NASA SBIR 02-1 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
FACE ELECTRONICS, LC
427 West 35th Street
Norfolk , VA   23508 - 3201
(757 ) 624 - 2121

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
ALFREDO VAZQUEZ CARAZO
alfredo@faceco.com
427 West 35th Street
Norfolk , VA   23508 - 3201
(757 ) 624 - 2121

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposal approaches to a revolutionary new approach to providing very compact, lightweight, non-RFI/EMI ignition system to be integrated with pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) used for spacecraft attitude control. The design eliminates for the first time conventional discharge capacitor and electromagnetic transformers (heavy and EMI noisy) with a compact and highly efficient novel technology - the piezoelectric technology. The proposal has an important relevance in the current interest on improving the state of the art PPT ignition systems. The novel system uses an AC discharge generation rather than a DC and may be highly controlled to provide different timing and number of sparks to optimize the efficiency of the plasma ignition. Phase I intends to demonstrate the feasibility of the piezoelectric technology for PPT ignition. Phase II will integrate the technology and adapt it to the specifications of the current PPTs. This will lead to the final low-cost advanced flight-qualified system in Phase III. The resulting advanced propulsion system will result in reduced mass and launch/spacecraft cost for small satellites, and will be applicable to precision attitude control and station-keeping for small spacecraft as currently considered by NASA.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The resulting revolutionary pulsed plasma thruster piezo-igniter concept offers unique benefits in the current small satellite NASA missions program for tightly controlled interferometry constellations. Fine impulse bit control achievable with small satellites enhances spacecraft attitude and positional control capabilities, providing enabling technology to optical interferometer spacecraft constellations envisioned for the future. The results of this R&D effort will improve system simplicity, reduce subsystem components, cost and weight, and increase overall thruster efficiency.

POTENTIAL NASA APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Interest in small satellites is growing fast worldwide. Businesses, governments, universities and other organizations around the world are starting their own small satellite programs. Smaller satellites offer shorter development times, on smaller budgets and can fulfill many of the functions of their larger counterparts. Consequently, small satellites can complement the services provided by the existing larger satellites, by providing cost effective solutions to specialist communications, remote sensing, rapid response science and military missions, and technology demonstrators. Additionally, the results of this R&D will find applications in many commercial