Skip to content

PICASSO — Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations

Created: 2026-04-08 (session 90)

Summary

PICASSO is the earliest-stage planetary science instrument development program — TRL 1-4 concept feasibility studies that feed the MatISSE → flight mission pipeline. It is the entry point for new instrument concepts targeting Discovery, New Frontiers, Mars, and ocean world missions. 124 total projects, 93% TX08, TRL peak at TRL 2 (41%), 0 outcome records. Heavily focused on astrobiology and biosignature detection.

PICASSO is not a maturation program — it is a concept incubator. The outcome of a PICASSO grant is a journal paper and a MatISSE proposal, not a delivered instrument. Only a fraction of PICASSO concepts advance: MatISSE has only 33 projects versus PICASSO's 124, implying a ~3.75:1 attrition ratio.

Portfolio Overview

Field Value
Total projects 124
Active 21 (16.9%)
Completed 103 (83.1%)
Program ID 34623
Parent Planetary Science (PSD), SMD
TRL range funded 1-4 (per program description)
Program Manager Shahid Aslam (shahid.aslam-1@nasa.gov)
Program Director Erica N. Montbach (erica.n.montbach@nasa.gov)
TX08 share 92.7% (115/124)
TRL 2 51 projects (41.1%) — dominant
TRL 3 28 projects (22.6%)
TRL 1 8 projects (6.5%)
TRL 4 2 projects (1.6%)
Null TRL 34 projects (27.4%)
Lead org missing 39 projects (31.5%) — significant data gap
Outcome records 0

Data snapshot: 2026-04-04.

Program Purpose and Pipeline Position

PICASSO occupies the earliest rung of the SMD Planetary Science instrument ladder:

PICASSO (TRL 1-4, feasibility) → MatISSE (TRL 3-6, maturation) → Mission instrument proposal

Both PICASSO and MatISSE share the same Program Director (Erica Montbach), confirming they are explicitly designed as a pipeline. The program description states: "PICASSO is intended to enable timely and efficient technology infusion into the MatISSE Program and eventually into flight missions."

MatISSE comparison: | | PICASSO | MatISSE | |---|---|---| | Project count | 124 | 33 | | TRL peak | 2 | 4 | | TRL range | 1-4 | 3-6 | | Active | 21 | ~8 (est) | | Outcome records | 0 | ~0 | | Program Director | Montbach | Montbach | | Attrition from PICASSO | — | ~74% don't advance |

Technology Themes

PICASSO is strongly dominated by astrobiology and in situ planetary chemistry — instruments for detecting life or characterizing habitability on Mars, Ocean Worlds, and airless bodies.

Organic Detection and Biosignature Instruments

The largest single category — multiple complementary approaches to detect organic molecules and potential biological signatures: - Raman spectrometers — 97158 3D-IR Raman (UCF), surface mineralogy and organics; precursor to SHERLOC-type instruments. Multiple Raman variants funded across grant cycles. - Mass spectrometers — 24798 MACROS organic analyzer (Max-Planck), 96532 RAMS Raman+mass combined (GSFC), 182279 laser ablation mass analyzer (NASA HQ/lunar) - Gas chromatographs — 96540 GC-GPF fluorescence detector (ARC), 182291 GALE gas analysis (NASA HQ) - Ion mobility spectrometers — 182234 low-pressure IMS for Mars organics (Caltech) - Chirality detection — 96541 Raman optical activity for chiral compounds (U Kansas), 182286 MIRACLE mid-IR chiroptical explorer (Colorado School of Mines) - Volatile sensing arrays — 97165 VAPOR trace gas sensor array (GSFC) - Organic extraction — 97161 KAMELO kerogen extractor (ARC) — thermal liberation of refractory organics from Mars regolith

Seismometers and Geophysics

Strong cluster of seismometer concepts for planets where conventional approaches fail: - Venus surface seismometer — 96536 rugged Venus seismometer (Arizona State), 182225 CalTech SHAKE for Venus/icy moons; Venus surface is 465°C and 90 atm — surviving long enough to measure seismic events is an instrument design challenge - MEMS seismometer — 94417 Universal MEMS Seismometer (Caltech) for Ocean Worlds, Moon, Mars; developed to TRL 5 - Venus infrasound — 157575 deployable infrasonic sensor array (JPL) — Venus seismicity via atmospheric infrasound coupling, avoids surface temperature constraints

Remote Sensing and Spectrometers

  • High-temperature Venus electronics — 35028 JPL high-temp electronics for Venus seismometry
  • THz/submm spectrometers for atmospheres — 24879 JPL THz heterodyne for planetary atmosphere molecular lines, 92667 JPL chirality detector for amino acids, 97146 CalTech SUBLIME D/H ratio water isotopologue measurement
  • Microwave radiometers — 96530 SwRI deep atmosphere MW radiometer for ice giant exploration (Uranus/Neptune)
  • X-ray spectrometers — 97167 Miniature X-ray Optics MiXO (Smithsonian) for planetary XRF; 157576 INSPECT3R 3D nuclear spectrometer (GSFC)
  • Hyperspectral imagers — 183250 HyperPIX diffractive hyperspectral imager (NASA HQ); 157574 metamaterial IR filter (Ball Aerospace), 157579 holey silicon thermopile broadband detector (UC Irvine)
  • Laser altimeter detectors — 94416 HgCdTe APD arrays for planetary laser altimeters (GSFC)
  • LIDAR — 182239 compact electrostatic dust analyzer for airless body electrostatics (CU Boulder)

Laser Sources

  • Deep UV CW laser — 97175 solid-state 266nm source for biosignature Raman/fluorescence (SwRI); needed for life-detection Raman because DNA/amino acids have UV fluorescence responses
  • Cavity-enhanced laser absorption — 183239 CalTech CELAS for Mars methane isotopologues (active, 2025-2028)

Organization Profile

Strong Caltech/JPL dominance — consistent with JPL's planetary science mission lead role: - California Institute of Technology: 17 (13.7%) — largest single academic lead - Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 8 (6.5%) — co-equal with GSFC - Goddard Space Flight Center: 8 (6.5%) - NASA Headquarters: 6 (4.8%) — unusually high HQ lead count (suggests some projects were entered with HQ affiliation rather than the PI's actual institution; data quality issue) - University of Maryland: 6 (4.8%) - Southwest Research Institute: 4 (3.2%) - Honeybee Robotics: 4 (3.2%) — notable industrial presence for early-TRL planetary instruments - Lead org missing: 39 (31.5%) — major data gap; worse than any other profiled program

The 31.5% missing-org rate is a specific PICASSO data quality problem. Likely explanation: many early PICASSO grants (pre-2017) were entered with incomplete records; some projects represent PI-led grants where the institutional affiliation wasn't systematically captured.

Outcome Tracking

0 outcome records across 124 projects. Not a single Closed_Out, Infused_To, or Transitioned_To.

PICASSO is a ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) program — NASA's academic grant mechanism. Like H-TIDeS, the outcome is publication and follow-on proposals, not documented TechPort infusion. The connection to MatISSE (the follow-on program) is not encoded as a TechPort outcome link — there are no "Advanced_To MatISSE" records for PICASSO projects that progressed.

This is structurally the same gap as H-TIDeS, SAT, and APRA: SMD research grant programs are systematically invisible in TechPort's outcome model.

See topics/field-completeness.md — Issue 34 (SMD grant program outcome tracking gap).

Active Cohort Highlights (21 Projects)

All active projects are 2023-2025 start, targeting 2026-2028 completion. Representative active projects:

ID Title Lead TRL Domain
183239 Cavity-enhanced laser absorption (Mars CH4) Caltech 2→4 Mars methane
182225 Seismometers for Harsh Environments (Venus/icy moons) Caltech 2→4 Venus seismic
183242 MONET multispectral organic+mineral mapper Honeybee Robotics 2→4 Organics
182286 MIRACLE chiroptical life detection Colorado School of Mines 2→4 Chirality/life detection
183209 Meta-optically steered antenna for comets Caltech 2→4 Cometary sensing
182279 Laser ablation mass analyzer (lunar) NASA HQ 2→4 Lunar surface chem
183250 HyperPIX diffractive hyperspectral imager NASA HQ 2→4 Planetary imaging
183233 SERS multiwavelength Raman U Virginia 1→3 Surface Raman
157575 Venus deployable infrasound array JPL 2→4 Venus geophysics

All active projects target TRL 2→4, consistent with the official program scope of TRL 1-4.

Relationship to Other PSD Programs

The full Planetary Science instrument development ladder in TechPort:

PICASSO (TRL 1-4) → MatISSE (TRL 3-6) → mission instrument proposal → DALI/COLDTech/HOTTech (instrument flight dev) → mission
  • MatISSE (Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration, ID 18500): 33 projects, TRL peak at 4, same PD (Montbach). The PICASSO follow-on.
  • DALI (Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation): lunar-specific instrument development — not yet profiled
  • COLDTech (Concepts for Ocean Worlds Life Detection Technology): ocean world biosignature instruments — not yet profiled
  • HOTTech (Hot Operating Temperature Technology): Venus and other high-temperature environments — not yet profiled