NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Vista Photonics, Inc.
67 Condesa Road
Santa Fe, NM 87508 - 8136
(505) 466-3830

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Andrei B Vakhtin
vakhtin@vistaphotonics.com
67 Condesa Road
Santa Fe, NM 87508 - 8136
(505) 466-3830

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 3 to 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
NASA is developing new platform systems that have the potential to benefit Earth science research activities, which include in situ instruments for atmospheric measurements for use on radiosondes, dropsondes, tethered balloons, kites, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Aerosols influence global climate and human health and can affect local and regional weather processes. Despite of their importance, aerosols are the least-understood components of the climate system. There is a need in instrumentation capable of measuring the size distributions of aerosol particles and vertical distributions of aerosols in the atmosphere. Vista Photonics in collaboration with New Jersey Institute of Technology proposes an innovative and inexpensive, although rugged, self-contained, and intelligent optical aerosol measurement technology. The Phase I study will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology and outline the design of the Phase II prototype instrument. The successful completion of this program will lead to a compact aerosol measurement instrument that can be used for UAV-, balloon-, radiosonde-, and dropsonde-based in situ measurements of aerosol size distribution, concentration, and aerosol vertical distribution in the atmosphere.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed technology meets the needs of the "In Situ Airborne, Surface, and Submersible Instruments for Earth Science" subtopic of the NASA SBIR Science Program. The technology developed under this research program will provide a new tool for in-situ atmospheric aerosol monitoring. The envisioned target instrument will be compact, low weight and really inexpensive to meet the strict requirements to qualify for use on tethered balloon- and UAV-based platforms, and even on disposable devices such as radiosondes and dropsondes.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The Project will lead to development of a new technology of aerosol particle sizing and measurement of aerosol concentration and aerosol vertical distributions in the atmosphere. The instrumentation based on the proposed approach can also be used for drop sizing in clouds, measurements of industrial and agricultural sprays, and environmental monitoring.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Optical