Microfluidic Electrospray Propulsion Technology Maturation for Flight

Propulsion technology is often critical for space missions. High-value missions could be done with very small spacecraft, even CubeSats, but these nanosatellites currently have little propulsion capability. After CubeSats are deployed, they usually just tumble or drift away from the transport spacecraft. They cannot transfer to higher value orbits, maintain their orbit, or even deorbit. Larger spacecraft would benefit from high-precision attitude-control systems to maintain the desired orbit and point in the desired direction. Existing attitude-control systems, like reaction wheels, are very complex and may have insufficient lifetimes. Providing the new propulsion capabilities to address both of these mission needs are critical for NASA. The primary objective of this application is to seek a partnership between the SBIR Program and the Small Satellite Technology Program (SSTP) to cost share in the development of an SBIR technology (MEP) for a Propulsion Pathfinder (PPF) cubesat mission. The expected outcome of this CRP project is to provide flight hardware, documentation, spacecraft integration, and flight operations support for the first Pathfinder mission (PPF1). Future SMD and HEOMD missions would benefit from the propulsion technology demonstration. In addition, an industrial source for this flight-demonstrated technology would be established.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7) — 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.