NASA Offers Opportunity to Use Communications Testbed on Space Station

Sept. 13, 2012

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Katherine K. Martin
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-433-2406
katherine.martin@grc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-321

NASA OFFERS OPPORTUNITY TO USE COMMUNICATIONS TESTBED ON SPACE STATION

WASHINGTON -- NASA is announcing opportunities for academia, industry
and government agencies to develop and carry out research and
technology demonstrations on the International Space Station using
the newly installed Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN)
testbed.

There are two announcements of opportunity. The SCAN Testbed
Experiment Opportunity invites industry and other government agencies
to enter into Space Act Agreements with NASA to use the space
station's SCAN platform. The SCAN Testbed Cooperative Agreement
Notice invites academia to develop proposals to use the orbiting
laboratory's SCAN testbed research capabilities. NASA expects the
first demonstrations by late 2013 or early 2014.

These opportunities will allow researchers to develop new software
according to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard (STRS)
architecture for radios and reconfigure how radios communicate in
space.

Experiments will provide waveforms and software components to the STRS
waveform repository and enable future hardware platforms to use
common reusable software modules. These new capabilities could enable
greater scientific return from future NASA missions.

The SCAN testbed is a communications, navigation and networking
demonstration platform based on the STRS. The experimental platform
began its initial checkout activities on the space station Aug. 13
and will operate for as long as three years.

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland leads the SCAN testbed
multi-center team, which includes the agency's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md.; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif.; and Johnson Space Center in Houston. General Dynamics of
Scottsdale, Ariz., and Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., developed
software-defined radios under cooperative agreements with NASA. The
testbed is managed by the SCAN Program Office within the Human
Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
in Washington.

For the SCAN Testbed Cooperative Agreement Notice and Experiment
Opportunity, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/QLp37U

For more information about the SCAN testbed, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/QdpciB

For more information about the International Space Station research
and technology, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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