Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Session will start at 10 a.m. PT – Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

Community of Practice Webinar Series – February 3, 2021

Stephan Ord, NASA Flight Opportunities

Brock LaMeres, Ph.D., Montana State University

Tips for Preparing Proposals for Payload Flight Testing

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Welcome to the Community of Practice Webinar Series!

First, a bit of housekeeping...

• Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

• Today’s session will be recorded

• Recordings for this and all future sessions will be posted on the Flight 

Opportunities website

• Please engage!

• Use the chat throughout the session to ask questions

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Welcome to the Community of Practice Webinar Series!

Flight Opportunities hopes these webinars will enable researchers, 

program staff, and flight providers to connect informally and share 

information

• Designed to distill and share the most important lessons learned to:

• Increase the impact of suborbital flight tests

• Transfer best practices

• Optimize the experience of current and prospective program participants

• Part of a broad effort to capture, organize, and communicate lessons learned 

by suborbital researchers

• An opportunity to hear from subject matter experts on best practices for 

preparing for suborbital flight tests

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Today’s Speakers

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Stephan Ord

Chief Technologist

NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program

Brock LaMeres

Professor | Electrical & Computer Engineering

Director | Montana Engineering Education 

Research Center

Montana State University

Picture Picture

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Proposal Tips for Suborbital Testing with 

Flight Opportunities

Stephan Ord, Chief Technologist, Flight Opportunities | February 2021

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Flight Opportunities mission

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The Flight Opportunities program facilitates rapid 

demonstration of promising technologies for 

space exploration, discovery, and the expansion 

of space commerce through suborbital testing 

with industry flight providers.

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Suborbital flights – a step on the way to orbit

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Accessing suborbital flights

• Tech Flights Solicitation 

• Awards and agreements for flight tests are open to researchers from industry, academia, and non-profit research 

institutes.

• Awardees select a flight provider of their choice and work directly with this provider.

• NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR)

• An amendment to the existing 2021 EPSCoR International Space Station Flight Opportunity solicitation allows 

proposal of suborbital flights to further EPSCoR-funded research.

• Proposals are due by February 22, 2021 (more info on NSPIRES).

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

• Flight Opportunities can be an “external investor”for SBIR/STTR Post Phase II activities with suborbital flight testing.

• Funds can be used for services from any viable U.S. commercial flight vendor that best meets the project’s needs.

• NASA-Supported Technology Development

• NASA researchers should reach out to Flight Opportunities at any time to discuss their need for suborbital flight tests.

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Get in touch with Flight Opportunities early in the technology development cycle

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• Talk with us about technologies in 

development

• Identify the earliest opportunities to fly 

prototypes and preliminary hardware

• Discuss the best available flight 

platforms/profiles to help de-risk key 

components of hardware or software

• Contact Stephan Ord, Chief 

Technologist for Flight 

Opportunities, to learn more: 

stephan.f.ord@nasa.gov

Talk to us at any time!

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Tips for successful Tech Flights proposals

Communicate the 

connection to 

NASA's goals

How will your 

technology and flight 

experiment benefit 

NASA's missions and 

the agency's 

strategic goals? Stay 

up to date on NASA's 

priorities and clearly 

communicate how 

your technology may 

help the agency 

achieve them.

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Explain why 

your technology is 

outstanding

Know the state of the 

art, and clearly explain 

why your technology is 

superior to what has 

been done before – or 

may be superior by 

maturing the 

technology via flight 

testing.

State your case for 

flight

Why does your 

experiment need a 

test flight, and why 

now? Communicate 

what you will learn or 

gain by doing a flight 

experiment and why it 

cannot be done on the 

ground.

Don’t overlook 

the basics

Pay close attention to 

flight plan and cost 

details, and word/page 

limits. (Extra pages 

are eliminated and will 

not be reviewed by the 

selection committee, 

regardless of the 

information they 

contain.)

Be clear and 

to the point

Make sure your writing 

is clear and cogent. 

Ask for peer reviews 

to give feedback 

before you submit 

your proposal, and 

make sure you allow 

enough time to make 

revisions before the 

deadline.

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Best practices for preparing for a solicitation

Leverage the Flight Opportunities website.

• Review Q&A presentation from prior solicitation.

• Check out the Resources page on the website, which has program factsheets, annual reports, and 

more.

• Review previous solicitations, keeping in mind that each solicitation may vary.

Subscribe to the Flight Opportunities newsletter and monitor NSPIRES to keep 

up with the latest news about calls and solicitations.

Gather your proposal information and line up colleagues to help with peer 

reviews.

Reach out to fellow community members.

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www.nasa.gov/flightopportunities

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Leverage the Flight Opportunities community

Search the technology portfolio

• Identify technologies similar to yours

• Familiarize yourself with tests 

performed on various vehicles

• Identify community members to 

connect with

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www.nasa.gov/flightopportunities

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

RadPC – Radiation Tolerant Computer

Technology Maturation Through the NASA Flight Opportunities Program

Principal Investigator 

Dr. Brock LaMeres

Montana State University

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RadSat

RadPC

A Novel Computer Architecture Implemented 

on a COTS FPGA

• A modern COTS part (<65nm) provides 

~600krad TID immunity inherently.

• A modern COTS parts significantly reduces cost 

over custom, “Rad-Hard” parts.

• SEUs are handled via the redundant processing 

cores, each that can be partially reconfigured to 

a healthy state if faulted by radiation.

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

RadSat

Flight Opportunities Testing

Sounding Rocket Testing #1

• Flown on an UP Aerospace vehicle on 10/23/2014 out of New Mexico.

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RadSat

Flight Opportunities Testing

Sounding Rocket Testing #2

• Flown on a NASA Terrier-Orion vehicle on 3/7/2016 out of Wallops.

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

RadSat

Flight Opportunities Testing

High Altitude Balloon Testing #1

• Flown on a World View Stratocraft on 9/22/2019.

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RadSat

What’s Next for RadPC?

FOP Enabled Demos on CubeSats, the ISS, and the Moon

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Tips for Preparing Proposals for Suborbital Flight Testing

Stephan Ord and Dr. Brock LaMeres

February 3, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Join us for future Community of Practice webinars!

Look for the March topic in our 

newsletter & on the website

March 3, 2021 at 10 a.m. PST

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Future webinars

• Webinars are held 1st Wednesday of each 

month at 10 a.m. PT

• Topics will be announced in the Flight 

Opportunities newsletter and website

• Session recordings will be posted on the 

Flight Opportunities website

• Let us know session topics you would like 

to see covered

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

20 www.nasa.gov

Thank you! 

Flight Opportunities website: 

http://nasa.gov/flightopportunities

Contact us:

NASA-FlightOpportunities@mail.nasa.gov

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