Nasa Technology News

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and a series of subsequent legislation recognizes transfer of Federally owned or originated technology to be a national priority and the mission of each Federal agency. Accordingly, NASA is obliged to provide for the widest practicable dissemination of information concerning results of NASA's activities. The legislation specifically mandates that each Federal agency have a formal technology transfer program, and take an active role in transferring technology to the private sector and state and local governments for the purposes of commercial and other application of the technology for the national benefit.

Licensing terms are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, although technology fields of use are defined as narrowly as practical in every case; exclusive licenses are uncommon, but still possible in exceptional cases. IPP also facilitates the reporting of new technologies by both NASA and contractor inventors, as well as assesses the commercial potential and strategic value of those technologies to NASA's missions. Therefore, IPP facilitates the protection of NASA's rights in intellectual property to which it has title, thus providing the basis for licensing and technology transfer.

Nasa Technology News: The deadline is fast-approaching for undergraduate students to submit their team proposals to NASA's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Proposals must be received by 11:59 p.m. CDT , Wednesday, Oct. 28.

The aircraft will fly approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips during experiment flights to produce periods of weightlessness and hyper-gravity ranging from 0 g to 2 g.

All applicants must be full-time students, U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old. NASA will announce selected teams Dec. 9. Teams will fly in the summer of 2010. Selected teams also may invite a full-time, accredited journalist to fly with them and document the team's experiment and experiences.

Bringing ET-134 to Kennedy Space Center has one purpose; launch STS-130 to the International Space Station. NASA's top priority today is to fly the space shuttle safely and complete construction of the space station. It's been a long road getting from there to here!

The over flight will be fast; and the time of day is important because space station is best viewed just before dawn or the beginning of morning nautical twilight and just after fading evening light or the ending of evening nautical twilight; perhaps the station will approach from the southwest, sail over your town in 2-5 minutes at 220 miles above you and depart to the Northeast.

When I joined NASA in 1991, I was immediately joined at the hip with space station. It has been part of my daily duties ever since in one public affairs capacity or another. The space station has evolved from development models and design charts to real hardware during the intervening years. It is simply a marvel, flying through space at 17,000 miles per hour, brighter than the stars; so much so you might say it is a star...well, it is a Star!

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs provide an opportunity for small, high technology companies and research institutions (RI) to participate in Government sponsored research and development (R&D) efforts in key technology areas.

If you are a small business concern with 500 or fewer employees, or a non-profit RI, such as a university or a research laboratory with ties to a Small Business Concern (SBC), then NASA encourages you to learn more about these programs and significant sources of seed funding for the development of your innovations. The SBIR Phase 1 contracts last for 12 months with a maximum funding of $100,000, and Phase 2 contracts last for 24 months with a maximum funding of $600,000.

Much of what we gain from our space exploration is in the scientific and technological progress that comes in the process of doing it. Many of those technologies are the direct result of NASA supported funding for both internal R&D projects performed at NASA centers and external research from the small business community.

For NASA, Technology infusion is the process of strategically binding technical needs and potential solutions. These innovative solutions, be they hardware or software; enhancing or enabling; near-term or far-term; low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) or High TRL, NASA internally or externally developed; must all be managed through some aspect of transition from their originating source to the targeted challenges within NASA's programs and projects.

The IPP, Technology Infusion Element includes the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) , the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) and the IPP Seed Fund . Together these programs provide pathways from these originating sources to IPPs' technology portfolio, and provide enabling infrastructures that enhance the infusion of these technologies in NASA missions and programs. These programs allow the agency to implement successful technology

Nineteen teams pushed their robot competitors to the limit, and three teams claimed a total of $750,000 in NASA prizes at this year's Regolith Excavation Challenge on Oct. 18. This is the first time in the competition's three-year history that any team qualified for a cash prize, the largest NASA has awarded to date.

After two days of intense competition hosted at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., organizers conferred first place prize of $500,000 to Paul's Robotics of Worcester, Mass. Terra Engineering of Gardena, Calif., was a three-time returning competitor and was awarded second place prize of $150,000, and Team Braundo of Rancho Palos Verde, Calif., took the third place of $100,000 as a first-time competitor.

Competitors were required to use mobile, robotic digging machines capable of excavating at least 330 pounds of simulated moon dirt, known as regolith, and depositing it into a container in 30 minutes or less. The rules required the remotely controlled vehicles to contain their own power sources and weigh no more than 176 pounds.

The winning excavator lifted 1,103 pounds within the allotted time. Runners-up excavated 595 pounds and 580 pounds, respectively. Team E-REX of Little Rock, Ark., earned a special mention for transferring the most regolith in a single deposit -- 165 pounds.

"It's really encouraging that we saw three teams achieve the minimum requirements and shows that innovation is not only alive but growing," said Lynn Baroff, executive director of the California Space Education and Workforce Institute, who lead the panel of judges. "It's really great that through this competition NASA is actively seeking to recognize citizen inventors from across the nation whose ideas may one day contribute to space exploration."

The Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) develops new technologies that will enable NASA to conduct future human exploration missions, while reducing mission risk and cost. The primary customers of the ETDP are the designers of flight systems in the Constellation Systems Program. By maturing new technologies to the level of demonstration in a relevant environment early enough to support a flight system's Preliminary Design Review (PDR), NASA can significantly reduce both cost and risk.

ETDP is currently maturing near-term technologies to enable first flight of the Orion in 2014, and developing long-lead technologies needed for the lunar exploration missions no later than 2020.

The projects in the ETDP were formulated to address the high priority technology needs for lunar exploration identified by the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), with further refinement by the Lunar Architecture Team (LAT). All technology projects are managed at NASA Centers.

A successful NASA flight test has shown that a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This was the first time anyone has successfully flown an inflatable reentry capsule, according to engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center .

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, was vacuum-packed into a 15-inch diameter payload "shroud" and launched on a small sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Nitrogen inflated the 10-foot (3 m) diameter heat shield, made of several layers of silicone-coated industrial fabric, to a mushroom shape in space several minutes after liftoff.

"This was a huge success," said Mary Beth Wusk, IRVE project manager, based at Langley . "IRVE was a small-scale demonstrator. Now that we've proven the concept, we'd like to build more advanced aeroshells capable of handling higher heat rates."

The Black Brant 9 rocket took about four minutes to lift the experiment to an altitude of 131 miles (211 km). Less than a minute later it was released from its cover and started inflating on schedule at 124 miles (199.5 km) up. The inflation of the shield took less than 90 seconds.

"Everything performed well even into the subsonic range where we weren't sure what to expect," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE principal investigator and chief scientist for the Hypersonics Project of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "The telemetry looks good. The inflatable bladder held up well."

Inflatable heat shields hold promise for future planetary missions, according to researchers. To land more mass on Mars at higher surface elevations, for instance, mission planners need to maximize the drag area of the entry system.