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Truventic LLC — EjectaBLAST Lunar Ejecta Monitor

Type: Small Business (UCF physicist-founded, Orlando FL)
FO Project: 158364 — Tethered Lander Operation of Ejecta Backscattered Laser Albedo and Sizing Tracker (EjectaBLAST)
Period: 2024-02-01 – 2026-04-30 (ending this month)
TRL: 4 → 6 (target)
PI: Chris Fredricksen
Co-I: Robert E. Peale (UCF PAMSS / Truventic founder)
TX: TX07.2.5 — Particulate Contamination Prevention and Mitigation
Views: 2,132
Outcome Category: Active maturation — SBIR Portfolio Company with parallel DoD IR detector business
Downstream $: $5.4M+ total (NASA $925K ejecta-specific + $4.5M DoD IR/quantum detectors)
Last updated: Session 100, 2026-04-07

What Is Being Tested

EjectaBLAST (Ejecta Backscattered Laser Albedo and Sizing Tracker) is a lander-mounted active laser light-scattering system that measures particle size distributions in lunar ejecta plumes during landing. The instrument determines laser beam propagation decay constants at multiple wavelengths from imaged light scatter, deriving temporally and spatially variable particle sizes in real time.

Why it matters: Ejecta from rocket-powered lunar landings can damage nearby hardware, contaminate science experiments, and erode the landing surface itself. Accurate particle size data is essential for Gateway proximity operations, Artemis landing pad design, and CLPS mission safety. No instrument has ever measured these distributions in situ during a lunar landing — EjectaBLAST aims to be the first.

Lineage: EjectaBLAST is the commercial successor to UCF's Ejecta STORM instrument (106706, PI Philip Metzger), which was flight-tested on Masten Xaero (2021) and Astrobotic Xodiac (Oct 2023). See UCF Ejecta STORM. Truventic, founded by UCF physicist Robert Peale, is the commercialization vehicle for the university's plume-surface interaction research.

Company: Truventic LLC

Founded by: Robert E. Peale, physicist at UCF's Physics Department (PAMSS group — Photonics and Advanced Micro/nano-device for Sensor Systems)
Location: Orlando, Florida
SBIR portfolio: 876613 (SBIR.gov)

Truventic is an SBIR-driven small business with two distinct technology lines:

1. Lunar Ejecta / Plume-Surface Interaction (NASA)

Award Amount Agency Description
80NSSC21C0416 $125K NASA SBIR Phase I — High spatio-temporal resolution particle sizer for plume-induced ejecta clouds (2021)
80NSSC22CA154 $799.8K NASA SBIR Phase II — Same title (Jun 2022 – Jun 2024)
FO [158364] — NASA FO EjectaBLAST flight test (Feb 2024 – Apr 2026)

Total NASA ejecta-specific: ~$925K

2. IR Detectors and Quantum Sensors (DoD)

Award Amount Agency Description
HQ014718C7310 $1.46M MDA SBIR Phase II — Radiation-defect mitigation in InAs/GaSb superlattice IR detectors (2018–2022)
FA865118C0073 $750K Air Force SBIR — Plasmonic infrared scene projector (2018–2021)
W911NF23C0027 $1.70M Army STTR Phase II — Twisted graphene-based Josephson junction detectors (2023–2025)
FA865117P0123 $150K Air Force STTR Phase I — Plasmonic metamaterial IR scene projection (2017–2018)
FA865016P2706 $149.9K Air Force Phase I — Spatiotemporally resolved IR spectroscopy in turbulent combustors (2016–2017)
HQ014717C7256 $149.2K MDA SBIR Phase I — (related to IR detectors) (2016–2018)

Total DoD: ~$4.5M across 6 awards

Total all awards: ~$5.4M across 9 USASpending records

Publications

  • SPIE 2023: "Laser particle sizer for lunar plume-surface interaction studies" (Proceedings 12537, DOI: 10.1117/12.2663930)
  • LEAG 2025: Abstract 5083 — EjectaBLAST results presentation at Lunar Exploration Analysis Group annual meeting
  • NASA FO website: Technology profile at flightopportunities.ndc.nasa.gov/technologies/304/

Assessment

Archetype: SBIR Portfolio Company (Archetype 6) + Academic Spin-off.

Truventic is unusual in the FO portfolio because it's primarily a DoD IR detector company ($4.5M DoD) that runs a smaller NASA lunar ejecta measurement line ($925K). The FO project (EjectaBLAST) is the NASA-facing tip of a company that derives most of its revenue from defense sensor contracts. This is the inverse of most FO companies — typically NASA is the primary customer and DoD is secondary.

Signal strength: Medium. The technology is real (peer-reviewed, flight-tested via Ejecta STORM predecessor), and the company has a sustainable business model via DoD IR contracts. But EjectaBLAST hasn't secured a CLPS lander slot for actual lunar flight. The FO project ends April 2026 — the key question is whether the instrument transitions to a lunar mission.

What FO provides: Tethered VTVL test environment for validating the laser scattering system against realistic rocket plume/regolith interactions. Same infrastructure that hosted the predecessor Ejecta STORM tests.

Time dimension: - 2016–2017: Truventic's first DoD SBIR Phase I contracts (IR detectors) - 2021: NASA SBIR Phase I for ejecta particle sizer - 2022–2024: NASA SBIR Phase II ($800K) - 2024–2026: FO EjectaBLAST flight test (ending Apr 2026) - Next: CLPS lander integration? No selection announced

Open threads: - Does EjectaBLAST close out with TRL 6 this month? - Is a CLPS lander slot being pursued? Which mission? - Connection to PIE instrument (CLPS-targeted) - Peale's broader UCF research program — additional sensor spinoffs?

Verification

  • Sample size: 1 FO project; 9 USASpending awards ($5.4M); 2+ publications; 1 predecessor FO project (Ejecta STORM)
  • Queries: techport_get_project [158364]; USASpending "Truventic" (9 awards); web search Truventic EjectaBLAST
  • Evidence: TechPort record; USASpending contracts; SBIR.gov portfolio 876613; SPIE 2023 paper; LEAG 2025 abstract; Florida Trend article; Truventic website (truventic.com)
  • Counter-query: Is EjectaBLAST genuinely different from Ejecta STORM, or is it the same instrument re-funded? Based on the SPIE paper and descriptions, EjectaBLAST is an advanced version with improved multi-wavelength analysis and lander integration design. The SBIR Phase I/II funded the new instrument development; the FO project funded the flight validation. Different but lineage is direct.
  • Confidence: Confirmed (company, contracts, technology). Lunar deployment is speculative — no CLPS selection.

Cross-References