NASA SBIR 2006 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scribner Associates Incorporated
150 E. Connecticut Avenue
Southern Pines, NC 28387 - 5528
(910) 695-8884

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kevin R Cooper
kevin@scribner.com
150 E. Connecticut Avenue
Southern Pines, NC 28387 - 5528
(910) 695-8884

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Planetary exploration missions, such as those planned by NASA and other space agencies over the next few decades, require advanced chemical and biological marker measurement technologies that will help answer fundamental questions about the composition of the Solar System and the possibility of past and present extraterrestrial life. Electrical/electrochemical array-based systems are highly suited for space and terrestrial applications because of their robustness, high-sensitivity, low-power requirement, miniaturization capability, and diverse transducer mechanisms which permit detection of a broad range of target analytes. Scribner Associates Inc. will leverage its expertise in measurement science, analytical instrumentation for arrays, and impedance spectroscopy to develop a prototype high measurement channel density array impedance analyzer for use with existing (e.g., Mars Oxidant Instrument) and future chemical and biological sensor arrays for planetary exploration. The proposed low mass instrument has hundreds of measurement channels for use with arrays with a large number of sensors. The analyzer is capable of conducting DC and swept-frequency AC impedance measurement. Successful development of the impedance array analyzer will facilitate multiple mission deployments with arrays tailored to specific mission objectives therefore ensuring efficient investment of NASA resources.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Small, low-power array analyzers will find numerous commercial applications. They are essential platforms on which to build chemical and biological detection and assay devices for a broad range of applications including remote and automated environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, near-patient clinical testing and monitoring, utility and industrial process stream monitoring, and homeland security. A near-term commercial market opportunity for the array analyzer is for a state-of-the-art drinking water pathogen detection system currently being pursued by the company. Additional commercial applications include new market opportunities for research instruments for combinatorial chemistry, electrochemistry, and materials science, and for sensor and sensor array development. The proposed array analyzer is a unique, innovative technology with tremendous commercial potential as the basis for a range of portable chem/bio detection systems for on-site, remote, and laboratory applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The array analyzer system will find direct application in NASA's Space Science program as it seeks to answer fundamental questions about the Solar System and life. The small, low mass array analyzer could be deployed on landers and rovers sent to planetary bodies such as Mars and the Moon. For each mission, the analyzer's sensors could be configured for the specific mission objectives such as for the analysis of the planetary atmosphere (gases and particles), chemical and mineralogical analysis of materials (soil, dust, rock, liquid, and ice) and detection and identification of biomarkers of extinct or extant life such as pre-biotics, bio-molecules and bio-minerals. Alternative configurations of the array analyzer could be a bench-top or handheld instrument for astronaut health and space craft environment monitoring.

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.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Biochemical Biomolecular Sensors Portable Data Acquisition or Analysis Tools Ultra-High Density/Low Power