The NASA SBIR and STTR programs fund the research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that fulfill NASA needs as described in the annual Solicitations and have significant potential for successful commercialization. If you are a small business concern (SBC) with 500 or fewer employees or a non-profit RI such as a university or a research laboratory with ties to an SBC, then NASA encourages you to learn more about the SBIR and STTR programs as a potential source of seed funding for the development of your innovations.
The SBIR and STTR programs have 3 phases:
The SBIR and STTR Phase I contracts last for 6 months with a maximum funding of $125,000, and Phase II contracts last for 24 months with a maximum funding of $750,000 - $1.5 million.
Opportunity for Continued Technology Development Post-Phase II:
The NASA SBIR/STTR Program currently has in place two initiatives for supporting its small business partners past the basic Phase I and Phase II elements of the program that emphasize opportunities for commercialization. Specifically, the NASA SBIR/STTR Program has the Phase II Enhancement (Phase II-E) and Phase II eXpanded (Phase II-X) contract options.
Please review the links below to obtain more information on the SBIR/STTR programs.
Provides an overview of the SBIR and STTR programs as implemented by NASA
Provides access to the annual SBIR/STTR Solicitations containing detailed information on the program eligibility requirements, proposal instructions and research topics and subtopics
Schedule and links for the SBIR/STTR solicitations and selection announcements
Federal and non-Federal sources of assistance for small business
Search our complete archive of awarded project abstracts to learn about what NASA has funded
Still have questions? Visit the program FAQs
","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":73,"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":36648,"title":"Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"SBIR/STTR"},"description":"Surface temperatures in atmospheric reentry simulations range from 1500-2300 K, while stagnation temperature on the leading edge of a Mach 6 flight vehicle at 25 km altitude is 1817 K. Sensors that can operate at temperatures well above 1273 K are needed to provide reliable validation data for TPS modeling and design tools. We propose to develop a low-intrusive fiber-optical pyrometer capable of measuring temperature profiles within an ablating thermal protection system (TPS). In this concept a bundle of parallel sapphire fibers is embedded in a step-wise manner into a multilayered \"plug\" of TPS material. The sensing tip of each fiber consists of a metallic coating, forming an isothermal cavity; graybody emission from this cavity is transmitted through the fiber to a fiber-optic multiplexer, and thence to a compact near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer. By fitting the thermal spectrum from the shortest fiber to a Planck distribution (adjusted to account for spectral absorption in the sapphire fiber), a cold-side temperature can be inferred first. The next longest fiber can use this temperature to estimate the distorting effects of self-emission in the heated fiber. Sequential evaluation of fiber tip temperatures at known locations along the bundle will allow effective estimation of temperature gradient and subsequent calculation of heat flux. The proposed fiber-optic sensors are thermally and physically robust, lightweight, electrically passive, and immune to electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference. Additionally, our proposed fiber-optic pyrometer is optimized for high temperatures. As the TPS-embedded sensing tip temperature increases, the wavelength peak for the thermal emission spectrum moves from 2634 nm (at 1000 K) to 1260 nm (at the sapphire melting point of 2300 K), while the integrated spectral intensity increases as the 4th power of the temperature. Both effects improve the pyrometer signal-to-noise ratio.","benefits":"Heat shield technology is a critical component for re-entry and hypersonic vehicles The next generation of crew reentry vehicles being designed by NASA will require more advanced Thermal Protection System (TPS) designs than the conservative approaches currently used. While new TPS materials are under development, a key difficulty is the ability to predict and diagnose TPS materials with instrumentation capable of surviving the reentry environmentThe NASA SBIR and STTR programs fund the research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that fulfill NASA needs as described in the annual Solicitations and have significant potential for successful commercialization. If you are a small business concern (SBC) with 500 or fewer employees or a non-profit RI such as a university or a research laboratory with ties to an SBC, then NASA encourages you to learn more about the SBIR and STTR programs as a potential source of seed funding for the development of your innovations.
The SBIR and STTR programs have 3 phases:
The SBIR and STTR Phase I contracts last for 6 months with a maximum funding of $125,000, and Phase II contracts last for 24 months with a maximum funding of $750,000 - $1.5 million.
Opportunity for Continued Technology Development Post-Phase II:
The NASA SBIR/STTR Program currently has in place two initiatives for supporting its small business partners past the basic Phase I and Phase II elements of the program that emphasize opportunities for commercialization. Specifically, the NASA SBIR/STTR Program has the Phase II Enhancement (Phase II-E) and Phase II eXpanded (Phase II-X) contract options.
Please review the links below to obtain more information on the SBIR/STTR programs.
Provides an overview of the SBIR and STTR programs as implemented by NASA
Provides access to the annual SBIR/STTR Solicitations containing detailed information on the program eligibility requirements, proposal instructions and research topics and subtopics
Schedule and links for the SBIR/STTR solicitations and selection announcements
Federal and non-Federal sources of assistance for small business
Search our complete archive of awarded project abstracts to learn about what NASA has funded
Still have questions? Visit the program FAQs
","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":73,"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":36648,"title":"Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"SBIR/STTR"},"description":"Surface temperatures in atmospheric reentry simulations range from 1500-2300 K, while stagnation temperature on the leading edge of a Mach 6 flight vehicle at 25 km altitude is 1817 K. Sensors that can operate at temperatures well above 1273 K are needed to provide reliable validation data for TPS modeling and design tools. We propose to develop a low-intrusive fiber-optical pyrometer capable of measuring temperature profiles within an ablating thermal protection system (TPS). In this concept a bundle of parallel sapphire fibers is embedded in a step-wise manner into a multilayered \"plug\" of TPS material. The sensing tip of each fiber consists of a metallic coating, forming an isothermal cavity; graybody emission from this cavity is transmitted through the fiber to a fiber-optic multiplexer, and thence to a compact near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer. By fitting the thermal spectrum from the shortest fiber to a Planck distribution (adjusted to account for spectral absorption in the sapphire fiber), a cold-side temperature can be inferred first. The next longest fiber can use this temperature to estimate the distorting effects of self-emission in the heated fiber. Sequential evaluation of fiber tip temperatures at known locations along the bundle will allow effective estimation of temperature gradient and subsequent calculation of heat flux. The proposed fiber-optic sensors are thermally and physically robust, lightweight, electrically passive, and immune to electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference. Additionally, our proposed fiber-optic pyrometer is optimized for high temperatures. As the TPS-embedded sensing tip temperature increases, the wavelength peak for the thermal emission spectrum moves from 2634 nm (at 1000 K) to 1260 nm (at the sapphire melting point of 2300 K), while the integrated spectral intensity increases as the 4th power of the temperature. Both effects improve the pyrometer signal-to-noise ratio.","benefits":"Heat shield technology is a critical component for re-entry and hypersonic vehicles The next generation of crew reentry vehicles being designed by NASA will require more advanced Thermal Protection System (TPS) designs than the conservative approaches currently used. While new TPS materials are under development, a key difficulty is the ability to predict and diagnose TPS materials with instrumentation capable of surviving the reentry environment