Contract · Federal
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Lightweight, Self-Deployable Helical Antenna (MFS-TOPS-113)
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION / NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION HUNTSVILLE, AL
- Status Closes in 285 days
- Amount Amount not listed
- Set-aside None (open competition)
Scope
NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology.
License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use.
NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.
THE TECHNOLOGY: SmallSats are experiencing increasing adoption in the satellite industry.
While initially used primarily for technology demonstrations in low Earth orbit (LEO), enhanced capabilities have enabled SmallSat use for a broad number of applications.
Today, sending small spacecraft beyond LEO to Lunar or deep space environments is attracting both scientific and commercial interest.
Such missions are mass and volume constrained, yet must provide high data rate communications.
Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center identified the need for a small form factor antenna to provide high data rate communications for such missions.
In response, they developed a self-deployable helical antenna that is lightweight, low volume, and has low stowage thickness while delivering high data rate performance.
NASA's newly developed antenna is lightweight (at or below 2 grams), low volume (at or below 1.2 cm3), and low stowage thickness (approx.
0.7 mm), all while delivering high performance (at or above 10 dBi gain).
The antenna includes a novel design-material combination in a helical coil conformation.
The design allows the antenna to compress for stowage (e.g., satellite launch), then self-deploy at the desired time in orbit.
NASA's lightweight, self-deployable helical antenna can be integrated into a thin-film solar array (or other large deployable structures).
Integrating antenna elements into deployable structures such as power gen...
Typical award value
No award history yet for this category (NAICS 927110).
Timeline
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Posted
Aug 10, 2026
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Listing updated
Oct 20, 2026
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Status
Open now
How to bid on this
This is a contract solicitation, not a grant. To bid, you submit a proposal (usually a price and a description of how you would do the work) directly to the government, through the channel the official listing specifies, not through Oppward.
- Make sure your business has an active SAM.gov registration. You cannot be paid on a federal contract without one.
- Read the full solicitation on the official listing above, especially the scope of work, not just this summary. Our guide to reading a solicitation walks through what to look for.
- This listing has no set-aside restriction ("full and open competition"), meaning any business, large or small, can bid.
- Submit your proposal by the deadline, using the exact submission method the official listing states. A technically on-time bid sent the wrong way is often treated as late.
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