Commercial Space Centers

The Center for Space Power at Texas A&M University has a mission to develop technologies with industry for NASA mission needs and space power-related commercial ventures. The CSP has developed a variety of space power-related technologies that are available for licensing and applicable to both space and terrestrial commercial activities. These technologies include specialized heat pipes, advanced battery components, novel electronic materials, digital communications algorithms, power conditioners, and a host of other power-related devices.

The Commercial Space Center for Engineering at Texas A&M University : Our mission is to assist industry in using the International Space Station as a commercial engineering and technology development testbed

The Center for Mapping at Ohio State The Center for Mapping (CFM) is both a NASA Commercial Space Center and an Ohio State University interdisciplinary research center focused on spatial data technologies, including remote sensing, geodesy using the Global Positioning System (GPS), inertial navigation systems (INS), photogrammetry, image processing, computer vision, image understanding, modeling, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The Space Technology Center at Florida Atlantic University. The SCTC was established in 1991 as a non-profit consortium of industry, academia and government that conducts space-based, high-technology research and development in communications. Its mission is to develop the commercial use of digital transmission techniques for transmitting video, audio and data to the earth by satellite.

Space Remote Sensing Center

The Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communication Networks (CSHCN) is actively investigating interoperable hybrid networks that seamlessly link new satellite and wireless systems with cellular, cable, Internet and telephone networks (schematic).

The Medical Informatics & Technology Applications (MITA) a Commercial Space Center at Yale University. The mission of the Center is to establish partnerships with academic, industrial and governmental entities dedicated to: the improvement of health care through the use of space science and technology; the maintenance of the U.S. competitive lead in commercial applications of medical informatics and telemedicine; the development of better space science and technology; and the use of telecommunications, or, enhanced electromechanical interfaces connecting the health care team with patients.

The Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing (CAMMP) is a NASA-sponsored Commercial Space Center established in 1997 at Northeastern University. Its mission is to stimulate innovations in materials technology and to develop commercial products through knowledge gained from ground-based and, where appropriate, microgravity research.

Center for Space Power and Advanced Electronics  at Auburn University. In conjunction with industrial partners and campus-wide expertise, the work of the Center for Space Power and Advanced Electronics encompasses four major areas: wide temperature range electronics (-200 to +500 °C) including SiGe and SiC devices and modeling; wide temperature electronics packaging covering CSPs, BGAs, Pb-free solders, embedded passives, thermal control and reliability predictions and verification; high efficiency, modular power systems based on distributed digital control for space and terrestrial use; and energy storage and electric propulsion technologies including supercapacitors, flywheels, Hall and Pulsed Plasma Thrusters.

BioServe Space Technologies is located at two universities. It is jointly led by the University of Colorado's Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department and Kansas State University's Division of Biology.It conducts research in three areas: biomedical and pharmaceutical; bioprocessing and biotechnology; and agricultural and environmental.

The Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space located at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado in focusing in the areas of combustors, fire safety, ceramic powders, semiconductors packages, and combustion synthesis.

Center for Materials Solidification located at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama is conducting space research on thermolphysicical properties of casting alloys. Containerless measurements, taken aboard Shuttle and Station, will provide better values for use in computer models that will improve the manufacturing of cast metal parts.

The Center for Macromolecular Crystallography located at the University of Alabama at Birmingham specializes in determining the three-dimensional structure of protein crystals using a process known as X-ray crtystallography. By bombaring space-grown protein crystals with X-rays, diffraction patterns are produced, which allow the structure of the protein to be determined. The crystals are grown in space because the near absence of gravity allows large and near perfect crystalline structures to form.

The Consortium for Materials Development in Space located at the University of Alabama in Huntsville develops space materials that can be used to build structures in space, utilizes the microgravity environment to advance understanding of liquid metal sintering for improved commercial structures, vapor grown single crystals for electronic and acoustical optical applications as well as developing an electrodeposition technique.

The Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Product Development Office located in Huntsville, Alabama, a NASA field center, is jointly developing with industry materials in photonics and electronics including the space processing of fluoride glass fibers for communications systems and processing in space of Non-Linear-Optical (NLO) film materials. This canter oversees the commercial product development activities at the other NASA centers.

The Langley Research Center located at Hampton, Virginia is one of NASA's space centers involved in commercial research in improved polymer materials. In collaboration with Paragon Vision Sciences, an Arizona firm that is a major distributor of contact lens products. Paragon is interested in developing a rigidized contact lens that will be more durable and machinable than soft lenses, but will be more comfortable to the wearer that traditional hard contact lenses.

The Microgravity Automation Technology Center, a part of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is focusing in improving the efficiency of microgravity-based product development research. Terrestrially, this area is known as the laboratory automation industry. One technology are under development involves the use of digital imaging microscopy over very long distances.

The Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center located at Houston, Texas is developing new techniques to use the ultra-vacuum of space for processing ultra-pure, thin-film materials for improving electronics and computers. One of the Center's main projects is the Wake Shield Facility, a 12-foot stainless steel disk, deployed and retrieved by the Space Shuttle to produce a vacuum environment that is up to 10,000 times more pure than the best vacuum chambers on Earth.

The Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is developing commercial technologies for future long duration space missions and terrestrial applications and is focused on the use of microgravity to enhance production of plant materials for pharmaceutical and agricultural purposes. The Center has also facilitated the development ofimproved light sources for promoting plant and food growth ni a closed environment.