NASA SBIR 2010 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Composite Technology Development, Inc.
2600 Campus Drive, Suite D
Lafayette, CO 80026 - 3359
(303) 664-0394

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Robert Taylor
robert.taylor@ctd-materials.com
2600 Campus Drive, Suite D
Lafayette, CO 80026 - 3359
(303) 664-0394 Extension :153

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Magnetometers are the most common instrument flown on NASA science missions and interference from onboard electronics requires that these instruments be deployed away from the spacecraft. Particle sensors and electric field sensors can have similar requirements creating a significant need for deployable booms. Currently, these booms are usually custom designed for each spacecraft, resulting in wasted development costs through repetition. The Composite Rolled Magnetometer and Instrument Boom (CROMIB) will be a highly capable, standardized boom for field instruments that can be scaled from 2m long to 12m long. CROMIB is a slit-tube rolled boom that will deploy using strain energy to simplify the storage canister and eliminate the motor and motor electronics. Rolling the boom provides a highly compact stowed volume. Recurring cost will be roughly 1/3 of the cost for custom designing a segmented deployable boom. CROMIB builds upon the composite boom experience gained from rolled solar arrays.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Compact, mass efficient and cost effective composite booms are needed to deploy magnetometers for Earth observation satellites, magnetometers for planetary probes, and electric field sensors. Literally hundreds of magnetometer booms have been designed and flown since the dawn of the space age. Despite the common need for non-metallic booms, a convenient and simple standard deployable boom has not emerged as a competitive solution. In addition, a simple canisterized boom could be used for gravity gradient booms for small spacecraft, and for deploying solar sails. With adaptations for higher torque output, a self-deployed composite boom could also be used to support solar arrays and phased array antennas. Finally, the design could be adapted to deploy a large drag sail to reduce the deorbit time of medium and large satellites in higher LEO orbits at the end of mission life to meet NASA requirements for reduction of orbital debris.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Magnetometers and field sensors also have potential commercial applications. To date, Earth survey using magnetometers for commercial purposes has utilized NASA sensors, however. Commercial dedicated surveys have relied on magnetometers flown on aircraft to study small areas in detail. However, there would be commercial value in higher resolution, more sensitive magnetometry data available on a worldwide basis. This data may be commercially enabled as an additional function of commercial imaging satellites by a low cost magnetometer boom. In addition, military and commercial satellites could use gravity gradient booms, solar arrays, phased arrays, and solar sails based on this technology.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING (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.)

Actuators & Motors Analytical Instruments (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Energy; see also Sensors) Characterization Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors) Composites Data Acquisition (see also Sensors) Deployment Electromagnetic Inertial (see also Sensors) Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation) Prototyping Spacecraft Instrumentation & Astrionics (see also Communications; Control & Monitoring; Information Systems) Structures Telemetry/Tracking (Cooperative/Noncooperative; see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry) Transmitters/Receivers