NASA SBIR 2003 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
MICHIGAN AEROSPACE CORPORATION
1777 Highland Dr., Suite B
Ann Arbor ,MI 48108 - 2285
(734) 975 - 8777

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Carl A  Nardell
cnardell@michiganaerospace.com
1777 Highland Dr., Suite B
Ann Arbor ,MI  48108 -2285
(734) 975 - 8777
U.S. Citizen or Legal Resident: Yes

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Potential commercial applications include the retirement of satellites that have become unresponsive or unstable. For instance when this occurs in a constellation of satellites, where relative position to each other is critical, removing the defective satellite and replacing it with a new one is of great importance. A potential military application is the retirement of a spacecraft that attempts to maintain its orbit because it has become unresponsive and does not know not to fight the de-orbit process. It could also be applied to a satellite that is still responsive but it is still desired to de-orbit it.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NASA has been using fixed gap and tunable etalons since Dynamics Explorer flew in 1980. Many systems have been flown since, each one being developed explicitly for its mission, with little or no reuse of design from mission to mission. This effort will incorporate the best features of the instruments that have flown, and incorporate a new technology that will reduce the cost, mass and risk of all future tunable optical filters that NASA may require. The technology being developed herein will not only be applicable to infrared instruments, but also to visible and ultraviolet passive and active instruments.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
In 2003, Michigan Aerospace Corporation has responded to over 50 requests for quotation from domestic and foreign customers. The biggest impediments to the sale of these instruments are cost and mass. These are two impediments that will be greatly reduced if this SBIR effort is successful. The present inquiries represent approximately $2.5 million in new business. The lightweight cryogenic Fabry-Perot interferometer to be developed under the proposed SBIR program will have extensive commercial applications ranging from laboratory use to airborne natural gas pipeline leak monitoring and trace gas detection, to optical fiber communication.