NASA SBIR 2010 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Invocon, Inc.
19221 IH 45 South, Suite 530
Conroe, TX 77385 - 8746
(281) 292-9903

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Eric Krug
ekrug@invocon.com
19221 I-45 South, Suite 530
Conroe, TX 77385 - 8746
(281) 292-9903 Extension :131

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 7

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Invocon's Radiation Alert Immediate Disclosure (RAID) system is a miniature, low-power, real-time, active radiation badge. It is designed for monitoring personnel, equipment, and environments while minimizing complicated user interfaces. RAID's ability to determine characteristics and dose rate in addition to total dose provide significant advantages over other types of devices. A single sensor provides information about all types of ionizing radiation in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of radiation environments. Many radiation health experts believe that dose rate is an important parameter in addition to total dose for determining tissue damage.

The real-time nature of RAID enables personnel to respond proactively to radiation events in order to minimize damage to personnel and the equipment on which they depend.

RAID's wireless interface provides advantages for interrogating badges in difficult or inconvenient locations. Examples include monitoring radiation exposure to personnel throughout Extra-Vehicular Activities, reading monitors installed behind equipment racks or in isolated modules, and automatically downloading radiation data from astronauts' badges to minimize their workload.

Phase II for this program will result in the delivery of fieldable badges that NASA can use for a Station Development Test Objective (SDTO), terrestrial evaluation, or general use by NASA researchers.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Potential NASA commercial applications are listed below. Of particular importance is that the proposed phase II program supports work being performed by the Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) at Johnson Space Center as part of the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program. One goal of this program is to develop radiation monitors for various environments in support of future exploration missions. Invocon's Phase II provides NASA with an efficient means to obtain very promising technology.

Specific applications include:
-Real time radiation warning for Astronauts engaged in EVA activity in space or on surface exploration of space bodies exposed to potentially hazardous radiation environments.
-Radiation detectors/recorders on the exterior of space vehicles
-Radiation detectors for the interior of space vehicles.
-Particle detectors with the capability of producing accurate accounts and predictions of radiation damage to biomass.
-Radiation detectors used for verification of test beam scattering and intensity.
-A detector capable of differentiating different types and magnitudes of radiation.
-Selective radiation detector to verify shielding effectiveness.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Non-NASA applications include:
-Real time radiation / warning devices for use in Nuclear Power Generating facilities.
-Particle detectors for use in experimental accelerators
-Radiation detectors for examination of containerized package shipments to detect possible terror nuclear weapons or materials.
-Real time radiation detection of luggage within airport security systems to detect controlled nuclear substances.
-Real time radiation detection badges to be used anywhere that radiation risk is a possibility.
-Particle detection and reporting capability for use on commercial satellites to verify radiation protection design parameters and contribute to upgraded design specifications for future satellites.
-Particle detection and reporting for commercial satellites designed to explore the earth and other planets.
-Near real time radiation detection and path verification for medical applications

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.)

Analytical Instruments (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Energy; see also Sensors) Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors) Data Acquisition (see also Sensors) Data Processing Health Monitoring & Sensing (see also Sensors) Ionizing Radiation Isolation/Protection/Radiation Shielding (see also Mechanical Systems) Radiography Radiometric X-rays/Gamma Rays