A Chance to be Part of Space Station Experiment

Good News!!! NASA provides you with a golden opportunity to be a part of the International Space Station research. The academia, industry and government agencies can now develop and carry out research and technology demonstrations on the space station using the newly installed Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed.

The newly installed SCaN Testbed acts as a communications, navigation and networking demonstration platform based on the STRS. The first experimental activity was carried out on the space station Aug. 13 and is expected to operate for at least three years.

This offers the researchers to develop the new software according to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard, or STRS, architecture for radios and entirely reconfigure how radios communicate in space.

According to Richard Reinhart, principal investigator of the SCaN Testbed at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the new testbed is composed of three STRS-compliant, software-defined radios to be operated in space.

"This flexible testbed will allow researchers to develop new software according to the STRS architecture for the radios and reconfigure how the radios communicate on-orbit, to explore new concepts for future missions. Once proven, this new capability will enable greater science return from future NASA missions," said Reinhart.

The SCaN Testbed Experiment Opportunity invites industry and government agencies to enter into Space Act Agreements with NASA to use the SCaN Testbed on space station.

"These two announcements of opportunity provide industry, academia and government agency experimenters a unique service and facility to develop and field the latest communications, navigation and networking technologies not only in the laboratory, but also in the dynamic space environment," said David Irimies, deputy project manager of the SCaN Testbed at Glenn.

"Investigators will gain valuable flight experience, raise the technology maturity level of their applications by operating within the space environment, and demonstrate future mission capabilities for a potentially key role in future NASA missions."