NASA SBIR 2015 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Spectral Sciences, Inc.
4 Fourth Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803 - 3304
(781) 273-4770

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Rainer A Dressler
rdressler@spectral.com
4 Fourth Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803 - 3304
(781) 273-4770

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Leslie J McCarthy
lmccarthy@spectral.com
4 Fourth Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803 - 3304
(781) 273-4770

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Modeling and Measurements for Propulsion and Power is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
To accelerate the development of scaled-up Electrospray Propulsion emitter array systems with practical thrust levels, Spectral Sciences, Inc. (SSI), in collaboration with Busek Co. Inc., and CFD Research Corporation, proposes the development of an Electrospray Propulsion Engineering Toolkit (ESPET). The innovation is a multi-scale engineering tool that extends experimental and detailed high-level physics characterization of microfluidic components to full-scale ESP microfluidic network performance. The innovation includes a central database of critical microfluidic properties. It is designed to allow ESP system engineers to efficiently narrow down the system component trade space and thereby substantially reduce the development time of advanced ESP systems. ESPET takes an engineering model approach that breaks the ESP system down into multiple microfluidic components or domains that can be described by analytical microfluidic solutions and specific parameters of the domain. Phase I was a successful proof of concept on the microfluidics of the Busek 100 micro class ESP system. In Phase II, full development of ESPET for arbitrary ESP designs will occur. The Phase II Work Plan includes construction of a microfluidics properties database, the development of the domain models and network solver, and the testing and validation against data produced by current ESP system developers.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
For NASA to gain high-value science from SmallSat technology requires lightweight, miniaturized, precision impulse bit, fuel efficient propulsion systems that extend mission time and greatly enhance SmallSat utility. While a broad range of chemical and EP systems are under consideration for SmallSat thrusters, micro-fabricated electrospray (ESP) arrays have been clearly identified as an emerging technology for efficient and high precision propulsion systems, with scalability that also makes them attractive for applications on larger spacecraft. ESPET will accelerate the development of ESP systems that meet NASA requirements. ESPET will provide NASA with a tool for quick comparison of various fuels and thruster configurations. It will provide designers with estimates of thruster fuel and power efficiency, stability of output thrust, and potential for contamination effects. It will also enable them to develop accurate thruster control systems.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
SmallSat technology is bringing the space vehicle deployment cost within reach of a much larger market including small commercial enterprises like Cosmogia Inc., Dove-2 remote sensing mission for NOAA, research and educational initiatives like University of Florida's SwampSat demonstrator, and developing countries without a major space program, such as Poland's BRITE-PL for celestial observations. As the ESP technology becomes more generally available and new applications are envisioned, engineering software tools like ESPET will be essential to tailoring the thruster design to mission requirements. ESPET may also be extended to microfluidic system designs of miniaturized electrospray ionization sources for portable mass spectrometers.