Science to Solutions:
An Overview of NASA's Commercial Remote Sensing Program
By Bruce Davis, Ph.D.

The mission of the Commercial Remote Sensing Program Office at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Mississippi is to ensure that U.S. companies maintain their technological and business leadership in this critical 21st century market. The CRSP is approaching this mission by striving to meet the following goals: 1) accelerate development of a preeminent U.S. remote sensing industry; 2) link industry and Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) in developing mutually beneficial partnerships; and 3) make NASA an understandable customer of the remote sensing industry.
Landsat Thematic Mapper mosaic over the Nile River purchased from EarthSat Corporation as part of the Science Data Puchase   

   The CRSP offers several partnership programs that help companies investigate the utility of remote sensing technologies in business applications and decrease the risk of bringing new or improved products and services to the market. The CRSP also conducts applications research to identify technology limitations that ultimately drive NASA research and development initiatives. Through its commercial partnerships, the CRSP seeks to increase the market demand for remote sensing products and related advanced technologies, thus increasing the use and reducing the cost of spatial information.
    Many organizations that may benefit from remote sensing technology lack an understanding of its capabilities. Furthermore, sophisticated aerospace companies accustomed to providing sensor systems for government programs do not understand their commercial customers' applications. To overcome these hurdles, NASA offers opportunities for developing, testing, and evaluating prototypical products and matching user demands for spatial information with advanced technologies developed within NASA, other government laboratories, and the private sector. The CRSP provides an environment for conducting development, test, and evaluation through an end-to-end verification and validation facility at SSC. The verification and validation facility resources provide: a virtual product laboratory in which to evaluate remotely sensed data generated by a proposed sensor system or conduct a full satellite mission technology trades study, a commercial instrument validation lab to calibrate sensor systems, an in-flight verification and validation network for assessment of sensor performance against a design specification, and an applications validation process to determine the utility of remotely sensed data to a user-specified application.
    In addition to providing facilities, the CRSP has also developed a variety of partnership programs that dictate the terms under which private sector and other organizations use these facilities and work with NASA. In other words, the facilities are the tools and the partnership programs are the license to use the tools. Over the past 12 years, the CRSP has refined these partnership programs in direct response to industry requests. They represent a variety of opportunities that allow U.S. companies immediate access to research facilities for short-term investigations or to engage in longer-term activities for product development and testing. (See www.crsp.ssc.nasa.gov)

Affiliated Research Center Program
The Affiliated Research Center (ARC) Program is an entry-level program that introduces companies to spatial information technologies, including remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning systems (GPS). It is in direct response to industry's request for easy access to NASA's expertise and facilities without a lengthy proposal process. The CRSP began operating this program as the Visiting Investigator Program (VIP) in 1988. Modeled after a similar program at Lewis Research Center, the VIP allowed U.S. companies quick access to NASA resources. No formal solicitation was required, and partners were usually working on their projects within 1 month. VIP projects addressed a critical question or two that allowed the company to make an informed decision as to the utility of remote sensing technology for their business.
    VIP was so successful that demand overran the CRSP facilities at SSC. Furthermore, companies needed a skilled work force to assist them in this new technology. To address this problem, the CRSP engaged major research universities offering academic programs in spatial technologies. A pilot program was started at the University of South Carolina to define the working relationships between NASA, the university, and the participating company. The success of this pilot program resulted in a NASA solicitation for proposals and awards to three additional universities to broaden the ARC outreach: San Diego State University, Utah State University, and the University of Wisconsin. In 1998, five more universities became affiliated research centers: Brown University, Oregon State University, State University of New York at Syracuse, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and University of New Mexico.
    Each ARC university conducts four applications projects per year. The focus for each project is directed by industry's request for assistance, tempered by the university's research expertise. However, NASA has developed the following set of guiding principles by which each university conducts its applications projects: 1) a no exchange of funds basis; 2) proof of concept for technique or methods development; 3) prototype product development and test-no marketing; 4) limited duration of 3 to 6 months; and 5) limited geographic area.
    These principles are designed to keep NASA and the university from competing with the very industry that they are trying to help grow. To date, the ARC Program has conducted 73 application projects with 36 new projects planned for each year.

Earth Observations Commercial Applications Program
For projects that require longer time frames than 3 to 6 months provided by the ARC opportunity, the CRSP has developed the Earth Observations Commercial Applications Program. EOCAP projects generally last 2 to 3 years and provide companies access to NASA facilities and expertise to develop new products, services, and/or define the utility of advanced remote sensing technology to emerging markets. The projects are focused on requirements generated by private sector partners. NASA leverages a significant investment in science research that is translated into practical solutions for U.S. companies seeking a competitive advantage in national or global markets. A hallmark of this program is the process of benchmarking existing or traditional methods so that, as new techniques are developed, a quantifiable measure of improvement is known. This provides the industry partner with solid information concerning the value of new methods with which to make business decisions. Quantified results concerning the performance of remote sensing-based techniques against business requirements also help NASA make intelligent technology investment decisions. EOCAP project teams generally consist of industry, academic, and NASA representatives. A formal solicitation is used to attract proposals with a review and evaluation conducted by technical and business experts. Since 1987, 63 EOCAP projects have resulted in more than 45 trademarked products.

Earth Science Enterprise Science Data Purchase
ESE is dedicated to preserving and improving the Earth's environment for future generations by understanding how the Earth works as a system. A major initiative under the ESE is the Earth Observing System (EOS), a system of Earth-orbiting satellites. The data collected by these sensors will help scientists characterize the effects of such planetary events as El Ni–o, ozone layer depletion, global warming, and volcanic eruptions. As valuable as the EOS satellites are in making fundamental science measurements, there are opportunities for additional remote sensing measurements that could support or improve the basic science research. To acquire these additional remote sensing data, NASA is turning to commercial data providers under contract through the Scientific Data Purchase.
    In May 1998, NASA announced the beginning of Phase I of the ESE Scientific Data Purchase program. The Request For Offers solicited proposals for remotely sensed data sets that would provide critical new science measurements or more cost-effective ways of performing ESE research. In their proposals, the data providers were to supply information on price, data validation, data rights, and applicability to five specified ESE science research themes. Eighteen companies proposed under Phase I and were evaluated based on the degree to which the offered data met the science, business, and performance requirements of the solicitation. Ten companies were selected to submit prototypical products for Phase I evaluation. Phase I data were received and business and science evaluations were performed. In September 1998, NASA awarded Phase II contracts to Astrovision, EarthSat, EarthWatch, Positive Systems, and Space Imaging. Under Phase II contracts, these companies will deliver remotely sensed data to ESE researchers for inclusion into ongoing science investigations.
    With Phase I data evaluation and data verification/validation of NASA's first scientific data purchase complete and Phase II underway, ESE hopes to meet more near-term scientific and application requirements through future commercial data purchases by encouraging such acquisitions in every ESE solicitation.

Summary
Through the CRSP, NASA is supporting the development of new products, processes, and services using remote sensing and related spatial technologies. NASA's commercial partnership model helps companies learn to succeed in the spatial information technology marketplace. The working partnerships between NASA and the U.S. commercial sector facilitate a two-way flow of ideas and innovation that makes optimum use of the government's investment in remote sensing.

About the Authors:
Dr. Bruce A. Davis, is the chief scientist for the CRSP at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. He has been with NASA for 12 years and is in charge of applications research. He also directs imaging technology development focused on high spatial resolution, SAR, Hyperspectral, Thermal, and Lidar data. Marcia Wise is a technical writer for Lockheed Martin Stennis Operations. She has a degree in English and has been working in the technical communications field for 16 years.

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