Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

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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 – January 5, 2022

Stephen Caskey, Ph.D., Air Squared

Michael Ewert, NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Alexander van Dijk, Flight Opportunities

Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

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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 session will be posted on the Flight Opportunities 

website

• Please engage!

• Use the chat throughout the session to ask questions

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

2

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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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Join us for future Community of Practice webinars!

Watch our website and 

newsletter for next month’s 

topic

nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flighto

pportunities/newsletter

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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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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

3

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Today’s Speakers

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Stephen Caskey, Ph.D.

Thermal Systems Engineer

Air Squared

Alexander van Dijk

Technologist

Flight Opportunities

Michael Ewert

Engineer | Deputy Project Manager

NASA’s Johnson Space Center 

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NASA SBIR/STTR Program | sbir.nasa.gov

SBIR Overview - What exactly do I get?

Up to $1.15 million for Phase I and II and nearly $3 million or more for Post Phase II opportunities!

Note: The 2022 Phase II 

funding amount is planned to 

increase to $1 million from 

$750,000. This is dependent 

on the final budget 

appropriated by Congress.

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

4

NASA SBIR/STTR Program | sbir.nasa.gov

How does it work?

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Note: Dates are subject to change. For the latest dates, 

please visit our website’s “Schedule & Awards” page.

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NASA SBIR/STTR Program | sbir.nasa.gov

2022 NASA SBIR/STTR Solicitations

January 6 – March 9, 2022

Changes from previous years:

• Phase I funding will increase from $125,000 

to $150,000 

• SBIR and STTR will be split into separate 

solicitations

• Phase II requirements will no longer be part 

of the Phase I solicitations

– Phase II submissions details will be available 

to Phase I awardees toward the end of their 

period of performance

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

5

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Community of Practice

Dr. Stephen Caskey | January 2022

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NASA SBIR PHASE II-E

Vapor Compression Refrigeration System for Food 

Storage on Spacecrafts

NASA Flight Opportunities - SBIR/STTR Community of 

Practice

01/05/2022

Air Squared Inc | Purdue University | Whirlpool Corporation

1/10/22 10 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 52.227-20-Rights in 

Data

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

6

Overview of Parabolic Flight Tests

• Project Members 

• Air Squared – SBIR Prime

• Oil-free scroll hardware 

• Prior NASA Projects

• Phase I – 7 completed

• Phase II – 4 completed

• Phase II-E – 1 completed

• ISS Demonstration Refrigerator 

• Purdue University – SBIR subcontractor

• Liquid flooded evaporator investigation 

• Highly instrumented benchtop system

• Whirlpool Corporation – Phase II-E investor

• Supported ISS Demo design and any issues encountered during flights

• Johnson Space Center – Phase II-E investor

• Armstrong Flight Opportunities – Phase II-E Investor 

1/10/22 Mars 2020 Moxie 11

Lunar Oxygen ISRU

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Overview of Parabolic Flight Tests

• Flew three separate 

experiments with three 

investments to create 

Phase II-E

1. Complete VCC

2. Transparent Evaporator

3. ISS Refrigerator

1/10/22 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 52.227-20-Rights in 

Data 12

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2

3

2

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

7

Vapor Compression Cycle Technology After Parabolic Flights

• Numerous (at least 4) journal publications generated 

sharing flight results

• Two-phase flow in evaporator transition into flow 

regime during microgravity and aids compressor 

ingesting only vapor 

• Created VCC scaling approach to communicate 

requirements on larger storage volumes

• Seeking NASA contractor to support design iteration to 

fly small ISS refrigerator on station for continuous 

microgravity operation 

1/10/22 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 52.227-20-Rights in 

Data 13

ISS 

Demo

Phase II

Cabinets

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Key Lessons Learned 

• Completed 

assembly with 

80-20 flight 

structure

• Installing onto 

Zero-G Plane

• Completed 

installation 

with Purdue 

test stands in 

background

1/10/22 14

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

8

Key Lessons Learned 

1/10/22 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 

52.227-20-Rights in Data 15

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Key Lessons Learned 

• Started Phase II-E plans early Q6 during Phase II

• RPP required for Zero-G

• Engaging early was extremely beneficial 

• First experiments flown with pressurized refrigerant

• Ground fault circuit breaker caused issues with custom built stands

• Should be removed on future flights

• Replicate Zero-G flight equipment as much as possible when conducting ground tests

1/10/22 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 52.227-20-Rights in 

Data 16

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Leveraging SBIR Awards for Suborbital Flight Tests 

Stephen Caskey, Michael Ewert, Alexander Van Dijk

January 5, 2022

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

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

9

Thank You! 

Transition to Panel

1/10/22 Data rights shall be in accordance with CFR 52.227-20-Rights in 

Data 17

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

18 www.nasa.gov

Thank you! 

Flight Opportunities website: 

http://nasa.gov/flightopportunities

Contact us:

NASA-FlightOpportunities@mail.nasa.gov

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