Maine NASA EPSCoR Program 2019-2022 RID Proposal

During the previous 2015-2018 RID Program period of performance, we invested in three Visioneering Workshops. In the absence of a state vision for economic growth, of the three, the brainstorming around the Maine SpacePort Complex provided THE vision that could galvanize the public and all sectors of Maine’s economy to generate excitement and investments in research and education infrastructure for a new space economy. The investments in education and research infrastructure for the Maine SpacePort Complex could be “the rising tide that lifted all boats.” In other words, the investments for the complex would also enable education, training, and research and commercialization in other industry areas. The Maine SpacePort Complex is not the vision of the Maine NASA EPSCoR Program but a shared vision of the stakeholders, including the Maine NASA EPSCoR Program, who took part in the Visioneering workshop and were inspired to use a new space economy to generate economic growth in Maine. Although early in the statewide public acceptance phase, from our perspective, this is a unifying vision, a potential outcome of the Visioneering workshop strategy, which integrates several of the research themes in a manner that connects to Maine’s base of industry and supports the growth of Maine Technology Institute’s technology clusters. It is a vision that informs the Maine NASA EPSCoR’s role and guide our investments. Of the many components of the Complex, it seems fitting that the role of the Maine NASA EPSCoR Program is to use RID funds to seed research and and technology development activities that lay the foundation for realizing the potential of the Maine SpacePort Complex. This strategy aligns with the purpose of RID which is to build the core strength needed to increase competitive research and technology development methods and activities for the solution of scientific and technical problems of importance to NASA and to Maine. Therefore, our goal is to contribute to the development of a new space economy in Maine as envisioned by the Maine SpacePort Complex. Our strategy is to leverage the investments made by Maine NASA EPSCoR in the research themes over the last decade to build the core strengths needed to increase competitive research and technology development methods and activities for the solution of scientific and technical problems of importance to the new Space Value Chain. Our objective for the next three years is to annually seed up to three potential ground-breaking research and technology development projects around opportunities in the new Space Value Chain.

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.