Resource Prospector Mission field test in Hawaii. (Credit: NASA)

NASA has selected Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to facilitate the better planning and execution of resource extraction missions on the moon, Mars and other worlds.

“The proposed work develops a computer-aided mission planning tool that balances the competing demands of efficient routes, scientific information gain, and rover constraints (e.g., kinematics, communication, power, thermal, and terrainability) to generate and analyze optimized routes between sequences of locations,” according to the project’s technical abstract.

The company says that the planning tool would be directly applicable to the planned Lunar Resource Prospector Mission, which is a joint NASA-CSA effort to extra volatiles on the moon. The mission is targeted for launch later in this decade.

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Sharon Spratt

EXPLORATION PARK, Fla. (Space Florida PR) – Space Florida is pleased to welcome Sharon Spratt, the organization’s new Senior Director of Government Relations.

Spratt will report to the president of Space Florida from Tallahassee and will oversee coordination of all federal, state, and local government relations and legislative initiatives for the organization. She will serve as Space Florida’s lead advocate to the Florida Legislature and Congress, and will also serve as the primary organizational point of contact to the Florida Governor’s office.

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TUI’s “Trusselator”
technology enables
on-orbit additive construction of
high-performance
composite truss structures to
support solar arrays, antennas, and
other space system
components. (Credit: TUI)

BOTHELL, WA, 7 March 2014 (TUI PR) – NASA announced today that it has selected Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) for award of a $750,000 contract to continue development of its “Trusselator” technology. The Trusselator is a device for in-­space additive manufacture of high-­performance truss structures for systems such as large solar arrays and antennas.

Under funding from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, and now NASA’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, Tethers Unlimited is developing a set of technologies called SpiderFab™ to enable on-­orbit fabrication of spacecraft components. The SpiderFab architecture integrates elements of 3D printing, automated composite layup, and robotic assembly to create large, light-weight structures. The SpiderFab robotic systems will integrate these structures with solar cells, reflectors, and other elements to create football-­stadium sized antennas, multi-­hundred kilowatt solar arrays, and other large components for space systems. Manufacturing them on-­orbit will enable affordable creation of space systems that are larger and provide higher performance than current technologies, which require antennas and arrays to be built on the ground and then launched inside a rocket.

“Developing the Trusselator device is the key first step in implementing the SpiderFab capability for in-­space manufacturing. Our goal with this effort is to dramatically reduce the costs of building large systems in space,” said Dr. Rob Hoyt, TUI’s CEO and Chief Scientist. “In the new SBIR effort we will develop a prototype Trusselator designed to operate in the vacuum environment of space and test it in our new space simulation facility.”

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 108 research and technology proposals from U.S. small businesses that will enable NASA’s future missions while benefiting America’s new high technology-driven economy right here on Earth.

The selected proposals now will enter into negotiations for contract awards as part of Phase II of the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The selected aerospace technology and innovation projects have a total value of approximately $87 million, supporting 99 U.S. firms in 26 states.

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Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development: Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore in May. If that trial goes well, another unpowered drop test — this time from […]

The New York Times has a story about a crystal growth experiment led by Lawrence J. DeLucas of the University of Alabama at Birmingham that will fly to the space station aboard a Dragon cargo vehicle later this month: Today, he is a principal investigator on a $6 million project that is to fly aboard the International Space Station. The experiment will include 100 proteins with poor results on earth […]

Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) and Ann Druyan introduce the host of Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey – world renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Subscribe now for more COSMOS clips: https://fox.tv/SubscribeFOX See more of Cosmos on our official site: https://fox.tv/Cosmos Follow Cosmos on Facebook: https://fox.tv/Cosmos_FB Like Cosmos on Twitter: https://fox.tv/Cosmos_TW Add Cosmos on Google+: https://fox.tv/Cosmos_Plus Follow Cosmos on Instagram: https://fox.tv/Cosmos_IG

RROxiTT lead roboticist Alex Janas stands with the Oxidizer Nozzle Tool as he examines the work site. (Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

GREENBELT, Mary. (NASA PR) — NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer – a type of propellant – into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

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LONG BEACH, Calif. (Space Tech Expo PR) — An astronaut holding the world’s record for the most spacewalks during a single mission, a private company planning to reach mars, aerospace industry titans alongside startup ventures, key military and NASA space officials, and thousands of engineers and executives are all planning to visit the Long Beach Convention Center April 1-3, 2014 for what is shaping up to be the biggest commercial space confab ever to hit the Los Angeles region, Space Tech Expo 2014.

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JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata works on the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., March 6, 2014 (CASIS PR) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) today released a Request for Information (RFI) that seeks to identify equipment capable of supporting future materials science experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. The RFI solicits entities capable of serving as implementation partners and/or hardware providers for such research.

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