Wildland Fire Pre-Formulation Concept Study

Task 3 Task is in response to a direct request from NASA Earth Science Division to address the congressional directive to initiate concept studies, in collaboration with commercial space-based remote sensing providers, to develop and demonstrate low-cost and scalable infrared sensing and other technologies that passively monitor areas of the United States that are susceptible to wildland fires, support reduction of wildfire risk, and provide early warning to first responders. This task will perform an architecture study with the industry to develop wildfire technology concepts. The work will be led by a joint JPL/GSFC/ARC team, with high participation from industry partners. Task 4 is for JPL to provide project leadership, science expertise, and interfacing to the industry partner (Planet Labs) in order to conduct a study to further refine and mature the technology for a space-based fire-detection instrument that can be used during the active fire stage of the overall wildfire lifecycle. The study specifically focuses on analyzing and validating an approach for use of short-wave infrared (SWIR) and/or mid-wave infrared (MWIR) thermal cameras to perform real-time fire detection from space-based assets.

Enhances the capabilities for existing science instruments for monitoring pre-fire, active-fire, and post-fire situations, reduces the power and mass of these instruments, and enables unprecedented observations in support of wildfire science through distributed observing systems and the information technologies needed for their support.

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.