ScienceCraft for Outer Planet Exploration (SCOPE)

Missions to the outer solar system are an important part of NASA's goals because these scarcely visited worlds, particularly the ice  giants Neptune and Uranus, hold secrets about the formation and evolution of our solar system and countless others. However, due  to the high cost, long travel time and narrow window for mission implementation, outer solar system exploration has been extremely  limited in more than 60 years of space exploration. In this NIAC, we are developing a mission architecture that addresses all of these  challenges by using a ScienceCraft and enables science missions at the outer planet system. Sciencraft integrates a science instrument  and spacecraft into one monolithic and lightweight structure. By printing an ultra-lightweight quantum dot-based spectrometer,  developed by the PI Sultana, directly on the solar sail we create a breakthrough spacecraft architecture allowing an unprecedented  parallelism and throughput of data collection, and rapid travel across the solar system.

Unlike conventional solar sails that serve only  to propel small cubesats, ScienceCraft puts its area at use for spectroscopy, pushing the boundary of scientific exploration of the outer  solar system. ScienceCraft offers an attractive low resource platform that can enable science missions at a significantly lower cost and  provide a large number of launch opportunities as a secondary payload. By leveraging these benefits, we propose a mission concept  to Triton, a unique planetary body in our solar system, within the short window that closes around 2045 to answer compelling science  questions about Triton's atmosphere, ionosphere, plumes and internal structure.  

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.