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 Ka-band satellite communications flight terminal will be designed for use by NASA Terrestrial Balloons to provide 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps satellite communications transmit links and low data rate command receive links using either commercial Ka-band satellites or NASA TDRSS satellites. The transmit Ka-band frequencies of NASA TDRSS satellites go up to 27.5-Ghz and are adjacent to the commercial Ka-band satellite frequencies starting at 27.5-Ghz, so this single Ka-band flight terminal will be able to tune to both the NASA TDRSS and commercial Ka-band satellite frequencies. This Ka-band flight terminal will be shown to have a lower size, weight, and power (SWaP) to the existing NASA Balloon satcom terminals. A relatively low-cost 2-dimensional electronic beamforming antenna will be tested for its capability to point a high-gain antenna beam at the existing commercial or TDRSS Ka-band satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) as the terrestrial balloon is moving slowly in relation to those GEO satellites. Testing will also be performed on the ability of this same beamforming antenna to point at and track existing O3b middle Earth orbit (MEO) and TeleSat and SpaceX low Earth orbit (LEO) Ka-band satellites that will be moving much faster relative to the balloon. The performance of this Ka-band flight terminal will change dramatically from 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps depending on which Ka-band satellite and which satellite beam in which GEO, MEO, or LEO orbit the balloon's terminal decides to access. Software defined radio (SDR) waveform firmware and flight radio hardware will be tested through a channel simulator that uses software to simulate a moving NASA Balloon successfully closing satcom links through satellites with different link characteristics. Beam to beam handovers, frequency channel interference mitigation, and the different Doppler shift compensation needed for the different GEO, MEO, and LEO orbits will be tested in these simulations of the SDR firmware and hardware.","benefits":"NASA Terrestrial Balloons currently use a TDRSS satellite communications terminal and an Iridium satellite communications terminal for balloon communications.At present, NASA is limited to data rates of 150-Kbps using the TDRSS S-band communications service. The 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps data rate of the proposed Ka-band terminal would be a 100 to 10,000 times improvement. The proposed Ka-band terminal at under 10-kg could probably be added to these balloons without replacing the other terminals.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 Ka-band satellite communications flight terminal will be designed for use by NASA Terrestrial Balloons to provide 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps satellite communications transmit links and low data rate command receive links using either commercial Ka-band satellites or NASA TDRSS satellites. The transmit Ka-band frequencies of NASA TDRSS satellites go up to 27.5-Ghz and are adjacent to the commercial Ka-band satellite frequencies starting at 27.5-Ghz, so this single Ka-band flight terminal will be able to tune to both the NASA TDRSS and commercial Ka-band satellite frequencies. This Ka-band flight terminal will be shown to have a lower size, weight, and power (SWaP) to the existing NASA Balloon satcom terminals. A relatively low-cost 2-dimensional electronic beamforming antenna will be tested for its capability to point a high-gain antenna beam at the existing commercial or TDRSS Ka-band satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) as the terrestrial balloon is moving slowly in relation to those GEO satellites. Testing will also be performed on the ability of this same beamforming antenna to point at and track existing O3b middle Earth orbit (MEO) and TeleSat and SpaceX low Earth orbit (LEO) Ka-band satellites that will be moving much faster relative to the balloon. The performance of this Ka-band flight terminal will change dramatically from 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps depending on which Ka-band satellite and which satellite beam in which GEO, MEO, or LEO orbit the balloon's terminal decides to access. Software defined radio (SDR) waveform firmware and flight radio hardware will be tested through a channel simulator that uses software to simulate a moving NASA Balloon successfully closing satcom links through satellites with different link characteristics. Beam to beam handovers, frequency channel interference mitigation, and the different Doppler shift compensation needed for the different GEO, MEO, and LEO orbits will be tested in these simulations of the SDR firmware and hardware.","benefits":"NASA Terrestrial Balloons currently use a TDRSS satellite communications terminal and an Iridium satellite communications terminal for balloon communications.At present, NASA is limited to data rates of 150-Kbps using the TDRSS S-band communications service. The 10-Mbps to 1-Gbps data rate of the proposed Ka-band terminal would be a 100 to 10,000 times improvement. The proposed Ka-band terminal at under 10-kg could probably be added to these balloons without replacing the other terminals.