Emergent Receives 2009 NASA SBIR/STTR Awards
Greenbelt, MD, December 12, 2008
Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. (Emergent) was recently awarded
several proposals as part of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.
SBIR/STTR is a three-phased approach for small business concerns to
develop a technology in response to a specific set of NASA mission
driven needs. The STTR program involves a research institution
partnering with a small business to develop a technology based on
specific mission needs.
A Phase 2 SBIR award from NASA Ames Research Center was received for
the Ground Enterprise Management System (GEMS). GEMS is a
service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based ground system integration and
automation platform that enables operations to more efficiently and
effectively manage distributed and automated ground system. It
provides situational awareness for multi-mission and multi-facility
ground systems and an understanding of how events and automated actions
impact the system in real-time. Recent software advancements have
improved sustainability, extensibility, fault tolerance, and ease of
automation for ground systems. These traits are important for
NASA’s missions, from Exploration to Earth and Space Science, but can
pose challenges, especially when the system has a high degree of
interoperability and communications between components that isn’t
visible to the end-user. Operators can quickly become overwhelmed
with the increased complexity of software components constantly
exchanging data and by the volumes of information being passed around
behind-the-scenes. In fact, for largely distributed systems, as
much “situational awareness” is needed for the ground system as for the
spacecraft itself. To solve some of these major dilemmas, GEMS
provides the centralized integration framework that is needed to
provide operators with transparency into the ground system, its state,
and its component interactions.
A Phase 1 SBIR award from NASA Ames Research Center was received for
Automated, Real-Time Targeting and Guidance Software for Lunar Descent
and Precision Landing. We will research, design and develop
an automated real-time, onboard targeting and guidance (ARTGUID)
software for powered descent, and soft and precision landing at any
desirable site on the Moon. It will provide an integrated real-time
targeting, guidance, navigation and control (TGNC) capability to
perform autonomous vehicle-centered operations to accomplish mission
objectives.. This software tool will be extensible, scalable and
verifiable based on the complex mission-driven requirements of the
Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) Project, the
Altair Lunar Lander and other landers for NASA's future exploration
missions.
A Phase 1 STTR award from NASA Johnson Space Center was received for
Picosats for Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking Technology
Demonstration. In this technology transfer effort, Emergent will
partner with The University of Texas at Austin to move picosat
technology out of the university research environment and into
industry. The University of Texas at Austin is currently developing
picosats under a program titled Platform for Autonomous Rendezvous and
Docking with Innovative GN&C Methods (PARADIGM). Emergent
will leverage its experience in Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking
(AR&D) and GN&C to develop a set of picosat missions that
employ the PARADIGM spacecraft to test out guidance, navigation and
control technologies for Project Constellation autonomous rendezvous
and docking applications, including Orion and Altair.
A Phase 1 SBIR award from NASA Kennedy Space Center was received for
the Marine Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) Range Surveillance System
(MARS). American spaceports such as those at Cape Canaveral,
Florida and Wallops Island, Virginia carry out the task of launching
and recovering spacecraft and payloads that are extremely unique and
expensive assets essential to scientific discovery, economic
prosperity, and national security. Range surveillance is an essential
element in enabling safe, reliable, and cost effective launch and
recovery operations at these sites which encompass large ocean regions
that are not under the exclusive control of the spaceport. The
MARS system will provide spaceport operators with a new tool to augment
the range surveillance task. The MARS systems includes a surveillance
payload incorporating an array of optical, infrared, and RF sensors as
well as onboard software to facilitate measurement infusion and
analysis. Ultimately the system will provide range control personnel
with additional data to aid in operational decision making.
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