SBIR at NASA (2016) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
7 Insights from Survey Responses and Case Studies
7 Insights from Survey Responses and Case Studies
Pages 148-170
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From page 148... ...
All survey responses are provided in boxes, and are drawn verbatim from responses to the 2011 Survey of NASA SBIR award recipients.
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Eltron Research Honeybee Robotics Intelligent Automation (IAI) Paragon Space Development Princeton Scientific Instruments Stottler Henke Techno-Sciences Inc.
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From page 150... ...
industry: in 2012, VCs provided $820 million for seed and startup projects compared with the overall spending of $2.13 billion by the SBIR program. 2 Evidence from interviews and survey responses confirms that, for many companies, SBIR funding allows a company to get started.
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But in others, SBIR funding allows companies to develop projects that otherwise would be too risky to contemplate. (See Box 7-5 for related survey comments.)
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division success." "The Phase II funding allowed for the development of a product that is essential to the survival of our company." "The technologies we developed under SBIR funding are at the heart of the products that are our backbone for the future." "This particular SBIR helped us develop [XXX technology] that is fundamental to many of our products and research systems that we manufacture and was a huge advance for us." "While the experience was positive, we did not have much business savvy." ____________________ NOTE: Company identifying information is struck from the survey comment.
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From page 153... ...
5 As 5 NASA Phase I "Heat Pipe Heat Exchangers with Double Isolation Layers for Prevention of Interpath Leakage;" DoD Phase I "VCHP Heat Exchanger for Passive Thermal Management of a Fuel Cell Reforming Process."
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." "SBIR funding has provided the technology base that led to two significant (one was $6.5M, one was $26M) NASA awards to build hardware that supported earth science satellite missions." [Company]
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For example, NASA SBIR awards have played a pivotal role in supporting both Continuum Dynamics and, indirectly, rotorcraft manufacturing in the United States. According to Dr.
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Blankenship said that SBIR funding supported the company's push into new technologies and new markets such as air-driven technology for aircraft flaps. Selling into NASA The small size, long timeline, and specialized nature of NASA acquisitions provide formidable challenges for NASA SBIR companies.
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Prime customers include BAE Systems, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Raytheon. 9 Capacity Building -- Human Capital SBIR funding can be used in part to provide small companies with necessary equipment, but interviews and survey responses show that the human 9 TecFusion™ is an attempt to systematically bring SBCs together with primes after Phase II is completed.
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From page 158... ...
In fact this PI has gone on to start another company drawing on what was learned from the NASA SBIR program." SUPPORTING THE AGENCY MISSION Building Innovative Technologies Needed by NASA Evidence from cases strongly supports the view that the SBIR program provides important technologies that are taken up by NASA and could perhaps not be acquired by other mechanisms. Honeybee has, according to Irene Yachbes, its director of technology development, provided technologies used by NASA for on-Mars missions: • The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)
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From page 159... ...
This development was possible in part because Honeybee maintains the facilities and expertise for preparing and testing tools utilizing simulated Mars soil under simulated Mars temperatures. These highly specialized capabilities have been developed by Honeybee in the course of more than 100 projects for NASA, serving the needs of nine NASA Centers.
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From page 160... ...
to deploy the "first aquatic angiosperms to be grown in space, the first completely bioregenerative life support system in space, and among the first gravitational ecology experiments." Also, the "first full-motion, long-duration video (4 months, 60 total minutes) of plant and animal growth on orbit was accomplished with a Paragon-designed digital camera system using a Paragon-specified Sony DCR-7 digital camera with custom EPROM." ______________________ SOURCE: Case Study of Paragon Space Development in Appendix E of this report.
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From page 161... ...
CHARM is the center-piece of CDI's aerospace modeling capabilities, but CDI has also developed a number of complementary capabilities. These tools, built with the help of NASA and other SBIR funding, have positioned CDI to develop close working relations with large aerospace and defense contractors such as Sikorsky Aircraft, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, CAE, and General Electric Aircraft Engines.
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"techniques, allowing expert shuttle schedulers to input their knowledge to create a working automatic scheduling system." 15 More generally, evidence from the survey indicates that in many cases the NASA SBIR program does support innovative technologies that could not otherwise be funded (see Box 7-12)
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____________________ NOTE: Company identifying information is struck from the survey comment. SOURCE: 2011 Survey.
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From page 164... ...
SOURCE: 2011 Survey. BOX 7-14 Survey Responses on Contributions to Agency Mission "The SBIR program allowed us to develop software tools that are now in use throughout the government and industry servicing civilian and DoD needs related to the [XXX industry]
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This development was possible in part because Honeybee maintains the facilities and expertise for preparing and testing tools utilizing simulated Mars soil under simulated Mars temperatures. ISSUES IN PROGRAM MANAGEMENT Solicitation Topics Mr.
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Mr. Stottler (Stottler Henke)
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Funding Gaps and Issues The 2011 Survey indicated that funding gaps between Phase I and Phase II remain an issue for many companies. Stottler Henke's representative said that the company experienced significant Phase I-Phase II gaps with NASA awards, which would have been damaging absent other work.
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From page 168... ...
Overall, he thought that funding levels should be increased even if that means fewer awards. He noted that this would encourage NASA to focus more clearly on its top priorities, which would in turn lead to better connections between SBIR and Phase III opportunities.
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• Rigidity. Eltron didn't find it possible to expand beyond its existing primary technical base using SBIR funding.
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and then on smaller and mid-size small companies. He believed that these larger small companies do not require SBIR funding to the same degree.
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