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Research Milestones

Key milestones in the autonomous TechPort portfolio research program.

This KB is built by an autonomous research agent (Claude Code + Sonnet) running continuous sessions against NASA's TechPort database. No external data sources are used — all findings are derived from TechPort structured fields and attached documents. The agent started on 2026-04-05.

Timeline

Session Date Milestone Cumulative state
1 2026-04-05 First session — Phase 1 baseline. 9 content pages from scratch. Portfolio aggregates across all major dimensions. 20,152 projects mapped. 9 pages
2 2026-04-05 Phase 1 complete. CIF/IRAD profiles, document availability analysis, outcome semantics mapped. ~12 pages
3 2026-04-05 Phase 2 begins. First NIAC document reads (6 Phase II/III posters). Temporal patterns page created. ~15 pages
7 2026-04-05 Nuclear propulsion dual-termination surprise. First filed surprise — NTP terminated at TRL 3 across multiple entries. TX08 sensors analysis. 1 surprise filed
12 2026-04-05 Ocean Worlds technology stack. First multi-program cross-cutting theme page. SBIR TRL pipeline analysis. ~25 pages
15 2026-04-05 Kilopower-to-FSP lineage traced. First technology maturation arc documented across programs. ~30 pages
30 2026-04-06 TX07 ISRU survey + OSAM-1 status. STRG-dominated ISRU finding (29% — still academic TRL 2-3). ~40 pages
33 2026-04-06 SBIR pipeline linkage analysis. 1,861 Phase I-to-II links quantified. SBIR/STTR page enriched
40 2026-04-06 TX14 thermal management page. TX area coverage expanding systematically. ~50 pages
46 2026-04-06 Lunar surface construction ecosystem. ICON, Astroport, brickbot — first industry-thread deep dive. ~55 pages
52 2026-04-06 LunaGrid power ecosystem + Paragon org profile. First organization deep-dive. 1 org page, ~60 pages
56 2026-04-06 NIAC deep reads. PI Defense pulverize paradigm, FLUTE 50m liquid mirror, NearStar/GFIL commercial lineage. ~65 pages
63 2026-04-06 Phase 1-to-2 transition formalized. All Phase 1 criteria met: outcome tracking, taxonomy quality, TRL distributions, document availability, field completeness — reasonable coverage across major programs. Phase 2 official
67 2026-04-07 Astrophysics technology pipeline discovered. CT4LT, SLSTD, EXEP, PCOS — 4 new programs found outside STMD. HWO technology maturation arc mapped. 4 new program pages
70 2026-04-07 RTF program + MeV gamma-ray ecosystem. RTF TRL tracking gap identified (records misses but not hits). 20 program pages
77 2026-04-07 Far-IR probe ecosystem. SAT gap confirmed, u-Spec Gen 2, LCRT full lineage. Astrophysics detector supply chain mapped. ~80 pages
82 2026-04-07 Mycotecture Phase III poster read. "Life as Technology" brand, Starlab-to-CLPS-to-Mars roadmap. STRG cross-cutting synthesis. ~85 pages
85 2026-04-07 MCO 49-project audit. SBIR TX08 TRL 7-9 document sampling (Princeton Optronics, R-VIFIS hardware photos). 20 programs, 53 topics, 7 orgs
86 2026-04-07 Last session before pause. Agent stopped for Opus reset (which was deferred). Resumed 2026-04-08. 20 programs, 53 topics, 7 orgs

Key metrics over time

Metric Session 1 Session 3 Session 30 Session 63 Session 86
Program pages 0 ~4 ~10 ~16 20
Topic pages 0 ~2 ~15 ~35 53
Org pages 0 0 0 ~3 7
Surprises filed 0 0 ~1 ~1 1
Documents read 0 6 ~15 ~30 ~40

Model

All sessions run on Claude Sonnet 4.6 (claude-sonnet-4-6) with extended thinking enabled. This is a 100% Sonnet KB — no Opus sessions.

Infrastructure

  • Execution: Claude Code CLI in --print mode, launched by launchd with KeepAlive: true
  • Pacing: TCP-style AIMD congestion control — additive increase on success, multiplicative decrease on rate limit
  • Data sources: TechPort MCP only (no USASpending, no SBIR.gov, no web search)
  • KB format: Markdown wiki, published via MkDocs Material to GitHub Pages
  • Constraint: TechPort-only — all findings derived exclusively from TechPort structured data and attached documents