2013 ACT Projects Awarded
NASA Science Mission Directorate Awards Funding for 11 Projects Under the Advanced Component Technolology (ACT) program 2013 ROSES A.41 Solicitation (NNH13ZDA001N ACT)
09/08/2014 – NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, has selected proposals for the Advanced Component Technology Program (ACT-13) in support of the Earth Science Division (ESD). The ACT-13 supports the development of instrument component and subsystem technologies addressing any of the science focus areas in NASA’s Earth Science program.
The ESD is awarding 11 proposals, for a total dollar value over a three-year period of approximately $13 million, through the Earth Science Technology Office located at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
The Advanced Component Technology (ACT) program seeks proposals for technology development activities leading to new component- and subsystem-level airborne and space- based measurement techniques to be developed in support of the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division. The objectives of the ACT program are to research, develop, and demonstrate component- and subsystem-level technology development that:
- Enable new Earth observation measurements. and
- Reduce the risk, cost, size, volume, mass, and development time of Earth observing instruments.
The ACT program brings instrument components to a maturity level that allows their integration into other NASA technology programs such as the Instrument Incubator Program. Some of these components are directly infused into mission designs by NASA flight projects and others “graduate” to other technology development programs for further development.
Eighty-two ACT-13 proposals were evaluated of which 11 have been selected for award. They are:
| Ken Cooper, Jet Propulsion Laboratory A 183 GHz Humidity Sounding Radar Transceiver |
| David Diner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Proof-of-Concept and Feasibility Demonstrations for an Avalanche Photodiode/Photoelastic Modulator-Based Imaging Polarimeter |
| Anton Geiler, Metamagnetics, Incorporated Compact Magnet-Less Circulators for ACE and Other NASA Missions |
| James Hoffman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Modular Dual-Band Ku/Ka Antenna Tile with Digital Calibration (K-Tile) |
| Greg Kopp, University of Colorado, Boulder Carbon Absolute Electrical Substitution Radiometers (CAESR) |
| Priscilla Mohammed, Morgan State University Wideband Radio Frequency Interference Detection for Microwave Radiometer Subsystem |
| Yahya Rahmat-Samii, University of California, Los Angeles Ka Band Highly Constrained Deployable Antenna for RaInCube |
| Haris Riris, Goddard Space Flight Center A Compact Trace Gas Lidar for Simultaneous Measurements of Methane and Water Vapor Column Abundance |
| Michael Shaw, Tahoe RF Semiconductor Beamsteerable GNSS Radio Occultation ASIC |
| Carl Weimer, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation Lidar Orbital Angular Momentum Sensor |
| Lauren Wye, SRI International SRI CubeSat Imaging Radar for Earth Science (SRI-CIRES) |
Ken Cooper, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A 183 GHz Humidity Sounding Radar Transceiver
We will develop a compact and tunable radar transceiver operating in the underutilized short-millimeter-wave frequency regime to enable high-precision global mapping of humidity inside upper tropospheric (UT) clouds for the first time. This work addresses the Focus Area of Climate Variability and Change because clouds are a leading source of uncertainty in estimating the climate sensitivity from global models, and UT humidity affects radiative feedback and cloud formation. Over three years we will build and validate a radar transceiver to enable humidity sounding inside UT clouds using the technique of Differential Absorption Radar (DAR) operating around the 183 GHz water absorption line. By capitalizing on recently-developed III-V semiconductor Schottky diode and amplifier millimeter-wave devices with state-of-the-art efficiency and power handling capabilities, our approach offers the fastest, lowest cost, and lowest risk route to realizing an active instrument capable of range-resolved water vapor absorption measurements in cirrus clouds.
The transceiver will integrate all-solid-state source and detector devices inside a compact (~10x6x2 cm) module with 5% tuning bandwidth. Continuous, 1 W transmit power will be reached in two steps. First, commercially available GaN power amplifiers at 90 GHz will drive a JPL-fabricated GaAs diode frequency doubler with 20% conversion efficiency and 0.5 W output power capacity. Then 1 W will be achieved either through a chip-stack waveguide power-combining geometry or, pending commercial availability in 2016, by 183 GHz power amplifiers. For receiving, an InP low-noise amplifier and a 100 dB isolation quasioptical duplexer will achieve a noise temperature of 500 K even while transmitting. The DAR technique will be validated in ground-based measurements using a custom-built millimeter-wave radar test bench. We anticipate demonstrating DAR sensitivities with few-percent precision, thus enabling a new class of future airborne and orbital measurements for cloud and climate science.
David Diner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Proof-of-Concept and Feasibility Demonstrations for an Avalanche Photodiode/Photoelastic Modulator-Based Imaging Polarimeter
Building on the successful heritage of JPL’s Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (MSPI), we propose infusing HgCdTe avalanche photodiode (APD) array technology into the MSPI camera architecture. This concept includes a custom readout integrated circuit (ROIC) that demodulates the 42 kHz waveform from a single photoelastic modulator (PEM) by sorting the APD charge pulses into 3 bins associated with each pixel, from which intensity I and Stokes parameters Q and U are derived. This innovation yields superior signal-to-noise performance and extends MSPI polarimetry into the ultraviolet and midwave infrared, enabling characterization of high-altitude hazes and the vertical gradient of droplet sizes near the tops of liquid water clouds. These new capabilities are important because the recent slowdown in global mean surface temperature rise has been linked to stratospheric aerosols, and cloud-top droplet size information helps mitigate biases in microwave retrievals of precipitation rates. MSPI’s current dual-PEM approach requires two detector rows at any given wavelength to recover I, Q, and U (confining polarimetry to a few bands), and incurs a noise penalty that requires pixel averaging to improve performance and limits the polarimetric spectral range to the visible through shortwave infrared. The proposed technology eliminates one PEM from each camera, reduces mass, and recovers I, Q, and U at all UV-MWIR wavelengths with just one detector row in each band. We will validate this approach in the laboratory using a small APD array. To demonstrate the feasibility of meeting the speed, noise, and power constraints for a large pushbroom array, we will design and simulate the custom ROIC that performs the on-chip temporal multiplexing, and fabricate and test the critical pixel-level charge-sorting circuit. The entry level of this technology is TRL 2. Our 32-month investigation will advance the overall demodulation approach to TRL 3 and the in-pixel sorting circuit to TRL 4.
Anton Geiler, Metamagnetics, Incorporated
Compact Magnet-Less Circulators for ACE and Other NASA Missions
The NASA Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) Mission, recommended by the National Research Council’s Earth Science Decadal Survey, will support the development of advanced instruments to measure cloud droplets, ice crystals, rain and snow, and other hydrometeor types and to understand how their dynamics are influenced by the presence of aerosols. These influences impact the Earth’s ecosystems and the ocean’s storage of carbon dioxide. ACE and other NASA missions require innovative component-level technology that: (i) reduces risk, cost, size, volume, mass, and development time of Earth observing instruments; and (ii) enables new data acquisition for enhanced observation measurements. In the proposed effort Metamagnetics Inc. in collaboration with a NASA prime contractor addresses these requirements through the development of an ultra-lightweight, compact, cost-effective, high-performance, magnet-less circulator for use in sensors and communications phased arrays. This technology has important applications in ACE as well as other NASA missions. A circulator provides duplex capability in a phased array transmit/receive module and isolates amplifiers from unwanted reflections. Conventional ferrite circulators occupy a disproportionately large volume in the front-end the T/R module because of the large permanent magnet required to provide the necessary magnetic bias field. The main innovation of the proposed technology consists in Metamagnetics proprietary self-biased circulator substrate that does not require external biasing and allows >90% reduction in volume and weight of the device. Our self-biased circulator eliminates the permanent magnet by utilizing a crystallographically textured material that possesses high remnant magnetization and low microwave losses while improving reliability and supply chain security. In a previous Phase I NASA SBIR contract Metamagnetics developed a proof of concept prototype of the proposed circulator demonstrating TRL 4. Over the 36-month period of performance of the proposed effort we will develop, fabricate, and test self-biased circulators specifically designed to meet performance requirements set for the NASA Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) Mission and will deliver multiple units to NASA prime contractor that will perform system integration and system testing. At the end of the proposed effort we predict to reach TRL 6. Our Team of highly accomplished scientists and engineers combines Metamagnetics, Inc. expertise in advanced ferrite-based development for military security, surveillance and communication systems, and NASA prime contractor system engineering know-how in microwave radar systems for ground-based, space, and airborne platforms. NASA prime contractor is actively involved in the ACE program and in view of Metamagnetics circulator technology high potential has already invested $100,000 in in-kind funds to evaluate Metamagnetics self-biased materials and circulator components.
James Hoffman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Modular Dual-Band Ku/Ka Antenna Tile with Digital Calibration (K-Tile)
Following a very successful development of a new, highly accurate, digitally calibrated (but large and high-power) TRM [Transmit/Receive Module], we will leverage this demonstrated architecture. We will reduce the size/power of the ~18×6 100W digitally calibrated TRM, developed for DESDynI to a much smaller, lower power, modular [PC104 footprint (10x10cm), and a 10W output power] TRM. The TRM elements required to enable digital calibration will be fabricated within a GaN MMIC, using a commercially available foundry. The estimation/control algorithms will be modified to fit within a CubeSat form-factor processer. In fact, platforms with Xilinix V6 processors are already available for CubeSats, and our current flight model is able to digitize, perform our digital calibration and do beamforming for 4-channels, The V6 should be capable of handling many more channels. This will drastically reduce the size and power, enabling SweepSAR or other digital beamforming radars to be hosted on small platforms.
Science goals for atmospheric studies include a K-band channel to measure cloud droplet size, glaciation height, and cloud height. A small form factor digitally calibrated TR front-end will enable the very accurate measurements required for estimating cloud and aerosol properties, through polarimetry.
The same technology is capable of miniaturizing the front-end of a Ku/Ka band radar required for highly accurate measurements required for estimating snow/ice height. The dual-polarization-mode SAR enables discrimination of the radar backscatter into volume and surface components.
This work will develop a GaN TR module front-end, which includes the architecture enabling digital calibration. Unlike prior efforts, this will miniaturize the successful digital calibration concept to very small form factors. We will develop the devices to accommodate a PC104 form factor (CubeSat), to leverage that standard, and to allow use on CubeSat, but our target applications are better served by other small platforms, such as airborne (small remotely piloted), and small-sats. As such, our future plans will propose this to flight demos (InVest), and airborne (IIP) to enable future flight programs.
Greg Kopp, University of Colorado, Boulder
Carbon Absolute Electrical Substitution Radiometers (CAESR)
The long-term balance between Earth’s absorption of solar radiative energy and emission of radiation to space is a fundamental climate measurement required in the NRC’s Decadal Survey report Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond. We apply new NIST micromachining fabrication and carbon nanotube capabilities to miniaturize ambient-temperature radiometer designs for measurements of Earth’s radiation budget. With the capabilities of these new techniques and materials, we will evaluate new radiometer designs to acquire measurements of incoming and outgoing Earth radiation from small spacecraft. Miniature ambient-temperature radiometers will be designed, fabricated, and demonstrated over the broad range of requirements encompassed by Earth-incident total and spectral solar irradiance measurements, as these span the performance requirements of Earth radiation measurements for climate studies. CAESR test radiometers will be validated using international reference facilities and compared to the performance of current flight radiometers.
The CAESR carbon nanotube coatings and micromachining techniques are expected to reduce instrument mass and size and decrease power needs, enabling the acquisition of such measurements from small spacecraft platforms. Integrated fabrication techniques should also greatly improve manufacturing efficiencies and yield from current flight radiometers to reduce instrument delivery times (and thus costs).
The CAESR TRL entry is 2 and exit is 4, readying these compact radiometers for instrument developments on small spacecraft by the end of the 3-year program commencing in Jan. 2015.
Priscilla Mohammed, Morgan State University
Wideband Radio Frequency Interference Detection for Microwave Radiometer Subsystem
Anthropogenic Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) is threatening the quality and utility of multi-frequency passive microwave radiometry. The GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission launched on February 27, 2014 is already seeing RFI in the 10.7 and 18.7 GHz channels. It is important to understand that these frequency bands are strictly protected for science data measurement; yet, it is still corrupted by RFI. Indeed, this issue has led to the development of the first spaceborne digital RFI mitigation radiometer operating at 1.4 GHz for the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) mission. We leverage our experience on SMAP to develop innovative technology for wider-bandwidth higher-frequency radiometers.
The objective of this proposal is to develop a wideband (200-1000 MHz) digital detector subsystem and to demonstrate innovative RFI detection and removal techniques for microwave radiometers. The techniques proposed, complex valued kurtosis detector and independent component analysis (ICA), have the potential to improve the RFI detection rate in high frequency bandwidth. We are responding to a national imperative to develop RFI mitigation technology for future spaceflight radiometers. “Spectrum Management for the Twenty-first Century” recommends the continued development of so-called non-cooperative mitigation technologies. The Earth Science Technology roadmap for Advanced Microwave Components and Systems seeks Demonstration of RFI mitigation approaches, and algorithms for future RFI environments to 40 GHz and beyond. These two National Research Council reports emphasize the importance of RFI mitigation technology for sustaining a reliable national passive microwave remote sensing capability.
Yahya Rahmat-Samii, University of California, Los Angeles
Ka Band Highly Constrained Deployable Antenna for RaInCube
Precipitation radars in Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) provide vertically resolved profiles of rain and snow on a global scale. Nevertheless, observations available from LEO platforms are sparse in time, and they do not allow the observation of short time scale evolution of most atmospheric processes, nor do they properly sample the statistics of the diurnal cycle within short temporal windows. CubeSats and SmallSats enable cost-effective deployment of multiple copies of the same instrument to achieve these goals.
As part of a JPL R&TD initiative called RaInCube (Radar In a CubeSat), we have demonstrated the feasibility of a Ka-band precipitation profiling radar instrument in a 10x10x20cm3 volume, excluding the antenna. For optimum synergy with the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar, 5km radar footprint is desired, requiring a 0.75m aperture size from 400km LEO orbit.
The primary goal of this ACT proposal is to design, fabricate and test a 0.75m aperture reflector antenna with 45dB of gain at 35.7GHz that occupies less than 2.5U volume (10 x 10 x 25 cm3) when stowed for launch, bringing the complete radar instrument to TRL 5, thus paving the way for a flight demonstration of RaInCube in a 6U CubeSat (RIC-6U). In order to achieve a compact design with higher efficiency in the presence of blocking from the sub-reflector, we will use an optimized Cassegrainian antenna geometry with a shaped sub-reflector or a sub-reflectarray to partly compensate for the main reflector distortion. As a secondary goal, we will investigate a range of more capable antennas (i.e., larger, scanning and/or multi-frequency) suitable for a 50kg SmallSat platform (RIC-S50) with antenna stowed volume 20 x 20 x 50 cm3.
Haris Riris, Goddard Space Flight Center
A Compact Trace Gas Lidar for Simultaneous Measurements of Methane and Water Vapor Column Abundance
Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Understanding current global methane trends is a difficult challenge that cannot be resolved by existing measurement networks or satellite observations. Our proposed technology will directly address the objectives of NASA’s Earth Science Decadal Survey which called explicitly for cost-effective global methane measurement technology and will enable global CH4 and H2O measurements with sufficient coverage, sensitivity, and precision to address pressing science questions for the carbon cycle and climate change. For this effort we propose to advance the technology readiness level for a CH4/H2O lidar operating at 1651 nm that can measure methane with very high spatial resolution and precision and extend the measurement to water vapor. Specifically we are proposing to: 1) Scale the laser transmitter energy to 300 µJ and package the transmitter for a future airborne demonstration. 2) Measure methane column abundance with a 1% precision. 3) Extend the wavelength coverage to detect water vapor. 4) Advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of our laboratory instrument from TRL 3 to TRL 6.The proposed work will commence in February 2015 and conclude three years later. Our team is uniquely qualified for this work. Over the past decade our group at Goddard Space Flight Center has built lidars for several space missions and demonstrated a strong capability for the remote measurements of several trace gases on the ground and from airborne platforms. Our group was the first to demonstrate CH4 column measurements from a high altitude aircraft.
Michael Shaw, Tahoe RF Semiconductor
Beamsteerable GNSS Radio Occultation ASIC
We will develop an integrated RF ASIC to enable high quality radio occultation (RO) weather observations using the Global Navigations System Satellite (GNSS) constellations. In addition, the realization of a low power highly integrated RF front end for space applications will enable large beam forming arrays to provide the necessary signal to noise ratio to produce ocean altimetry and scatterometry observations. We will enable constellations of low power satellites that would dramatically increase weather prediction ability. A small low power RO instrument will enable easier accommodation on missions of opportunity.
The proposed design will support four RF inputs capable of receiving three GNSS signals per input in a single application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Multiple RF channels on a GNSS receiver IC is a unique feature which enables precision beam forming. While we address the tougher requirements driven by the science, it will also be applicable for precise orbit determination receivers.
During the thirty-six month performance period we will design, fabricate and test an integrated circuit and demonstrate performance and environmental qualification by completing the following tasks:
- Complete detailed requirements to enable high quality scientific measurements.
- Design an integrated RF front end suitable for application in a radiation environment.
- Fabricate the ASIC in a suitable technology.
- Test the front end with the JPL GNSS receiver, simulator and beam steerable antenna.
- Verify the design to the required environments, including radiation testing.
Our team includes members of the JPL TRiG GNSS receiver team, industry leading GNSS receiver ASIC developers with radiation and space qualification experience, and a GNSS Scientist.
This task will advance TRL from 2 to 5, and will enable smaller, lower power and lower cost weather observation instruments that will improve weather forecasting, and will produce new GNSS-based science by enabling ocean altimetry and scatterometry measurements
Carl Weimer, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
Lidar Orbital Angular Momentum Sensor
The recognition in recent decades that electromagnetic fields have angular momentum (AM) in the form of not only polarization (or spin AM) but also orbital (OAM) has resulted in an explosion of theoretical and experimental studies to understand the possible implications of these fields and their applications. The first applications have been achieved in astronomy (exoplanet vortex coronagraph), particle manipulation (optical tweezers), and encoding information on lasers (optical communication). OAM is a previously unrecognized degree of freedom for light that can be readily controlled, manipulated, and detected in laser beams characterized by helical wavefronts that rotate forward like a screw (vortex beams). The objective of the proposed effort is to utilize vortex beams to significantly increase the information that can be obtained from backscatter lidars. A lidar receiver will be developed that incorporates an optical angular momentum mode sorter. This will provide improved daytime performance by the spatial coherency filtering of background light and allow single scattering to be uniquely distinguished from multiple scattering in turbid environments (dense clouds, coastal waters). The latter is analogous to the exoplanet coronagraph: the lidar beam will be detected to greater optical depth into turbid media because the bright haze of multiple scattering will be eliminated. The effort will go on to demonstrate how examples of vortex beams can be created that will interact with the atmosphere in different ways, improving overall lidar performance. This three year effort will bring the measurement concept and receiver technology from a TRL 2 to 4.
Lauren Wye, SRI International
SRI CubeSat Imaging Radar for Earth Science (SRI-CIRES)
Ground deformation measurements obtained with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technologies have the potential to improve short-term forecasting of natural hazards and enable more effective management of natural resources. For maximum impact, InSAR measurements must be precise (sub-cm level) and timely. Frequent acquisitions (sub-weekly) are needed to achieve both requirements. More observations per unit time provide enhanced deformation precision through averaging, and ensure that an event is properly captured and characterized. Yet, single-platform sensors cannot simultaneously achieve frequency and wide-area coverage, and traditional InSAR sensors are too expensive (> $300M) to replicate.
We propose to provide high-precision ground deformation measurement capabilities in an affordable package ($1-2M) that can be used to form a constellation of InSAR sensors capable of rapid-repeat (daily) coverage of science targets. Such achievements are made possible through developments in nanosatellite technology, specifically the emergence of the CubeSat standard.
We have designed a TRL 2 (TRLin) S-band radar subsystem capable of moderate-resolution (25Â m), high-fidelity InSAR performance (sub-cm deformation precision, SNR > 14 dB). The radar fits within 1U of a 6U CubeSat and satisfies the power and thermal requirements of the CubeSat environment. We call this subsystem the SRI CubeSat Imaging Radar for Earth Science (SRI-CIRES).
In this investigation, we will develop, build, and test the RF and digital electronic subassemblies of SRI-CIRES over a two-year period to achieve a functional prototype at TRL 5 (TRLout). We will ensure that the SRI-CIRES prototype can meet the science objectives and performance requirements of an operational mission (e.g., can correct atmospheric artifacts and ionospheric effects to achieve sub-cm level accuracy). We will also use funds from this award to thoroughly study and model supporting subsystems, such as power, shielding, and thermal support, as well as the high-gain deployable antenna that SRI-CIRES requires to operate as a full instrument.