COLDTech
Concepts for Ocean worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech)
Last Solicitation Timeline:
- ROSES Solicitation Release – February 2020
- Step 1 Proposals Submitted – December 2020
- Step 2 Proposals Submitted – February 2021
- Selection – April 2021
Solicitation Overview:
- COLDTech supports the advanced development of spacecraft-based technology for surface and subsurface exploration of ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus to develop and reduce the technical risk of technology so that they may eventually be incorporated into future flight missions
- NASA had not specified the science objectives and the mission architecture for future ocean worlds missions at the time of solicitation. A driving requirement for any such a mission is the sampling strategy, particularly the depth from which a sample is acquired. Specific technologies sought for this COLDTech opportunity are:
- Autonomy for landed operations
- Technology to enable communication through many kilometers of ice thickness
- Radiation-hard digital devices
- Specific technology readiness levels (TRLs) were not prescribed in the last HOTTech solicitation
| Project Info | Instrument/Platform | Instrument/Technology Type | Activity_1st_Yr | PI_Institution | PI_LName | PI_FName | Activity_Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COLDTech | Platform | Electronics | 2020 | Georgia Technology University | Cressler | John | Environmentally-Invariant Silicon-Germanium Electronics for On-Surface Ocean Worlds Exploration |
| COLDTech | Platform | RF and Acoustic (Non-tether) Communication | 2020 | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | Bar-Cohen | Yoseph | Maturation and demonstration of technology to enable through deep-ice communication (CryoComm) on Europa |
| COLDTech | Platform | Software for Autonomous operations and fault management | 2020 | Lockheed Martin | Dixon | Eric | Causal And Reinforcement Learning (CARL) for Concepts for Ocean Worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech) |
| COLDTech | Platform | RF and Magnetoinductive (Non-tether) Communication | 2020 | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | Cheng | Michael | Hybrid Radio Frequency (RF) and Magneto-Inductive (MI) Transceiver for Europa Sub-Ice Communications |
| COLDTech | Platform | Electronics | 2020 | Vanderbilt University | Holman | William | A Radiation-Hardened Analog-to-Digital Converter for Outer Planetary Missions |
| COLDTech | Platform | Communication Tether with Drill | 2020 | Honeybee | Zacny | Kris | Tether based communication system for the SLUSH (Search for Life Using Submersible Heated drill) Europa probe |
| COLDTech | Platform | Software for Autonomous Terrain Sampling | 2020 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Ornik | Melkior | DRILLAWAY: aDaptive, ResIlient Learning-enabLed oceAn World AutonomY |
| COLDTech | Platform | Optical Communication Tether and RF Relay Module | 2020 | Johns Hopkins University / Applied Physics Lab | Craft | Kathleen | Technology for Sending Signals Through the Ice (STI Tech) on Ocean Worlds |
| COLDTech | Platform | Software for Autonomous operations and onboard planning | 2020 | University of Colorado | McMahon | Jay | Expert-Informed Autonomous Science Planning for In-situ Observations and Discoveries |
| COLDTech | Platform | Software for Autonomous Operations of Sampling Equipment | 2020 | California Institute of Technology | Burdick | Joel | Robust, Explainable Autonomy for Scientific Icy Moon Operations |
| COLDTech | Platform | RF (Non-tether) Communication | 2020 | Stone Aerospace, Inc. | Stone | William | PARTI Pucks |