Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS)

The proposed activity will further advance and mature the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) through three technical objectives supported by the Phase II-E effort and three technical objectives supported by the matching investment. CAPS is a technology that has been developed by Advanced Space and supported by the SBIR program through Phase I, Phase II, and an ongoing Phase III award. The Phase III award supports the development and operations of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) which is a 12U cubesat that will be launched to the Moon early next year. The baseline data type for CAPS is peer-to-peer measurements from which the CAPS flight software will generate absolute estimates of a spacecraft position and velocity. For CAPSTONE this peer spacecraft will be the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The underlying motivation of this proposed Phase II-E effort is to add an important new capability to the CAPS software which is beyond the scope of the current Phase II effort and also distinctly different from the ongoing Phase III. The proposal focuses on the inclusion of a new and powerful datatype for CAPS that is enabled by the inclusion of a Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) on the CAPSTONE spacecraft. The matching funds will directly support the software that will be required to test and demonstrate this new data type (a self test application) as well as the engineering time required to interface with the radio developers to infuse the new data type in the CAPS flight software. The final consideration under matching is the actual demonstration of this updated software and new data type during the CAPSTONE mission at the Moon. The result of this proposed Phase II-E effort will be a TRL 9 software and unique knowledge of the powerful one-way tracking data type. This result will further enhance the utility of CAPS for future lunar missions.

The enhanced CAPS capability developed during this effort has applications to support the Artemis program through the Power and Propulsion Element, Gateway, Gateway Resupply, Artemis Crewed Missions with Orion, Human Lander Systems, and other enabling and supporting missions.

Non-NASA applications for the enhanced CAPS capability include commercial support of Commercial Lander Payload Services (CLPS) providers as well as customers from international and national security programs.

This is a mature technology (TRL 9) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.