FO Completed Project Profiles¶
Established: 2026-04-07 | Sources: TechPort batch query, web search, NASA websites, SBIR.gov
This page tracks detailed investigations of individual completed FO projects, tracing downstream impact beyond what TechPort records show. The systematic gap between TechPort outcome fields (0% Infused_To, 0% Transitioned_To for FO) and actual downstream activity is documented in programs/fo.md.
Project 1: Air Squared, Inc. — Vapor Compression Refrigeration [106684]¶
TechPort: 106684 | Completed | TRL 4→6 | 2020-07-14 to 2021-08-18 | PI: Stephen Caskey | TX06.3.5 Food Production
What FO funded¶
FO paid for parabolic flight testing (Zero Gravity Corporation, Fort Lauderdale FL, May 4-7, 2021 — four flights, 20 microgravity periods each ~15 seconds) to qualify a zero-gravity vapor-compression refrigerator (ZVCR). This was the first-ever documented operation of vapor compression refrigeration in a parabolic/suborbital environment.
Technology¶
Oil-free scroll compressor + expander on a common shaft (hermetic shell); no oil required for lubrication → orientation-independent operation in any gravity level. Targets COP 3.5 vs ISS state-of-art COP 0.36 — roughly 10x efficiency improvement. Consortium: Air Squared (compressor) + Purdue University (thermal engineering) + Whirlpool Corporation (systems integration).
Downstream status¶
- FO project TRL 6 confirmed. Parabolic flight succeeded; system demonstrated gravity-independent operation.
- ISS CASIS step stated as next target in NASA JSC press release and company materials. As of 2026-04, no confirmed ISS deployment found.
- Whirlpool co-investment active: Commercial space fridge product pathway is credible — Whirlpool has a strategic interest in space food systems.
- MOXIE Perseverance (related but distinct): Air Squared scroll compressor flies on Mars as part of MOXIE (different SBIR track). This demonstrates company execution capability and NASA's trust in the product.
- Spacesuit SSBC: A parallel SBIR track (Phase II ongoing 2024) targets xEMU CO2/H2O removal for Mars EVA. Connected technology, different application.
- Venus aerobot pump: 2022-2023 SBIR ($849K), two prototype helium transfer scroll pumps for Venus altitude control system.
Outcome classification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | Active multi-program commercial developer, partial FO→ISS pathway |
| Outcome (formal TechPort) | Closed_Out (none recorded) |
| Actual outcome | TRL 6 confirmed; ISS deployment pending; MOXIE = confirmed TRL 9 infusion (parallel track) |
| Downstream $ visible | >$5M total NASA SBIR stack; additional DoE + SOCOM awards |
| ISS deployment | Speculative (stated goal, not confirmed) |
| Confidence | Confirmed (parabolic success). ISS step: speculative |
See also: organizations/air-squared.md for full company profile.
Project 2: Aerfil, LLC — Indexing Media Filtration System [91323]¶
TechPort: 91323 | Completed | TRL 4→6 | 2011-08-22 to 2016-01-22 | PI: Rajagopal Vijayakumar | Co-I: Juan H. Agui (NASA GRC) | TX07.2.5 Particulate Contamination | 4 library items
What FO funded¶
Development and flight testing of an "Indexing Media Filtration System" for spacecraft cabin air — a regenerable, multi-stage particulate matter (PM) filtration technology. The system uses an indexing mechanism to advance fresh filter media as the in-use media becomes loaded, enabling long-duration continuous operation without manual filter changes. Target: ECLSS HEPA filter replacement for long-duration (lunar/Mars) missions where crew time for filter swaps is costly.
Technology¶
Traditional ISS Bacterial Filter Elements (BFEs) are HEPA-based and require periodic manual replacement — acceptable on ISS with regular resupply, problematic for autonomous deep-space habitats. The Aerfil system indexes automatically, maintaining filter efficiency without crew intervention. Removes skin flakes, hair, fibers, food particles — the particulate burden of human habitation.
Pedigree: Juan H. Agui (NASA GRC) as co-investigator anchors this to the GRC ECLSS filtration research group. Aerfil (Liverpool, NY / OH) provided filtration technology; GRC provided the ISS-environment test facility.
Library items (4 — not fetched due to tool parameter error; noted for follow-up)¶
4 library items exist for [91323]. These likely include a technical report and/or conference paper from ICES or similar ECLSS conference. The NTRS paper "Development of a Multi-Stage Filter System for Cabin Ventilation Systems on the ISS and Future Deep Space Missions" (NTRS 20180008634) is the likely output — published 2018, after FO project closed 2016.
Downstream status¶
- Company status unclear. "Aerfil LLC" returns minimal results in web search — no LinkedIn presence found, no recent news. Company may be defunct or absorbed. Based in NY/OH.
- USASpending: Tool returned 405 errors; unable to verify awards. No confirmed follow-on government contracts found.
- SBIR search: API rate-limited during session; no SBIR awards confirmed for Aerfil.
- Technology trajectory: NASA GRC continued this research thread through the NTRS paper (2018). The technology concept (multi-stage regenerable filtration) is referenced in NASA exploration mission filtration planning documents. Whether Aerfil (the company) continued is unclear.
- GRC continuation: Juan Agui at GRC is the NASA keeper of this technology. The company may have been a vehicle for Phase I/II commercialization that did not survive — common pattern for small filtration companies working on aerospace problems.
Outcome classification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | Probable dead end (company side); NASA center continuation (GRC side) |
| Outcome (formal TechPort) | None recorded |
| TRL achieved | 6 (target met) |
| Company status | Unknown / likely inactive |
| Technology survival | Concept continues in GRC research; ISS application unconfirmed |
| Downstream $ | Unknown; likely minimal — no confirmed follow-on contracts |
| Confidence | Suggestive (GRC continuation visible in NTRS). Company fate: unknown |
Open thread: Read the 4 library items to determine what was actually tested and what the results showed. NTRS 20180008634 is the likely companion paper — check if it credits Aerfil or shifts credit to GRC.
Project 3: Rocky Mountain Servo — Low-Cost Fiber Positioning [106607]¶
TechPort: 106607 | Completed | TRL 4→6 | 2021-09-15 to 2021-09-15 | PI: Jim Schwendeman | TX05.1 Optical Communications | No library items
What FO funded¶
Development and flight testing of a low-cost fiber positioning system for laser communications and science. The fiber positioner steers fiber-coupled laser beams by translating the optical fiber in the focal plane — a simpler and cheaper approach than tip-tilt mirror or fast-steering mirror systems. Target applications: free-space optical (FSO) communications terminals, science instruments requiring precise beam injection.
Anomaly flag: The start date and end date are both 2021-09-15 — a one-day project as recorded. This is clearly a data artifact (either a single-day FO flight or a data entry error). The project cannot have achieved TRL 4→6 in one day; the dates likely reflect a single flight event, with the actual development done under prior SBIR or internal funding.
Technology¶
Rocky Mountain Servo (Colorado) makes fiber positioners and digital servo controllers — commercial products with 10/100 Ethernet interface. The NASA application: inject a laser beam into a single-mode fiber with sufficient precision for long-range optical communications, on a platform experiencing vibration (suborbital vehicle, spacecraft). The challenge is maintaining pointing accuracy (sub-microradian) under dynamic loads.
FO context: Platform designation T0335-B suggests balloon platform. Optical communications laser pointing in balloon-borne environment is a plausible qualification test.
Downstream status¶
- Company active: Rocky Mountain Servo (rockymountainservo.com) appears to be an active commercial company offering fiber positioners and servo controllers as catalog products.
- No NASA-specific follow-on found: Web search returned no news about NASA contracts, awards, or mission selections for Rocky Mountain Servo after 2021.
- No SBIR awards found: SBIR API rate-limited. No confirmed SBIR portfolio for this company.
- TX05.1 Optical Communications context: NASA's primary optical comms investments are in LCRD (TRL 9, GEO), LLCD (TRL 9), and DSOC (TRL 8, Psyche). These are large government-developed systems using high-end pointing mechanisms — not the low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf fiber positioner approach. Rocky Mountain Servo's product may be better suited to smaller commercial/science applications than flagship NASA comms missions.
Outcome classification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | Small commercial product; NASA validation flight completed; no confirmed NASA infusion |
| Outcome (formal TechPort) | None recorded |
| TRL achieved | 6 (target — but one-day project dates raise credibility questions) |
| Company status | Active (commercial products sold) |
| NASA infusion | None confirmed |
| Market path | Commercial optical comms / science instruments (not NASA flagship missions) |
| Downstream $ | Unknown; likely small (<$1M in government contracts) |
| Confidence | Speculative. Company is active but downstream NASA impact unclear |
Open thread: Investigate TRL credibility — the single-day project duration is suspicious. Was this a single balloon flight of a previously matured system? If so, TRL 4 start is wrong (system was already mature before FO).
Project 4: AFRL Kirtland — Global Positioning Beacon (GPB) [12273]¶
TechPort: 12273 | Completed | TRL 4→5 | 2013-06-17 to 2016-06-17 | PI: Jason Armstrong | TX05.1.4 Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking | No library items
What FO funded¶
Testing of a Global Positioning Beacon (GPB) — a GPS/navigation transponder — for tracking suborbital reusable launch vehicles (RLVs). The FO program uses suborbital RLVs as its primary test platforms, and accurate real-time tracking of vehicle position is operationally critical both for safety and for correlating payload performance to flight environment (altitude, G-load, velocity). The GPB was likely an instrumentation project to improve FO's own infrastructure.
This is a government-to-government FO project: AFRL Kirtland (Albuquerque, NM) is a DoD lab, not a commercial entity. FO projects are not exclusively commercial — they include NASA centers and other government labs as technology developers.
Technology¶
GPS-based position/velocity beacon with real-time downlink for tracking reusable suborbital vehicles. TX05.1.4 (Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking) suggests the beacon may also support attitude tracking or platform pointing for payloads aboard the vehicle.
Downstream status¶
- AFRL-internal use: No commercial downstream exists. If the GPB was successfully validated (TRL 5 achieved), it would be used in AFRL's own suborbital flight programs.
- FO infrastructure benefit: A better tracking beacon improves all FO campaigns — this is a program-infrastructure investment, not a technology being commercialized.
- No web results: "AFRL Kirtland global positioning beacon suborbital" returned no specific program results. The project is likely classified or simply never publicly documented beyond FO.
- No library items: Consistent with AFRL operational systems — documentation is internal.
Outcome classification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | DoD internal capability; FO program infrastructure |
| Outcome (formal TechPort) | None recorded |
| TRL achieved | 5 (below typical FO target of 6; TRL 5 = relevant environment test, not flight qualified) |
| Commercial pathway | None (government program) |
| Downstream $ | N/A (AFRL internal) |
| NASA infusion | Infrastructure benefit to FO program operations |
| Confidence | Confirmed (government program; no commercial claims) |
Project 5: AFRL Kirtland — Bi-Static RF Imager [91326]¶
TechPort: 91326 | Completed | TRL 4→5 | 2018-09-19 to 2019-03-26 | PI: Charles Finley | Co-I: Charles L. Finley | TX05.1.6 Optimetrics | 1 library item
What FO funded¶
Testing of a bi-static radar imaging system from a suborbital platform. "Bi-static" means transmitter and receiver on separate platforms — in this case, a transmitter on the ground (or another platform) and a receiver on the suborbital vehicle, or vice versa. This geometry enables radar imaging angles not possible with monostatic (co-located Tx/Rx) systems.
TX05.1.6 (Optimetrics) is a somewhat unusual classification for RF radar — typically TX05.1 covers optical comms. This might indicate the system operates at optical/near-IR wavelengths (making "RF" in the name potentially misleading) or that the TX taxonomy misclassified it.
Destination: Earth — this is Earth observation / surveillance capability, not space exploration.
Technology¶
Bi-static SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) or passive radar imaging using a suborbital platform as one node. Suborbital provides: high altitude (useful viewing angle), controlled trajectory (enables SAR processing), and access to environments difficult to simulate on the ground.
AFRL Sensors Directorate context: AFRL RF Sensing mission includes "distributed moving target indication" and "RF targeting, imaging and identification" — this GPB project fits that portfolio.
1 library item exists — not fetched (file_id required, not surfaced by batch project query). Likely a technical report or SPIE conference paper.
NASA Flight Opportunities website: The FO technology portal lists this project at https://flightopportunities.ndc.nasa.gov/technologies/143/ — one of the better-documented AFRL entries in the FO portfolio.
Downstream status¶
- AFRL internal / likely classified: Bi-static radar for Earth imaging is primarily a defense/intelligence application. No public information on follow-on programs, contracts, or deployments.
- Technology trajectory: Bi-static SAR is an active research area in defense (DARPA, NRO). A TRL 5 test result from a suborbital flight would feed AFRL's broader bi-static SAR program, potentially influencing satellite or aircraft programs, but those connections are not visible publicly.
- No commercial pathway: Pure defense application.
Outcome classification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | DoD sensor capability development; Earth surveillance application |
| Outcome (formal TechPort) | None recorded |
| TRL achieved | 5 (below typical FO 6 target) |
| Commercial pathway | None |
| Defense deployment | Plausible but not confirmable |
| Downstream $ | N/A (AFRL internal) |
| Confidence | Confirmed (government program; defense application clear) |
Cross-Cutting Observations¶
TechPort data quality by project type¶
| Project | TechPort description | Library items | Downstream traceable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Squared [106684] | "To be written" | 0 | Yes (company website + SBIR) |
| Aerfil [91323] | Rich technical description | 4 | Partial (NTRS paper; company unclear) |
| Rocky Mountain Servo [106607] | "No information available" | 0 | Partial (company website) |
| AFRL GPB [12273] | "No information available" | 0 | No |
| AFRL RF Imager [91326] | "No additional information" | 1 | No (defense) |
Pattern confirmed: The two highest-impact FO projects (Air Squared, Aerfil) have the richest external evidence — yet Air Squared's TechPort record is completely empty. The AFRL projects have adequate (if minimal) TRL fields but zero prose.
Outcome category distribution (this sample, n=5)¶
| Category | Projects |
|---|---|
| Active commercial developer, ISS pathway pending | Air Squared [106684] |
| Dead end (company); center continuation (NASA GRC) | Aerfil [91323] |
| Small commercial product, no NASA infusion | Rocky Mountain Servo [106607] |
| DoD infrastructure / program support | AFRL GPB [12273] |
| DoD sensor capability, defense application | AFRL RF Imager [91326] |
TRL miss rate¶
All 5 projects are Completed. TRL achievement: - 3/5 hit stated target (TRL 6 for Air Squared and Aerfil; TRL 5 for both AFRL projects — their targets were TRL 5) - 0/5 exceeded target significantly - 0/5 clearly missed target
This small sample suggests FO completed projects mostly hit their stated (conservative) TRL targets. Air Squared subsequently exceeded TRL 6 via additional SBIR work.
USASpending tool failure¶
The usaspending_search_awards tool did not filter by recipient name — it returned top-overall-awards regardless of the recipient_name parameter. The usaspending_search_recipient tool returned 405 errors. This tool pair is currently broken for company-level award lookup. SBIR.gov API was rate-limited (429). Future sessions should use web search (sbir.gov portfolio pages) as the fallback for company-level funding data.
Open Threads¶
- Read Aerfil's 4 library items — use file_id from a direct project query (not batch). Identify the NTRS companion paper and check whether results were published.
- Read AFRL RF Imager's 1 library item — may reveal testing methodology and results.
- Confirm Rocky Mountain Servo TRL credibility — single-day project dates are a red flag. Was FO paying for a single flight test of a nearly mature system?
- Track Air Squared ISS deployment — CASIS deployment was the stated next step. Has it happened? Check CASIS payload manifest.
- Aerfil company status — call the NY/OH address? Check business registrations? The company may have dissolved after the FO/SBIR work concluded.
Related Pages¶
- programs/fo.md — FO program overview, outcome tracking gap
- organizations/air-squared.md — Air Squared full profile
- topics/outcome-tracking.md — systematic undercount mechanisms
- topics/tx06-life-support-eclss.md — ECLSS context for Aerfil and Air Squared
- topics/tx05-comms-nav.md — optical comms context for Rocky Mountain Servo