America’s Seed Fund has awarded GuardianSat™ a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) — this grant will advance the development of the company’s Autonomous Satellite Orbital Debris Avoidance System (Patent No. 8,833,702 – Robert Briskman) with support from The Aerospace Corporation, a national non profit that operates a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) across the space domain.
America’s Seed Fund is a highly competitive program that provides funding to small businesses for research and development projects that have the potential for commercialization. The Phase I award is a crucial first step in the process, providing funding for companies to conduct needed research and validate the technical merit and commercial potential of their ideas.
GuardianSat™ and The Aerospace Corporation will execute this Phase I project, Space Debris Awareness Spectrum Research, to investigate optimal methods for onboard satellite sensor systems to obtain full spherical space domain awareness.
Huey Wyche, GuardianSat’s Research Lead, will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI), while Marlon Sorge, executive director of The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), will assume the role of Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI). GuardianSat will use this research to mature the space-based, multi-spectrum, orbital object detection component of its space domain awareness and debris avoidance system.
With the support of America’s Seed Fund, GuardianSat™ will be able to accelerate the development of its Pathfinder project, a mission designed to test and confirm the multi-spectrum approach to identifying, mapping, cataloging space debris, then creating actionable data that can be used to identify, track and forecast debris deviations that could impact space assets. Unlike other solutions that use ground-based systems to track and identify objects larger than 10 cm diameter, this system will expand the protection of sub-10 cm space debris which is more difficult to detect and has a higher probability to cause significant and long-term damage to space assets.
“We are pleased to have been awarded this STTR Phase I grant from America’s Seed Fund, which will enable us to advance the development of our space domain awareness and avoidance systems. This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team led by Huey Wyche (PI), and we are excited to take the next steps in and continue advancing new and transformative solutions to KEEP SPACE OPEN.” — Christopher W. Rohe, CEO, GuardianSat
America’s Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million in non-dilutive funds to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $9.5 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.
