NASA has published a new opportunity for the industry to draw from the know-how, resources and expertise of agencies. The announcement of collaboration opportunity (ACO), managed by the management of the mission of space technology, allows precious collaboration without financial exchanges between NASA and industry partners. Instead, companies take advantage of NASA experts, installations, software and hardware to accelerate their technologies and prepare them for future commercial and government use.
On Wednesday, NASA published a permanent ACO announcement for partnership proposals which will be available for five years and will serve as a paraplio opportunity for specific annex outings. NASA intends to issue annexes every six to 12 months to meet the technology needs of space technology. The ACO 2025 annex is open to proposals until September 24.
NASA will organize an information webinar on the opportunity and annex at 2 p.m. PA on Wednesday, August 6. Interested proposers are encouraged to submit questions that will be answered during the webinar and will be available online after the webinar.
NASA teams with the industry is not new – decades of partnerships have resulted in ambitious missions that benefit all humanity. But in recent years, NASA has also played a key role as a technology facilitator, providing unique tools, resources and infrastructure to help commercial aerospace companies achieve their objectives.
Since 2015, NASA has collaborated with industry on around 80 ACO projects. Here are some ways whose collaborations have advanced space technology:
Blue Origin and NASA worked together on several ACOs to mature the design of the lunar landing of the company. NASA has provided technical reports and evaluations and carried out tests in several centers to help Blue Origin advance a stack system stacked for the main source of Lander diet. Other ACO projects of blue origin have evaluated high temperature motor materials and have advanced a navigation and landing orientation system.
Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) by Blue Origin Lander offers NASA science and technology to the Moon thanks to the commercial charge of the agency’s lunar payroll services. In 2023, NASA selected Blue Origin as a supplier of human landing systems to develop its Blue Moon MK2 for a future equivalent lunar exploration.
Throughout a year, ACO, NASA and SpaceX engineers worked together to carry out an analysis of in -depth calculation liquid for propellant transfer methods offered between two space spaces SpaceX in low orbit. The specific analysis of SpaceX used starship flight data and the previous research and development data of NASA to identify potential risks and mitigate them during the early stages of commercial development. NASA has also provided entries while SpaceX has developed a first concept of operations for its orbital property transfer missions.
SpaceX used ACO analyzes to inform the design of its Starship human landing system, which NASA selected in 2021 to put the first artemis astronauts on the moon.
Advanced Space and NASA have joined forces to advance the company’s autonomous positioning system of the company – software that allows lunar spaces to determine their location without relying exclusively on the monitoring of the earth.
The CAPSTONE spacecraft (CISLUNAR AUTOOMOUS Positioning Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) was launched on the Moon in 2022 and continues to operate and collect critical data to refine the software. As part of ACO, Advanced Space was able to use the NASA lunar recognition orbiter to conduct retication experiences with Capstone, maturing the navigation solution for future missions. The mission’s autonomous autonomous positioning system technology was initially supported by the NASA small business innovation research program.
Sensuron and NASA have matured a miniature and robust optical fiber detection system capable of taking thermal and shape measurements for several applications. Throughout the ACO, Sensuron benefited from the expertise of NASA in fiber optics and electrical engineering, mechanical and system test to design, manufacture and “shake and cook” its laser prototype.
Spatial missions could use technology to monitor cryogenic propellant levels and determine the structural integrity of a fuel tank throughout a prolonged mission. Laser technology also has medical applications on Earth, which finally resulted in Sensuron Spinoff company, The Shape Sensing Company.
In 2023, Venturi Astrolab started working with NASA under an ACO to test its flexible design of the lunar tire. The company has exploited unique NASA test capacities, including heat transfer to cold lunar soil, traction and life tests. The data validated the performance of tire prototypes, helping to prepare the design to support future NASA missions.
In 2024, NASA selected three companies, including Venturi Astrolab, to advance the capacities of a lunar vehicle that astronauts could use to travel around the lunar surface, conducting scientific research on the Moon and preparing human missions in Mars.
The announcement of collaboration opportunity (ACO) is one of the many ways in which NASA allows the commercial industry to develop, build, own and possibly use space systems. To find out more about these technological projects and more, visit: https://techport.nasa.gov/.
