Advancing Commercial Space

Space is becoming increasingly congested due to rising numbers of on-orbit satellites and debris objects. Despite growing awareness of the orbital debris problem, recent developments such as launch ride sharing, growth in availability of small launch vehicles, and particularly large scale satellite constellation deployments, are dramatically increasing on-orbit congestion. Uncontrolled growth will severely affect future space operations. NASA Ames has developed a novel patent-pending technology known as Space Traffic Management (STM) which provides a robust framework for on-orbit coordination of activities to enhance the safety, stability, and sustainability of operations in the space environment. The STM system is critical for ensuring that the expanding orbital population operates safely and efficiently, avoiding collisions and radio-frequency interference while still facilitating widespread space operations in an increasingly congested space environment. Additionally, it meets the objectives associated with the transition of civil STM from the Department of Defense to a civilian entity.

Researchers at the NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a suite of RFID-based technologies focused on improving communication of an RFID reader with a greater number of RFID tags in open and enclosed areas. Typically, RFID reader communications with tags are spectrum-regulated to a narrow bandwidth that makes tag localization difficult. Moreover, RFID communications are complicated by polarization mismatches between the reader and tag antennas. The Agile RFID Antenna System is able to expand these boundaries by integrating an inexpensive frequency multiplexer to the RFID reader antennas, which permits new methods of localization, allows greater antenna functionality with fewer reader RF ports, and provides improved read accuracy and/or range. For enclosed areas, such as a large container, the Agile RFID Antenna System can use smaller antennas, consequently reducing the volume required for an RFID system to operate. A wide range of commercial applications can benefit from this technology, including retail inventory management, manufacturing/assembly line tracking, industrial transportation and logistics, sports bio-analysis, and healthcare.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a method and apparatus to multiplex Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) signals efficiently. The resulting Hyper-Distributed RFID Antenna (HYDRA) system enhances distribution of the RFID reader signal, providing improved coverage for large areas as well as for small, fixed regions requiring a high density of reader antennas. This greater coverage translates into better RFID sensing capabilities, higher localization accuracy, and enhanced logistics awareness. Many conventional RFID applications require adding more readers and antennas to increase coverage in existing areas and to improve localization. Employing conventional multiplexer switches can reduce the need for additional readers but require additional control and power cabling. Both conventional options will increase mass, size, and cost of the overall infrastructure to improve sensing performance. The HYDRA system, which uses microprocessor-based low-mass multiplexers, reduces the need for additional readers and cabling over the conventional prior art, and it operates with smaller-sized antennas. As a result, the advantages of the HYDRA system include the ability to transmit data at low power, improve coverage performance, increased capability to localize RFID tags, along with reduced cost, complexity, and mass.

The NASA Johnson Space Center has developed a method for tracking collections of items in a smart container using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags with a high level of read accuracy. Automating the tracking of a collection of items (particularly small items) represents a major industrial hurdle due to both tag size and cost. This technology promises to successfully address these hurdles. The smart enclosure innovation can track individual items in the smart containers regardless of item placement, or on conveyor belts. The technology improves the read accuracy of items moving on, for example, a conveyor belt, which in turn can enable the use of smaller, lower cost tags. The NASA patented technology is available for licensing. This NASA Technology is available for your company to license and develop into a commercial product. NASA does not manufacture products for commercial sale.

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a low-cost means to refine localization and determine when specific assets have been attached or placed in set proximity of each other using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This innovation is comprised of both a novel RFID sensor tag that incorporates onboard microcontrollers and sensors to detect an influence, and a programmable influence tag that is attached to an asset for which RFID localization or attachment status is desired. Commercial RFID tags typically only communicate with a reader and utilize narrow spectrum frequency bands that can complicate the triangulation necessary for readers to determine an asset’s location. Additionally, an extreme radio frequency scattering environment further aggravates triangulation techniques commonly used in RFID. With this new RFID tag technology, an influence tag can provide data to a sensor tag which then feeds joint information to a reader. A proliferation of these tags in arrangement allows for precise localization of assets, is extensible to large distribution cells or monitored areas, and can provide confirmation of mated or associated parts. The RFID-Enabled Connections and Sensed Localization technology is at technology readiness level (TRL) 4 (component and/or breadboard validation in a laboratory environment) and is available for patent licensing. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale.

NASA's Johnson Space Center has developed a Passive Smart Container to monitor and track items that are too small to tag individually. Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is being used widely for pallet and box level tracking in the commercial sector, significant technology gaps remain for tracking dense quantities at the item level. This system uses RFID circuits to identify the fill level in a container and could be easily converted for use in industries such as individual health care management, pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution inventory tracking, and retail and supply chain inventory management. Use of this technology enables the manufacturer, distributor supplier or user to easily manage and control an inventory of small items that are difficult to tag such as bulk grain foods, liquids, pills, mechanical parts (nuts, bolts, and washers) and small electronic components. This NASA Technology is available for your company to license and develop into a commercial product. NASA does not manufacture products for commercial sale.

A real-time locating system (RTLS) developed at the Johnson Space Center uses ultra-wideband (UWB) radio frequency (RF) signals for tracking and reporting the position of transmitter-equipped people and objects. The technology has 100 to 1,000 times finer granularity than conventional narrowband RF RTLS systems and achieves a tracking resolution of less than 1 percent of the range (tested up to 3,500 feet). The technology has a number of commercial applications including long-range tracking of emergency, military, and mining personnel in limited access or hostile environments where global positioning systems are not reliable. This method combines the advantages of accurate Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) information achieved using UWB technology with the geometric advantages of two-cluster tracking to provide accurate location information at long ranges. This NASA Technology is available for your company to license and develop into a commercial product. NASA does not manufacture products for commercial sale.

NASA Kennedy Space Center seeks partners interested in the commercial application of the Cryogenic Flux Capacitor (CFC). This new technology capitalizes on the energy storage capacity of liquefied gasses. By exploiting a unique attribute of nano-porous materials, aerogel in this case, fluid commodities such as oxygen, hydrogen, methane, etc. can be stored in a molecular surface-adsorbed state. This cryogenic fluid can be stored at low to moderate pressure densities, on par with liquid, and then quickly converted to a gas, when the need arises. This solution reduces both safety-related logistics issues and the limitations of complex storage systems. Currently, high pressured gasses are stored in vessels with heavy thick walls that require constant pressurization and complex storage systems to limit boil-off. These systems are not well suited to overly dynamic situations where the tank orientation can change suddenly. NASA's CFC address all of the aforementioned issues, simplifying current operations and opening the possibilities for new applications and new markets from cryogenic liquid.

NASA Kennedy Space Center engineers developed a Cryogenic Oxygen Storage Module (COSM) to store oxygen in solid-state form and deliver it as a gas to an end-use environmental control and/or life support system. Additionally, the COSM can scrub out nuisance or containment gases such as carbon dioxide and/or water vapor in conjunction with supplying oxygen, forming a synergistic system when used in a closed-loop application. Closed-loop life support systems require both oxygen supply and removal of toxic or nuisance gases such as CO2 from the breathing loop. In most deployed systems, these two requirements are accomplished independently. COSM combines these capabilities to work simultaneously which may allow for reduced system volume, mass, complexity and cost of a rebreathing device.