NASA intends to make four awards for energy storage technologies, up to $250,000 each, in a solicitation to replace batteries both in space and on earth.
“NASA is focusing on creating new advanced technologies that could lead to entirely new approaches for the energy needs of the agency’s future Earth and space missions,” said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for space technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington,D.C. “Over the next 18 months, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate will make significant new investments that address several high priority challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration. One of these challenges, advanced energy storage, offers new technology solutions that will address exploration and science needs while adding in an important and substantive way to America’s innovation economy.”
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency is acting as a program collaborator.
NASA seeks proposals in two categories:
1) High Specific Energy System Level Concepts that focus on cell chemistry and system level battery technologies, such as packaging and cell integration.
2) Very High Specific Energy Devices that focus on energy storage technologies that can go beyond the current theoretical limits of lithium batteries while maintaining the cycle life and safety characteristics demanded of energy storage systems used in space.
Proposals will be accepted from NASA centers and other government agencies, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, industry and nonprofit organizations
The Advanced Energy Storage Systems Appendix is managed by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), and is part of STMD’s NASA Research Announcement “Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014” (SpaceTech-REDDI-2014) for research in high priority technology areas of interest to NASA.
The SpaceTech-REDDI-2014-14GCDC1 Advanced Energy Storage Systems Appendix is available through the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System at: http://go.nasa.gov/ru9LgH.
