\n<\/p>\n
As part of NASA\u2019s ongoing commitment to supporting American innovators and advancing new aerospace technologies the agency announced its second round of Phase I awards for\u00a0Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Ignite. The 10 selected small businesses will each receive up to $150,000 and have six months to establish the scientific, technical, and commercial merit and feasibility of their proposed innovation \u2013 the same timeframe as the program\u2019s main SBIR Phase I awards.<\/p>\n
This three-year pilot Ignite initiative, housed under NASA\u2019s SBIR program, provides funding and other support to commercialization-focused small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs as they seek to develop their early-stage technology ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investments we\u2019re able to offer through SBIR Ignite give us the ability to de-risk technologies that have a strong commercial pull, helping make them more attractive to outside investors, customers, and partners,\u201d said Jason L. Kessler, program executive for the NASA SBIR program at the agency\u2019s headquarters in Washington. \u201cWe also hope it advances the sometimes-overlooked goal of all SBIR programs to increase private-sector commercialization of the innovations derived from federal research and development funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s SBIR Ignite targets product-driven companies which seek to commercialize products instead of targeting the agency as a primary customer. This commercialization focus is a key differentiator from the NASA SBIR program\u2019s traditional solicitations that, in addition to considering commercial potential, have historically sought technologies to address specific NASA needs and have a goal of getting infused into a NASA mission. The SBIR Ignite solicitation contains only a few topics relevant to emerging commercial markets in aerospace; these topics are refined based on market insights gained in the interactive NASA SBIR Ignite Catalyst events that precede the solicitation release.<\/p>\n
One of the topics in the 2023 SBIR Ignite Phase I solicitation sought technologies to accelerate in-space production applications in low Earth orbit (LEO). In support of this topic, NASA selected\u00a0Astral Forge \u2013 a women-owned small business and first-time SBIR recipient \u2013 to\u00a0advance semiconductor crystal production by developing a high-temperature crystal growth furnace for in-space operation in LEO, with applications on Earth as well. This furnace could enable efficient and scalable synthesis of semiconductor materials with a specific initial focus on Gallium Nitride (GaN).\u00a0With silicon performance plateauing and devices demanding more efficient processors, GaN \u2013 considered a next-generation semiconductor compound \u2013\u00a0holds immense promise, offering enhanced performance characteristics, particularly in terms of power efficiency and thermal tolerance, compared to conventional silicon technology.<\/p>\n
The NASA SBIR Ignite initiative and its parent program, NASA SBIR, are a part of NASA\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate and are managed by the agency\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To learn more about the NASA SBIR program and apply to future opportunities, visit:<\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n