TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Skyrouter - Continuous Fixed-Point LEO Satellite Data Capture (LAR-TOPS-285)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.THE TECHNOLOGY: LEO (low earth orbit) satellites constantly move in orbit, limiting measurements over the same spot on the Earth to about three times a week. The "Sky Router" concept would create Virtual LEO stationary satellites (VLSS) over any area of the Earth for a continuous or set amount of time using a network of regularly spaced, coordinated small satellites. A VLSS is made possible by combining the images from multiple satellites flying over the same spot, allowing continuous monitoring of an area of interest for an indefinite amount of time. The obvious benefits of such capabilities range from earth science and NOAA to defense

intelligence. The anticipated implementation strategy for Sky Router could employ up to several hundred satellites on various multi-satellite systems being planned.In order to attain VLSS data and avoid exceeding data bandwidth in this system a user would define an area of interest on the Data Cloud Interface, which would allow instruments to stay on, but not transmit data. Once an area is selected the user can generate VLSS, triggering the command to transmit data, only while a given instrument can report on the defined area. Frame rates could also be selected to further limit the data rate.Currently, VLSS would have to be integrated into a full LEO satellite architecture to attain continuous and seamless monitoring. The novel Data Cloud Interface to select a user area of interest for satellite commanding must be developed, however, it should be an engineering development that requires no new theory.Due to a high number of instruments, the VLSS system would have a high level of built-in redundancy. These are very closely integrated concepts. The science and technology behind them are well understood and appear to present no serious technical obstacles.The continued rapid advances in semiconductor speed, computing capability, memory bandwidth, and much higher data communications rates will be required to enable VLSS. The challenge for licensing organizations will likely be in writing and validating possibly complex system communication and management software to make the concept real, productive and reliable.To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-285If you have any questions, please e-mail NASA’s Technology Transfer Program at Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this beta.SAM.gov notice and your preferred contact information. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.