SBIR Phase I: Navigation Independent Relative Positioning System

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是改善航空航天探索。在航空领域，导航相对定位系统（NIRPS）作为可靠的互操作相互备份系统与GPS一起工作的能力将显著减少对地面控制的需求，从而提供飞行安全并能够降低地面支持服务的巨大成本。在空间应用中，NIRPS将显著改善从低地球轨道到超地球轨道空间任务的许多空间操作的制导和控制。它将增强自主交会，提高位置感知的精度，并增加无人参与的对接能力。它将显著减少对地面跟踪、测距、轨迹/轨道/姿态确定和机动规划支持功能的依赖，以及飞行控制算法的复杂性。通过持续保持轨道上的位置信息，NIRPS将提供可编程能力，允许航天器独立于地面控制行动，设计响应环境条件的实时行动，并拒绝可能的劫持企图。NIRPS将使以前不可能的任务类别成为可能。拟议的项目将通过为航空航天应用提供可靠的实时自主网络安全导航来解决航空航天导航问题。由于惯性导航的延迟性和不稳定性，航空航天导航依赖于GPS、信标和飞行/任务控制系统。与惯性导航利用旋转质量或光在旋转介质内传播的力相反，所提出的NIRPS利用惯性系的共线位移与光在旋转介质内的独立传播有关。第一阶段项目包括利用光子学方法制造NIRPS关键部件——非惯性速度探测器（NIVD）的可行性。由于互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）制造工艺的大规模集成、低成本和大批量生产，硅光子学正在成为光子集成电路（PICs）的领先技术。在这个阶段，我们将研究材料及其在不同环境条件下可能的相互作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve of aerospace exploration. In aviation, the capability of the Navigation Relative Positioning System (NIRPS) working with GPS as a reliable interoperable mutual backup system will significantly reduce the need for ground control, hence providing flight safety and the ability to reduce the massive cost of ground support services. In space applications, NIRPS will significantly improve guidance and control of many space operations, from Low Earth Orbit to Beyond Earth Orbit space missions. It will enhance autonomous rendezvous, improve accuracy of position sensing, and increase the capability of docking without humans in the loop. It will significantly reduce dependence on ground-based tracking, ranging, trajectory/orbit/attitude determination and maneuver planning support functions, and complexity of the flight control algorithms. By continuously holding position information on trajectory, NIRPS will provide programmable capabilities to allow the spacecraft to act independently from ground control, devising real-time actions in response to environmental conditions as well rejecting possible hijacking attempts. NIRPS will enable classes of missions which would not be previously possible.The proposed project will address the problems of aerospace navigation by providing onboard reliable real time autonomous cybersecure navigation for aerospace applications. Due to the latency and instability of inertial navigation, aerospace navigation relies on GPS, beacons, and flight/mission control systems. Contrary to inertial navigation utilizing forces of spinning mass or propagation of light inside rotational media, the proposed NIRPS utilizes collinear displacement of the inertial frame in relation to the independent propagation of light within. The Phase I project encompasses the feasibility of deploying photonics methods of fabrication of the NIRPS key component, the Non-Inertial Velocity Detector (NIVD). Silicon photonics is becoming the leading technology for Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) due to large-scale integration, low cost, and high-volume production enabled by the Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process. In this Phase, we will research materials and their possible interactions in varying environmental conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.