National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Small Business Innovation Research 2001 Program Solicitation

TOPIC B4 Research Integration

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B4.01 Telescience and Outreach for Space Exploration
B4.02 Commercialization

The BPR Enterprise seeks to use its research activities to encourage educational excellence and to improve scientific literacy from primary school through the university level and beyond. The Enterprise delivers value to the American people by facilitating access to the experience and excitement of space research. NASA seeks to engage the commercial sector in exploiting the economic benefits of space. We also strive to involve society as a whole in the transformations that will be brought about by research in space.

B4.01 Telescience and Outreach for Space Exploration
Lead Center: MSFC
Participating Center(s): JSC

NASA wants to provide to the general public, schools and industry, access to space and microgravity, and to information about the commercial investigations and results.

Telescience
There are many potential users for NASA services and data located throughout the U.S. There are three general types of users for NASA activities. The first type is the principal investigator (PI) who is responsible for the spacecraft, experiment and attendant science and commands the payload or experiment. The second type is the secondary investigator(s) who participates in analysis of the science and its control but does not send commands. The third type is the educational user from graduate students to secondary school students. These users will receive either data processed by the PI or unprocessed data. Commercial investigations require the ability to receive, process and display telemetry, view video from science sources, including the ISS, and talk to NASA about the science and operations. To conduct or be involved in general science activities, including the ISS science operations, a user will require various services from the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) located in Huntsville, Alabama, or other control centers located at various NASA facilities. These services are required to enable the experiment to be controlled using the inputs from various video sources, telemetry and the crew. Inputs allow the experimenter to send to their spacecraft or experiment commands to change various experiment operations. Before an experiment can get underway, an experimenter must participate in the payload planning process to schedule onboard services like electricity, crew time and cryogenics. This planning process is integral to the entire payload operation and requires the PI or his representatives to participate via voice or video teleconferencing. To enable users to operate from their home base, whether it is located at a laboratory, office or home, these services (commensurate to the level of their operation) must be provided at their location at a reasonable cost. Costs include both the platform upon which these services will run and the communications required to provide these services to the experimenter's location.

Outreach and Education
Another user is the general public observer who is interested in the science that is being conducted. Proposals are sought which provide a system or systems based on commercial solutions. These systems should allow outreach participation in NASA commercial programs, including the science and operational levels. The public should receive data, including voice, video and processed data, but generally would not be allowed to interact with the current investigations. Systems could provide for the general public access to NASA and commercial science activities and operations through low-cost technologies, and outreach and education activities. The systems should be capable of facilitating secondary and college-level students' access to and the ability to participate in science activities.

Similarly, the systems should be able to accommodate institutions and organizations which promote the use of science and technologies, e.g., museums and space camps.

B4.02 Space Commercialization
Lead Center: MSFC
Participating Center(s): None

In accordance with the Space Act, as amended, to "seek and encourage to the maximum extent possible the fullest commercial use of space," NASA facilitates the use of space and microgravity for commercial products and services. The products may utilize information from in-space activities to enhance an Earth-based effort, or may require in-space manufacturing. This subtopic's goal is the development of infrastructure equipment for commercial experimentation and operations in space, or the transfer of these technologies to industry in space or on Earth. Automated processes and hardware (robotics) which will reduce crew time are a priority. All Agency activity in microgravity, including those in life science and microgravity sciences, which lead to commercial products and services, are of interest. Some specific areas for which proposals are sought include:

Biotechnology and Agribusiness
Biotechnology, biomedical and agricultural instrumentation or techniques that exploit space-derived capabilities or data to support the commercial development of space by the agricultural, medical or pharmaceutical industry. This includes, in particular:

• Portable Biological Sensors -The need for sensing devices that can detect and identify biological pathogens (airborne or in vivo) is desired to support NASA's mission for a permanent presence of man in space.
• Development of Noninvasive Health Monitoring Systems/models - Application to NASA's crew health program for extended duration missions. For example, (1) novel in vitro cell-matrix models for studying the effects of microgravity on human tissue repair and wound healing, (2) novel organotypic skin models which simulate physiological changes found in humans under a microgravity environment, (3) functional models for delineating the MG-inducible or MG-responsive pathways of human tissue angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation).
• Physiological measurement in microgravity of bone growth and the immune system in microgravity.
• Technology for innovative research in plant-derived pharmaceuticals using microgravity.
• Instrumentation for agricultural research, i.e., genetic manipulation of plants using microgravity.
• Instrumentation or technology to explore the use of microgravity in genetic assay, analysis, and manipulation.
• Instrumentation to analyze cell reactor systems and characterize cell structure in microgravity in order to develop enhanced drug therapies that can also be applied to pharmaceutical development and commercialization.
• Innovative techniques for dynamic control and cryogenic preservation of protein crystals.
• Instrumentation for preparation of protein crystals for x-ray diffraction experiments without the use of frangible materials.
• Low temperature control chambers requiring little or no power for bringing temperature sensitive experiments up to or back from the International Space Station.

Microgravity Payloads

• Design/develop microgravity payloads for space station applications that lead to commercial products or services.
• Enabling commercial technologies that promote the human exploration and development of space.
• Enabling commercial technologies through the use of ISS as a commercial test bed for hardware, products, or processes.
• Enabling technology designed to reduce crew workloads and/or facilitate commercial investigations or processing through automation, robotics, or nanotechnology.

Combustion Science
Innovative applications in combustion research that will lead to commercial products or improved processes through the unique properties of space or through enhanced or innovative techniques on the ground.

Food Technology
Innovative applications of space research in food technology that will lead to developing commercial food products or improved food processes through the unique properties of space or through enhanced or innovative techniques on the ground.

Biomedical Materials
Innovative unique structure materials where microgravity promotes structures such as biodegradable polymers for use in wound healing and orthopedic applications.

Entertainment Value Missions
Technology for innovative approaches for commercial economic benefit from space research involving broadcasting, e-business or other activities that have entertainment value.

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