Prior to 2013, NASA’s Planetary Science Division had two main instrument improvement applications: the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP) and the Astrobiology Science and Technology for Instrument Development (ASTID) Program. However, the mix of PIDDP and ASTID didn’t really represent an instrument improvement pipeline, and to utterly develop an instrument to the purpose the place it might be proposed for a mission required repeated and expensive proposals to each applications. Exacerbating this downside was the shortage of a program which explicitly supported the maturation of applied sciences from TRL 4 to six—the so-called “valley of death.”
The Planetary Science Division restructured its instrument improvement applications in 2013 to ease the total improvement and maturation of instrument applied sciences throughout all the Division’s objectives. The Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations Program (PICASSO) helps the definition and improvement of devices TRLs 1 by 3 for all planetary science objectives. The Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration Program (MatISSE) equally helps the maturation of devices TRLs 3 by 6. Together, PICASSO and MatISSE type an built-in pipeline for taking devices from preliminary ideas to prototypes capable of be proposed for missions.
Selected ASTID Proposals