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Completed TRL 5 (started at 5, targeting 6)
Commercialize Wideband interoperable terminals into industry and supporting missions transitioning to commercial services in the late 2020 to early 2030 timeframe.
NASA needs to mitigate the perceived risk of space relay service availability during SCaN’s transition from TDRS to commercial space-relay communications services.
Make commercial provided wideband terminals capable of utilizing legacy TDRS services and their commercial equivalents available to NASA missions that are either 1) on ramping to commercial services prior to those services being officially offered though the NSN services catalog, or 2) permitted to continue to plan for and utilize TDRS services after the TDRS commitment cutoff date set by the APMC.
Risk reduction for mission adoption of commercial services. The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program is working to ensure that future missions will continue to have reliable, resilient space and ground communications and navigation infrastructure. Wideband polylingual terminals could become a key technology supporting that infrastructure, by providing seamless roaming capabilities that could allow missions to receive communication signals from multiple SATCOM service providers through the use of software defined radios (SDR).
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This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
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