Each individual NASA Center has full discretion on the use of the funds and the Center Chief Technologists coordinates a competitive process at their Center for the selection of projects. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) considers CIF very important because it encourages employees to develop innovative concepts that, if successful, can solve future mission needs. As in prior years, KSC put a strong emphasis on low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) technologies for CIF in support of Space Technology Area Roadmaps that align with KSC core capabilities.
KSC has emphasized partnerships for several years and has benefited in many ways from the other NASA centers and government agencies, academia and industry collaborations. In keeping with this emphasis, a key selection criterion for KSC CIF relates to collaborations and partnerships (with leveraged funding).
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","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":166,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36641,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: KSC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"KSC CIF"},"description":"NASA needs a method of not only propelling and rotating small satellites, but also to track their position and orientation. We propose a concept that will, for the first time, demonstrate both tracking and propulsion simultaneously in the same system. NASA plans to build a lab bench operational system capable of tracking the position and orientation of small satellites as well as producing forces and torques on them. The goal is to be able to direct a satellite to move to various positions and orientations and then see how well it can accomplish this. The position resolution achieved is a major goal of the project. We have previously demonstrated one directional forces and single torques to a satellite. We analyzed this and published a technique to extend it to more dimensions. This project began on May 1st 2014. As results are developed more information will be provided to this site.","benefits":"This technology would benefit NASA missions with with free flying or near field satellite. 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