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Okay SIM control we're ready to go to run.
Thank you.
Well Jim, it looks like the GPS residual's down.
They ought to be calling us here any minute.
Yeah I agree.
It's looking pretty good.
Probably just waiting on C-band tracking.
Discovery, take GPS.
Copy. Take GPS.
All right, looks like it took.
Yup.
Well Jim, you ready to get some lunch?
That was a great run.
Yeah I agree.
Let's do it.
All right.
Maybe we can find that new restaurant.
Navigation is the science of following a planned path
from one point to another.
This includes using a GPS, or Global Positioning System,
to navigate your car to a destination, guide a hiker
through the woods, or help first responders locate you
in an emergency.
GPS is also used by financial institutions
to timestamp transactions like the swipe of a credit card
or a cash withdrawal from an ATM.
Accurate timing is also necessary
to support critical applications in space
such as NASA's communication and tracking networks.
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NASA's Small Business Innovation and Research, or SBIR program,
supports the development of technologies that benefit NASA,
encourages private sector commercialization
of innovations, and in turn provides spin-offs
that improve our lives every day.
SBIR program is very important to developing technology
for NASA as it insulates NASA programs
from the risks associated
with the far reaching technology development.
It also gives NASA access to the efficiencies
and the capabilities of small businesses.
The small business innovative research program develops
technologies in three phases.
In phase one, a six-month conceptual study is performed
to determine feasibility of the idea.
In phase two, a two-year hardware development
or software development is undertaken.
At the end of that time, a prototype is delivered for NASA.
Phase three is when the prototype is incorporated
or adopted by an internal NASA program
or by a large American business for further development.
Most US rocket launches take place along the US eastern
launch range at either Kennedy Space Center
or Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
In the event of a failure,
the NASA range flight safety systems provides a means
to prevent that launcher from reaching populated areas.
Three, two-- As part of the effort
to improve safety during launches,
NASA is developing a system
that uses Global Positioning System Receivers placed directly
on-board the launch vehicle
to track its trajectory during ascent.
The SBIR program allows us to help guide outside expertise
and exploring fundamental problems
and interests that NASA has.
We're looking at ways to mitigate possible interference
of the GPS signals on a launch vehicle using commercial
GPS receivers.
So it usually involves antenna technology to look
at multiple satellites and compare different signals
and be able to cancel out any potential interference.
The SBIR program funds a number of initiatives
that support navigation from the time
of launch throughout interplanetary transfer.
These initiatives may one day help navigate spacecraft
in deep space using x-ray
and gamma ray pulsar based navigation.
Pulsars are rapidly spinning stars,
which broadcast a repeating signal.
They are, in fact, lighthouses in the cosmos that can be used
to help spacecraft navigate through space.
We do have a success to talk about through the SBIR program
and that is with x-ray navigation we have developed a
catalog of pulsars that are good for our purposes,
and we've also developed first generation algorithms
to analyze the data.
We are in the process of building instruments
for x-ray navigation-- one to fly on the space station
and perhaps elsewhere.
One area where we have a gap in our knowledge is
in onboard autonomous navigation.
So we want to have pinpoint landings on various objects
and when the round-trip light time becomes prohibitive,
you want on-board autonomous nav.
And that's an area of focus that we would
like to delve into more.
The SBIR also funds a number of technologies
that support navigation once we reach the surface
of other planets.
There have been a number of successes in the SBIR subtopic
for planetary surface navigation.
In particular, there's been a phase two effort that's
developed a GPS-like capability that,
for surface planetary navigation position fixing that operates
over ranges between one and say 10 kilometers.
Here we have an example of a piece of hardware
that could be deployed on a suit or perhaps a vehicle or,
and would also be deployed on the fixed nodes on towers.
This was developed as part
of the phase two and delivered to us.
There's also been successes in the areas
of celestial navigation for planetary surface navigation
as well as Bayesian filtering for surface navigation.
The development of these cutting-edge mission-critical
technologies not only help us navigate our way
through deep space, they help us get
to where we're going right here on earth.
Turn left on second street.
I'm not an expert on GPS's but it looks
like Tim, we've arrived.
Yeah, this place looks incredibly good.
Well that was some of the best driving I've ever seen Bob.
It's not quite as good as your flying
of the space shuttle but- I try to do my best.
So whether you swipe your ATM card,
make a call on your cell phone, or try to find your way
to a new restaurant, many of the advancements in communication
and navigation technologies that we enjoy today started
with technology developed in partnership with NASA.
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