InSPA Inter-Agency Collaboration Goals

NASA knows it takes a village to make commercial manufacturing in space a reality. NASA is collaborating with experts from industry, academia and other U.S. Government agencies on the technologies in play with the InSPA portfolio.  By joining forces with these experts, NASA can better support its commercial partners, accelerating the transition from proof-of-concept demonstrations on the International Space Station to commercial operations in future commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations. NASA’s InSPA awards help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of LEO for use on Earth.

NASA is recruiting agency, government and industry experts to inform NASA’s InSPA priorities, accelerate learning and increase commercialization success.

Establishing Priorities

We will provide input on NASA Technology Roadmaps and/or evaluate proposals to inform awards for applications that serve national needs and U.S. competitiveness. We will also participate in working group discussions.

CHIPS and Science Act

Concepts that support the goals of the “CHIPS and Science Act” through semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity are of special interest to NASA. Those selected for further assessment will be invited to submit full proposals. NASA is seeking funding from the CHIPS and Science Act through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity. To support this initiative, NASA’s InSPA program may grant awards that come with funding for facilities, workforce development, academic support, and program development.

SHERPA Support

Space Hardware Experts for Research, Production, and Applications (SHERPA) shares knowledge as subject matter experts on science, technology, manufacturing, markets, and investors. Provide support directly to principal investigators or through NASA Technical Monitors to accelerate learning.

Specific SHERPA activities:

• Identify new InSPA candidates important to other government agencies where gravity is impeding development.
• Assist in prioritization and decisions on down-selects.
• Peer review at major milestones (design reviews, science requirements, ground and in-flight testing).
• Develop performance goals and metrics that must be met to exceed current state-of-the-art.
• Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and expand space databases to improve models and increase value from each flight, across the years and programs.
• Perform independent analysis and validation of flight results.
• Conduct outreach to industry and other government agencies for Phase 2 and 3 sponsorships.

Points of Contact

• Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate
• Don Ufford, Advanced Manufacturing Policy Fellow, Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, Department of Commerce – National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Danilo A. Tagle, Ph.D., Director, Office for Special Initiatives, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health
• Jas S. Sanghera, Ph.D., Branch Head of Optical Materials and Devices, Naval Research Laboratory
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

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NASA Implementation Strategy for In Space Production Applications

NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) implementation strategy consists of a multi-phase award process to demonstrate proof-of-concept, advance to high production quality, and ultimately to achieve scalability on a commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destination or platform. InSPA seeks to identify awardees who propose promising manufacturing efforts in microgravity that will invigorate markets on Earth. These InSPA awards help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of LEO for use on Earth.

NASA Award Process

On an annual and ongoing basis, NASA releases two calls for white papers by U.S. entities through Special Focus Area #1 (In Space Production Applications) of the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNJ13ZBG001N, “Research Opportunities for International Space Station Utilization.” Those entities with the highest rated white papers are then invited to submit a full proposal. After the proposal evaluation period, NASA makes selections, and awardees sign a Firm Fixed Price contract with NASA to develop and demonstrate their concept on the ISS National Laboratory. NRA white paper and proposal submissions are required at each phase of the lifecycle.

Access to ISS National Laboratory

Awardees are provided access to the ISS National Laboratory and all necessary on-orbit resources: upmass, downmass, U.S. Operating Segment (USOS) crew time, data transmission, and power, including flight manifesting and increment operations planning, at no cost. Payloads are subject to review and approval by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the operator of the ISS National Laboratory.

Award Phases

NASA has identified three InSPA phases (reference Figure 1) to characterize technology maturation from early concept studies through financially self-sustaining LEO production technologies.

InSPA Phase 1

Enable early proof-of-concept studies and/or basic flight hardware development and test through multiple demonstrations on parabolic, sub-orbital, and orbital missions on the ISS to achieve TRL of 6 and MRL of 3. Proposals should identify the improvements sought and describe the number and type of demonstration tests appropriate to achieve exit criteria for the Phase. The goals of Phase 1 (i.e., exit criteria) are:

1. To demonstrate hardware performance and validate the scientific basis for the technology benefit in a LEO space environment. 
2. To establish a minimum level of production control to repeatedly produce the intended product to a quality or performance level comparable to Earth-based controls or state of the art. 
3. To refine the business case with preliminary revenue forecasts based on actual microgravity demonstrations and gain support from potential partners or investors to capture a moderate level of non-NASA investment for Phase 2.

InSPA Phase 2

Enable design maturation and advanced flight hardware development with additional demonstrations on ISS to achieve a TRL of 8 and MRL of 7. NASA has an expectation of some degree of cost-sharing in this phase (reference Cost Sharing guideline in section 1.2.3 of the NRA). The goals of Phase 2 (i.e., exit criteria) are:

1. To demonstrate full control of hardware, environments, and processes to meet specific performance standards for the application.  These standards are often set by the customer and should be to a level of performance or quality within the application setting that is significantly better than possible on Earth. 
2. To refine the business case to a level that successfully captures significant investor commitment for Phase 3.

InSPA Phase 3

Enable scaled flight hardware production on ISS or an alternative commercial LEO destination/platform to demonstrate commercial operations and end-to-end logistics model producing sufficient quantities to achieve a TRL of 9 and MRL of 9 and to close the business case. NASA expects a significant degree of cost-sharing by industry for a Phase 3 award (reference Cost Sharing guideline in Section 1.2.3 of the NRA). The goals of Phase 3 are:

• Demonstrate scaling to commercial quantities and quality to support market demand, including supply chain and regulatory approvals. 
• To establish formal agreements with U.S. LEO transportation and destination partners for transition to commercial operations. 
• Begin transition to commercial platform(s) and achieve sustainable revenues. 

Reference

NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNJ13ZBG001N, “Research Opportunities for International Space Station Utilization”

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In Space Production: Applications Within Reach

After four decades of microgravity research, NASA and the ISS National Lab have identified numerous applications that are within reach for NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) portfolio. Uniform crystals, semiconductors, specialized glass and optical fibers are just a few of the many advanced materials that can benefit from production in microgravity. Artificial retinas, drug delivery medical devices, as well as the production of pluripotent stem cells and bio inks are examples of how microgravity can stimulate the medical and bioscience industries. The most promising may be the production of small molecule crystalline proteins for pharmaceutical therapies. NASA’s InSPA objective is to enable sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit for use on Earth.

Applications of Special Interest

InSPA supports the goals of the White House’s “Cancer Moonshot” by seeking new applications that will accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. These projects are of special interest and may include manufacturing of compounds or therapeutics to address oncology applications on Earth.

InSPA also supports the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provides the Department of Commerce with $50 billion for a suite of programs strengthen and revitalize the U.S. position in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. InSPA projects centered around semiconductor manufacturing are of special interest and can ensure United States leadership in semiconductor production. (Source: https://www.nist.gov/chips)

InSPA awards fall into two categories, Advanced Materials and Tissue Engineering and Biomanufacturing.

Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials use microgravity phenomena singly and in combination to produce a growing range of new products. For example:

• Removing sedimentation and buoyancy enables unique alloys and compositions.
• Surface tension processes can eliminate voids and ensure continuous contact between dissimilar materials.
• Lack of convection provides quiescent environments that can remove or minimize defects.

Crystal Production in microgravity has numerous applications in drug development, testing, and delivery, as well as semiconductors and inorganic frameworks. For example, crystals have the following properties in microgravity:

• They grow more slowly, enabling optical fiber manufacturing that suppresses crystallization defects.
• They grow in a more uniform manner that can better inform and enable better quality protein-based therapeutics.
• They grow larger and more perfect enabling exceptional quality industrial crystals and macromolecular structures.

Thin Layer Deposition in microgravity has applications in layering for medical devices, semiconductors, and ceramic coatings. For example:

• Absence of sedimentation and buoyancy allow surface tension effects to dominate, resulting in more uniform and atomically and molecularly precise layering for artificial retinas and other devices.

Tissue Engineering and Biomanufacturing

In microgravity, tissues can be formed in three dimensions without supporting architecture, and living matter adapts to microgravity through a variety of mechanisms that can be used to model cellular dysfunction, which occurs on Earth. For example:

• Gravity constrains tissue engineering on Earth by flattening and deforming 3D tissue constructs.
• Microgravity allows larger tissues to be constructed and used to inform medicine.
• Growing evidence indicates that the interaction of microgravity and living systems elicits responses similar to rapid aging on Earth that can be used to accelerate disease modeling and therapeutic development.
• Combined 3D tissue engineering with accelerated aging effects, informed by latest biotech and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) offers new and rapidly growing knowledge, opportunities, and products for disease modeling, testing, and drug development.

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What is In Space Production Applications?

NASA supports In Space Production Applications (InSPA) awards to help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products in low-Earth orbit. These commercialization awards provide opportunities for NASA to reduce its future costs in LEO enabling deep-space missions farther from Earth, including the Moon and Mars. NASA is leading commercial LEO development efforts to stimulate non-NASA demand for commercially owned and operated orbital destinations from which NASA can purchase services as one of many customers. As new commercial orbital destinations become available, NASA intends to foster an orderly transition from current space station operations and research to the new commercial enterprise as laid out in NASA’s International Space Station Transition Report.

Mission

Ensuring U.S. leadership of in-space manufacturing in low-Earth orbit by enabling the use of the ISS National Laboratory to demonstrate the production of advanced materials and products for terrestrial markets.

Vision

A robust and sustainable space economy where a diverse portfolio of U.S. companies operates a broad array of commercially owned productions facilities alongside government and private astronauts living and training on the LEO Commercial Destinations that follow the space station.

Goals

1. Serve national interests by developing in-space production applications for Earth that strengthen U.S. technological leadership, improve national security, and create high-quality jobs, and/or  
2. Provide benefits to humanity by developing products in LEO that significantly improve the quality of life for people on Earth, and 
3. Enable the development of a robust economy in LEO by stimulating scalable and sustainable non-NASA utilization of future commercial LEO destinations or orbital platforms.

For more information about InSPA, please read: In Space for Earth! – In Space Production Applications Overview White Paper and InSPA Awards Provide Funding and Expertise to Help Promising U.S. Innovators.

For contact information and frequently asked questions, please see: NASA Points of Contact and FAQs

Download the InSPA logo here.

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Improves Simulation Software

The James Webb Space Telescope truly explores the unknown, displaying stunning images of previously unseen corners of the universe only possible because of the telescope’s 21-foot segmented mirror that unfurled and assembled itself in space.

Decades of testing went into the materials, design, and processes needed to develop the largest telescope in space. However, the whole project was too complex to test on the ground, at scale, at minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and in other space-like conditions.

Instead, engineers relied on software simulations to understand how the telescope would behave under different in-space conditions, and that work has helped advance the whole field of integrated computer modeling.

“We pushed everything, all the simulation, just as hard as it would go,” said Erin Elliott, an optical engineer at Ansys, Inc., which makes Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, one of the design software suites used to develop hardware and software for the Webb telescope.

Simulation technology has improved dramatically over the last two decades because of increases in computing power and new ways of accessing offsite computing power as a cloud service. But additional improvements trace back directly to Webb’s development.

Elliott used OpticStudio to support the Webb telescope while working for other NASA contractors, beginning in the early 2000s, before starting work in 2015 for Zemax ¬– which later became Ansys Zemax ¬– headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

In the early days, Elliott said, Zemax tweaked its software for the Webb telescope effort. “They made some specific changes for us at the time having to do with handling the coordinate systems of the segments,” she said, referring to the 18 hexagonal segments that make up the telescope’s primary mirror.

Elliott also recalled talking to Zemax leadership numerous times about the need for the software to communicate better with other Microsoft Windows programs. The company introduced an API, or application programming interface, for OpticStudio, which enables the suite to work with other programs and allows for further customization. There were plenty of reasons to add that technology but Webb demands were likely significant among them, Elliott said.

Joseph Howard, an optical engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where Webb and its science instrument module were assembled, noted that using several modeling packages helped drive innovation in the field. “It’s important to have multiple software companies out there that can help you not only for cross-checking the modeling, but because they make each other better through competition,” he said.

In addition to improvements made to OpticStudio during Webb telescope development, Ansys Zemax in 2021 introduced the Structural, Thermal, Analysis, and Results (STAR) module, which benefited from the knowledge Elliott gained working on the NASA project.

When a mirror or lens changes shape due to temperature swings, the optics move. Much of the OpticStudio modeling was completed in smaller pieces — engineers would run a thermal simulation independently and add that data to the next optical model, generating more data for the next run.

The STAR module incorporates analyses from other simulation software directly into OpticStudio optical models — an efficiency applicable to telescope and aerospace designs. This feature is also increasingly important for autonomous vehicles, cell phone lenses, and other optics working in tough environments.

Future telescopes and other spacecraft are likely to involve elements of the Webb design. More will travel in segments that must self-assemble in space, and the development of the increasingly complicated robotics and optics will rely on improved modeling software.
“When we built Webb, we knew we couldn’t fully test it on the ground prior to flight, so we depended a whole lot upon modeling and doing analysis to get ready for flight,” Howard said. “The next great observatory will be even more dependent on modeling software.”
Meanwhile, designers of more earthly technologies are already seeing the benefits of an improved OpticStudio, using it to design precision endoscopes, a thermal imager to detect COVID-19 exposures in a crowd, augmented reality displays and headsets, a laser thruster technology for nanosatellites, and, of course, more telescopes.
Elliott also noted that the Webb telescope project trained the next cohort of telescope and optical device builders – those designing and using the telescope’s technological spinoffs.
“The people who built the Hubble Space Telescope were leading the Webb Telescope,” she said. “And now the younger engineers who cut our teeth on this project and learned from it are becoming the group of people who will build the next structures.”
Elliott maintains that the project “was worth it alone for training this huge cohort of young engineers and releasing them into high-tech fields.”

NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency’s Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America’s investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

For more information on how NASA brings space technology down to Earth, visit:

www.spinoff.nasa.gov

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