Investigation of Microwave Photonics for Upper Atmosphere Sounding

The proposed project aims at supporting the technology development of hyperspectral microwave photonic instruments for Earth and planetary upper atmospheric sounding. Upper atmospheric sounding is critical for national security, weather forecasting, and space weather risk modeling. To replace bulky traditional hardware, this proposal introduces a microwave photonics approach using high-speed ADCs for direct optical sampling in the Second Nyquist Zone and polarization decomposition in the optical domain to analyze polarized electromagnetic radiation.

Technology development for hyperspectral microwave photonic instruments for Earth and planetary upper atmospheric sounding; high-speed ADC direct optical sampling in the Second Nyquist Zone; polarization decomposition in optical domain; compact photonic architecture replacing bulky traditional hardware.

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.