NASA SBIR 2007 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scientific Systems Company, Inc.
500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000
Woburn, MA 01801 - 6503
(781) 933-5355

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Rajesh Krishnan
rajesh.krishnan@ssci.com
500 West Cummings Park Suite 3000
Woburn, MA 01801 - 6562
(781) 933-5355

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 5 to 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
The Lunar EVA network will exhibit a wide range of connectivity levels due to the challenging communications environment and mission dynamics. Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) enables communications in environments where intermittent end-to-end connectivity occurs due to nodes moving temporarily out of range by taking advantage of persistent storage and mobility. DTN forwarding is a mature technology, but requires an adaptable routing algorithm that covers opportunistic and scheduled modes of operation under stable or disrupted connectivity.

SSCI, in collaboration with Boston University and BBN Technologies proposes novel adaptive hybrid routing protocols and efficient data set reconciliation algorithms that will significantly enhance the scalability and performance of state-of-the-art DTN approaches. SSCI further proposes to develop the SELENE DTN system prototype using COTS hardware and demonstrate data muling capability in a 20-node network.

SELENE technologies will provide the Lunar EVA network with the reliability necessary to support Lunar missions in the extreme network conditions on the Lunar surface. Through Phase II, SSCI will identify and secure commitments from industry and government transition partners to transition SELENE to commercial applications.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The technologies developed in SELENE are applicable to NASA lunar exploration missions. Furthermore, these technologies can also be used in manned or unmanned missions to Mars or other planets to maintain reliable communications. Disruption Tolerant Networking technologies were, in fact, originally developed for the InterPlaNetary Internet Project (IPN).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Potential customers for the technologies are the United States Marine Corps, to whom we are proposing to develop a system for reliable, disruption-tolerant logistics data collection for condition-based maintenance. Another potential customer is ONR, which is developing Dynamic Tactical Communications Networks (DTCN). Other potential customers include those interested in reliable sensor data collection under harsh environments, such as the oil industry, or those interested in remote surveillance activities.

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

Architectures and Networks RF Sensor Webs/Distributed Sensors Teleoperation