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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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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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":"In the proposed STTR study, Empirical Systems Aerospace, Inc. (ESAero) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will create a methodology for the development of a flight control algorithm featuring differential thrust provided by a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) system. The focal piece of the study is a dynamically scaled Cirrus SR22T UAV at UIUC, which will be modified to include multiple electrical ducted fans (EDF) arranged to exhibit strong propulsion-airframe integration (PAI) effects. Although aeropropulsive efficiency of the DEP system will be monitored, the team's goal is to establish a methodology which can be applied to any DEP aircraft regardless of how well it is designed. The study will include a combination of low-order aerodynamic simulation via OpenVSP/VSPAERO, dynamics modeling in MATLAB/Simulink, wind tunnel characterization of the EDF units, and flight testing to educate and demonstrate the flight control algorithm. During Phase I, the team will characterize the baseline vehicle as the control for the experiment and then compare measured control authority of the DEP system against a simple thrust-line dynamics model to determine the influence of PAI. Subsequent phases will develop and demonstrate closed-loop flight control using differential thrust from the DEP system.","benefits":"Flight control of DEP aircraft using differential thrust has been identified as an enabling technology for ARMD's Strategic Thrust #3 (Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles) and #4 (Transition to Low-Carbon Propulsion). In particular, it is a major component of the envisioned hybrid electric distributed propulsion (HEDP) integrated autonomous controller (IAC) (a.k.a. \"super controller\") which is sought to realize the proposed efficiency, safety, and reliability of HEDP aircraft. Upon completion of this study, the team will be able to apply their experience in DEP flight control system development to other NASA flight test programs such as the X-57 \"Maxwell\" and the upcoming Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transport (UEST) X-Plane program. Additionally, lessons learned from the program regarding the as-built effectiveness of and additional requirements associated with control using DEP differential thrust can inform conceptual design studies for futuristic aircraft \"Vision Vehicles\" including ESAero's ECO-150 and NASA's STARC-ABL and N3-X.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":"A series of RDT&E activities is proposed to create and demonstrate a reconfigurable, autonomous flight controller for the Aircraft for Distributed Electric Propulsion Throttle-based Flight Control (ADEPT-FC) which was designed and built in Phase I, a 33 lb remote controlled aircraft featuring eight overwing electric ducted fans (EDFs) distributed spanwise along the wing’s trailing edge. The proposed study will be the first to show that a complete and accurate description of the propulsion airframe integration (PAI) effects enables autonomous flight of a DEP aircraft using a standard approach to model-based flight control. A combination of modeling & 6DoF dynamic simulation leveraging OpenVSP/VSPAERO, wind-tunnel and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) ground testing, and system identification (SysID) flight testing will be completed to support the design of the autonomous controller. The resultant controller will be demonstrated in flight on the ADEPT-FC research aircraft at multiple stages of development, including trim flight with uniform and asymmetric throttle mixing as well as DEP system fault tolerance through autonomous controller reconfiguration. Additional research products from the study will include an empirically-derived body of knowledge pertaining to PAI for DEP aircraft, a “DEP Array” custom component for OpenVSP, and VSPAERO validation artifacts to characterize the tool’s ability to predict PAI behaviors, all of which are intended to be disseminated open source to the aerospace community. Autonomous flight control of DEP aircraft with strong PAI effects is one piece of a greater integrated autonomous controller (IAC) envisioned for hybrid electric distributed propulsion (HEDP) aircraft, a technology foreseen by ESAero to enable substantial risk probability and criticality reduction, improved energy efficiency, and reduced pilot workload.","benefits":"One of the three commercialization strategies envisioned by ESAero for the proposed autonomous controller technology and the IAC product it would be a part of is to develop and integrate an IAC for NASA’s X-57 “Maxwell” aircraft. There are presently no active efforts by NASA to integrate health-aware, autonomous flight control capability on NASA’s X-57 Maxwell aircraft despite the fact that most subject matter experts on DEP agree that such a technology is strongly recommended for safe and efficient operation. Introduction of an IAC could benefit the SCEPTOR mission objectives through risk probability and criticality reduction, improving cruise efficiency, and by fostering the validation and demonstration of an enabling technology for future commercial DEP aircraft. Additional potential NASA commercial applications are known to be numerous but have not yet been specifically identified. The topics of DEP, PAI, OpenVSP, and autonomy relate to Strategic Thrusts 3a, 4, and 6 of the ARMD and have ties to several NASA programs including TACP, AAVP, AOSP, and IASP through projects including CAS, TTT, AATT, SASO, and UAS in the NAS. As an engineering services contractor with close ties to all aeronautics centers of NASA, ESAero will actively pursue follow-on efforts to leverage its newfound core competencies and intellectual property in support of any these programs and projects.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":"In the proposed STTR study, Empirical Systems Aerospace, Inc. (ESAero) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will create a methodology for the development of a flight control algorithm featuring differential thrust provided by a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) system. The focal piece of the study is a dynamically scaled Cirrus SR22T UAV at UIUC, which will be modified to include multiple electrical ducted fans (EDF) arranged to exhibit strong propulsion-airframe integration (PAI) effects. Although aeropropulsive efficiency of the DEP system will be monitored, the team's goal is to establish a methodology which can be applied to any DEP aircraft regardless of how well it is designed. The study will include a combination of low-order aerodynamic simulation via OpenVSP/VSPAERO, dynamics modeling in MATLAB/Simulink, wind tunnel characterization of the EDF units, and flight testing to educate and demonstrate the flight control algorithm. During Phase I, the team will characterize the baseline vehicle as the control for the experiment and then compare measured control authority of the DEP system against a simple thrust-line dynamics model to determine the influence of PAI. Subsequent phases will develop and demonstrate closed-loop flight control using differential thrust from the DEP system.","benefits":"Flight control of DEP aircraft using differential thrust has been identified as an enabling technology for ARMD's Strategic Thrust #3 (Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles) and #4 (Transition to Low-Carbon Propulsion). In particular, it is a major component of the envisioned hybrid electric distributed propulsion (HEDP) integrated autonomous controller (IAC) (a.k.a. \"super controller\") which is sought to realize the proposed efficiency, safety, and reliability of HEDP aircraft. Upon completion of this study, the team will be able to apply their experience in DEP flight control system development to other NASA flight test programs such as the X-57 \"Maxwell\" and the upcoming Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transport (UEST) X-Plane program. Additionally, lessons learned from the program regarding the as-built effectiveness of and additional requirements associated with control using DEP differential thrust can inform conceptual design studies for futuristic aircraft \"Vision Vehicles\" including ESAero's ECO-150 and NASA's STARC-ABL and N3-X.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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