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News Subject:
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Three new SBIR success stories have been posted to the Electronic Library (see Innovation and Transition success story folders).
Alliance Spacesystems, LLC, located in Pasadena, California, developed a man-portable automated dynamic cone penetrometer, called the “Mosquito," which uses a feedback-controlled linear actuator that provides a consistent driving impact to a specially designed penetrometer. The Mosquito produces measurements of soil hardness and outputs California Bearing Ratio (CBR) versus depth to a light-emitting diode (LED) display and to a Cursor on Target (CoT) schema Extensible Markup Language (XML) file and a tab-delimited file. The AFRL Materials & Manufacturing Directorate manages this SBIR project. In January 2010, Alliance Spacesystems became part of MDA Information Systems, Inc.
Space Micro Inc., located in San Diego, California, developed a forward error correction integrated circuit (FEC IC) that is radiation hardened without sacrificing significant performance, which is ideal for space based high data rate laser and radio frequency (RF) communication links. The FEC IC technology displays extremely low bit error rates, and utilizes a fully synchronous logic design with global clock enabled and either synchronous or asynchronous global reset for flexible clocking, interfacing, and system integration. This technology is particularly flexible due to its programmability and low-power needs, making it ideal for large satellites as well as the increasing number of small and nano satellites. This SBIR project is managed by the AFRL Information Directorate.
sysRAND Corporation, located in Parker, Colorado, developed a Space Plug and Play Avionics (SPA) interface which elaborates Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocols with an out-of-band maintenance bus, avionics power, a systolic pulse-per-second, and other features. sysRAND applied commercial, industrial, and avionics standards and best practices to extend and enhance the existing SPA-U Plug and Play serial bus. The company enhanced the SPA concept with a clean-sheet Debug Monitor based on prior sysRAND remote servicing experience. When coupled with workstation-based tools, the Debug Monitor can support the entire life cycle of a spacecraft from concept through decommissioning. The AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate manages this SBIR project.
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