NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Whittnghill Aerospace, LLC
265 Durley Avenue, Suite 208
Camarillo, CA 93010 - 8544
(805) 901-2297

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
George Whittinghill
grw@whittinghillaerospace.com
265 Durley Avenue, Suite 208
Camarillo, CA 93010 - 8544
(805) 805-2297

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

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
As minimum cost will be required for a dedicated Nano-Sat Launch Vehicle, a parallel staged, highly modular vehicle architecture is proposed for development. The principal advantage of a modular architecture for this size of vehicle is the single propulsion development for the boost stages at a relatively small scale. This approach drastically shortens development timelines and cost. A candidate launch vehicle with a cluster of seven identical modules would light 4 modules for the first stage, 2 for the second, 1 for the third, and fire 1 small spinning Apogee Kick Motor (AKM) for the fourth. Whittinghill Aerospace (WASP) proposes to refine the Phase 1 design of an all-composite, N2O-fed Hybrid Rocket Motor (HRM) propelled, 25 kg to LEO launcher. WASP will then build and fire the AKM, build and fire the core module HRM, then launch the full-scale core module as an unguided sounding rocket from a commercial range. At the conclusion of Phase 2, the technology will be at a TRL level of 6.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Potential NASA applications include orbital nano-sat class launch vehicles and sounding rockets. Also viable as boosters and stages for integration with other expendable launch or experimental or air-breathing vehicles.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Non-NASA applications include commercial and DoD satellite and sounding rocket launch operations, university launch operations, tactical missiles, and target vehicles.

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

Chemical Composites Guidance, Navigation, and Control Software Tools for Distributed Analysis and Simulation Tankage