NASA wants to commercialize the SpaceCube, its space data processor - Washington Business Journal (blog)

How might you use a SpaceCube? And while we're at it, what is a SpaceCube, anyway? Now's the time to figure it out, as NASA works to commercialize its data processing system for outer space.

A SpaceCube looks like a metal box with a bunch of tubed wiring coming out of it. But what it actually is, according to NASA, is a reconfigurable, hybrid data processing system designed for space flight. The space agency described it in a September article on its website: It's 10 to 100 times more powerful than current radiation-hardened space processors, able to capture a large amount of data, process it, and support the operation of all sorts of advanced instruments and complete real-time tasks in space. Think autonomous decision-making and robotic maneuvers - both things that would come in handy for operating inflight spacecraft.

SpaceCubes, which were designed by engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center, have been around since 2005 - with three currently on the International Space Station, and another three expected to head there in the next year. One was also the brains behind an experiment conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA apparently sees some untapped potential for these smart boxes. The agency published a notice on the Federal Register of its plans to commercialize the SpaceCube - making them available for licensing to other entities that might be able to use the data processing systems with their own spacecraft.

According to the notice, NASA will 'move expeditiously to commercialize these patents' by licensing to a cooperative research and development partner, and 'intends to ensure that its licensed inventions are broadly commercialized throughout the United States.'

Jill R. Aitoro covers federal contracting. Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 4 1 Name: Hubble Space Telescope Count: 1 2 Name: United States Count: 1 3 Name: Jill R. Aitoro Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/12RZ2vW Title: What's Next for NASA's Orion Spaceship After Historic 1st Flight? Description: NASA's Orion spacecraft is pulled into the well deck of the U.S. Navy's USS Anchorage after its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 5. 2014. Orion successfully completed its first-ever test flight that day, an unmanned effort called Exploration Flight Test-1.Credit: NASA NASA's Orion capsule has come back down to Earth after its first-ever test flight, and the spacecraft will remain on terra firma for a while.