To support future missions and reduce risk, NASA seeks to rapidly identify and develop technologies of significant interest through a series of challenges. Participants in these challenges submit an application to develop a specific technology and then compete for awards to build the payloads. As an added incentive, NASA intends to award a suborbital flight test to the Winners of each challenge.

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The Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1 is a challenge topic that is part of the NASA TechLeap Prize. It focuses on integrated, compact precision pointing systems for small spacecraft that can be used to autonomously detect, locate, track, and collect data on transient terrestrial events such as aerosol dispersion in the atmosphere or maintain line of sight communication with an object on the lunar surface. Refer to the Technical Guidelines for additional details.  The challenge asks individuals, teams, and organizations that meet the eligibility criteria to develop a flight-ready payload to meet this need. Up to four Winners will receive up to $500,000 to support the development of a flight-ready payload. NASA also intends to award a suborbital flight test to each of the winners.

NASA welcomes applications from individuals, teams, and organizations or entities that have a recognized legal existence and structure under applicable law (State, Federal or Country) and that are in good standing in the jurisdiction under which they are organized with the following restrictions:

1. Individuals must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States and be 18 years of age or older.
2. Organizations must be an entity incorporated in and maintaining a primary place of business in the United States.  
3. Teams must be comprised of otherwise eligible individuals or organizations and led by a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident of the United States who is 18 years of age or older.

U.S. government employees may participate so long as they are not acting within the scope of their position, rely on no facilities, access, personnel, knowledge, or other resources that are available to them as a result of their employment except for those resources available to all other participants on an equal basis. Foreign citizens may only participate as (i) employees of an otherwise eligible U.S. entity who reside in the U.S., (ii) full-time students at an otherwise eligible U.S. university or college who reside in the U.S., or (iii) owners of less than 50% of the interests in an otherwise eligible U.S. entity who reside in the U.S. Refer to the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements.

If you are a past grantee of the SBIR program, you may submit a proposed technology. If you are a current grantee, please note that no U.S. government funds may be used to prepare your application. If you have any questions about your eligibility, please contact us.

If you or your employer is receiving Government funding for the same project, you or your employer may not be eligible for award. Additionally, the U.S. Government may have Intellectual Property Rights in your solution if your solution was made under a Government Contract, Grant, or Cooperative Agreement. If you work on a Government Contract, Grant, or Cooperative Agreement, you should seek legal advice from your employer’s General Counsel on your conditions of employment which may affect your ability to participate even if acting outside the scope of your employment.

If you or your employer is receiving Government funding for the same project, you or your employer may not be eligible for award. Additionally, the U.S. Government may have Intellectual Property Rights in your solution if your solution was made under a Government Contract, Grant, or Cooperative Agreement. If you work on a Government Contract, Grant, or Cooperative Agreement, you should seek legal advice from your employer’s General Counsel on your conditions of employment which may affect your ability to participate even if acting outside the scope of your employment.

You must first register no later than Wednesday, July 28, 2021, at 5:00 PM Pacific. Registration is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password, and then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, applications are due no later than Wednesday, August 11, 2021, at 5:00 PM Pacific.

There will be three types of evaluation. During the Evaluation Panel judging, each valid application will receive scores and comments from a highly qualified panel of expert judges who will use a scoring rubric to evaluate their assigned applications. All scores are normalized to ensure fairness for everyone. The Selection Committee judges will review the top-scoring submissions and select up to four Winners to receive an initial $200,000 based on the combination of the resulting rank order from the Evaluation Panel, the scoring rubric, and the diversity of solutions.

During Payload Build Round 1 and Payload Build Round 2, Winners will have the opportunity to compete for additional awards of $200,000 and $100,000 each. Field Judges will conduct on-site visits in January and June 2022 to score the progress each Winner has made.

In addition to the awards of up to $500,000, NASA intends to award a suborbital flight test to each of the Winners of Payload Build Round 2. These flight tests will be conducted on an appropriate vehicle provided by one of the vendors contracted to provide flight services for NASA government-sponsored research.

Up to four winners will receive up to $500,000 to support the development of a flight-ready payload. An initial award of $200,000 each will be made to build their flight-ready payload according to their submitted applications within an eight-month period. During Payload Build Round 1 and Payload Build Round 2, Winners will have the opportunity to compete for additional awards of $200,000 and $100,000 each. Field Judges will conduct on-site visits in January and June 2022 to score the progress each Winner has made.

NASA intends to award a suborbital flight test to each of the Winners of Payload Build Round 2. These flight tests will be conducted on an appropriate vehicle provided by one of the vendors contracted to provide flight services for NASA government-sponsored research.

NASA intends to secure flight tests for each of the Winners on an appropriate vehicle. Potential vehicles include those from vendors with whom NASA has contracted to provide flight services for government-sponsored research. Here is the current list of contracted vendors:

Blue Origin

Masten Space Systems

Raven Aerostar

UP Aerospace

Virgin Galactic

World View ‍‍‍‍

While the Technology Title and Technology Description may be published on this website and/or the NASA website, the ownership and use of intellectual property arising from this competition remains with you. NASA may choose to negotiate for a right to use license for the technologies developed as a result of the competition.

The technology needs in autonomous observation capabilities using small spacecraft are broad. This first challenge is narrowly focused on integrated, compact precision pointing systems that can be used to autonomously detect, locate, track, and collect data on transient terrestrial events such as aerosol dispersion in the atmosphere or maintain line of sight communication with an object on the lunar surface from a small spacecraft.

If you need assistance completing the registration and/or application process, please contact us. We encourage people with disabilities to submit to the Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1. We provide accommodations as needed.

Please email us your questions, and a member of our support team will respond as quickly as possible.

Once you have registered, and throughout the competition, we will send important notifications to the email address associated with your account, as well as the primary and secondary contacts listed on your registration form. There are three critical steps you can take to make sure these messages are received promptly:

1. Add our email to your contacts.
2. Whitelist our email address. Instructions on how to add to your whitelist, covering most major email providers, are here.
3. Update your registration form right away if one of your contacts changes. If you need to make a contact change after the application window has closed, please email us, and we will assist you.

You are welcome to reach out directly to any of NASA’s contracted flight providers to learn more about the profiles and services available for their suborbital flight tests. Please note that NASA will use its standard contracting process to select the most appropriate flight provider, so your application should focus on the requirements for a flight test and not a particular flight provider.

Any entity needs to ensure that they are legally eligible to participate. If flight providers determine that they are eligible to participate, we would encourage them to do so. The key is that applicants cannot receive funding for the same work twice. See the Rules for eligibility information.

Yes. At least one rocket-powered provider provides payload ejection. High altitude balloon providers may also release payloads from altitude, depending on mission requirements. You should reach out to the list of contracted providers for more information about their capabilities.

You can find the technical guidelines for size/weight in the Technical Guidelines. Additionally, you may want to review the latest CubeSat design standard.

For this challenge, you should assume non-cooperative objects. Some of the targets of interest to NASA are natural phenomena and thus are naturally non-cooperative. However, an artificial target can be made to emit natural looking signals (e.g. thermal or specific wavelength sources), and once the payload has found the object without aid, the demonstration could include communicating with it (e.g. laser communications).

Cost sharing is not required but is certainly allowed. Prize amounts may not be enough to cover payload development, and so additional funds are allowed for development. However, please note that the Scoring Rubric does not reward cost share.

To learn more, view the Suborbital Flight Testing Profiles.

You can find previously selected technologies here. Many PIs are willing to talk about their experiences with potential proposers. You can also find more information and listen to recorded webinar sessions with PIs on the Flight Opportunities Community of Practice web page.

It is up to each applicant to ensure that they have the appropriate rights (e.g., license) to use the technologies that are part of their submission. As stated in the Rules, each application should reflect the anticipated ownership, use, and licensing of any intellectual property. You represent and warrant that your Entry is an original work created solely by You, that You own or have the right to use all Intellectual Property in and to the Entry, and that no other party has any right, title, claim or interest in the Entry, except as expressly identified by You to us in writing in Your application.

Each flight provider has different payload interfaces and capabilities. This information is available from flight providers and is typically outlined in their Payload User Guides (PUGs). However, since the flight vehicle will not be predetermined during the proposal phase, how Flight Opportunities and its contracted flight providers will meet a particular requirement of the proposed technology can only be determined after successful award. After the winners are selected, Flight Opportunities will work with each PI to define payload requirements for suborbital flight, and NASA will use its contracting process to select an appropriate flight provider.

A requirement for selection is that the technology will benefit from testing/demonstration on a suborbital flight opportunity. Typically, technologies that are TRL 4-6 can benefit from a suborbital flight test.

It is correct that the focus of this challenge is on target recognition and pointing rather than the sensor itself. To learn about other opportunities, you may want to subscribe to the NASA Flight Opportunities Newsletter, sign up for the NASA Science Mission Directorate email updates, and get alerts from the NASA Instrument Incubator Program.

The Technical Guidelines include a requirement that design choices and component selections will enable transition to an orbital flight package that is compatible with small, low-cost spacecraft platforms. So, your application should describe a path to that SWaP. The 3U requirement primarily speaks directly to size, which is one of the aspects of this competition.

Target payload size is 3U, which is a typical payload accommodation for a 6U satellite.

You are welcome to include any information in your proposal that supports the strength of the technology.

Yes, transient terrestrial events of interest could include weather phenomena.