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The Tai-Yang Research Company (TYRC) proposes to address the need for high temperature superconducting (HTS) current leads used in an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) for space applications, presently being developed at the NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The innovation is to use a hybrid of two different HTS conductors bonded together at a thermally and electrically determined optimum point along the length of the current lead. The HTS conductor positioned at the warm end of the current lead will have a higher critical temperature (Tc) than the conductor at the cold end. This hybrid lead uses commercially available 2nd generation HTS conductors optimized for currents less than 10A. The warm end Tc is extended by using a bulk or thin film form not yet commercially available. TYRC will custom-fabricate the higher Tc materials and develop processes for joining them to the lower Tc material. TYRC will develop fabrication processes and generate options for mechanical design of the lead assembly.

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One of the main attributes contributing to the competitiveness of rotorcraft, is the continuously increasing expectations for passenger comfort which is directly related with reduced vibration levels and reduced interior noise levels. Such expectations are amplified in the VIP market where people are used in the acoustic and vibration levels of civil and executive jets.

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The infrastructure and programming paradigm for petabyte-level data processing performed at companies like Google and Yahoo shed some promising lights on the data-intensive scientific computing. Open source software and inexpensive commodity hardware make proprietary technologies within the grasp of academic communities. By leveraging these commercially proven and publicly available technologies, we are going to develop a suite of novel data management and analysis libraries, as an extension to existing primitive algorithms originally designed for web search. These libraries take advantage of the underlying petabyte-scalable data infrastructure, parallelize computation transparently and allow scientists and future commercial users to perform rather complex tasks (data mining, data visualization and machine learning) in a data intensive environment.

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Cornerstone Research Group Inc. (CRG) proposes to advance the state of the art in composite health management through refinement of an existing technology developed by CRG called Reflexive Composites. Reflexive Composites are the current state of the art in health management integrating piezoelectric structural health monitoring, healable polymer matrix composites, and intelligent controls delivering highly aware structures capable of identifying location and magnitude of damage with 1/16" spatial resolution. Reflexive Composites respond to damage with a healing cycle capable of restoring up to 90% of mechanical performance post failure. CRG proposes to advance the state of the art in health management through the development of a next generation control system capable of analyzing structural health monitoring (SHM) data and determining the appropriate healing cycle, identifying the type of failure in the composite, make predictions to the loss in mechanical performance, generating custom healing cycles based on failure type, healing, and making predictions of restored mechanical strength. The results of this analysis will allow the vehicle user to make any necessary mission adjustment to ensure vehicle survivability with the damaged structures on the vehicle.

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We propose the SBIR Phase II effort to develop and space-qualify a 1.06 micron high reliability frequency-stabilized CW laser source that fully satisfies the requirements of this SBIR opportunity (Lidar System Components) . Our recommended approach builds on extensive experience developed through numerous spaceflight programs, and using single frequency laser sources in the near infrared, both for aerospace and commercial applications. Our technical approach is based on emerging technology, spawned by the telecom industry that is only now reaching the maturity level where space qualification can be undertaken. NASA requires highly reliable frequency stabilized laser sources for a variety of ongoing and planned missions including LISA and GRACE. The Phase II program plans to place emphasis on the material selection, design verification and radiation testing to the proposed space laser. The proposed Phase II effort seeks to demonstrate the feasibility to space-qualify a high reliability frequency-stabilized laser source, to advance current space-based laser to TRL 6 level and to present a clear path to build a space-based ultrastable laser source for a 10 year space mission.

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NASA operates manned spacecraft according to rigorously-defined standard operating procedures. Unfortunately, operating procedures are often written in different languages. For example, Orion will use automatic procedures written in SCL, the Spacecraft Command Language, while backup manual procedures may be developed in PRL, the Procedure Representation Language. However, procedures developed in different languages may diverge, so that the backup PRL procedures do not operate in the same way as the SCL procedures. This could lead to unintended effects that may range from simply unexpected to inefficient or even catastrophic. We propose to develop the SAFE-P tool, which will use formal model-checking methods to prove that PRL and SCL procedures have the same underlying execution semantics. Our Phase 1 effort validated the effectiveness of our approach; Phase 2 will completely automate the model checking process and integrate with the Procedure Integrated Development Environment (PRIDE). SAFE-P will thus allow procedure authors to easily compare procedures as they are being developed. When differences are found by SAFE-P, they will be highlighted immediately in the PRIDE interface, allowing the operators to either fix problems or annotate the respective procedures to explain the differences. Using SAFE-P, NASA personnel will rapidly and confidently verify that if an automatic SCL program cannot be executed, a backup manual procedure in PRL will be equivalent and safe. Furthermore, as automatic translators are developed to transform procedures in one language into another NASA-relevant language (e.g., Tietronix's current effort to translate PRL into SCL), the SAFE-P tool will provide a critical validation mechanism to double-check the correctness of the translation and highlight areas where the translator makes mistakes (or deliberate approximations that yield different behavior).

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The goal of this SBIR project is to develop an innovative, high fidelity computational tool for accurate prediction of aerothermal environment around space vehicles. This tool will be based on the Unified Flow Solver (UFS) developed at CFDRC for hybrid simulations of rarefied, transitional and continuum flows. In this project, UFS will be enhanced to include: radiation transport, non-equilibrium chemistry with real gas effects, and weakly-ionized plasma. The unique strengths of our proposal are: (i) smart software with self-aware physics and adaptive numerics for hypersonic flows with non-equilibrium chemistry, (ii) direct Boltzmann solvers for charged and neutral particles in rarefied regimes, and (iii) a high-fidelity multi-scale radiation transport model that can handle orders of magnitude variation of optical thickness. During Phase 1, we evaluated the relevant physical models and numerical algorithms, and started initial implementation and demonstration of the new capabilities. In Phase 2, these capabilities will be fully developed, validated and demonstrated for selected benchmark problems of interest to NASA. The proposed tool will significantly upgrade the modeling fidelity of high-speed weakly-ionized flows of molecular gases, and enable computational investigation of innovative hypersonic plasma technologies.

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The counterflow regolith heat exchanger (CoRHE) is a device that transfers heat from hot regolith to cold regolith. The CoRHE is essentially a tube-in-tube heat exchanger with internal and external augers attached to the inner, rotating tube to move the regolith. Hot regolith in the outer tube is moved in one direction by a right-handed auger and the cool regolith in the inner tube is moved in the opposite by a left-handed auger attached to the inside of the rotating tube. In this counterflow arrangement a large fraction of the heat from the expended regolith is transferred to the new regolith. The spent regolith leaves the heat exchanger close to the temperature of the cold new regolith and the new regolith is pre-heated close to the initial temperature of the spent regolith. Using the CoRHE can reduce the heating requirement of a lunar ISRU system by 80%, reducing the total power consumption by a factor of two.

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CFD-based design-oriented (DO) steady/unsteady aerodynamic analysis tools for Aeroelastic / Aeroservoelastic (AE/ASE) evaluation lag significantly behind other multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) developments for flight vehicle design. In practically all studies to date involving configuration multidisciplinary shape optimization, dynamic AE/ASE constraints were left out, thus, rendering the design results incomplete. Flutter, gust stresses, vibration, fatigue, ride comfort, handling qualities ? all extremely important ? still cannot be accounted for in an automated design process involving configuration shape variations. Proposed here is the creation of a comprehensive design-oriented CFD-based unsteady-aerodynamic methodology to enhance current flight vehicle shape MDO capabilities by the creation of AE/ASE shape sensitivities and efficient approximations tailored for large-scale design optimization. ZONA Technology's proven ZEUS code serves as the aerodynamic base for this development. In Phase II aerodynamic shape sensitivities for AE/ASE shape optimization will be developed for general 3D configurations made of lifting surfaces and bodies. The subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight regimes will be covered. Integration with shape optimization finite-element structural codes will be demonstrated, covering diverse AE/ASE constraints including flutter and gust response. This new general capability will fit any aerospace vehicle MDO environment, and will provide a critically needed MDO building block.

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Long-life, high-capacity cryocoolers are a critical need for future space systems utilizing stored cryogens. The cooling requirements for planetary and extraterrestrial exploration missions, Crew Exploration Vehicles, extended-life orbital transfer vehicles, and space depots will range from 10 to 50 W at temperatures between 20 and 120 K. Turbo-Brayton cryocoolers are ideal for these systems because they are lightweight, compact and very efficient at high cooling loads, in addition to their inherent attributes of high reliability; negligible vibration; long, maintenance-free lifetimes; and flexibility in integrating with spacecraft systems and payloads. To date, space-borne turbo-Brayton technology has been developed for modest cooling loads. During the proposed program, Creare will develop an advanced, high efficiency turbine optimized for a high-capacity cryocooler. The advanced turbine will enable a landmark reduction in cryocooler input power and overall cooling system mass. In Phase I, we defined the cryocooler requirements for a particular mission class, developed the conceptual design of a multistage cryocooler to meet the requirements, developed the preliminary design of the advanced turbine and successfully performed proof-of-concept tests on the turbine. During Phase II, we will fabricate the turbine optimized to provide 5-20 W of net refrigeration at 20 K and demonstrate its performance at prototypical operating conditions.

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NASA's vision for planetary exploration requires development and field testing of the key technologies required for extended habitation. To support extended lunar operations with technologies directly extensible to the Mars environment, a high fidelity navigation system is needed. Precision localization and route mapping is required for planetary EVA, manned rovers and lunar surface mobility units. The innovation is the establishment of a fault tolerant, field scalable, high precision navigation system that can and support the size, weight, and power (SWaP) goals by integrating mature technologies to provide an navigation capability while naturally supporting data and voice communications on the same network. Perhaps most importantly, this system is bidirectional such that position information is provided to both the base and the mobile units. Such a system provides a precise and reliable navigation backbone to support traverse-path planning systems and other mapping applications and establishes a core infrastructure for long term occupation.

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Autonomous multiple spacecraft represent a critical enabling technology for future space missions. Currently, significant pre-flight planning and ground tasking are needed to design operational sequences for single-spacecraft missions. Multiple-spacecraft missions (especially formation flying tasks) dramatically increase the complexity of planning, sequencing and tasking, rendering them possibly intractable for current mission design approaches. The overall goal of this effort is to develop an Autonomous Dynamic Formation Planner (ADFP) applicable to multi-spacecraft formation flying tasks, using systematic methodologies for model-based prediction, optimal resource allocation and task/activity sequencing and control. During the proposed effort, SSC will develop and demonstrate an ADFP system for selected multiple-spacecraft formation-flying tasks, using representative constraints for onboard and formation resources. ADFP technology will provide a general framework for implementation of onboard autonomy for future multiple spacecraft missions, which is both resource and constraint-aware. Our project team includes subcontract support from the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Sciences, RIACS (a division of the Universities Space Research Association), and the Colorado Space Grant College (University of Colorado, Boulder).

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FUTEK will fully design and manufacture a sensor capable of measuring forces in and about each axis. The unit will measure forces up to 300 Newton's in the principle axes and measure moment forces about each axis up to 50 Newton meters. The overall design will be optimized for a multitude of applications in many different environments. As a result, the unit is capable of surviving temperatures ranging from -135<SUP>o</SUP>C and 125<SUP>o</SUP>C and will remain operable within specification between -80<SUP>o</SUP>C and 70<SUP>o</SUP>C. In addition, the sensor will be designed to accommodate vacuum conditions and all components will be covered with a protective coating. To further improve the unit, the size and weight has been minimized, making the sensor more ideal for dynamic applications and less obtrusive in assembly design. During the phase 1 contract, FUTEK has developed two operating prototypes to prove concept and feasibility. Also, different adhesives and coatings have been successfully tested beyond the survival temperatures expected in most applications. However, a continuation into phase 2 will be necessary to optimize the final design and meet all specifications and requirements. The design will be optimized to support specified loads with an acceptable factor of safety, while components are further researched and selected. In addition, the manufacturability and market of the product will be analyzed and assessed in order to commercialize such an advanced sensor.

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This purpose of this project is to develop a spray drying prototype to for the recovery and recycle of water from concentrated waste water recovery system brine. Spray drying is a one step, continuous process where a solution, slurry, sludge or paste is transformed into a dry solid and clean water.

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Future NASA missions require thermal control systems that can accommodate large changes in ambient temperature. The two essential aspects of an effective thermal interface material (TIM) are high compliance and high thermal conductivity.

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New sensor technology is required to face the challenging tasks associated with future space exploration involving missions to the Moon and Mars. The safety and well-being of the crew critically depends on early detection of threats as well as maintaining stable and acceptable conditions in the crew habitat. Prototype sensor technology being developed on this project addresses both aspects. Carbon monoxide formation is a reliable indicator of evolving fire threats and this gaseous combustion product allows rapid early detection. A highly sensitive carbon monoxide sensor is proposed for early, fast and unfailing fire detection. Current fire detectors are prone to fatigue and have insufficient sensitivity, selectivity and time-response. Smoke detectors cannot detect early stages of combustion and become unreliable if exposed to dust particulates. A second project part addresses habitat air composition monitoring. A multi-species device will be developed to simultaneously monitor oxygen, carbon dioxide and moisture. The optical sensors developed on this project have unique features like fast response, high precision and strong species selectivity. Design criteria such as small footprint, low weight, low power consumption as well as internal calibration and continuous sensor health monitoring will be implemented to provide spaceflight optimized sensors. An absorption approach using modulation techniques implemented on size optimized platforms will be applied.

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NASA's future exploration missions focus on the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond, which will rely heavily on the development of a reliable communications infrastructure from planetary surface-to-surface, surface-to-orbit and back to Earth. Flexible antennas are highly desired in many scenarios, such as pressurized rovers, pressurized habitats, space suits, and any other applications that require conformal profiles. Existing flexible electronics has an intrinsic low switching frequency due to their low carrier mobility. The CNT network in solution we used has carrier mobility as high as 46770cm2/V?s and a large current-density carrying capacity of ~1000 mA/cm2, corresponding to a high carrying power of over 2000mW/cm2. Such high carrier mobility and large current carrying capacity allow us to achieve high-speed (>100GHz), high power flexible electronic circuits and antennas. A prototype of a fully printed S-band 4-bit 2D (4x4) 16-element PAA on flexible substrate such as Kapton, including FET based T/R module and phase shifters will be developed and optimized. For the FETs working as switches/amplifiers, the switch speed, on-off ration, the gain, noise figure, insertion loss and power consumption will be significantly improved through finding better gate dielectric material, increasing the CNT purity and the optimizing the FET geometry including the channel length and the channel width. Performance features of the printed PAA will be characterized including frequency/bandwidth, gain/efficiency, and power consumption. To survive NASA's stressing environment, the operating temperature range will be investigated and the performance under shock and vibration will be evaluated. The humidity test and aging tests will also be carried out. Radiation hard test will also be carried out in Phase II under the program manager's guidance.

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nLight has demonstrated highly-uniform APD arrays based on the highly sensitive InGaAs/InP material system. These results provide great promise for achieving the performance and uniformity requirements necessary to enable 3D LIDAR applications such as autonomous precision landing and hazard detection avoidance. The high degree of uniformity demonstrated offers the potential for biasing the entire APD FPA at a single bias point. This is expected to lead to a dramatic reduction in the complexity of the integrated circuit driver, and allow for scaling to arrays of 256x256 elements and larger. Combined with reduced transmitter power requirements due to high detector sensitivity and low noise, this will ultimately lead to improved compactness, low mass, improved resolution, and low power consumption ? all of which are of concern in NASA applications such as the un-manned Lunar or Mars landing vehicles. In the proposed Phase 2 program, nLight will optimize the performance and demonstrate manufacturability of the highly uniform epitaxy demonstrated in the first phase. These InGaAs APDs are expected to show gains in excess of 10, with very low dark current and noise factors, making them well suited for LIDAR detection. Highly-uniform dense focal plane arrays of various sizes up to 256x256 elements will be fabricated and tested. These arrays will be flip-chip bonded to read-out integrated circuitry for testing in 3D flash LIDAR cameras.

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Innovative network architecture, protocols, and algorithms are proposed for both lunar surface networks and orbit access networks. Firstly, an overlaying architecture is proposed to seamlessly integrate lunar surface networks and orbit access networks. Secondly, for lunar surface networks, a network architecture based on hybrid mesh networking technologies is developed to support both fixed and mobile nodes on the lunar surface. It supports autonomous network coverage extension via ad hoc networking capability. Link adaptation algorithms provide automatic link configuration and ensure constant high link quality in a dynamic harsh environment. To support QoS of heterogeneous traffic types, a QoS oriented MAC protocol with scalable throughput performance is proposed. A hybrid routing protocol is also proposed to enhance routing efficiency and dramatically improve the reliability of ad hoc networking. Thirdly, for orbit access networks, a dynamic delay and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) routing protocol is designed by integrating DTN and mobile ad hoc network (MANET) reactive routing. It is disruption tolerant and capable of supporting intermittent links. Finally, beacon based communications serve as the remedy to handle the emergent situation where neither lunar surface network nor orbit access is available.

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In this NASA Phase II SBIR Project, we will continue the development of graphitic nanosheets (GNS) for electrochemical capacitor (EC) electrode materials. In the Phase I project, treatments of the electrode materials resulted in increases of relative capacitance (2x), relative energy (4x), and relative power (25%). These results surpassed those of commercially available ECs for relative power and will fulfill NASA's need for energy storage materials for communications and navigation. We will address the following in the Phase II program: (1) Increase performance through exfoliation, activation, and other surface treatments; (2) Use these materials as supports for the deposition of pseudocapacitive species to form a nanocomposite electrode; (3) Improve the test cell fabrication to decrease equivalent series resistance (ESR) and passive layer formation; (4) Purify electrode materials and electrolyte to decrease leakage current and self-discharge; (5) Perform environmental testing including temperature, pressure, and vibration; (6) Fabricate, test, and deliver functional prototype cells to NASA at the end of the Phase II project. This technology is currently at a TRL of 3-4 and we expect to achieve a TRL of 5 with delivery of prototype cells to NASA for testing.

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Lunar and other extraterrestrial environments put extreme demands on moving mechanical components. Gears must continue to function and surfaces must continue to slide over a wide temperature range, the low end of which renders most conventional lubricants solidified while the high end vaporizes them, especially in a vacuum. Extremely long service lives are needed, and dust can cause abrasive damage. The solution is to use a high lubricity wear resistant solid, but not even all solid lubricants are suitable for the full range of challenges. We propose to use a novel electrocodeposition process to produce a quasicrystalline coating on the surface of metal parts. Quasicrystals are a unique family of alloys having symmetries found nowhere else. They are exceptionally hard, with low surface energies. Quasicrystalline coatings have been demonstrated to be stable over wide temperature ranges and to have low friction over the entire range. Our process produces solid, high-density, low friction coatings on a variety of metal substrates. The coatings are stable for the long periods needed to achieve long operating lives. They are applied under relatively mild conditions using readily available equipment and can be applied to substrates of any shape or size. In this project we will demonstrate the application of low friction coatings to gear alloys and show their low friction and wear properties over a temperature range that extends from above ambient to cryogenic.

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The integrated design centers currently in place at the Goddard and Ames research institutions are highly productive infrastructures, allowing a group of domain specialists to rally for intense, focused intervals of time around a mission concept, refining a design in spiral fashion using a palette of trusted in-house and commercial engineering analysis tools. This approach can be significantly streamlined if a standard data exchange mechanism is established between the elements of the toolchain and a centralized function is included to govern the initiation and management of design projects. DNet has developed the Mission and Satellite Design Tool (MSDT) for AFRL, which is the starting point for the creation of tactical satellites. MSDT will accept objectives for a mission and distill them to a spacecraft configuration, drawing from a database of support devices and modular software. MSDT also coordinates the assessment of that satellite configuration, interacting with traditional analysis tools to perform domain analysis and return measures of performance which can be compared to the original objectives. DNet proposes to enhance the current framework capability to be compatible with NASA's preferred analysis tools and provide a springboard for the development of the SBIRSat and subsequent missions based on its supporting technologies.

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Advanced Scientific Concepts Inc. (ASC) is a small business, which has developed a number of 3D flash LADAR systems. Flash Ladar sensors are 3D video systems that return range and intensity information for each pixel in real time, and is functionally equivalent to 16000 range finders on one chip. Actual data collected, at the JPL mars yard, using ASC's compact Flash Ladar system demonstrated in a previous NASA phase I SBIR effort confirm that the ASC Flash LADAR Video Camera (FLVC) system can meet the requirements for Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL). The FLVC's small size, low power and very fast range data frame rate (30Hz) make the sensor ideal for EDL missions. Flash Ladar is ideal for determining real-time spacecraft trajectory, speed, orientation, and range to the planet surface, as well as evaluating potential hazards at the landing site. Sloped ground, craters, rocks and surface composition are among the potential hazards. The "framing camera" nature, of Flash LADAR systems, makes them well suited as hazard avoidance sensors for EDL. An existing Phase two effort is fabricating a compact FLVC for delivery to NASA for field testing, however the system is not hardened. A proposed Phase 2 effort would produce a space qualified sensor engine which can be integrated with the system being delivered to NASA. The sensor engine is the break-though enabling technology for the FLVC. This proposed effort will develop techniques to improve the sensors measurement accuracy. ASC will develop improved calibration techniques, improved sensor non-uniformity and improved on-board real time automatic range correction. This will target range resolutions of better than 1cm and range absolute accuracy better than 3cm. The Phase 2 effort would deliver to NASA a commercial based system with the enhancements developed during Phase 1

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UV Rigid Inflatable Wing Project

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Autonomous surface sampling systems are necessary, near term, to construct a historical view of planetary significant events; as well as allow for the identification of materials useful for ISRU activities. Paramount to this is exploration missions capable of in-situ analysis of core samples that deliver the stratigraphy of the target. These sample handling technologies must be developed to meet a broad range of potential requirements, including a variety of rock or subsurface materials, rigorous sample preservation requirements, and the general problem of autonomous operation in the presence of dust and with limited resources. Honeybee seeks to develop critical subsystems for a small, low-mass, low-power Rotary-Percussive Corer (RoPeC) capable of autonomous sample acquisition and delivery from a depth of 5 cm. Specific attention will be given to the tall-pole items including the core break-off, retention, delivery, rotary-percussive drive, and gas flushing subsystems. Near term applications include the Astrobiology Field Laboratory and Mars Sample Return missions. Previous coring tool development has focused on integration and far-horizon proof of concepts; resulting in complete systems designed around specific requirements. The path forward lies in maturing specific aspects of designs quickly. The Phase 1 research has resulted in a survey of existing sampling systems as well as a conceptual design of the RoPeC with a focus on modularity. In Phase 2, Honeybee will mature the design of RoPeC subsystems; including the integration of a percussive voice coil actuator developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Powder Acquisition Drill System. A focus on modularity will ensure that subsystems can be redesigned independently; enabling the acquisition of core samples in targets including MEPAG suggested rocks, MSL Mars analogs and Phoenix analogs. This will lead to the a TRL of 5-6.