For the first time in history, SpaceX launched its used Dragon spacecraft on the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying 5,000 pounds of NASA science investigations and cargo. The rocket successfully reached the International Space Station and returned to Earth.
With the space race in full force, NASA has been on the hunt for the top startups, inventors and organizations that will help them achieve their goals for space exploration and landing on Mars. With so many unique challenges to be met, a new approach was needed, which is how NASA iTech was born. This unique program was specifically designed to identify cutting edge technologies that are solving problems here on earth (with a commercial market) but also have the potential to solve challenges for NASA in space.
This competition allows innovators from all around the country to present their ideas and products for a chance to work with some of the greatest minds at NASA. Last month, NASA announced the top 25 finalists from the iTech Cycle 1 and they’ve now narrowed them down to the top 10 finalists. These companies will present at the NASA iTech Forum July 12-13 while meeting with investors and NASA contractors, and the top three solutions will be chosen to work with the team at NASA and experts in the space industry.
Aesop Technologies (Newport News, VA)
Innovation: Aesop Nucleus
Challenge Area: X-Factor Innovations
Audacy (Mountain View, CA)
Innovation: Seamless and On-Demand Satellite Communications Architecture
Challenge Area: X-Factor Innovations
Bitome (Boston, MA)
Innovation: In Vivo Metabolism Monitoring by Miniaturized NMR Spectroscopy
Challenge Area: Medical Systems and Operations
Context Medical (Santa Clara, CA)
Diagnostic Digital Biomarkers
Challenge Area: Medical Systems and Operations
Fiplate (Las Vegas, NV)
Tissue Regeneration After Radiological and Acute Trauma in Space
Challenge Area: Radiation Protection and Mitigation
Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA)
Autonomous Operations of Large-Scale Satellite Constellations and Ground Station Networks
Challenge Area: Autonomy
PacSci EMC (Chandler, AZ)
Modular Architecture Propulsion System (MAPSTM)
Challenge Area: X-Factor Innovations
QuantumStack (Suffolk, VA)
Decentralized Global Computer Network
Challenge Area: Big Data
Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System (Omniboros Team), Washington, DC
Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) for Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Unmet Needs
Challenge Area: Autonomy
University of Houston (Houston, TX)
Biologically Inspired Adaptive Anti-Icing Surfaces
Challenge Area: X-Factor Innovations
Read more about how space and Hollywood are collaborating at Tech.Co