NASA has awarded grants to nine small businesses through its 2023 NASA Small Business Innovation Research Ignite Phase II pilot program earlier this month.
The selected companies are tasked with developing technologies that can be used in future agency missions and the commercial space industry. If successful, the projects will be used in critical missions such as deep space exploration, low orbit missions and life preservation on Earth.
Some of the technologies being developed by the group of awardees are intended for wildfire detection, water management in agriculture, in-space debris detection, mineral mining from lunar regolith and in-space production. Each small business will receive up to $850,000 for their projects.
The SBIR Ignite Phase II awardees are as follows:
- Astral Forge
- Astrobotic Technology
- Benchmark Space Systems
- Brayton Energy
- Channel-Logistics
- GeoVisual Analytics
- Space Lab Technologies
- Space Tango
- VerdeGo Aero
After being selected for Phase I of the 2023 SBIR Ignite program, the companies were given $150,000 and six months to work on their technologies.
Solicitation for the 2024 SBIR Ignite Phase I ended on July 30, 2024. Companies moving on to Phase II will be announced in Fall 2024. The program is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.