Ultra-Wideband Transceiver for Integrated Communication and Relative Navigation, Phase I

The goal of this project is to develop an innovative way of using Time Modulated Ultra Wideband (TM-UWB) transceivers (radios) to provide high performance integrated communication and relative navigation. Many future near-earth or deep space missions requires spacecraft operating in a formation. A unified transceiver that can perform multiple functions is highly desirable. TM-UWB is an exciting new technology, whose small size, low power, robustness to interference, and very high data rate make it particularly useful for use on small satellites, and especially for satellites flying in formation because of simultaneous communication and range measurement capability. Under the Phase 1 work we will primarily address the design issues of UWB transceivers for integrated communication and relative navigation. The most important issue is the development and analysis of a high performance UWB communication/tracking scheme, which with current approaches can severely limit the achievable data rate and the update rate. IAI proposes a novel approach to allow the same update rate as the ranging-only cases and the same data rate as the communication-only cases. Under the proposed work we will develop the details of this scheme and analyze the system performance for integrated communication and relative navigation applications.

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.