Attachment I - Statement of Objectives.docx

Statement of Objectives

Space Strategic Technology Institute (SSTI): Advanced Remote Sensing (ARS)

A. Overview

The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate is seeking information on behalf of the United States Space Force, Chief Technology and Innovation Office, Directorate of Science, Technology, and Research on a potential University Consortium effort, focusing on advanced remote sensing capabilities.

The USSF is establishing Space Strategic Technology Institutes (SSTIs) to address space science and technology (S&T) challenges through a network of partnered universities.[footnoteRef:2] The USSF goal is for the SSTIs to facilitate joint applied research and focus it on transformational space domain technology breakthroughs and developments that lead to the advancement of capabilities that can be transitioned and integrated into current and future USSF and U.S. Government space capabilities. It is highly desired for the research to lead to testbeds, high fidelity modeling and simulations, demonstrations, and prototypes. The research is expected to transition technology to higher technology readiness levels throughout the period of performance and out years will be awarded based on an evaluation of this ability. [2: For the purposes of this document, “University” refers exclusively to nonprofit, accredited institutions of higher education that grant advanced degrees, excluding specialized federal government-operated training institutions and academies.]

SSTIs are comprised of a team of at least three universities (including the lead university). Universities in SSTIs are encouraged to collaborate with other academic and industry partners to address space research, development, and demonstration needs. Under SSTIs, the Government makes the full award to a lead university submitting the proposal. The lead institution is responsible for distributing funds to team member institutions via subawards. At least 50% of SSTI awarded funds are required to go to the supporting institutions. It is also permissible for team member institutions to issue further subawards.

USSF is exploring the viability and interest in an SSTI that focuses on Advanced Remote Sensing (ARS).

B. Statement of Objectives

Advanced remote sensing technologies and systems are central to the USSF mission of securing our Nation’s interests in, from, and to space. Remote sensing systems enable the USSF to gather information globally at the speed of relevance about our natural and built environment, verify the actions and intentions of our adversaries, and facilitate commerce and economic prosperity.

The USSF is interested in pursuing advanced remote sensing technologies that lead to revolutionary, game-changing capabilities. The USSF seeks a diverse set of interconnected capabilities, encompassing the comprehensive sensing and sensemaking system of systems. This includes technologies that enable new sensing or data processing architectures, technologies that substantially improve the utility of remotely sensed data, or technologies that enable new user communities to readily integrate sensing capabilities.

The USSF categorizes technologies of interest into three broad themes: (1) novel sensor technologies, (2) advanced sensemaking technologies, and (3) enabling technologies for advanced architectures. Offerors may submit proposals that respond to any one or combination of these thematic categories.

USSF expects that university teams proposing to the ARS SSTI will propose research that is aligned with their team’s unique research strengths.

Each team is encouraged to include future technology vectors and horizon scanning on emerging and forward leaning technologies through a systematic assessment of potential future threats and technology surprises. Proposed solutions must include clear explanation of why they are superior to the current state of the art, with specified key performance metrics, and why known problems with proposed solutions will be mitigated or resolved. It is also recommended that the collaboration includes a multidisciplinary approach, not only across technical disciplines, but also including non-technical aspects and approaches to the problems.

Technologies proposed must relate to one or more USSF mission areas, including:

· Space superiority;

· Missile warning and tracking;

· Protected and resilient satellite communications;

· Positioning, navigation, and timing;

· Tactical surveillance, reconnaissance, and tracking;

· Space, terrestrial, or electromagnetic environmental sensing;

· Space domain awareness;

· Space mobility and logistics;

· Command and control;

· Cyberspace operations;

In future years the research may include additional partner universities, and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), or other DoD or U.S. Government agencies and laboratories, as well as industry and international partners. The government laboratories have a deep understanding of the technology needs, end-user’s requirements, and potential applications of the research outcomes.

C. Description of Technical Area

The USSF expects to issue a CALL for an ARS SSTI with the following technology themes:

1. Novel Sensor Technologies

The USSF is interested in novel sensor technologies that enable fundamental improvements in state-of-the-art remote sensing capabilities. New technologies may utilize novel sensing phenomenologies, advancements in theory and modeling, enhancements to sensor efficiency, or other approaches to substantially improve performance over existing remote sensing capabilities. Offerors are welcome to use traditional sensor performance metrics for comparison, such as spatial resolution of targets at specified distance or pixel pitch, sensor sensitivity or dynamic range under various operational conditions, spectral resolution, or refresh rate. The evaluators will also consider other performance metrics indicated by offerors, such as performance under suboptimal or adverse conditions, or resiliency to jamming, spoofing, or other causes of harmful interference. Offerors are encouraged to propose scenarios at the limits of current solutions and identify how the proposed novel sensor technology enables new detection capabilities.

Offerors are welcome to propose sensing technologies that challenge traditional parameters of remote sensing, such as architectures that exploit signals-of-opportunity, integrate quantum computing and sensing, or sense without traditional apertures. In addition, offerors are welcome to propose to develop new approaches in integrating sensing technologies into integrated systems and instruments. Offerors are also welcome to propose sensor technologies situated for either space or terrestrial applications.

2. Advanced Sensemaking Technologies

The USSF is interested in technologies that fuse, assimilate, elucidate, and distribute remote sensing information in novel ways. Central to this technology theme is the demonstration that the proposed sensemaking technology provides measurable advantage over existing state of the art. For example, proposed technologies can include techniques that fuse disparate data from different remote sensing phenomenologies in order to reduce uncertainty or enrich information about a target of interest, including change assessment. Offerors may propose technologies that enable advanced and intelligent sensemaking, such as autonomous scene selection, or onboard processing that enables information extraction and communication in remote or denied environments. Or, by way of another example, the proposed technologies can improve the speed of information extraction (or reduce the information required) to make previously infeasible tasks feasible.

USSF is especially interested in technologies that enable provable and verifiable performance testing. For example, sensemaking technologies that rely upon machine learning algorithms and techniques should provide detailed testing procedures for demonstrating expected performance and identifying failure modes to ensure the technology can be transitioned to mission critical applications.

3. Enabling Technologies for Advanced Sensing Architectures

The USSF is interested a broad set of technologies that enable advanced sensing architectures. These technology improvements can take many forms, such as technologies that enable different physical envelopes or operating parameters of sensors (i.e., reductions to the size, weight, cost, and power requirements or reduced thermal requirements to enable sensor deployment in smaller satellite platforms), technologies that enhance manufacturability and scalable production, or technologies that enable operations in denied environments (i.e., radiation hardening). Offerors can also take more theoretical approaches, such as technologies that enable sensing and sensemaking from distributed apertures; technologies enabling orchestration and control or tipping/cueing; or enable hand-off communications for distributed systems.

Central to this theme of technology solutions is that the enabling technology or technologies proposed facilitate revolutionary new architecture possibilities. Technologies for integration of sensing with communication and navigation for spectrum sharing as applied to remote sensing architectures are also of interest. The offeror must demonstrate why the proposed sensing architecture cannot be achieved with the current state of the art, and why the enabling technology unlocks this specific new capability. The offeror must also demonstrate the functional utility and application of this proposed advanced architecture.