Some strain might be observable. What is missing are means to more directly measure or infer the peak stresses in the skeleton and broadcloth during the inflation event. Creative solutions have been proposed in the past, to instrument the parachute directly but these suffer from immaturity, use unproven integration techniques, and/or have questionable accuracies. These past solutions include: stress paint, strain threads that act as peak strain telltales, ultra-low-mass miniature self-contained strain gauges, and passive peak stress detection sewn into the circumferential and radial skeleton webbing (ball-strain yielding). These and other ideas are encouraged.
Proposers should suggest and have the ability to deliver various types of in-situ or remote instrumentation. Care should be taken to ensure that the incorporation of these devices do not excessively interfere with the operation of the parachute during the mortar-launched parachute inflation.
Phase I will be expected to deliver: Detailed design concepts, Implementation and cost plan, Details of accommodation (to be worked with the lead NASA center), and Instrument test and calibration plan.
Phase II will be expected to deliver: Tested and calibrated instrumentation, System test support (use of instrument in a ground or flight test), and Instrument data analysis.
Z7.02 Deployable 3D Woven Thermal Protection Materials

Lead Center: ARC
Large scale mechanically deployed decelerator skirts are expected to experience 50-100 W/cm2 in various planetary oxidizing environments and are currently designed using flat panels of 3-D woven carbon fibers with sacrificial ablating outer layers over structural layers.  The flat panels currently require cutting and joining at each structural rib. 
Technologies Sought Include:


  • Advancements are sought in weaving carbon fabric-based decelerator skirts that minimize stitched joints (maximum of 1 stitched joint) through the use of polar weaving or spider weave based designs. The weave thickness should be ~0.1 inches with a finished skirt diameter in the 1-3 meter range.

  • Development of alternate 3D weave architectures that utilize multiple fiber types, including but not limited to non-ablating fibers on the outer mold line side that transition to structural and/or insulating fiber types. Development of such a capability could provide significant mass savings and performance benefits over pure carbon fiber-based fabric designs.

  • Fabric joint development. Improvements are sought in the design of high temperature capable, stitched structural joints to improve post heated failure loads while minimizing conductive heat transfer into underlying deployable structure elements.

  • Advancements in integrating 3D features into woven carbon fabrics to reduce manufacture and integration complexity.  Examples include incorporation of rounded trailing edge radii into acreage material such that a trailing edge radius is 2-4x the acreage thickness without requiring multiple piece parts and stitching.

For all above technologies, research should be conducted to demonstrate technical feasibility and design during Phase I and show a path towards Phase II demonstration with delivery of a ~1-m diameter demonstration unit for NASA evaluation at the completion of the Phase II contract.


Z7.03 Deployable Aerodynamic Decelerator Technology

Lead Center: LaRC



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