NASA SBIR 2014 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Nanohmics, Inc.
6201 East Oltorf Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78741 - 7509
(512) 389-9990

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Steve Savoy
ssavoy@nanohmics.com
6201 East Oltorf Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78741 - 7509
(512) 389-9990

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Mayo
mmayo@nanohmics.com
6201 East Oltorf Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78741 - 7509
(512) 389-9990

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 4

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Deep Space Cubesat Technology is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Cubesats require highly compact technologies to maximize their effectiveness. As cubesats are expected to be low-cost and, relative to the space industry, mass produced, their technologies should be simple to manufacture, yet achieve aerospace quality standards. This proposal aims to describe a novel high-efficiency (i.e., comparable to solar panels) fabricated power supply for cubesats and other small satellites that has marked advantages over solar photovoltaic cells.
Nanohmics Inc. proposes to develop and test a compact, high efficiency solar thermoelectric generator. The technology is amenable to mass manufacturing and is based on recent development successes at Nanohmics: thermoelectrics development and coatings to maximize emissivity. On a space vehicle, the energy generator would be deployable in a number of ways including a folding fan-like unpacking or other compact designs.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
A low-cost alternative to solar panels could enable long-term operations for cubesats and cubesat constellations. As a scalable technology, it could be applied to 1U through 6U cubesats for missions in Earth orbit and beyond. Due to the lack of a fragile semiconductor junction, the energy generators would be robust to radiation and increased life. Additionally, the robust architecture would improve ease of handling, packaging, and deployment.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Thermoelectric waste heat recovery is a growing industry. A low-cost manufacturing solution for thermoelectrics, even at moderate efficiency, would allow regeneration of substantial power from parasitic heat losses in industrial and commercial systems.