The advent of small spacecraft presents a unique and significant opportunity for NASA to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate new technologies in a space environment.
The Flight Opportunities Program intends to mature to flight readiness status crosscutting technologies that advance multiple future space missions. To this end, the Program will provide frequent flight opportunities for technology payloads to fly on both parabolic aircraft and suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs) that are capable of flying to altitudes above 100 km.
CPST is a multicenter effort led out of GRC to develop and demonstrate the technologies necessary for a cryogenic fluid "depot", a sort of refueling station in space. Technologies include using active and passive cooling techniques to preserve propellants for long periods without losses due to boil-off, mass gauging, low loss transfer, and sensor/component maturation.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Ames Research Center (ARC) are partnering in the CubeSat Hydrometric Atmospheric Radiometer Mission (CHARM), a water vapor radiometer integrated on a 3U CubeSat platform, selected for implementation under NASA Hands-On Project Experience (HOPE-3).
HET develops advanced robots that can be remotely operated by astronauts on the International Space Station and by ground controllers on Earth. These telerobots will improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity of future human missions.
The Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-X) Technology Demonstration Mission, performed by LaRC, is an external platform on ISS allowing space environmental studies designed to advance the technology readiness of materials and devices critical for future space exploration.
The OCT TDM project that Ames supports is the Low Density Supersonic Decelerators (LDSD) project. The goal of the project is to develop a supersonic inflatable atmospheric decelerator (SIAD) and new supersonic parachute design for the atmospheric entry vehicles of future Mars missions. The Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent, and landing (EDL) technology represents the limits of NASA’s current capability. The new decelerators developed under LDSD will enable landing higher masses with greater