{"project":{"acronym":"","projectId":34165,"title":"Subsurface Prospecting by Planetary Drones","primaryTaxonomyNodes":[{"taxonomyNodeId":10614,"taxonomyRootId":8816,"parentNodeId":10611,"level":3,"code":"TX04.1.3","title":"Onboard Mapping and Data Analysis","definition":"Onboard mapping and analysis provides maps of natural terrain and human-made surfaces and structures, as well as surface and subsurface property maps that aid in robot navigation or manipulation of objects. Onboard mapping of complex 3D structures, such as lava tubes and human-made space structures, is needed for some advanced planetary characterization scenarios, as well as in-space robotic servicing.","exampleTechnologies":"Terrain mapping and classification, landmark mapping from image sequences and other navigation data, 3D modeling from multiple observations","hasChildren":false,"hasInteriorContent":true}],"startTrl":2,"currentTrl":3,"endTrl":3,"benefits":"The immediate markets within NASA are for exploration and science missions to surface destinations on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. The proposed innovations in guidance improve mission capability by enhancing landing and flying precision; enabling access to previously inaccessible terrain; providing accurate autonomous target-relative navigation; modeling a target onboard a spacecraft; and providing a flight-ready, power efficient solution to TRN. Potential applications to NASA include: (1) Resource Prospector Mission, currently in Phase A with a target launch in 2019, has a $250M budget reserved. Science return is dependent on landing in an identified region with high volatile content and near regions of permanent dark. Polar terrain on the Moon is hazardous and lighting varies locally, so precise landing relative to terrain is exceptionally important. (2) The Mars Science Lab (total project budget of $2.5B with ~$550M expended on operations ) and Mars 2020 (budget $1.5B ). The technology developed by this research could enhance landing precision and enable landing at the location of highest value, enhancing mission science return. (3) At least six planned NASA missions – Asteroid Redirect, Comet Surface Sample Return, Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return, Lunar Geophyisical Network, Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (Max C), and Venus In-Situ explorer – could be enhanced by this technology.
Astrobotic's proposed approach to reaching other commercial markets is to target the most likely candidates for market acceptance and profitability in Phase I and Phase II, particularly UAV application for defense and surveying. This technology may also be used for the detection of poisonous and explosive gases and flammable dust in mines; surveying urban canyons; and exploring bunkers and caves.","description":"The proposed program innovates subsurface prospecting by planetary drones to seek a solution to the difficulty of robotic prospecting, sample acquisition, and sample characterization at multiple hazardous locations in a single mission. Innovation focuses on a specific, challenging scenario: sub-surface access of multiple lava tubes by drones far enough from Earth for speed-of-light latency to preclude direct human control. The technology will be broadly applicable to resource prospecting in cold traps, dark craters, cryovolcanoes, asteroids, comets, and other planets. The technology is also applicable to Earth-relevant problems such as the detection of poisonous and explosive gases and flammable dust in mines; and surveying urban canyons; exploring bunkers and caves. The proposed innovation is the development of Anytime Motion Planners that can generate feasible guidance routines to accomplish subsurface prospecting by planetary drones. Anytime Motion Planners are algorithms that can quickly identify an initial feasible plan, then, given more computation time available during plan execution, improve the plan toward an optimal solution. In addition to Anytime Motion Planners, optimal guidance routines will also be innovated in this work by formulating the Generic Autonomous Guidance Optimal Control Problem (Problem G&C) (Pavone, Acikmese, Nesnas, & Starek, 2013) as a convex optimization problem and employing interior-point methods to solve the resulting problem to global optimality. This work will determine whether optimal solutions may be computed quickly enough to be useful in practice.","startYear":2015,"startMonth":6,"endYear":2016,"endMonth":6,"statusDescription":"Completed","principalInvestigators":[{"contactId":271483,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Kerry","lastName":"Snyder","fullName":"Kerry Snyder","fullNameInverted":"Snyder, Kerry","primaryEmail":"Kerry.Snyder@Astrobotic.Com","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false}],"programDirectors":[{"contactId":206378,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Jason","lastName":"Kessler","fullName":"Jason L Kessler","fullNameInverted":"Kessler, Jason L","middleInitial":"L","primaryEmail":"jason.l.kessler@nasa.gov","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false}],"programExecutives":[{"contactId":215154,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Jennifer","lastName":"Gustetic","fullName":"Jennifer L Gustetic","fullNameInverted":"Gustetic, Jennifer L","middleInitial":"L","primaryEmail":"jennifer.l.gustetic@nasa.gov","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false}],"programManagers":[{"contactId":62051,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Carlos","lastName":"Torrez","fullName":"Carlos Torrez","fullNameInverted":"Torrez, Carlos","primaryEmail":"carlos.torrez@nasa.gov","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false}],"projectManagers":[{"contactId":332045,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Michael","lastName":"Dupuis","fullName":"Michael A Dupuis","fullNameInverted":"Dupuis, Michael A","middleInitial":"A","primaryEmail":"michael.a.dupuis@nasa.gov","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false},{"contactId":461333,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Theresa","lastName":"Stanley","fullName":"Theresa M Stanley","fullNameInverted":"Stanley, Theresa M","middleInitial":"M","primaryEmail":"theresa.m.stanley@nasa.gov","publicEmail":true,"nacontact":false}],"website":"","libraryItems":[{"file":{"fileExtension":"pdf","fileId":296337,"fileName":"STTR_2015_1_BC_T4.02-9888","fileSize":947091,"objectId":292866,"objectType":{"lkuCodeId":889,"code":"LIBRARY_ITEMS","description":"Library Items","lkuCodeTypeId":182,"lkuCodeType":{"codeType":"OBJECT_TYPE","description":"Object Type"}},"objectTypeId":889,"fileSizeString":"924.9 KB"},"files":[{"fileExtension":"pdf","fileId":296337,"fileName":"STTR_2015_1_BC_T4.02-9888","fileSize":947091,"objectId":292866,"objectType":{"lkuCodeId":889,"code":"LIBRARY_ITEMS","description":"Library Items","lkuCodeTypeId":182,"lkuCodeType":{"codeType":"OBJECT_TYPE","description":"Object Type"}},"objectTypeId":889,"fileSizeString":"924.9 KB"}],"id":292866,"title":"Briefing Chart","description":"Subsurface Prospecting by Planetary Drones Briefing 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This program delivers guidance and algorithms for precision safe landing and maneuvering. The immediate markets within NASA are for exploration and science missions to surface destinations on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. Phase II development occurs in the context of a mission to the Moon and Mars. The technologies are enabling for future missions that prospect by rover, but the principles apply to precise touchdown and is applicable to near term missions such as Mars 2020, RP, and Asteroid Redirect. The proposed innovations in guidance improve mission capability by enhancing landing precision, enabling access to previously inaccessible terrain, providing accurate autonomous target-relative navigation, modeling a target on board a spacecraft; and providing a light weight, power efficient solution to TRN. This capability enables robotic exploration of areas with the highest scienti c value and future human exploration. The RP, currently in Phase A with a target launch in 2019, has a $250M budget reserved. Science return is dependent on landing in an identi ed region with high volatile content and near regions of permanent dark. Polar terrain on the Moon is hazardous and lighting varies locally, so precise landing relative to terrain is critical.
The techniques developed under this contract for autonmous survey, detection, and mapping have significant opportunity in the commercial sector. Markets are as varied as First Responder (emergency response data gathering) to Survey Equipment. There are other emerging markets that are not mature enough to demand trending attention such as tower inspections (electric transmission lines, wind turbines, cell phone towers), in-construction building progress inspections, indoor arena ceiling/roof structure/lighting inspections), train and auto tunnel inspections and any need for data, visual and otherwise, from locations difficult, dangerous or impossible to access via foot traffic or vehicles. The technology will be broadly applicable to resource prospecting in cold traps, dark craters, cryovolcanoes, asteroids, comets, and other planets. The technology is also applicable to Earth-relevant problems such as the detection of poisonous and explosive gases and flammable dust in mines; surveying urban canyons; and exploring bunkers and caves.Law Enforcement, First Responder, Search and Rescue will bene t from this technologyon robots that are being used to keep personnel out of harm's way. Examples are investigating damaged buildings where volatile liquid or other dangerous substances may be present, search and rescue where autonomous navigation with characterization would potentially allow lost person recognition from a ground or airborne unmanned vehicle","description":"Recurring slope linae (RSL), such as those in Newton Crater on Mars, methane plumes in hazardous Martian terrain, and water ice discovered during the LCROSS experiment in the Moon?s permanently shadowed Cabeus Crater drive the need for a new generation of robotic explorers that access, probe, extract, and return resources from extreme terrains. These robots must possess sufficient system-level autonomy to operate without human guidance due to latency constraints over vast distances, and must also have perceptual capabilities to analyze sensor measurements and the belief state to make decisions about where to explore and whether a target is worth sampling. This enhanced exploration capability takes advantage of perceptual models that can encode the probability of the existence of a resource given material properties estimated from current and prior sensor measurements. The proposed program innovates novel perceptual models and exploration algorithms that maximize the likelihood of detecting resources if they are present and enables robots to make decisions about where to loiter in order to sample terrain for a particular resource. Beyond topical research, the program will ruggedize Phase 1 software to operate in the presence of sensor and state uncertainty, integrate the capabilities on physical robots, and demonstrate results in relevant, subterranean field test. Besides RSL and craters, the research enables exploration and access of cryovolcanoes, steep and deep gullies, and canyons. Terrestrial applications include the detection of radiation in contaminated facilities or explosive gases and flammable dust in mines, surveying urban canyons, and exploring bunkers and caves.","startYear":2016,"startMonth":9,"endYear":2021,"endMonth":6,"statusDescription":"Completed","website":"","program":{"acronym":"SBIR/STTR","active":true,"description":"
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
","programId":73,"responsibleMd":{"acronym":"STMD","canUserEdit":false,"city":"","external":false,"linkCount":0,"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","naorganization":false,"organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdId":4875,"stockImageFileId":36648,"title":"Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer"},"lastUpdated":"2024-1-10","releaseStatusString":"Released","viewCount":508,"endDateString":"Jun 2021","startDateString":"Sep 2016"},"infoText":"Advanced within the program","infoTextExtra":"Another project within the program (Subsurface Prospecting by Planetary Drones)","dateText":"September 2016"}],"primaryImage":{"file":{"fileExtension":"png","fileId":295967,"fileSizeString":"0 Byte"},"id":292495,"description":"Subsurface Prospecting by Planetary Drones, Phase I","projectId":34165,"publishedDateString":""},"responsibleMd":{"acronym":"STMD","canUserEdit":false,"city":"","external":false,"linkCount":0,"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","naorganization":false,"organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"program":{"acronym":"SBIR/STTR","active":true,"description":"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
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